Hillersdon House

Hillersdon House is a substantial country house designed by Samuel Beazley. Samuel Beazley was noted primarily as a theatre architect; Hillersdon House is one of his few country house designs; it is restrained and dignified externally, with a highly imaginative use of internal space and especially interesting example of the late Classical revival. The two storey building is arranged around a central hall. It is built of red brick with Portland stone dressing and a hipped slate roof. The north-east front is the main entrance with a porte-cochère flanked by Tuscan columns, while the south-west side mirrors the north east but without the porte-cochère.The red brick stable block was built at about the same time as the main house along with Jane's Cottage, formerly a summer house in the walled kitchen garden.The house is stands within parkland with ponds and a deer park. Hillersdon House was built in 1848 by William Charles Grant, a Lieutenant of the First (Kings) Dragoon Guards and a nephew of Sir William Grant (1752-1832), Member of Parliament, Solicitor General and Master of the Rolls. Grant purchased the estate in about 1847. In 1843 Grant had married Maria May (d.1891), a noted pteridologist.[9] and W.C. Grant built the surviving house to replace the earlier house which was in a dilapidated state.In 1877 W.C. Grant died and Hillersdon passed his second and eldest surviving son William John Alexander Grant(1851-1935), a distinguished Arctic photographer who in 1895 married Enid Maud Forster, whom he divorced in 1901. In the 1890s Hillersdon became known for its wild parties.After the death of William Grant in 1935 the house was inherited under his will by Sir Mark Beresford Russell Sturgis (1884–1949), KCB, Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland, who took the additional surname of Grant, as a condition of the will. In the Second World War it housed US Officers and then became a bed and breakfast and later was divided into five flats. It was purchased in 1982 by David and Gale Glynn, who having undertaken some refurbishment work sold it in 2010 for an asking price of £3-£4 million. In 2010 Hillersdon was purchased by Michael Lloyd and has since undergone a complete refurbishment of the house, the parkland and the walled kitchen garden. Hillersdon House is now used as a wedding venue and exclusive hotel offering luxury meditation and yoga retreats.

Hillersdon House listed Grade II*..Stable block 50 metres north of Hillersdon House listed Grade II.
Jane's Cottage (former summerhouse) 150 metres south-south-west of Hillersdon House listed Grade II.