Wickhamford Manor

The manor was originally a monastic grange in the possession of Evesham Abbey.[1] Following the Dissolution of the monasteries, it was granted by Elizabeth I to Thomas Throckmorton in 1562. Throckmorton sold the manor to Samuel Sandys in 1594 and the Sandys family retained ownership until 1860.[2] Penelope Washington, daughter of a later Sandys and a distant relative of George Washington, lived at the manor in the 17th century. Her tomb in the estate church of St John the Baptist,[1] is carved with the Washington coat of arms, three stars above two bars (or stripes), which is traditionally assumed to be the origin of the Stars and Stripes,[3][4] although this is disputed.[5]

In 1906 the manor was bought by George Lees-Milne.[6] The Lees, and their relatives the Cromptons, were originally from Lancashire, where they had made considerable fortunes from coal mining and cotton spinning.[7] In 1908, George's son James was born at the house.[8] An exaggerated portrait of his parents as "a pair of ludicrous eccentrics",[9] and his difficult relationships with them is recorded in the early chapters of his volume of autobiography, Another Self.[10]

George Lees-Milne sold Wickhamford in 1947, two years before his death.[7] In 2010, it was again for sale, at a guide price of £2.95 million.[11]

Pevsner describes the grouping of manor house, ancillary buildings and church around a lake, originally a medieval fish pond, as "highly picturesque".[1] The present manor buildings date from the 16th century, with later additions.[12] It has a timber frame, infilled with limestone rubble, is of two storeys and built to an E-plan.[12] Much is early 20th century reconstruction and expansion undertaken by George Lees-Milne. The dovecote by the lake is genuinely medieval, dating from the 13th century,[1] and has its own Grade II listing.[13]

• Bloch, Michael (2009). James Lees-Milne: The Life. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6550-2. OCLC 699032729.
• Brooks, Alan; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2007). Worcestershire. The Buildings of England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11298-6. OCLC 237891290.
• Lees-Milne, James (1970). Another Self. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-01807-1. OCLC 731915296.
• Vile, John R. (2018). The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes in U.S. History, Culture, and Law. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-5789-8.