Holiday - Secrets of Buckinghamshire - Day One: Hughenden Manor

 We feel that we have landed on our feet recently, having found a local coach company who organisers a wide choice of holidays that we enjoy.  With no driving except on some occasions such as this one, when we drive to their depot, we are both able to enjoy the countryside on our journeys, and I can see over the hedges. On this long weekend, we visited Hughenden Manor, Bletchley Park, Waddesdon Manor and Oxford.

We are not long back from our holiday, and looking through the pictures I took brought it all back.  On our outward journey our first visit was to Hughenden Manor which was once the country home of the Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.  There was so much to see both in the building itself, the grounds and the church. What an amazing man: Disraeli has so many facets. It is definitely on our list for a return visit, and  I'm looking to read one of his books soon too.

Hughenden Manor - Statuary

We started with the grounds, and enjoyed the classical statuary along the main lawn, the formal gardens, as well as the walled garden. Even from when we stopped with the coach, I was particularly impressed with the apple orchard and how well the trees had been pruned over the years. 

Hughenden Walled Kitchen Garden

Looking at the estate map and the time we had before our Introduction Talk, we decided to walk down to  St Michael and All Angels which as many older churches, was restored during the Victorian Period.  Unusually for a Prime Minister,  Disraeli is buried here as he left instructions that he wanted to be buried quietly at Hughenden alongside his wife Mary Anne. When visiting the house later we came to read about their close and supporting relationship.  

Coincidentally only recently I found out that the 19th of April was celebrated for many years as National Primrose Day, marking the death of Prime Minister Disraeli, and although it was not form for the Queen to attend a Prime Minister's burial, she did visit several days later to pay her respects. Since both her and Disraeli's favourtie flower was a primrose, it was a primrose wreath which she sent from Osborne House for his funeral.

Inside the house as well as the furnishings, there was a room dedicated to Disraeli's literary endeavours, and I rather like this strapline.

May I add is that for me the best way to review things and enjoy them later is to post on my blog! With many visits to other sites for further private reading.

Hughenden Manor has been occupied over the years by a number of people. Thanks to a exhibition in one of the wings the story of  the top-secret mapping unit codenamed Hillside which only emerged in the early 2020s,  was well worth visiting and fascinating. The property was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1941, and over 100 men and women worked there.  There were touching descriptions of the effects of the work on the cartographers. The manor’s secret wartime role was only revealed when a volunteer guide overheard a visitor telling his grandson about his wartime service there.

Top secret unit codename Hillside exhibition 
Target Maps

The creation of these maps and the many copies printed helped to improve targeting of bombing during World War II.

Books I would like to read: Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance