Brightwell Manor is a country house in the village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire, England.[1] The back dates to around the mid-seventeenth century, or possibly earlier as there is a date of 1605 on the rear. The front was built in the mid-eighteenth century.[2] It has been a Grade II listed building since 1952. It is owned by British former prime minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie.[3][4]
In 1933, the house was purchased by William Ralph Inge, a theologian thrice-nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[1][5] Inge, known as the ’’Gloomy Dean’’ on account of his pessimistic views, including supporting eugenics and opposing democracy, served as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral from 1911 to 1934.[6][7] His wife wrote in her diary "It is a most attractive house but rather small." and that she had written to Paul Edward Paget and his partner John Seely (later John Seely, 2nd Baron Mottistone) about adding to it.[8] They wanted £2,000, and she wrote that "We really must try to cut them down a bit."[8] William Inge died there in 1954 (and is buried next door in the churchyard), and the family owned the house until 1971, when his sons sold it.[1] From 1971, it had been owned by the same family, until former Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to buy it in February 2023 for a reported £4 million.[1][9]
In 1952, Brightwell Manor was Grade II listed by English Heritage.[10] The house probably dates back to the mid-17th century, and the front is mid-18th century.[10] An extension was added by Inge in the 1950s.[9] Pevsner describes Brightwell as a "plain late 18th century brick box", but notes the dating of 1605 on the earlier, rear portion of the house.[11][a]
Brightwell Manor has nine bedrooms and is 8,128 square feet (755 m2) in total.[1][9] The house sits in five acres (2.0 ha) of grounds, with a moat fed by a natural spring surrounding it on three sides.[9] The study includes a mural painted by the neo-Romanticist George Warner Allen.[9]
- Pevsner, following the geographic divisions of the historic counties of England, covers Brightwell-cum-Sotwell in the Berkshire rather than the Oxfordshire volume of the Buildings of England series.[11]
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