West Wycombe Park is a beautiful country house and gardens, situated near to the village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Built between 1740 and 1800 as a pleasure palace by the decadent libertine and dilettante Sir Francis Dashwood. Influenced by his Grand Tour, where the villas of the Italian renaissance had inspired him to recreate something similar.
Today, West Wycombe Park is still home to the Dashwood heirs, but is open in the summer months to the public. It is a delightful park, with Rococo landscape gardens with statues, grottoes and an ornamental lake.
The 18th-century home of Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the nearby and notorious Hellfire Club contains fine painted ceilings, pictures, furniture and sculpture. This neo-classical mansion remains one of England’s finest theatrical and Italianate houses. Set in an 18th-century landscaped park, and surrounded by smaller temples that act as satellites to the main house.
The park still contains many follies and temples. The “Temple of Music” is on an island on the swan shaped lake, inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Rome. It was designed for Dashwood’s fêtes champêtres, with the temple used as a theatre. Today, the remains of the stage survive.
The Park and house are used as a film location, for shooting and special events. It is also available for wedding hire, and would make a splendid wedding venue. The house and park was donated to the National Trust in 1943.
West Wycombe Park,
West Wycombe,
Buckinghamshire
HP14 3AJ.
Tel: 01494 513569