SU6787 : North elevation, Nuffield Place, Nuffield, Oxfordshire (1)
taken 12 years ago, near to Nuffield, Oxfordshire, England
Written by Brian Robert Marshall
Nuffield Place is situated on the western edge of the Chiltern Hills. It was the home of Viscount and Lady Nuffield from 1933 until their deaths in 1963 and 1959 respectively. As Sir William Morris, the founder of what eventually became the British Motor Company, Lord Nuffield purchased the house on the death of the previous owner who had built it in 1914 to the design of a Lutyens pupil, Oswald Partridge Milne. Nuffield made some alterations and extensions such as the billiard room and the conversion of some of the rooms but it remains largely true to the original design. By any standards Lord Nuffield should be considered an industrial magnate who would be worth hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s money. Although the house is impressive and the gardens quite extensive it was and remains quite modest for a man of such means. It does not appear to be listed but that is of no great significance now the property is in the safe hands of the National Trust who opened it for the first time in 2012 Link The house and contents are substantially as they existed in the Nuffields’ time. The furniture and fittings date mostly to the thirties to fifties and contain such esoterica as an iron lung and Lord Nuffield’s pickled appendix. Well worth a visit.