{{short description|Country house in Oxfordshire}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Use British English|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox historic site | name = Burford Priory | image = Burford Priory.jpg | locmapin = Oxfordshire | coordinates = {{coord|51|47|36|N|1|28|45|W}} | designation1 = Grade I | designation1_date = 11 September 1955<ref name='EngHet'/> | built = 1580s | rebuilt = 17th century | restored = 1912 | restored_by = [[Walter Godfrey]] | built_for = [[Lawrence Tanfield]] | owner = [[Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)|Elisabeth Murdoch]] and [[Matthew Freud]] | gbgridref = SP2499612363 }}
[[File:Burford Priory001.jpg|thumb|300px|Burford Priory]] '''Burford Priory''' is a [[Grade I listed]] [[English country house|country house]] and former [[priory]] at [[Burford]] in [[West Oxfordshire]], [[England]]<ref name='EngHet'>{{NHLE|desc=Burford Priory|num=1224759|accessdate=14 April 2024}}</ref> owned by [[Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)|Elisabeth Murdoch]], daughter of [[Rupert Murdoch]], together with [[Matthew Freud]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Summerley |first=Victoria |date=30 January 2015 |title=Gardens: cloisters and camellias |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/30/wold-meets-new-garden-elisabeth-murdoch-matthew-freud |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=28 November 2020}}</ref>
==History== ===Origin=== The house is on the site of a 13th-century [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] hospital. In the 1580s an [[Elizabethan architecture|Elizabethan]] house was built by [[Lawrence Tanfield|Sir Lawrence Tanfield]], incorporating remnants of the [[Priory Hospital]].{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|pp=510–511}} James I stayed at the priory for three nights in 1603.<ref name="VCH Explore">[http://explore.englandspastforeveryone.org.uk/items/burford-priory VCH Explore]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In the 17th century it was remodelled in [[Jacobean architecture|Jacobean style]], probably after 1634 when [[William Lenthall]] bought the estate from Tanfield's grandson, the [[Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland|2nd Viscount Falkland]], who had inherited it from his grandfather.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/lifetimesofluciu00marruoft/lifetimesofluciu00marruoft_djvu.txt The Life and Times of Lucius Cary]</ref> Lenthall was one of the overseers of Tanfield's will and had married into his second wife's family.<ref>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/tanfield-lawrence-1554-1625 History of Parliament]</ref> It remained in the Lenthall family until 1828.<ref name="VCH Explore"/> [[The Lenthall pictures]] were housed here until the collection was largely sold in the nineteenth century. In 1828 the house and the Manor of Burford was purchased by the Greenaway family of Little Barrington, and their descendant Nicholas Greenaway Mills is the current Lord of the Manor.
In 1912, the [[philanthropist]] [[Emslie Horniman|Emslie John Horniman]] MP purchased Burford Priory from Colonel Frank de Sales la Terrière.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Mr E J Horniman|date=12 July 1932|work=[[The Times]]|page=16}}</ref> He restored the house and later the [[chapel]] under the supervision of the architect [[Walter Godfrey]].{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|pp=510–511}}{{sfn|Godfrey|1939|p=71}}
===Use by Church of England nuns and monks=== From 1949 Burford Priory housed The Society of the Salutation of [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Our Lady]], a community of [[Church of England]] [[nun]]s. In the 1980s the community's numbers dwindled, and in 1987 it became a mixed community including [[Order of St. Benedict (Anglican)|Church of England Benedictine]] [[monk]]s. In 2008 the community sold the property and it has now returned to being a private house.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2299702.monks_on_the_move/ |newspaper=[[Oxford Mail]] |publisher=[[Newsquest]] |date=27 May 2008 |title=Monks on the Move }}</ref> After a period of living in rented accommodation, the community moved into a new purpose-built monastery in [[Worcestershire]]. The new monastery is on the site of a former farm and has taken the name of the farm becoming [[Mucknell Abbey]].
