Greys Court

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greys Court is a Tudor country house and associated gardens, located at grid reference SU725834, at the southern end of the Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

The name derives from an old connection to the Grey family, descendants of the Norman knight Anchetil de Greye. The estate or manor of Rotherfield Greys upon which Greys Court is situated is specifically mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The mainly Tudor style house has a beautiful courtyard and gardens. The walled gardens are full of old-fashioned roses and wisteria, an ornamental vegetable garden, maze and ice house. Within the gardens is a medieval fortified tower of 1347, the only remains of the previous castle, giving extensive views of the gardens and surrounding countryside. Also to be found within the gardens is a Tudor wheelhouse, where a donkey operated a treadmill to haul water from a well.

The house itself has an interesting history, and the interior, with some outstanding 18th-century plasterwork, is still furnished as a family home. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here while Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. Greys Court was for a time owned by Sir Francis Knollys, treasurer to Elizabeth I.