Hughenden Manor
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Hughenden Manor is a red-brick Georgian mansion, located in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, and a National Trust property open to the public throughout the year.
The house sits on the brow of the hill to the west of the main road (A4128) that links Hughenden to High Wycombe (Ordnance survey reference 165:SU866955), where it has fine views of the Chiltern countryside. It is 1.5 miles north of the town of High Wycombe and 2 miles from the railway station.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister from 1874-1880 and Earl of Beaconsfield 1876, purchased the manor in 1848 with the help of a loan of £25,000 (equivalent to almost £1,500,000 today) from Lord George Bentinck as a home for himself and his wife Viscountess Mary Anne (in her own right). Lady Mary Anne died in 1872, and Disraeli in 1881, and was buried in a vault beneath the church, accessed from the churchyard. Disraeli added the ornamental parapet to the building and remodelled the house in 1862 in the Gothic style popular in the Victorian era.
The church contains a memorial to the Earl erected by Queen Victoria: the only instance a reigning monarch has ever erected a memorial to a subject.
During the Second World War, Hughenden Manor was used as a secret intelligence base code-named "Hillside".
The Manor House was given to the National Trust in 1947, when the Disraelian Society contributed funds to allow the house to be adapted for public access. It is decorated as it might have been at the time it was occupied by Disraeli. It contains a collection of memorabilia including family portraits, Disraeli's own furnishings, a library including a collection of Disraeli's novels and one written and signed by Queen Victoria along with many of the books he inherited from his father Isaac D'Israeli.
The house has a park and a large woodland which in total, is about 1500 acres. The formal garden which was designed by Lady Mary Anne, has been restored to a similar condition to when it was occupied by the Disraelis. The long terrace at the rear of the house is decorated with Florentine vases. An obelisk on a nearby hill was erected by Mary Disraeli in 1862 in memory of Benjamin's father, where it could be seen from the house.
The manor of Hughenden is recorded to have existed in 1086, when formerly part of Queens Edith's lands it was held by William son of Oger of the Bishop of Bayeux, and was assessed for tax at 10 hides.