===Current ownership=== The current owners and residents of Burford Priory are media businesswoman [[Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)|Elisabeth Murdoch]], her ex-husband [[Matthew Freud]], owner of the [[public relations]] company [[Freud Communications]], and their family.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4237751.__40_000_raid_on_Burford_Priory/ |newspaper=[[Oxford Mail]] |publisher=[[Newsquest]] |date=26 March 2009 |title=£40,000 Raid on Burford Priory }}</ref>
A 2011 party held at the house was attended by the [[Chipping Norton set]].<ref name='TelegJul11'>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/interactive-graphics/9124278/Whos-who-in-the-Chipping-Norton-set.html|title=Who's who in the Chipping Norton set|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|author=Caroline Dewar|accessdate=2012-05-06|date=2012-03-05}}</ref>
===Burials at the priory=== *[[Cuthred of Wessex]] *[[Edmund Harman]]
==Local legend== ===Little brown monk=== The site of the old monks' graveyard is reportedly haunted by a small brown solemn-looking monk surrounded by an aura of sadness, who is said to pass through walls. The monk is often linked to the sound of bells which are reported coming from the old rectory at 2am, occasionally accompanied by the sound of chanting.<ref name="Andrews">{{cite book| first1=Ross | last1=Andrews | year=2010 |title=Paranormal Oxford |publisher=Amberley |location=Chalford, Gloucestershire | pages=94 |chapter=Other Oxford, and Oxfordshire Haunted Venues |isbn=978-1-4456-0002-4}}</ref><ref name="Puttick">{{cite book| first1=Betty | last1=Puttick | year=2003 |title=Oxfordshire: Stories of the Supernatural |publisher=Countryside Books |location=Newbury, Berkshire | pages=22–23 |chapter=Priests, Monks & Naughty Nuns |isbn=978-1-8530-6811-9}}</ref><ref name="Yurdan">{{cite book| first1=Marilyn | last1=Yurdan | year=2002 |title=Unexplained Oxford and Oxfordshire |publisher=The Book Castle |location=Dunstable, Bedfordshire | page=58 |isbn=978-1-9037-4721-6}}</ref><ref name="Robinson">{{cite book| first1=Joe | last1=Robinson | year=2000 |title=Oxfordshire Ghosts |publisher=Wharncliffe Books |location=Barnsley, South Yorkshire | pages=101–102 |chapter=Supernatural Events in Burford |isbn=978-1-8716-4776-1}}</ref>
===Gamekeeper=== A second ghost reported on the grounds, particularly around the old vegetable garden, is that of an elderly gentleman in old-fashioned clothing carrying a [[flintlock]] or [[blunderbuss]], who is seen late in the evenings during the month of October but vanishes if approached.<ref name="Andrews" /><ref name="Robinson" /> The apparition has been linked by Puttick<ref name="Puttick" /> and Yurdan<ref name="Yurdan" /> to a gamekeeper wrongly executed for the murder of a servant to William Lenthall (or Lord Abercomb) called John Prior (or Pryor). Puttick<ref name="Puttick" /> reports that the ghost has not been sighted since the nuns took up residence in 1949, and speculates that their prayers may have put it to rest.
===Poltergeist=== An unused room in the Priory is also reported to contain an active [[poltergeist]], and a feeling of oppression.<ref name="Yurdan" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Sources=== *{{cite journal |last=Godfrey |first=Walter H |author-link=Walter Godfrey |year=1939 |title=Burford Priory |journal=Oxoniensia |publisher=[[Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society|Oxford Architectural and Historical Society]] |volume=IV |pages=71–88 }} *{{cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=[[Pevsner Architectural Guides#Buildings of England|The Buildings of England]] |title=Oxfordshire |year=1974 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |pages=510–511 }}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline}} {{coord|51.809318|-1.638905|type:landmark_region:GB_source:Wikimapia_scale:2000|name=Burford Priory|display=title}}
[[Category:Country houses in Oxfordshire]] [[Category:Grade I listed houses in Oxfordshire]] [[Category:Monasteries in Oxfordshire]] [[Category:Jacobean architecture in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Augustinian monasteries in England]] [[Category:Hospitals established in the 13th century]] [[Category:13th-century establishments in England]] [[Category:Christian monasteries established in the 13th century]] [[Category:Reportedly haunted locations in South East England]] [[Category:Burford]] [[Category:Poltergeists]]