Park Place, Berkshire

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Park Place is a historic house in the civil parish of Remenham in Berkshire, England, set in large grounds above the River Thames near Henley.

1 History
2 Present
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Lord Archibald Hamilton bought the estate in 1719 from Mrs Elizabeth Baker and built a new villa on the site. His Royal Highness Frederick, Prince of Wales and the father of King George III, bought the house from Lord Hamilton. His mistress was Hamilton’s third wife.

The estate was purchased by Henry Seymour Conway in 1752 and he made extensive improvements. Humphrey Gainsborough, brother of the artist Thomas Gainsborough, designed Conway's Bridge, built in 1763 at Park Place. This is an interesting rustic arched stone structure close to the River Thames that still carries traffic on the road between Wargrave and Henley-on-Thames. Much later, until 1988, the house became a boarding school.

[edit] Present

As well as the main house, there are several outlying properties, including three substantial houses, 10 tenanted cottages and another eight in need of renovation. Park Place also has a beautiful gabled boathouse, a stable block, an agricultural yard, a motley collection of dilapidated outbuildings and two golf courses.

Following purchase by a consortia which looked to develop it into a country club, which failed to gain planning permission from Wokingham Council; in June 2007 it was sold to Mike Spink, a developer who specialises in upmarket properties, for £42m which makes it the most expensive house sale in the United Kingdom outside London.^[1]