| Date | 31 August 2012 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0039 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Views of the Past |
Transcript
Manor house is now a memory
Email Elias with feedback and your memories on observernews@berksmedia.co.uk
I WAS saddened to read that one of Maidenhead’s hidden architectural gems, Shoppenhanger’s Manor, had been demolished and a planning application submitted to build 56 houses on its site.
Although the latest house is comparatively modern, there has been a manor house in the area since 1204.
The name Shoppenhanger comes from the Anglo Saxon meaning ‘high’ or ‘hanging wood’.
The Shoppenhanger family lived there until 1362 when the house was passed to the Crutchfield family and later to the Winch family.
It was purchased by Pascoe Grenfell in 1801 and remained with the Grenfell family until the end of the 19th century.
During the mid 19th century, the manor had been demoted to a farm and in the 1860s was tenanted to Richard Webster who won a cup for the best cultivated farm in East Berkshire by Queen Victoria.
The late 1870s saw large areas of the farm sold off for building land and the creation of Maidenhead’s first golf course.
By the first decade of the 20th century, Shoppenhanger’s farmhouse had fallen into decay and was in a state of dereliction.
In 1914, it was purchased by antique dealer Walter George Thornton Smith, who restored and partially rebuilt the farmhouse to create the impression of a 16th-century merchant’s house.
Building materials came from the reclamation of historic buildings from Berkshire and the surrounding counties, including material from Foxley’s Farm.
A beautiful mid-17th-century ceiling from Banbury was carefully incorporated into one of the main rooms of the house. Some of the windows had medieval stained glass from Selby Abbey.
Thornton Smith employed the finest craftsmen available to restore the house and workshops were housed in the surrounding farm outbuildings.
In 1927, Thornton Smith extended his house with architectural features salvaged from the Tudor mansion at Billingbear Park, in Waltham St Lawrence, which was taken down in 1924. The stone entrance porch and convex timber doorways, dating from the first quarter of the 17th century, came from Billingbear.
Thornton Smith lived at the manor until his death in 1963.
The house was lived in by a succession of occupants until it was purchased in 1968 and turned into the Shoppenhanger’s Hotel restaurant.
From 1970, it became part of the Esso Hotel and later the Holiday Inn.
The exterior of the building was used in cult TV series, The Saint and The Persuaders, and will be preserved in celluloid history for years to come.
The manor was demolished in 2007.
AS IT WAS: Shoppenhanger’s Manor shortly before it was demolished in 2007. A planning application to build 56 homes in its place has been submitted.
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