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Thursday 6 April 2017

A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not. - 'E'

E - Englefield House

An AD 871 battle between Saxons and Danes on what was to be called the "Englishman's battle field" or the "field of angels" is possibly the origin of the name of Englefield.

The Englefield family were lords of the manor from as early as the 9th century.

However it was via a John Constable painting that I first heard of Englefield House.


Constable's Englefield House© V & A Museum
The Berkshire mansion, with 18th and 19th century modelling is built loosely on the Elizabethan E-plan.

Sir Francis Englefield, the last of the Englefield family to live here, was prosecuted by Queen Elizabeth 1 for his Catholic sympathies. The house was seized by the crown in 1585.

Elizabeth gave the house to her favoured Earl of Essex. He later fell from grace and was executed for treason.

In 1635 the house was purchased by John Paulet, the 5th Marquis of Winchester. Paulet had married the daughter of Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster.

Englefield House became the main residence of the Paulets after their Basingstoke palace burnt down, It has remained in the ownership of the descendants of them ever since.

Englefield House - 16 April 2010
(ex geograph.org.uk - by Richard Croft - CC BY-SA 2.0)

10 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Bob - what a magnificent building ... I know the area quite well ... wasn't a good place to live early on - 'heads off' were the order of the day. Fascinating about the E shape - I think you mentioned it yesterday -is the E after E for Elizabeth - or is it just circumstance?

Cheers Hilary

http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/e-is-for-extinct-animals-and-endangered.html

FinnBadger said...

What a beauty you've shared today. Fascinating that it dates so far back.

Phillip | E is for Envelope Exchange

Bob Scotney said...

Hilary - E for Elizabeth - that's right chosen to flatter the Queen.

http://bit.ly/2nN3SF9

Mail Adventures said...

Everyday I get impressed by the houses you show.

Eva - Mail Adventures

Beth Lapin said...

Interesting and new to me.

Beth Lapin
https://bethlapinsatozblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/energy/

Kristin said...

Another huge, beautiful house.
http://findingeliza.com/archives/23312

Emily in Ecuador said...

Looks like an amazing building (seems to large to refer to as a house). Thanks for the interesting lesson.

[I suspect the issue with the link could be because you have an apostrophe in the title of your blog. Try using something like My Home for Writing or something that has no apostrophe in it. It would look like this:

Bob | My Home for Writing

If that does not work please let me know. I want to figure this out.]

Emily | My Life In Ecuador

Jo said...

What an incredible 'house' and fascinating history. Don't know it.

Deepa said...

The house is magnificient.
It looks like the house in the movie X-men, Professor X lived here.

MySpicyKitchen said...

That is a beautiful house. it is always interesting to know the history behind the houses and palaces.

-- Usha (A-Z Challenger)