Waddesdon Manor (Aylesbury)

I first visited Waddesdon Manor when I'd just joined the National Trust & was exploring the various properties near to where I live. If you visit a lot of National Trust properties, I think it is fair to say that certain ones stand out far more than others, & this is one of the most impressive properties I've visited. When you first arrive, you drive past some lovely little buildings in the village of Waddesdon which I believe were originally built for the staff of the estate. The architectural style is very pretty & unusual. You have to drive up a very long, winding drive to get to the parking area near to the manor itself, but there ...  Read the complete review

Wadddesdon Manor. Waddesdon Manor is a national trust property set in the beautiful Buckinghamshire countryside. The land was owned by the Duke of Marlboro and was sold to the famous banking dynasty the Rothschild family. It was built by the famous banking family Rothschild's in the latter part of the 1800s and has been lived in ever since by the Rothschild family. it was such a massive project that required the whole of the top of the hill to be flattened for the house to be built and the grand open area at the front of the house and its majestic avenue. It was left to the National trust in 1958 on the death of James Rothschild and opened to the ...  Read the complete review

The very word "Rothschild" will bring to mind wealth in any circle. As it happens, before visiting Waddesdon, a place that, until spotting it in the National Trust Handbook in 2006, we had not heard of, I knew very little indeed about the Rothschild family, only that they possessed almost unbelievable wealth. The overall experience gained from a visit to this, or any of their other many houses, can only reinforce that opinion. In fact this is the ONLY Rothschild house now open to the public - at the turn of the last century the family had 42 such houses spread all over Europe. Not bad going considering that this rags to riches story had started less than one ...  Read the complete review