A manor house has existed on this site for centuries. Early documents state that the manor was “a timber building set on two storeys with a tile roof divided into fifteen rooms”. The house was enlarged in 1685 and 1702 and new barns were erected in 1679. There appear to have been a couple of fires along the way and the building as we know it today was built in the 1860’s on the footprint of the old 1702 house.
Hitchambury Manor used to be the parsonage for Hitcham church. In 1909 the church sold the manor to Mr. Charles Selwyn Awdry for £4200 and with it four and a half acres for a further £3429. This is about £750000 at today’s value (2013)
The Rev. W.N. Grover (Rector from 1833-1866) should not go unmentioned. He was described as “at first too busy with other things, and then too feeble”. When he was elderly he was wheeled to church in a Bath-chair by his manservant only to find that no parishioners had shown up so the good Reverend was promptly pushed back again!
More recently Hitchambury was used as a nurses’ hostel for the Canadian Red Cross Hospital which was located on the nearby Cliveden estate. When the hospital closed in the 1980’s Hitchambury fell into disuse. It was bought by the present owner in the early 1990’s since when work has been carried out to restore the manor to its former glory as you will see from the gallery in these pages.
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