The History:
A 16th Century Elizabethan house, Hook End Manor is set in a delightful rural location in Oxfordshire that would have estate agents salivating and reaching for their cliché manuals. It is surrounded by beautiful parkland and gardens, including Britain's oldest Monkey Puzzle tree.
The manor house was originally built for the Bishop of Reading in 1580. Later additions to the house include the oak panelled dining room, which probably dates from the 1920s. The Tudor heart of the house is the oak panelled reception hall and up a flight of stairs leads to the charmingly eccentric bedrooms, some designed by previous owner David Gilmour, others by another previous owner, financier Charles Clore.
The musical history of Hook End Manor began in the 1960s with Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, who resided there for some time before selling it to Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Gilmour recorded parts of Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, in a studio at the house.
It was then bought by West Side Productions, producers of Madness and Morrissey. In the 1990s, the manor was purchased by Trevor Horn, who spent a not inconsiderable fortune creating the studio and equipping it. It would run as a successful business operation under the Sarm flag for a good number of years, the celebrity guest book filling impressively over the period.
The Explore:
Having had this site on my hit list for quite some time, I decided that enough was enough and it was finally time to go and get it done before it's too late.
Having left the car meet that I attended earlier on in the day, I made my way down with some pretty heavy rain on the journey but I wasn't gonna let this dampen my spirits. Finally arriving, I found somewhere to dump the car and make my way over to the property. Noticing that there were several cameras present dotted around the house, I was careful to avoid being detected by these and made my way to the entry point as quick as possible.
Inside the house I was simply blown away at the size and grandeur of the place. I've been around some nice places before but this place felt as if I was back in Belgium wandering around some of their euro derps!
Although there was no sign of the former recording studio as pictured in the second image, only one of the doors in the whole place was locked so I'm lead to believe that it may have been in there.
Overall a pretty relaxed explore and good to get back out again after so long of not really having anywhere to derp! If you like this thread, you can find the full set on my Flickr by clicking here!
A 16th Century Elizabethan house, Hook End Manor is set in a delightful rural location in Oxfordshire that would have estate agents salivating and reaching for their cliché manuals. It is surrounded by beautiful parkland and gardens, including Britain's oldest Monkey Puzzle tree.
The manor house was originally built for the Bishop of Reading in 1580. Later additions to the house include the oak panelled dining room, which probably dates from the 1920s. The Tudor heart of the house is the oak panelled reception hall and up a flight of stairs leads to the charmingly eccentric bedrooms, some designed by previous owner David Gilmour, others by another previous owner, financier Charles Clore.
The musical history of Hook End Manor began in the 1960s with Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, who resided there for some time before selling it to Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Gilmour recorded parts of Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, in a studio at the house.
It was then bought by West Side Productions, producers of Madness and Morrissey. In the 1990s, the manor was purchased by Trevor Horn, who spent a not inconsiderable fortune creating the studio and equipping it. It would run as a successful business operation under the Sarm flag for a good number of years, the celebrity guest book filling impressively over the period.
The Explore:
Having had this site on my hit list for quite some time, I decided that enough was enough and it was finally time to go and get it done before it's too late.
Having left the car meet that I attended earlier on in the day, I made my way down with some pretty heavy rain on the journey but I wasn't gonna let this dampen my spirits. Finally arriving, I found somewhere to dump the car and make my way over to the property. Noticing that there were several cameras present dotted around the house, I was careful to avoid being detected by these and made my way to the entry point as quick as possible.
Inside the house I was simply blown away at the size and grandeur of the place. I've been around some nice places before but this place felt as if I was back in Belgium wandering around some of their euro derps!
Although there was no sign of the former recording studio as pictured in the second image, only one of the doors in the whole place was locked so I'm lead to believe that it may have been in there.
Overall a pretty relaxed explore and good to get back out again after so long of not really having anywhere to derp! If you like this thread, you can find the full set on my Flickr by clicking here!
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