After his great success in keeping Great Britain safe from Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington was asked to choose an estate which would be funded by a grateful nation. In 1817 he saw Stratfield Saye, and decided to make it his home. He lived there until his death in 1852, and it remains the seat of his descendants. In 1845 Queen Victoria announced that she and Prince Albert, together with their courtiers, were coming to stay with the ‘good old Duke’.

Stratfield Saye was purchased from the 2nd Baron Rivers, whose family had owned the house since the early seventeenth century. In the 1750s George and Penelope Pitt (later 1st Baron and Baroness Rivers) improved the house and pleasure grounds so that by 1762 the park was described as ‘laid out prettily’. Although there were ambitious plans to build a new palace in the park, these were never executed and the Duke was content to remodel the existing, relatively modest, house.

The Queen and her party set off from Windsor on 20th January 1845. Her route had been announced to the press and well-wishers lined the streets of the towns and villages she passed through. At Arborfield Cross in Berkshire two detachments of the North Hants Yeomanry met the royal party and formed an escort to Stratfield Saye. The Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) joined the procession to ride the last few miles to the house.

The Queen wrote about the visit in her diary. She found Stratfield Saye ‘a low and not very large house, but warm and comfortable’ and she enjoyed a walk in the pleasure grounds – although sadly she doesn’t mention a summerhouse. Prince Albert went shooting and his wife later watched him try a game of tennis (the Duke was ‘an ardent admirer of this healthy pastime’). Evenings were spent in the company of the local aristocracy and gentry.

It is not clear what the summerhouse looked like when Queen Victoria visited, but something was extant at that date and was shown on the 1839 tithe map. The summerhouse is dated 1846, so the Duke either rebuilt or refurbished it the year after Victoria’s visit to commemorate her stay. Whilst nineteenth century accounts are full of admiration for the specimen trees planted in the pleasure ground (including Wellingtonia, of course), there doesn’t seem to be even the briefest mention of this lovely rustic retreat.

The summerhouse is double-fronted, with one front giving a view into the pleasure grounds around the house, and the other a view out over meadows to the handsome stone bridge over the river Loddon, built by Lord Rivers in the eighteenth century.

The whole structure is built of natural materials: the roof is covered in wooden shingles, the floor is pebble and flint and the walls are decorated with geometric patterns made of slender stems. Inside is the date 1846 and on the side walls of one room the Queen’s insignia faces that of the Duke.

It is particularly pleasing to see the summerhouse (grade II) being restored for the benefit of future generations using traditional materials.

Stratfield Saye usually opens for pre-booked visits in August each year: put it in your diary for 2025.

As well as the house (grade I) and collections, there can also be seen the grave of Wellington’s horse, Copenhagen, and the absolutely amazing leviathan that is the carriage built in only a few days to carry the Duke’s coffin to his funeral  https://wellington.co.uk/stratfield-saye-house/

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