| Stonor Park | |
|---|---|
 View of Stonor House from the south | |
| Location | Stonor, about 4 miles (6.4 km) north ofHenley-on-Thames inOxfordshire, England |
| Coordinates | 51°35′47″N0°55′46″W / 51.596490°N 0.929315°W /51.596490; -0.929315 |
| Built | 13th century onwards |
  Location of Stonor Park in Oxfordshire | |
Stonor Park is a historiccountry house and private deer park situated in a valley in theChiltern Hills atStonor, about four miles (6.4 km) north ofHenley-on-Thames inOxfordshire, England, close to the county boundary withBuckinghamshire.
The house has a 12th-century private chapel. The remains of a prehistoric stone circle are in the grounds. It is the ancestral home and seat of the Stonor family,Baron Camoys. The current Lord Camoys isWilliam Stonor.
The house nestles in theChiltern Hills. Behind the main house, there is awalled garden in anItalianate style on a rising slope, providing good views. Around the house is a park with a herd offallow deer. Around the park are Almshill Wood, Balham's Wood and Kildridge Wood. The house and garden are open to the public.
Stonor House has been the home of the Stonor family for more than eight centuries. In the house are displays of family portraits, tapestries, bronzes and ceramics. The house has a 12th-century private chapel built of flint and stone, with an early brick tower.
The house was probably begun after 1280 (745 years ago) (1280), when Sir Richard Stonor (1250–1314) married his second wife, Margaret Harnhull.[1]
During and after theEnglish Reformation the Stonor family and many other local gentry wererecusants. In 1581, theJesuit priestsEdmund Campion andRobert Parsons lived and worked at Stonor Park, and Campion'sDecem Rationes was printed here on a secret press. On 4 August 1581, a raid on the house found the press. Campion and Parsons had left a few days earlier, but the elderly Lady Cecily Stonor, her son John, the Jesuit priestWilliam Hartley, the printers and four servants were taken prisoner, and in 1585, Hartley was exiled.[2] Despite further prosecutions and fines the Stonors remained Roman Catholic throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and enabled many local villagers to remain Roman Catholic by allowing them to attendMass at their private chapel. Between 1716 and 1756,John Talbot Stonor,Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, used Stonor Park as his headquarters.[2]
The Stonor family's steadfast adherence toRoman Catholicism throughout the reformation led to their marginalisation and relative impoverishment in subsequent centuries. This has inadvertently resulted in the preservation of the house in a relative unspoiled and unimproved state.[1]
The house was built on the site of a prehistoric stone circle or henge and this has given it its name. The remains of the circle are still visible with one stone incorporated into the south-east corner of the chapel. The stones are a mixture ofsarsens andpuddingstone.[3] The current stone positions are the result of re-positioning during 17th-century landscaping and 20th-century reconstruction.[4] The site is listed as afolly in the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) (PRN 2064)).[5]
Stonor has been used as afilming location includingThe Pumaman (1980),The Living Daylights (1987),Danny, the Champion of the World (1989),[6] the final episode ofOne Foot in the Grave (2000),Endeavour (2019),A Christmas Carol (2019), andAntiques Roadshow (2020).[7]
