Woodchester Mansion

Woodchester Mansion

Woodchester Mansion
Woodchester Park
Nympsfield
Stonehouse
Gloucestershire
GL10 3TS

Tel: 01453 861 541
Fax: 01453 861 337
E-Mail: office@woodchestermansion.org.uk

Web: Woodchester Mansion

About Woodchester Mansion

Woodchester Mansion is a 19th Century Victorian Gothic masterpiece mysteriously abandoned mid-construction in 1873. Hidden in a secluded Cotswold valley, it is untouched by time and the modern world.

This Grade I Listed Building has been saved from dereliction, but will never be completed.

Visitors walk through an extraordinary architectural exhibit in which the secrets of the medieval Gothic builders and masons are laid bare. The carvings in Woodchester Mansion are among the finest of their kind in the world.

Woodchester Mansion Trust was founded to protect and preserve this unique building for future generations and has pioneered a unique training academy: the National Heritage Training Academy South West (NHTASW), that is being emulated across the UK.

Woodchester Mansion is home to Greater and Lesser horseshoe bats, both endangered species in Britain. The bats have been the subject of a long-term study spanning 40 consecutive years.

You can watch the Mansion bats in their 'roosts' live on the 'Batcams' in our unique Bat Observatory. Those who want to learn more about these fascinating creatures can join one of our Bat Watch evenings.

The Mansion is secluded in the heart of 400-acre Woodchester Park, a Site of Special Scientific Interest(SSSI).

Woodchester Mansion History

Woodchester Mansion is a Grade I listed house in the Victorian Gothic style. It is absolutely unique because it is unfinished, so offers visitors the opportunity to see how a house of this period was constructed. The architect was a young local man called Benjamin Bucknall, and both he and his patron, the wealthy William Leigh, were admirers of the important French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. There is a strong French influence in the style of the house which also makes Woodchester slightly different from other buildings of its type and time. In addition, Leigh was a perfectionist who exerted a strong and active influence on all the work he undertook, so the quality of the craftsmanship in the house is very high.

Before 1845

Woodchester Mansion is situated at the western end of Woodchester Park, in a beautiful valley, with the village of Woodchester at the eastern end. Records of settlement in Woodchester stretch back to Roman times; the remains of a large Roman villa with an outstanding Orpheus mosaic pavement are situated in the village churchyard. Land at Woodchester is recorded in the Domesday Book and the manor of Woodchester had a series of owners in the Middle Ages. In 1564 ownership of Woodchester Park was granted by the Crown to the Huntley family of Frocester.

The Huntleys enclosed the valley with a wall about 7 miles long to create a deer park, and built a hunting lodge at the western end of the valley in about 1612. This appears to be the earliest record of habitation around the site of the current Woodchester Mansion. In 1631 the lodge was sold to the Ducie family. The Ducies were large local landowners who developed the park over the next two centuries. The original hunting lodge was transformed into a Georgian house called Spring Park Mansion. Exact details of when the house was built and altered are unknown, but in 1750 Frederick Prince of Wales stayed there and in 1788 King George III visited.