page_title: The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay
section_title: Modern period
hierarchical_section_title: The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay / History / Modern period
caption_attribution_description: English: The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England
context_page_description: The Abbey in Sutton Courtenay is a medieval courtyard house in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is located in the Vale of White Horse near the River Thames, across the road from the twelfth-century Norman Hall and the Manor House. The Abbey has been recognised as a building of outstanding historic and architectural interest and is considered to be a ‘textbook’ example of an English medieval manor house. It has been a Grade I-listed building since 1952.
  The Abbey has its origins in the thirteenth century as a rectory of Abingdon Abbey, a Benedictine monastery up north in Abingdon-on-Thames. Several construction phases took place during the Middle Ages, carried out by prominent figures like Solomon of Rochester, Thomas Beckington and William Say, but it wasn't until the seventeenth century that the current plan was completed. It was probably during the Victorian era that the house obtained the name 'The Abbey'. From 1495 to 1867, The Abbey was in possession of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, who leased the estate among others to John Fettiplace.
  After being inhabited by Evelyn St.
context_section_description: In 1863 the lease was renewed by Theobald Theobald. The rectory estate passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners under an order in council in 1867. But in 1877 Theobald bought the freehold. When Theobald died in 1884, his widow lived in the house until her nephew Colonel Henry Norton B. Good became the owner in 1902. Colonel Good was a member of the Royal Fusiliers and served in the Second Boer War. He decorated the great hall with hunting trophies. He died in 1929 and his widow auctioned the seven acre estate. Dorothy Elizabeth Pike became the owner and sold it in 1932 to Rev. George Berens-Dowdeswell, great-grandson of William Dowdeswell, and Mrs. Eveline Mary Berens-Dowdeswell (née Hunter), who sold their estate on Severn Ham, Tewkesbury. In 1941, Evelyn St. Croix Fleming moved in. She was the mother of Peter and James Bond-creator Ian Fleming by her first husband, and lived here until 1958.
caption: The great hall in 1906, by Henry Taunt.
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