Is there a time capsule buried beneath Yarnton Manor? Perhaps. Let’s uncover its secrets. Yarnton Manor stands adjacent to a 12th-century parish church. It resides in an historic Oxfordshire village.
The manor’s history stretches back 5500 years to Neolithic prehistory. A house existed here even before the current manor. References date back to Saxon times. Sir Thomas Spencer built the 17th-century stately home in 1611. He was made a baronet by James I that same year.
Yarnton’s name evolved over time. Erdington became Eyrynten and then Yardington before settling on Yarnton. Most of Yarnton’s land was granted to Eynsham Abbey in 1005. But Remigius de Fécamp took it during the Norman Conquest in 1066.
In 1226, King Henry III gave it to Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall. Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall then gifted it to Rewley Abbey in 1281. The Dissolution of the Monasteries occurred in 1536. King Henry VIII then sold Yarnton to his physician.
During the English Civil War, Yarnton Manor served as a Royalist military hospital. Around 40 soldiers were buried in the adjacent churchyard from 1643 to 1645. The Spencer family faced financial losses for supporting the Royalist cause. The north and south wings of the manor were torn down shortly after the Restoration in 1660. The west wing remained but became a farmhouse.
In 1718, Yarnton Manor was described as being in a “ruinated condition.” Sir Robert Dashwood bought it in 1695. Dashwood’s successor, Sir James, took stone from Yarnton Manor to build at Kirtlington Park.
By 1897, the manor was described as being “shorn of all its glory.” Henry Robert Franklin bought it. He hired Thomas Garner, a Gothic revival architect. Garner restored the remaining part of the house. He salvaged rare 17th-century features. These included marbled and grained wood around the main staircase. Garner also created a carriage drive, now integral to the manor’s approach.
In the 20th century, the manor changed hands several times. George Kolkhorst, an Oxford academic, bought it in 1936. Kolkhorst was a friend of the former Poet Laureate John Betjeman, who visited the manor. Novelist Iris Murdoch visited in 1939. She declared the manor “beautiful” and praised its “miraculous gardens.”
Yarnton Manor’s main gardens are formal and Jacobean in style. They lie to the south-west and south-east of the manor. Thomas Garner reinstated the gardens, using the bones of an existing layout. This layout was likely early 17th century.
The walled kitchen garden is located on the west side of the property. It has a boiler house, now a potting shed, in the west wall. Two old vines are planted on the west wall, one within a 20th-century glasshouse.
Today, Yarnton Manor stands as a testament to time. Its stones whisper tales of kings, soldiers, and artists. It remains a place of beauty and inspiration. It is a reminder of the enduring power of history and the enduring appeal of Yarnton Manor.