Chequers
CHEQUERS
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1125879
- Date first listed:
- 21-Jun-1955
- List Entry Name:
- Chequers
- Statutory Address:
- CHEQUERS
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1125879
- Date first listed:
- 21-Jun-1955
- List Entry Name:
- Chequers
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHEQUERS
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHEQUERS
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Buckinghamshire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Ellesborough
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 84196 05663
Details
SP 80 NW ELLESBOROUGH CHEQUERS
2/7 Chequers
21.6.55
- I
Mansion. Built 1565 for William Hawtrey, possibly incorporating remains of earlier building. S. front completed early C17. Remodelled in Gothick style early C19 for Robert Greenhill Russell by William Atkinson, pupil of James Wyatt. Restored to Elizabethan appearance c.1890-1917 by Sir Reginald Blomfield for Astley family and Sir Arthur Lee, Viscount Fareham. Brick with stone dressings and old tile roofs. Diagonal brick chimney shafts with offset heads. Courtyard plan with C19 central infill. 2 storeys and attic. N. front of 8 bays retains most original detail, with stone quoins, string courses, and parapet coping carried over 5 small gables. 4-light stone mullion windows, double transomed and part renewed, with canted bay windows to bays 2 and 6. These bays have shaped stone parapets with C16 heraldic devices. 5 cross windows to attic. Door to right of centre with 4-centred stone arch and carved spandrels. S. front has 7 original bays, the outer and centre bays gabled and projecting. Narrow bays flanking centre are recessed and have first floor stone frieze with Astley motto "Justitia tenax". Late C19 stone mullion and transom windows, matching those of N. front, the centre having a rectangular bay window with heraldic parapet. Double doors in segmental stone arch in 3rd bay. Taller gabled bay added to left mid C19 by E.B. Lamb. Irregular E. front with 2-storey porch by Blomfield c.1910. On E. and S. sides of house are gardens surrounded by brick walls of 1912, the S. garden having small corner pavilions with ogee tile roofs, stone cornices and mullion windows, and 4-centred stone arches with Tudor hoodmoulds. S. garden also has 1970s glazed arcade to covered swimming pool along W. side,and sunken centre with brick walls. Gate between gardens has 3 stone obelisk finials. E. gate piers have similar finials on scrolls. Interior of house much refurbished early C20, with plaster ceilings in Elizabethan style and re-used C16-C17 panelling, not original to house. House given to the nation by Sir Arthur Lee 1917 as a country residence for the Prime Minister. (J. Gilbert Jenkins, Chequers, 1967).
Listing NGR: SP8419605663
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 46276
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Jenkins, J G, Chequers, (1967)
Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 4 Buckinghamshire,
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jun-2026 at 06:49:11.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2026. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry