The House contains many items of rare furniture, tapestries, bronzes and paintings. It nestles in great tranquillity in a fold of the beautiful wooded Chiltern Hills, five miles north of Henley-on-Thames on the B480. There are breathtaking views of the hillside terraced walled gardens and of the surrounding park where fallow deer have grazed since medieval times.

Stonor has been a centre of Catholicism throughout and has its own Medieval Chapel, which is open to visitors.

St Edmund Campion, the Jesuit martyr, was given refuge at Stonor in 1581 and worked in the roof space to print his famous treatise "Ten Reasons" (for being a Catholic) on a hidden press. A small exhibition describes his life and the living area he used can be visited as part of the house tour.

A new exhibition, opening April 2006, illustrates strong historical American ancestry at Stonor. The owner, Lord Camoys, is descended from the Brown and Sherman families, respectively deeply involved in the founding and development of the state of Rhode Island and influential in early New York banking. Both families left England in the 1630s to settle in New England.

The Exhibition includes portraits; photographs, prints, porcelain, glass and sculptures collected and commissioned over 200 years by the Brown and Sherman families.

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http://www.stonor.com

Stonor reopens on 1 April 2007.

The house and gardens are open every Sunday afternoon until 16 September 2007, Wednesday afternoons throughout July and August and Bank Holiday Mondays. The gardens open at 1pm and the house at 2pm. Last entry is at 4.30pm, the house and gardens close at 5.30pm.

Contact - skip

WWW: http://www.stonor.com

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