Sandleford Priory Monastery Inclusa of Sandraford, as mentioned in a
pipe roll of 26 Henry II, 1179–80. Otherwise known as an anchoress, a female
Anchorite, a withdrawn holy person; Sandleford was a priory of Austin canons, founded between 1193 and 1202 by Geoffrey, 4th count of Perch, and
Richenza-Matilda his wife. A confirmation charter from
Archbishop Stephen indicates the priory was dedicated to St John the Baptist and endowed with all the lands of Sandleford. The appropriation of the priory, on 9 March 1478, to the
Dean and Canons of Windsor was mainly owing to
Bishop Beauchamp of Salisbury, who was Dean of Windsor from 1478 to 1481. By this time it appears the religious had forsaken the priory. The chapel of Sandleford Priory (1200–1478) was incorporated into a later country house.
Country house 's portrait,
The Montagu Family at Sandleford Priory, circa 1744. The present Sandleford Priory is a
Grade I listed building in of parkland landscaped by
Capability Brown. It was erected around the old priory buildings between 1780 and 1786 by
James Wyatt, for
Elizabeth Montagu, the social reformer, patron of the arts,
salonist, literary critic and writer who helped organise and lead the
Blue Stockings Society. It was later inherited by her nephew,
Matthew Montagu, 4th Baron Rokeby. Her friend
Hannah More was there often and described it in 1784. Other wealthy citizens that it was leased to during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, these included: , published by John Sewell (died 1802), 32 Cornhill, London, 1785. • John and Henry Kingsmill, from c. 1685 and 1706 and 1710, until circa 1715–1717. John Kingsmill, JP (Newbury, 1685) was a younger son of Sir Henry Kingsmill (1587–1625), and husband to Rachael daughter of JP and sometime MP Edward Pitt (c.1592–1643), of Steepleton Iwerne, Dorset and later of Stratfield Saye (which he bought for £4,800 in 1629), by Rachael (d. 1643) daughter of
Sir George Morton, Bart., son of
Sir William Pitt, kt. 1618,
Comptroller of the Household. Their sons Robert and Henry Kingsmill died without issue in 1697 and 1710.
George Pitt the brother of Rachel Pitt, Mrs John Kingsmill, married Jane, the daughter of
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers;
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, daughter of Sir William Kingsmill of
Sydmonton Court, was a niece and first cousin. • William Cradock (died 1736), of
Gainford Hall, Gainsford, Durham. He married in 1715 Mary daughter of Gilbert Sheldon of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and bought the lease in 1717, disposing of it in 1729; • William Pollet Brown Chatteris (1810–1889), JP, DL (1852, Berks), educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and son of a London banker, who eventually bought the freehold, enfranchised the estate, in 1875 from the
Dean and Canons of Windsor. His first wife (married 1833) was Anne eldest daughter of
Alexander Arbuthnot, Bishop of Killaloe; • Mrs. Myers, aka Evelyn Elizabeth Myers, who wrote
A History of Sandleford Priory, with plates, Newbury District Field Club, Special Publication. no. 1, published between 1900 and 1931, was tenant from before 1898 to at least 1911 • Major Aubrey Isaac Rothwell Butler, (1878-27.9.1930), son of Isaac Butler (1839–1917), JP (Sheriff of Monmouth 1910), of Panteg House,
Griffithstown, Torfaen, near Newport. It is claimed that the first sheet steel in Britain was rolled in Staffordshire in 1876 from a
bloom made in
Panteg by Isaac Butler. Aubrey Butler was sometime manager of
Baldwin's Ltd branches in Monmouth & Midlands, Baldwins having taken over the family firm, Wright, Butler and Co Ltd, in 1902. Later he was
Sheriff of Monmouthshire, 1924, and by the time of his early death was described as
formerly of Sandleford Priory and of 13,
Porchester Terrace, London. The house is now home to
St Gabriel's School.
