Janet Taylor writes: We had a lovely U3A visit to Chenies Manor. On arrival, we were welcomed with tea and coffee before enjoying an interesting introductory talk by the owner, who gave us some background about the house and its history. See below. We were then split into three groups for a guided tour of the manor, where we learnt more about its fascinating past and admired the beautiful rooms and furnishings.
After the tour, we enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch before having some free time to explore the gardens at our leisure. The gardens were beautiful, and the dahlias were absolutely amazing, with a wonderful display of colours and varieties, with apparently over 2000 plants to be lifted and stored each year..! It was a very enjoyable day out, with good company, interesting history, gardens looking just stunning. Our thanks to Lynne for arranging another lovely day for us to enjoy.
A few interesting facts about Chenies Manor. Chenies Manor is a really old Tudor house, with parts of the present building dating back to the 15th century. It is Grade I listed, which means it is considered to be of exceptional historic and architectural interest. The house stands in the lovely village of Chenies, in the Chiltern Hills, on the Buckinghamshire/Hertfordshire border.
There are some rather impressive royal connections too. Henry VIII visited Chenies several times, sometimes with a huge royal entourage, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed there for about a month in 1570. Apparently, Elizabeth may even have lost some of her jewellery while sitting under an oak tree in the grounds — the tree is now known as the Elizabeth Oak!
The manor was owned for centuries by the Russell family, later the Dukes of Bedford, who eventually moved their main home to Woburn. In the 1950s the house was in poor condition, but it was bought by the Matthews family, who lovingly restored both the house and gardens.
The gardens we enjoyed today are the result of many years of hard work and were designed to complement the Tudor character of the house. And one final little gem: beneath the grounds is an ancient medieval under croft, thought to be part of the earlier manor house. It may even have been used as a prison during the Civil War! So, when we were wandering around the beautiful gardens and admiring those amazing dahlias, there was actually hundreds of years of history underneath our feet.