Chequers

The official country residence of British prime ministers, donated to the nation by Viscount Lee of Fareham in 1921. The estate is located in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Chequers, or Chequers Court, is a country house near Ellesborough, to the south east of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills.

Little is known for sure of the early history of the mansion known today as Chequers, although Dame Norma Major (wife of the former Prime Minister John Major) authored a book on the history of Chequers entitled 'Chequers: The Prime Minister's Country House and its History.' There has been a house on the site since the 12th century. The original house probably gained its name in the 1100s because it may have been built or inhabited by an individual named Elias Ostiarius (or de Scaccario), who was acquiring land in the Ellesborough area at the time. The house passed through generations of the De Scaccario family (spelt in many different forms) until it seems to have passed into the D'Awtrey family, whose name was eventually anglicised to Hawtrey.

The present 16th-century house was not well documented in its early years; what is known is that one John Hawtrey restored and enlarged the house in 1565. A reception room in the house bears his name today. It was this same John Hawtrey who, immediately after completing the house, had the dubious honour of guarding a royal prisoner at Chequers—Lady Mary Grey, younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and great grand-daughter of King Henry VII.

Through descent in the female line and marriages, the house passed through several families: the Wooleys; In 1715, the then owner of the house married a John Russell, a grandson of Oliver Cromwell. The house is well known for this connection to the Cromwells, and it still contains a large collection of Cromwell memorabilia.

In the 19th century, the Russells (now the Greenhill-Russell family) decided to have the house modernised in the best possible taste of Victorian gothic. Towards the end of the 19th century, the house passed through marriage to the Astley family. Instead of taking up residence, they let the house to the Clutterbuck family, who loved the house so much that when they left in 1909 they had a near replica built in Bedfordshire.

Following the Clutterbucks' departure, the house was taken on a long lease by a Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Lee. the gothic "improvements" were swept away and the Tudor style house seen today re-emerged from the scaffolding. In 1912 following the death of the last of the house's ancestral owners (Henry Delavel Astley), Ruth Lee and her sister purchased the property and later gave it to Arthur Lee.

During World War I the house became a hospital and then a convalescent home for officers. Hence, after lengthy discussions with then Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Chequers was given to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister by the "Chequers Estate Act 1917".

Arthur and Ruth Lee, by this time Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham, left Chequers on 8th January 1921 after a final dinner at the house.

A stained glass window in the long gallery of the house commissioned by Lord and Lady Lee of Farnham bears the inscription:

The property houses one of the largest collections of art and memorabilia pertaining to Oliver Cromwell in the country.