Coombe Park Manor, Whitchurch-on-Thames Jan 2018

Well the tourbus had to start somewhere right. With this one already plastered all over the internet and forums and facebook it makes no sense to hide it, and I reckon after this weekend things will change pretty rapidly there as the owners know people have been going in after today - they turfed a few out in the afternoon but luckily I was long gone.

Normally I like to steer clear of these 'descend en masse' locations but sometimes these things just need to be done - and with myself being so local to it I didn't want to miss the boat like I did with Hook End.

So I boarded the tourbus and arrived just after 8am, and already there were about eight others inside (hi if you're reading this). Despite how many people there were, everyone was very conscientious towards others when taking shots, which was nice. Me and Trev spent maybe an hour and a half there which is all you really need, and were gone by 9.45.

The Estate was originally created by James Gardiner who acquired the property in 1865 on his return to England from the East Indies. The development of the property was based upon a large principal residence in the classic style and landscaped parkland laid out by the renowned Humphrey Repton. Charles Howard acquired the estate in 1898 and a stud complex was added to the property to support the Howard family interest of breeding and racing horses. The stud produced many high quality racehorses, in particular Willonyx, who won 5 principal races in the 1911 season. By 1920 the estate comprised 670 acres.

The property was used as a rest and recuperation centre for the United States Air Force during the Second
World War and had by that time been passed to Mrs Lillian Howard upon the death of Charles Howard. Following the war years because of the large capital cost of refurbishment, the main part of the house was demolished leaving the existing house.

Click to expand...

The building was repossessed from it's owner in 2016 and has sat vacant since, but is currently on the market for many millions of pounds.



































The gun was a plastic fake...don't fall for the clickbait.









Thanks for looking, more photos can be found here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157690556614681 ​