Built / Designed For: Charles Clarke

House & Family History: During World War II Farm Hall was owned by the British government and used as a training center for British secret agents. In 1945, after the end of the war, 10 leading German nuclear physicists were interned for six months in secrecy at Farm Hall in an attempt to discover how close the Nazis were to developing a nuclear bomb. The group included Otto Hahn, who had discovered nuclear fission, and Nobel Prize-winner Werner Heisenberg. All of the group had been involved in Nazi wartime nuclear research; it’s now clear, as outlined in John Cornwell’s 2003 book, “Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War and the Devil’s Pact,” that some of the scientists were opposed to Hitler and hindered progress on the development of nuclear weapons.

Country Life: CXXX, 1194 plan, 1961.

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Not Listed

Current Seat / Home of: Marcial Echenique; here since 1979.

Past Seat / Home of: Charles Clarke, 18th century.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No