| Burford Priory | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Coordinates | 51°47′36″N1°28′45″W / 51.79333°N 1.47917°W /51.79333; -1.47917 |
| OS grid reference | SP2499612363 |
| Built | 1580s |
| Built for | Lawrence Tanfield |
| Rebuilt | 17th century |
| Restored | 1912 |
| Restored by | Walter Godfrey |
| Owner | Elisabeth Murdoch andMatthew Freud |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Designated | 11 September 1955[1] |
  Location of Burford Priory in Oxfordshire | |
Burford Priory is aGrade I listedcountry house and formerpriory atBurford inWest Oxfordshire,England[1] owned byElisabeth Murdoch, daughter ofRupert Murdoch, together withMatthew Freud.[2]
The house is on the site of a 13th-centuryAugustinian hospital. In the 1580s anElizabethan house was built bySir Lawrence Tanfield, incorporating remnants of thePriory Hospital.[3] James I stayed at the priory for three nights in 1603.[4] In the 17th century it was remodelled inJacobean style, probably after 1634 whenWilliam Lenthall bought the estate from Tanfield's grandson, the2nd Viscount Falkland, who had inherited it from his grandfather.[5] Lenthall was one of the overseers of Tanfield's will and had married into his second wife's family.[6] It remained in the Lenthall family until 1828.[4]The Lenthall pictures were housed here until the collection was largely sold in the nineteenth century. In 1828 the house and the Manor of Burford was purchased by the Greenaway family of Little Barrington, and their descendant Nicholas Greenaway Mills is the current Lord of the Manor.
In 1912, thephilanthropistEmslie John Horniman MP purchased Burford Priory from Colonel Frank de Sales la Terrière.[7] He restored the house and later thechapel under the supervision of the architectWalter Godfrey.[3][8]
From 1949 Burford Priory housed The Society of the Salutation ofOur Lady, a community ofChurch of Englandnuns. In the 1980s the community's numbers dwindled, and in 1987 it became a mixed community includingChurch of England Benedictinemonks. In 2008 the community sold the property and it has now returned to being a private house.[9] After a period of living in rented accommodation, the community moved into a new purpose-built monastery inWorcestershire. The new monastery is on the site of a former farm and has taken the name of the farm becomingMucknell Abbey.
The current owners and residents of Burford Priory are media businesswomanElisabeth Murdoch, her ex-husbandMatthew Freud, owner of thepublic relations companyFreud Communications, and their family.[10]
A 2011 party held at the house was attended by theChipping Norton set.[11]
The site of the old monks' graveyard is reportedly haunted by a small brown solemn-looking monk surrounded by an aura of sadness, who is said to pass through walls. The monk is often linked to the sound of bells which are reported coming from the old rectory at 2am, occasionally accompanied by the sound of chanting.[12][13][14][15]
A second ghost reported on the grounds, particularly around the old vegetable garden, is that of an elderly gentleman in old-fashioned clothing carrying aflintlock orblunderbuss, who is seen late in the evenings during the month of October but vanishes if approached.[12][15] The apparition has been linked by Puttick[13] and Yurdan[14] to a gamekeeper wrongly executed for the murder of a servant to William Lenthall (or Lord Abercomb) called John Prior (or Pryor). Puttick[13] reports that the ghost has not been sighted since the nuns took up residence in 1949, and speculates that their prayers may have put it to rest.
An unused room in the Priory is also reported to contain an activepoltergeist, and a feeling of oppression.[14]
51°48′34″N1°38′20″W / 51.809318°N 1.638905°W /51.809318; -1.638905 (Burford Priory)