Mapledurham House

The manor of Mapledurham was bought in 1490 by Richard Blount of Iver however the current house was started by Sir Michael Blount (c1530-1610) and has remained in the Blount-Eyston family to this day.{{cite web |title=Mapledurham's History |url= https://www.mapledurham.co.uk/maplehurham-house |publisher=Mapledurham Estate |accessdate=20 September 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920123139/https://www.mapledurham.co.uk/maplehurham-house |archivedate=20 September 2019 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Mapledurham: the Catholic country house that's still yielding up its secrets |url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100090237/mapledurham-the-catholic-country-house-thats-still-yielding-up-its-secrets/ |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=1 June 2011 |first=Damian |last=Thompson |author-link=Damian Thompson |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603062204/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100090237/mapledurham-the-catholic-country-house-thats-still-yielding-up-its-secrets/ |archivedate=3 June 2011 |url-status=dead}} Building was started around 1585, at the time of the Spanish Armada, in the classic Elizabethan E-shape.{{citation needed|reason=shape; hemh describes it as H shape|date=October 2015}} It includes a late 18th-century chapel built in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style for the recusant Roman Catholic owners of the house.

Prior to the Catholic Emancipation, the owners would hide priests in its priest holes, some of which were only discovered in the 21st century, and secretly celebrate Mass with a makeshift altar hidden inside a writing desk. The estate covers much of the village including Mapledurham Watermill and part of the church.

Anne of Denmark stayed at Mapledurham in August 1612 as a guest of Sir Richard Blount, before meeting James VI and I at Woodstock Palace.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1828), p. 460.

The poet Alexander Pope was a frequent visitor to the house as he was enamoured of Teresa and Martha Blount.{{Citation |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2691 |work=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |pages=ref:odnb/2691 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-04-06 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/2691 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.|url-access=subscription }} The house and surrounding village were used for the filming of the 1976 film of The Eagle Has Landed and also for several television series, including Midsomer Murders.{{cite web | url = http://www.visitmidsomer.com/mapledurham-and-the-hollywood-watermill/ | title = Mapledurham and the Hollywood watermill | publisher = Visit Midsomer County (South Oxfordshire District Council) | accessdate = 20 October 2015 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20151020165719/http://www.visitmidsomer.com/mapledurham-and-the-hollywood-watermill/ | archivedate = 20 October 2015 | url-status = live}} It is also reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall for Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, although this is also claimed by Hardwick House, Fowey Hall Hotel,{{cite web|url=http://www.cornwallmarine.com/218/key-regions/fowey-river/fowey.html|title=Cornwall Marine Directory - Fowey|first=Cornwall Marine|last=Directory|website=www.cornwallmarine.com}} Foxwarren Park{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/buxton/1.html|title=Foxwarren Park, near Cobham, Surrey|website=www.victorianweb.org}} and Fawley Court.{{cite web|url=http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/kgrahame.html|title=RBH Biography: Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)|website=www.berkshirehistory.com}}

Sight-seeing helicopter flights run from the estate, with up to 70 short flights per day, caused complaints about noise levels, with one local resident describing it in 2013 as like being "in Vietnam during a high intensity attack". A representative of the estate responded by saying that they had taken account of the complaints by reducing the number of helicopter flight days from 20 to 10 per year.{{cite web|title=Mapledurham House sightseeing helicopters prompt row|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-22461296|date=9 May 2013|accessdate=9 May 2013}}{{cite web|title=Villagers angry as helicopter flights resume|publisher=Higgs Group|url=http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=1279739|date=7 May 2013|accessdate=9 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112101954/http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=1279739|archive-date=12 November 2014|url-status=dead}}

File:Mapledurham House - geograph.org.uk - 241664.jpg|Mapledurham House

File:The Church at Mapledurham House - geograph.org.uk - 241662.jpg|The Church at Mapledurham House

File:Majestic Tree at Mapledurham House - geograph.org.uk - 241671.jpg|Majestic Tree

File:The Marriage of Figaro at Mapledurham House - geograph.org.uk - 241678.jpg|"The Marriage of Figaro" at Mapledurham House

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Mapledurham House}}

• {{oscoor gbx|SU669767}}
• [http://www.mapledurham.co.uk/ Mapledurham Estate website]
• https://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=1817
• http://thames.me.uk/s01190.htm
• https://web.archive.org/web/20070813221129/http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/stately%20homes/mapledurham.htm

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