Earlier Houses: An earlier house, Buckland Manor House, was converted into the Grade II*-listed stables when the current house was erected.

Built / Designed For: Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Bt.

House & Family History: Buckland House was built for the Catholic baronet Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, Warwickshire, who inherited the Buckland Estate from his mother. Sir Robert converted the earlier house into the stables and erected the new Buckland, an Italian style summer villa that’s a cross between a Bath townhouse and a miniature palace. The main block is connected to two flanking cruciform pavilions by narrow 60-feet-long colonnades. The west pavilion, designed as a Greek cross, was originally the Catholic chapel; today a very grand dining room, it retains its unusual 18th century carved stone floral frieze (work like the frieze would traditionally have been made in plaster, which was much less expensive). The east pavilion was built as the library, a function it continues to serve today. This pavilion wasn’t finished until the 1770s and is notable for its ceiling designed by Cipriani and painted by Biagio Rebecca. John Martin Robinson says that the swags of carved fruit and flowers in the principal exterior frieze are derived from Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House, London. Robinson goes on to say that Buckland’s central block was probably inspired by Roger Morris’s villas in Richmond-upon-Thames: Marble Hill House and White Lodge. In the 1910s the fashionable society architect and decorator W.H. Romaine-Walker sympathetically doubled the size of the house. Around the same time Queen Mary became a regular visitor to Buckland; during World War II the queen stored some of the smaller pieces of her art collection in Buckland's basement. Buckland House was listed for sale, together with 20 acres, in September of 2000.

Comments: Pevsner described Buckland as "...the most splendid of smaller Georgian houses in the county [Berkshire]." John Martin Robinson perfectly sums up this divine house: “Overall, Buckland is a remarkably original 18th century building, combining Palladian, Baroque, Rococco, and neo-Classical elements into a richly executed whole.”

Garden & Outbuildings: The grounds contain an ice house, a rustic boathouse, a cricket pitch, and tennis courts.

Vitruvius Britannicus: C. IV, pls. 90-93, 1767.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: Vol. II, p. 176, 1853.

John Preston (J.P.) Neale, published under the title of Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, among other titles: Vol. I, 1818.

Country Life: XXXVII, 662, 698 plan, 1915. May 11 & 18, 2011.

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Grade II*

Current Seat / Home of: Paddy McNally; here since 2004.

Past Seat / Home of: SEATED AT CURRENT HOUSE: Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Bt., 1757-91; Sir John Courtenay Throckmorton, 5th Bt., 1791-1819. Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, until 1919. Major Richard Wellesley, mid-20th century.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: Limited Access to Grounds Only

Historic Houses Member: No