Forever one of the country houses I’m most interested in, welcome to Waddesdon Manor, a French château in Buckinghamshire.

Waddesdon was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild and completed in 1883 – he wanted somewhere to escape from London to. (Very nice if you can!) As you may guess from the style, the architect was French, Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur.

Ferdinand had moved to England in 1860, where he married his cousin Evelina (she was part of the English branch of the Rothschild banking family) who sadly died, along with their child, when giving birth in 1866.

From then on, more so than ever, Ferdinand’s passions became travel and collecting.

The family were fascinated by eighteenth-century Europe, and much of the collections reflect this. (Waddesdon is particularly famous for its Sèvres porcelain collection!)

The collections were built mainly through the endeavours of Ferdinand, his sister Alice, their cousin Edmond and then the current Lord Rothschild.

The house has been open to the public, through the National Trust and Rothschild Foundation, since 1959.

Fun fact: in 1890, Queen Victoria visited, and there was a lift installed for her. She refused to use it, saying she didn’t trust the electricity.

Waddesdon Manor also had a fascinating history during World War Two, housing evacuees and Jewish children who arrived on Kindertransport on the estate. Read more about that here.