Bulstrode is anEnglish country house and its large park, located to the southwest ofGerrards Cross,Buckinghamshire. The estate spreads acrossChalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross andFulmer, and predates theNorman conquest. Its name may originate from the Anglo-Saxon wordsburh (fort) andstród (marsh).[1] The park and garden are designated a Grade II*listed building.[2]
The original house was built for the infamousJudge Jeffreys in 1686. It was sold toHans William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, who made it one of his principal residences and died there in 1709. In the 1740s, the architect and builderStiff Leadbetter altered the house significantly for the 2nd Duke of Portland. The 3rd Duke commissioned further re-modellings and additions, including the castellated West Wing, to the designs ofJames Wyatt, between 1806 and 1809.[2]
Margaret Bentinck, the wife ofthe 2nd Duke used the house to accommodate her natural history and antiquities collection, with the south-west side of the park used for live specimens (called Menagerie Wood today). The botanistsJoseph Banks andDaniel Solander donated many exotic plants to the Dowager to help her develop the gardens at Bulstrode, which became the inspiration for MrsMary Delany's floral "paper mosaicks" now held in the British Museum Library which were greatly admired byQueen Charlotte.[3]
Their son,the 3rd Duke was a collector of marble and glass, and was influential in loaning the RomanPortland Vase toJosiah Wedgwood. Afterthe 4th Duke of Portland inherited the title in 1809, he decided to dispose of Bulstrode andEdward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset then acquired the house in 1811.[2]
Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset commissioned the present 83,000 sq ft (7,700 m2) mansion, which was completed in 1865. After his death, it passed to his daughter, Lady Helen Guendolen Ramsden and then to her son, Sir John Frecheville Ramsden.[4]
The house was unoccupied until theSecond World War, when it was used for training as theRAF Staff College.[5]
Following the War, Frecheville Ramsden used part of the property for chemical research into sisal by-products.[6] After Frecheville Ramsden's death in 1958, the park was sold to a farmer, and the mansion and woodland were bought by theBruderhof community.[7]
In 1966, the Bruderhof moved to the United States, and the property was bought byWEC International, a Christian evangelical mission agency, who gradually restored and improved the public parts of the house's interior.[8] WEC International sold the mansion to a private owner in 2016 for £13 million.[9] It was sold again in 2023 for just £6 million.[10]
Bulstrode Street in London'sMarylebone district was named after Bulstrode Park.[11]
51°35′12″N0°34′47″W / 51.58676°N 0.57966°W /51.58676; -0.57966
