Beckley Park

Beckley Park is an English country house located near the village of Beckley, in Oxfordshire. It was built in 1540 by Lord Williams of Thame, who also built a great house at Rycote, a few miles away. It was originally built as a Lodge for use when the Lord and a party Hunted the Great Park. Today it is the home of Amanda Feilding and the Main Headquarters of her Beckley Foundation which is doing research on the benefits of certain types of Drugs, including Cannabis & LSD. Feilding is married to James Charteris, 13th Earl of Wemyss, who is the owner of Stanway House in Glos & Gosford House in Scotland. The Tudor Brick edifice of the House is encircled by 3-Moats which attest to the place’s importance in former days. Beckley Park remained with the descendants of Lord Williams, the Earls of Abingdon, until 1920 when it was bought by Clotilde Kate Feilding, grandmother of Amanda, Lady Neidpath. It is situated between Beckley & Otmoor just outside Oxford.

Beckley House

Steeped in History & Intrigue, Beckley Park is an extraordinary place. Only a few miles from Oxford, it feels as if it is in the middle of nowhere, stranded at the end of a Long Track on the edge of the Ancient Wetland Landscape of Otmoor. Often shrouded in Mist, the Tall, Narrow House – a 16thC former Hunting Lodge – rises up from what is essentially an Island in the Middle of 3–Concentric Moats, its 3-Towers, cobbled Medieval Bridge & Mullioned Windows giving it the look of a Fairy-tale Castle. Originally a Saxon Stronghold, Built by King Alfred as a Fortification against the Danes, it was 1st Recorded as a Deer Park in 1175. In the 13thC, it became a Royal Hunting Lodge given to the Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III. The Park and its Manor later fell into Decline until the 16thC when it was acquired by Sir John Williams, later Lord Williams of Thame, who built the current House around 1530. Occupied by Tenant Farmers in the 17th & 18thCs, it escaped Modernisation in that Period & as a result, remains largely as it was when it was Built almost 500-yrs ago. The Park & Lodge passed to the Norreys Family, whose Head in the late-17thC was created Earl of Abingdon. In the early-17thC also a Family of Ledwells lived there for Generations. The Estate was Sold by the son of the 7th Earl of Abingdon to the Grandmother of the present Owner in 1920.

Today, Beckley is owned by Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss & March, whose grandparents Percy & Clotilde Feilding bought the Property in 1919 ‘for the romance of the place’. A colourful, Bohemian couple who entertained friends such as William & Henry James & Aldous Huxley. Percy & Clotilde were both Architects. Clotilde, a Cambridge-educated Mathematician, was one of the 1st Women to practise Architecture Internationally, beginning her career as an Apprentice to the Architect & Landscape Architect Reginald Blomfield, where Percy also trained. Known for his formal Garden style, Blomfield had famously dismissed his contemporary William Robinson’s Treatise The Wild Garden, favouring a much more Structural Approach & his influence can be seen in the Topiary Garden Percy laid out at Beckley Park, a series of hedged Rooms shoehorned into the confined space between the Back of the House & the 1st Moat. Having previously been a Hunting Lodge & Farm Dwelling, it had not had a Garden before, so its Design could be plucked out of the Imagination.

The youngest of 4-children, Amanda grew up here & describes a childhood very much rooted in the place, running free round the Gardens & letting her mind run wild. ‘As a child, the Countryside & Garden were a part of me,’ she says. ‘When my Siblings went to Boarding School, I was here on my own and experienced Fantasy Adventures. It was a strange, isolated world and its grip was strong. The House was very much a Sleeping Beauty Castle, with everything Overgrown except the Topiary – even that was a jungle threatening to take over at any minute.’ Amanda’s richly imaginative girlhood was a formative influence: she went on to study Art & Mysticism, travelled widely & has, for the past 50-yrs, devoted her life to Psychedelic Science. Under the auspices of the Beckley Foundation, she has pioneered critical Scientific Research into the Medicinal properties of Psychoactive Compounds to help Neurodegenerative Diseases such as Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s, as well as Addiction & Mental Illnesses such as Depression. She also investigates how careful use of the Psychedelics can enhance Creativity, Mindfulness & the Mystical Experience.