Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. Owned by the Rothschild Foundation and managed by the National Trust, it is one of the National Trust's most visited properties, with over 463,000 visitors in 2019.

The Grade I listed house was built in a mostly Neo-Renaissance style, copying individual features of several French châteaux, between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898) as a weekend residence for entertaining and to house his collection of arts and antiquities. As the manor and estate have passed through three generations of the Rothschild family, the contents of the house have expanded to become one of the most rare and valuable collections in the world. In 1957, James de Rothschild bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust, opening the house and gardens for the benefit of the general public. Unusually for a National Trust property, the family of James Rothschild, the donor, manage the house. The Rothschild Foundation, chaired by Dame Hannah Rothschild, continues to invest in the property.

There had been a medieval manor house, probably moated, on the estate, now vanished. In 1874, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bought the Waddesdon agricultural estate from the Duke of Marlborough with money inherited from his father Anselm. Rothschild was familiar with the estate from fox hunting in the locality. At the time of purchase, the estate had no house, park or garden. The site of the future manor house was a bare hill known as Lodge Hill, which had been stripped of its timber by the impoverished Duke of Marlborough prior to the sale. Over the following three years, the summit of the hill was levelled; eventually, on 18 August 1877, the foundation stone was laid.

The first house party was held in May 1880 with seven of Rothschild's close male friends enjoying a fireworks display. When, finally, the main house was ready in 1883, Rothschild invited 20 guests to stay. Before his premature death in 1898, on weekends between May and September, Baron de Rothschild was host to many important guests, including Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII). House parties usually involved 14 to 20 guests.

Guests commented on the level of luxury service provided by the 24 house staff. In 1890, Queen Victoria unusually requested to pay a visit. She was impressed with the beauty of the house and grounds as well as Rothschild's ability to quietly manage the day's events. She was struck by the newly installed electric lights designed to look like candles in the chandeliers, and it is reported that she asked for the room to be darkened to fully witness the effect.

When Baron Ferdinand died in 1898, the house passed to his sister Alice de Rothschild. She saw Waddesdon as a memorial for her brother and was committed to preserving it. She did add significant items to the collection, particularly furniture and carpets with French royal provenances, Meissen porcelain, textiles and armour.

Following Alice de Rothschild's death in 1922, the property and collections passed to her French great-nephew James de Rothschild, who was married to an English woman, Dorothy Pinto. James further enriched the manor with objects from the collections of his late father Baron Edmond James de Rothschild of Paris.

James and Dorothy hosted a Liberal Party rally at Waddesdon in 1928, where David Lloyd George addressed the crowd. During World War II, children under the age of five were evacuated from Croydon and lived at Waddesdon Manor, the only time children lived in the house. James and Dorothy also provided asylum at Waddesdon for a group of Jewish boys from Frankfurt.