History of The House
Since the twelfth century there had been a manor house at Wotton Underwood owned by the Grenville family, who had accompanied William the Conqueror. In 1704 Richard Grenville (1644-?) built Wotton House on a new site on a mound looking down to a natural lake. The design was very similar to that of Buckingham House which was built at the same time and later became Buckingham Palace. The architect is unknown, but Sir Howard Colvin suggested John Fitch; John Millar believes it could be by Elizabeth Wilbraham.
In 1749 Richard Grenville, the elder brother of George Grenville (Prime Minister between 1763 and 1765), inherited Stowe House through his wife Hester, sister of Viscount Cobham. Wotton was then run in tandem with Stowe.
A fire destroyed the interior of the house in 1820 but the coach house and kitchen pavilion (the "Clock Pavilion") survived intact. Richard Grenville, 2nd Marquess of Buckingham, engaged John Soane before the embers were cold to restore the main house. Soane lowered the house, removing the top floor and reducing the height of the first floor windows, giving it a Georgian proportion. He made inventive use of the existing floor plans and created a three-storey, top-lit "Tribune", alongside a new stone staircase, in place of the old entrance hall.
With its Soane interiors Wotton had a succession of Grenville occupiers until 1889, when the last direct male heir died. It was rented and then bought by Michael Beaumont (MP for Aylesbury) in 1929. He subsequently moved to Kildare and the house was sold to a charity. It was neglected down through the Second World War (when it was not requisitioned), but it was put up for sale shortly thereafter. After the war much of the grounds were sold in small parcels and in the early 1950s the building was used by two boys' boarding schools, Wotton House Boys School followed by Cokethorpe School (since relocated to near Witney).
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