Sandleford Place This house, formerly known has both Sandleford Cottage and Sandleford Lodge, sits on the southern boundary of the old parish, by the River Enborne, on the Berkshire and Hampshire, and Sandleford and Newtown border. Its former residents have included: • John Deane, from circa 1624; • Mrs Colman; •
Henry Hart Millman, divine, whose wife Mary Anne was a daughter of
Lt-general William Cockell (died 1831) of Sandleford Lodge; • Robert Fellowes (1817–1915), of
Shotesham, and his sister Louisa Fellowes (1817–1901), were both born at Sandleford Cottage, the seat of their father Robert (1779–1869). Later she married Sir
Thomas Gladstone, Bt. (and thus sister-in-law of
William Gladstone the Prime Minister). They were children of Robert Fellowes (1779–1869) by his second wife Jane Louisa Sheldon, daughter of the MP for Wilton (1804–1822) Colonel Ralph Sheldon (1741–1822), of Donnington Cottage, near Newbury, Berkshire, and grandchildren of
Robert Fellowes (1742–1829), of Shotesham, MP for Norwich. Their younger sister was
Baroness Sandhurst (1827–1892), a philanthropist and
suffagist. Robert Fellowes is a direct ancestor of
Lord Fellowes. , 1861. • The 1861 census lists at Sandleford Lodge, Lady Louisa Anne Magenis (1837–1918), daughter of
Armar Lowry-Corry, 3rd Earl Belmore, and her husband (they married in 1860) Major Richard Henry Magenis (Mauritius, 1832 – Abington, 1880). Magenis was the grandson of Colonel
Richard Magenis (married 1788) by his wife Lady Elizabeth-Anne Cole (1765–1807 or 1808), daughter of
William Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen and sister of
General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, GCB, KCB, Governor of Mauritius 1823–1828. Richard Henry Magenis was J.P. for Counties Antrim and Cambridgeshire, High Sheriff of Antrim 1868, and Representative of the
Viscounts Magenis (attainted 1691), with later addresses at
Abington Hall, Cambridge; and
Finvoy Lodge, Co. Antrim. (1879–1959). •
William Frederick Hicks-Beach (1841–1923), MP, was living at Sandleford lodge in 1869 and by 1871 he is recorded as having with him a wife and four children, and eight staff. • Mrs. Wedderburn (1825–), aka Selina Mary Garth, daughter of Captain
Thomas Garth, RN, of Haines Hill,
Hurst, Berkshire, and widow of
Frederick Lewis Scrymgeour-Wedderburn (1808–1874), de jure 8th
Earl of Dundee, and her daughters Charlotte and Selina Elgiva, (1856–), were living at Sandleford Lodge, c. 1881 and 1883; • Brigadier Wyndham Torr, CMG, DSO, MC, (1890–1963) of Sandleford Place; soldier in WW1; military attache Madrid, Lisbon, Washington, Spain, etc.; •
Seton Montolieu Montgomerie (1846–1883), and his wife Mrs. Montgomerie, aka Nina Janet Bronwen Peers Williams (daughter of
Thomas Peers Williams, MP), of Sandleford cottage (later renamed
place), and their daughters
Viva and Alswen. File:Edward Haytley's portrait of the Montagu Family at Sandleford Priory, Newtown, near Newbury, Berkshire, GB, circa 1744.jpg|
Edward Haytley's portrait,
The Montagu Family at Sandleford Priory, circa 1744. File:Sandleford Priory from the west, as seen between Dirty Ground Copse and Gorse Covert, October 2015.jpg|Sandleford Priory from the west, from the drive that connected the priory to the Andover road (A343), as seen between Dirty Ground Copse and Gorse Covert. File:Sandleford Cottage, Newbury.JPG|Sandleford Cottage, former home of
Seton Montolieu Montgomerie and her daughters
Viva and Alswen.
Sandleford Grove James Asprey, Esq.,
maltster, (Highclere, 1811–1893), of Sandleford Grove, exhibited
white trump wheat grown on very poor soil, weight 67 Lbs per bushel, at the
Great Exhibition of 1851.
Sandleford Farm King James I, was leased Sandleford farm by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, January 1605. The other present owners and directors of Sandleford Farm partnership and Skilldraw Ltd include Nicholas Laing (c. 15%), of the family that made
McVitie's, and father of TV's
Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing; Delia Norgate, widow of the founder of Trencherwood Homes, John Norgate; and Noel Gibbs a descendant of
William Gibbs of
Tyntesfield, and of
Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet. On 30 September 1986, the circa 470 acre Sandleford Farm, was sold by Neate's, with help from
Knight Frank & Rutley, at the Chequers Hotel, Newbury, for over two million pounds. ==Literature==