Englefield House


Englefield House is an Elizabethan country house with surrounding estate at Englefield in the English county of Berkshire. The gardens are open to the public all year round on particular weekdays and the house by appointment only for large groups.
Englefield House and its adjoining entrance courtyard are listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England, and the formal gardens and parkland are listed at Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The lodges, gateway, gates and flanking walls are also listed as a group at Grade II, as are the terrace walls to the southeast of the main house.

History

The present house was erected before 1558. There were substantial alterations by Thomas Hopper in the 1820s.
Englefield House was the home of the Englefield family, supposedly from the time of King Edgar. Sir Thomas Englefield was the Speaker of the House of Commons. In 1559, the house was confiscated from Thomas Englefield's grandson, Sir Francis Englefield, a servant of the Catholic Queen Mary, for "consorting with enemies" of the new Protestant monarch, Elizabeth I.
Popular local tradition is that the Queen granted Englefield to her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, although there is no evidence of this. After a succession of short-lived residents, the estate was eventually purchased by John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester, famous for his Civil War defence of Basing House in Hampshire. He retired to Englefield at the Restoration and is buried in the parish church. From his Paulet descendants, the house passed, through marriage, to the Benyon family.
Numerous members of the Benyon family have also been members of parliament. Recent descent has been: Lord Francis Paulet ; Francis Paulet ; Anne Paulet ; Powlett Wright the elder ; Powlett Wrighte the younger ; Nathan Wrighte ; Richard Benyon the younger ; Richard Benyon De Beauvoir ; Richard Fellowes Benyon ; James Herbert Benyon ; Sir Henry Benyon, Bt. ; Vice-Admiral Richard Benyon and Sir William Richard Benyon.
On 20 May 2017 the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, Pippa Middleton, married financier James Matthews at St Mark's Church on the Englefield Estate. A reception was held at Englefield House shortly after the service. Guests included the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.

Family name changes

Englefield House has been the filming location for a number of movies, including , The King's Speech, and Great Expectations, and The Go-Between, as well as for television series such as Black Mirror, episode "Playtest," Agatha Christie's Marple, Agatha Christie's Poirot episode "Taken at the Flood", Hex and the reality television series I Wanna Marry "Harry". It was also used as Auradon Prep in the Disney TV Movies Descendants, Descendants 2, and Descendants 3, and more recently parts of the house have been used as the Sandringham Estate in Netflix’s “The Crown”.

Estate

The country estate was owned by the Benyon family; which is headed by the Conservative MP Richard Benyon. The estate includes most of the parish; it was owned by a family company, the Englefield Estate, covering some.