Barnwell Manor

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Barnwell Manor is the historic former home of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. It is located by the village of Barnwell, near Oundle, Northamptonshire in England.

[edit] The house and estate

The house has four reception rooms, seven principal bedrooms, and six bathrooms. It is a 40-room Grade II eighteenth century manor house, with origins dating to 1586. The estate now comprises 2,500 acres farmed by the present Duke of Gloucester.

The estate also includes the ruined Barnwell Castle, built c.1266 by Berenger le Moyne, who sold it to Ramsey Abbey in 1276. The abbey held the castle until 1536, when it passed to the king. The Elizabethan manor house became the principal residence, and the living quarters and all internal buildings of the castle were demolished in 1704.

[edit] Ownership history

The manor was granted to the Montagu family in 1540 by King Henry VIII, and they kept it until 1913.

In 1938 Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, younger son of King George V, bought the house and estate with the bulk of his legacy from the late king. The Duke's wife, Alice (later Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester), was daughter of Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, descendant of the Montagu family.

It was announced in January 1995 that the Gloucesters would vacate the house, which costs £35,000 to £50,000 a year to maintain. It was leased for seven years to Berenger Antiques.The family retains the estate, but they now live solely in Kensington Palace, where they have an apartment.