Cuddesdon Palace

Cuddesdon Palace[1] was the episcopal palace for the Bishop of Oxford, located near the village of Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, England.

History

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] 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.[4] 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
  1. 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.
  2. Lobel 1957, pp. 96–116.
  3. 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.
  4. Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 563.

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