Travelspin

Hughenden Manor - home of Disraeli

Hughenden Manor

Nestling in the Chiltern Hills is the home of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-81) , or ‘Dizzy,’ Britain’s first Jewish Prime Minister. It lies majestically high on the hill overlooking Hughenden Park, a very pleasing country park that hugs the edge of High Wycombe and borders the main road north from the town centre. Barely have you left the town before you are surrounded by the homely Chiltern hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty that caresses the north west corners of the Greater London area.

I took the train from Worthing to get here. A good tip is instead of paying for the return fare all the way from Worthing (or wherever you travel from) to High Wycombe which is about £36, get a Travelcard which covers travel on the London underground and mainline network from zones 1-6, which for the uninitiated gives you access to virtually the whole London built up area. This took me up to Victoria then out from Marylebone as far as West Ruislip. All I had to do was to get a ticket at Marylebone for West Ruislip to High Wycombe return, and I save myself about £4. Not a King's ransom but it all helps. Alternatively you can just be more organised and save money by booking in advance!

I took my bike with me on the train which you can do in the UK for free, certainly outside peak times. When I got to Victoria I rode the side roads near Buckingham Palace up to Hyde Park to avoid the potentially hair raising ride up through Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane. Take a lot of care if you are cycling through London, keep your eyes in the back of your head and look confident. I then cycled through Hyde Park although you have to be careful to keep to the cycle lanes. North of Hyde Park I nipped into Paddington Station to see if I could use the rail from there but no can do, so I continued on to Marylebone nearby. I sped past some hospital where a phalanx of photographers were waiting for some celebrity (it turned out it was St Mary's hospital where they were waiting for Kate's impending new baby!), and dodging my way across Edgware Rd I soon arrived at my destination.

Marylebone is a pint size station compared with the gallon jug of Paddington but I always enjoy going through there as it makes a change from the cavernous enormity of stations like Victoria, it’s a cosy clean little six platform Victorian edifice which provides a gateway to the Chiltern Hills. It also provides an alternative route to Birmingham.

It’s only a shortish train ride out through north-west London and past Wembley Stadium before you reach High Wycombe which is sufficiently outside the Greater London area to be in proper countryside. High Wycombe has managed to get into the list of the top 100 'Crap towns' in the UK, although I must confess the bit that I saw seemed perfectly OK i.e. the town centre and then the northern suburbs. It's all very subjective! You can cycle from the station north to Hughenden Park, a mere slip of a distance from the urban area but a true country park stretching up along a green stream-filled valley, here you turn left off the main road, ride past the little country church where Disraeli worshipped, and then up quite a steep hill to Hughenden Manor itself. The stable outbuildings arranged around a central court house reception, a shop, and the ubiquitous café, where lunches are served until half three.

The stable yard

Front of Hughenden manor

I scuttled from reception to the main house itself, a red brick Victorian mansion, in time to hear a talk on Hughenden Manor’s place in the Second World War. It was here that a very important part of Bomber Command’s strategy was carried out, the making of maps of Germany to facilitate bombing raids. Hughenden Manor was part of a group of centres including Medmenham and Bletchley Park which worked together in providing aerial photographs, breaking codes and producing accurate maps to help the war effort. The guide gave a very interesting talk on this subject and showed us some outbuildings where some of the work was done, complete with maps with magnifying glasses, an ancient 1940s bike, and uniforms from the era.

Second World War map theme

Outbuilding used in WW2

An older lady in the group told us that she remembered the day Dresden was bombed and her mother saying ‘those poor people.’ Whatever we hear about the Dresden bombing, parts for the Nazi rocket programme were made in that area of Germany.

By the time the talk was finished it was time for a late lunch, but our guide tempted us with the prospect of a top raconteur giving us the Disraeli talk back at the main house. In the end it turned out that there were to be no more talks, so instead our guide offered to give me a quick Disraeli history in the dining room. I can’t remember all the details but Disraeli as a Jew was only able to pursue a parliamentary career and become PM because he had been baptized as a Christian into the Church of England at the age of 12. He bought Hughenden Manor in 1848. Queen Victoria was evidently quite fond of Disraeli (and did not like Gladstone!) and came to Hughenden Manor to dine, and you can see the very seat where she sat. Disraeli also had connections with the Rothschilds just up the road at Waddesden, a small country pile you might have heard of?

By the time I had heard about Disraeli it was too late for a proper full blooded sausage and mashed potato lunch and I had to make do with sandwiches and crisps, nevertheless sitting contentedly in the stable courtyard to consume them. Then back to the house for a quick run around before closing at five. A couple of nice young ladies were on hand at the front door to welcome visitors, so the National Trust is not just for oldies! The downstairs rooms at the back of the house look out onto a huge gorgeous rectangle of lawn and flowerbeds falling away into the backdrop of the Chiltern hills, unbeatable on a sunny day.

Rear garden from bedroom window

Here also you can see Margaret Thatcher’s last Red Box which she used for her work, a well worn case perched next to an explanation. Upstairs Disraeli’s bedroom is roomy, light and with some yellow decor, again with great views over the gardens.

Downstairs rooms

Library

Disraeli's bedroom

In the basement is an exhibition on Hughenden Manor’s place in the Second World War, when it was referred to as 'Hillside,' where everything looks just like it might have been at the time, another type of ‘Churchill’s war rooms?’ Unfortunately I had run out of time to have a proper look, so just shot a couple of photos and got out!

Margaret Thatcher's last Parliamentary box

I roamed the gardens for a while and admired the views, then decided to bike up through the surrounding woods to a viewpoint which I did not find.

Garden views

However I carried on along a long straight track between fields until I hit the main road and the village of Naphill. I decide to keep cycling along the main road and found myself eventually reaching RAF High Wycombe with two old RAF planes suspended in mid-air at the entrance.

I even got a smile from a passing blue-uniformed female! There wasn’t much to see in the way of an airfield because of vegetation screening, but I had the wind in my sails so carried on cycling in the direction of the Chilterns scarp slope at the bottom of which is Princes Risborough. The road was straight, nice and flat, making for an easy ride, but when I got to Lacey Green, the gentle surrounding countryside opened up to reveal bigger vistas and a looming hill descent to the Vale of Aylesbury. Not wishing to cycle back up what would be a strenuous gradient, I nibbled around the edges of the very promising views and then looked at ‘The Whip, the pub at the top of the hill. However the beer garden looked a bit empty and I decided to ride back to Hughenden Park to look at the church, stopping at a pub with a nice beer garden out front I’d seen earlier.

After a drink I nipped back along the track from Naphill, through the woods and down to the little Anglican church, St Michael and All Angels Church, on the Hughenden Estate where Disraeli is buried. On a summer’s evening with the wooded Chiltern valley as a backdrop, you couldn’t find anything more English. There’s a neat little guide explaining the main features of the church, like the memorial to the Earl of Beconsfield erected by Queen Victoria, the only memorial erected by a reigning monarch to one of her subjects in an English parish church. You can also see the seat where he used to sit.