Hughenden Manor, High Wycombe, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.  

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The manor was owned by the Dormers of Wing and West Wycombe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Savages owned the manor from 1737, when they gradually began to extend an existing farmhouse. Over the next 111 years it passed through the hands of various members of the family, during which time a small park appears to have been created to the south and east of the farmhouse, probably during the early 19th century (Plan of the Hughenden Estate, 1846). In 1847 the estate was bought by Benjamin Disraeli who lived here until his death in 1881. He had grown up at Bradenham Manor several kilometres away and was familiar with the Chilterns. He bought Hughenden in order to provide a suitable country home for himself as Leader of the Tory party and subsequently Prime Minister. Disraeli expanded the park considerably and had a formal garden created south of the house. His wife, Mary-Anne, was influential, supervising much of the landscape and garden works in her husband's absence, and designing part or all of the so-called German Forest in the 1860s. Disraeli was succeeded by his nephew, Major Coningsby Disraeli, then Coningsby's niece Mrs Calverley.

In 1946 the estate was given to the National Trust, in which ownership it remains (1997).