Aldermaston Court is a country house and private park built in the Victorian era for Daniel Higford Davall Burr with incorporations from a Stuart house. It is south-east of the village nucleus of Aldermaston in the English county of Berkshire. The predecessor manor house became a mansion from the wealth of its land and from assistance to Charles I during the English Civil War, under ownership of the Forster baronets of Aldermaston after which the estate has alternated between the names Aldermaston Park and Aldermaston Manor.
The estate became dominated by its neo-Elizabethan mansion after a fire of 1843 destroyed one third of the predecessor and various landscape features were added which have resulted in the building being Grade II* listed and the grounds Grade II listed. Between the turn of the 21st century and its closure in 2012, the estate has been a wedding venue, a conference centre, and a hotel. Aside from the manor house and its immediate surroundings, the park is home to office buildings and a lake.
Architecture
The current house is situated approximately south of the original manor house. Rebuilt by Daniel Burr in 1848 following a huge fire, the new manor was built in the Elizabethan style, and incorporated the figured wooden staircase, some stained glass, and the chimney stacks from the 1636 house, which was later demolished.
Park
thumb|right|An ancient pollarded oak in Aldermaston Park
Aldermaston Park is an ancient and derelict wood pasture, featuring numerous examples of pollard oak and sweet chestnut. In the mid-16th century, the park was , by 1721 it was and by 1860 it was considered .
thumb|Vintage pollard sweet chestnut
thumb|Sweet chestnut coppice stool
thumb|Vintage pollard oaks
History of the estate
The Achard Family (11th century–1361)
thumb|100px|right|The Achard coat of arms
Robert FitzAchard (1070–1161) was granted the Aldermaston estate in 1100 by Henry I of England; no records of the house at this time have survived. FitzAchard was a distinguished Norman soldier whose son built the north transept in the parish church. According to the Pipe Rolls of 1168, the name had become Aldermannestun. The Achard family hosted Henry III at the manor in 1227, but granted a long lease of the rectory and glebe to Priory of Monk Sherborne (Pamber Priory); the family are all buried at their secondary manor of Sparsholt. Robert de la Mare, Thomas's grandson, married into the Brocas family of Beaurepaire, near Bramley, and was made a Knight of the Shire by Henry V. Robert's son was the last of the de la Mare lineage, and a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.), who was the brother of the Squire of Ufton and tenant of nearby Padworth Manor. Parkyns was unhappy with Forster's "over-lordship" of Aldermaston, and Forster retaliated by breaking into Parkyns's house and severely assaulting him while he ate breakfast. Anne Parkyns, Francis's wife, begged for his life. Forster – along with an armed entourage – dragged Francis to Ufton, where the family of his brother Richard were breakfasting. More violence broke out, with Lady Marvyn – Richard's wife – also begging for Francis's life to be spared.
Elizabeth I visited Aldermaston twice. Her first visit, in 1558, was during the lordship of William, and the second – in 1592 – during his son Humphrey III's tenure.
Humphrey III's son, William II, fathered a son – Humphrey IV – in 1595.
thumb|Shield of Forster. Sable a cheveron engrailed between three arrows argent.
In October of the following year, a regiment of Parliamentary troops under the command Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester camped in the Aldermaston area.
In 1780 the estate passed to his second cousin, William (a relation of the dramatist of the same name). Many changes to their estate occurred during William's ownership. The lake by the house was created by damming the stream. The wrought-iron Eagle Gates, at the north-west of the estate, were won at a game of cards so taken from Midgham. To install them, the estate's north-west lodge (a dower house
William Congreve's butler at Aldermaston House, John Manning, died on 31 August 1811. Congreve erected the headstone on his grave in the village churchyard.
On 13 January 1843, a serious fire destroyed more than a third of the manor house. William Congreve never recovered from the fire and died the same year. The Congreve name is retained in the name of a cul-de-sac in the village.
Burr family purchase and rebuilding (1849–1893)
thumb|right|Daniel Burr's memorial outside the [[Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston]]
Aldermaston Manor