Cuddesdon Palace
Cuddesdon Palace[1] was the episcopal palace for the Bishop of Oxford, located near the village of Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, England.
History[edit]
Cuddesdon Palace was completed by 1634 for John Bancroft, who was Bishop of Oxford from 1632 until 1641.[2] In 1644 during the English Civil War Royalist forces burned the palace to render it unusable by the Parliamentarian forces besieging Oxford.[2] In 1676 John Fell was made Bishop of Oxford and in 1679 he commissioned the complete rebuilding of the palace.[2][3] This was under the control of a builder named Richard Frogley who subcontracted the sculptor Thomas Wood of Oxford for the ornamentation.[4]
In 1846 Bishop Samuel Wilberforce had the chapel of Saints Peter and Paul added to the Palace.[2] It was designed by the Gothic Revival architect Benjamin Ferrey.[2]
Successive Bishops of Oxford resided at the palace until Thomas Banks Strong retired in 1937.[2] For the duration of the Second World War Queen Anne's Bounty was evacuated from London and occupied the palace.[2] Thereafter, The Society of the Salutation of Mary the Virgin occupied the palace from 1946 until 1949.[2] In the 1960s the palace was in private use for a few years, but it burnt down before the end of that decade. The bishop's chapel escaped the fire and survives today.[5] Ripon College Cuddesdon is in the grounds of the palace, which is now a private residence.
The Bishop of Oxford now resides in North Oxford.
References[edit]
- ^ Collection Level Description: Photostat copy of plans of Cuddesdon Palace, Oxfordshire, MSS. Top. Oxon. c. 513-14 (R), Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, UK, 1945.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lobel 1957, pp. 96–116.
- ^ Cole, J. C. The building of the second palace at Cuddesdon Archived 2007-03-21 at the Wayback Machine. Oxoniensia, Volume 24, pages 49–69, 1960. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. ISSN 0308-5562.
- ^ Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis
- ^ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 563.
- Lobel, Mary D, ed. (1957). A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. Vol. 5: Bullingdon Hundred. pp. 96–116.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 562–565. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.