Emma Wells

Inside the Henley mansion that housed the Fords and the Kennedys

  • From Spectator Life
Turville Grange (Image: Knight Frank)

Turville Grange has many of the expected hallmarks of the top-end English country houses and estates on the market this spring. First comes its punchy price tag – in this case £18.75m – and lusted after location, the upmarket riverside town of Henley-on-Thames, in Oxfordshire. Then there are its classic good looks: built in Queen Anne style in the 1880s, the Grade II listed three-storey house sprawls across 8,000 sq ft of space, has five main bedrooms, five staff bedrooms, two guest bedrooms and five reception rooms. There’s even a scratch or two of graffiti as proof of the requisite royal visitors – Princess Victoria, younger sister of King George V, etched the dates 1915, 1917 and 1918 into a first- floor window with a diamond ring.

TurvilleGrange_mainhouse_libraryreceptionroom.jpg
The Library room (Knight Frank)

But when it comes to truly iconic country house status, Turville Grange – for sale on the open market for the first time in five decades, with beauchamp.com and knightfrank.com – is hard to top. Past owners include America’s own versions of aristocracy, Princess Lee Radziwill (otherwise known as Jackie O’s little sister) and, more recently, industrialist Henry Ford II and his third wife Kathleen DuRoss Ford. With it, they brought heavyweight glamour, political intrigue and a roll call of A-list guests: the rural retreat, set in 50 acres of manicured lawns and grounds, has hosted royals, Hollywood stars, industry magnates, heads of state and socialites, including Princess Margaret, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, David Niven, Liza Minnelli, Peter Sellers and Harold Macmillan.

Visits by Jackie and her second husband, Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, however, cast the strongest celebrity spell. Between 1966 and 1974, the couple regularly came to stay with society doyenne Lee, who owned the home with her second husband, Stanislaw, a scion of the Polish princely house of Radziwill.

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