‘Dinner has always been the chief domestic event of the day in England, whether ancient or modern,’ wrote C.J. Cornish in Country Life in an 1899 article on refectories. ‘Even in the very rough times in which castles and monasteries flourished there was always a tendency to make the dining-room the best room in the building.’
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Cornish’s words seem almost prophetic in the case of The Cloisters, for sale through Savills in an enchanted spot beside the River Thames in Berkshire. This almost-1,000-year-old building was, for the first half of its life, a Benedictine monastery, and so magnificently built was its refectory that it still survives to this day.
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It’s the centrepiece of what is a spectacular waterside home in Hurley, one of the prettiest spots along this stretch of the river.
What was once the refectory of a Benedictine monastery is now a breathtaking living space in a great family home.
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By the time Cornish was writing, however, this once-proud building was in a sorry state. Not much was left of the monastery by then, beyond the refectory, a part of the original cloisters, and the church itself, which was originally the monks’ chapel.
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The properties in around the spot, plus the original moats and gardens — all of which are listed to various degrees — were owned by the Lovelace family for several centuries after the Dissolution, eventually being split up and sold off as separate homes after the Second World War. The Cloisters was part of this.
The Cloisters in Hurley as it appeared in Country Life in 1899
(Image credit: Country Life / Future)
As it stands today, the house it’s in a really wonderful state thanks to the work done by the present owners, who took it on in 2017.
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The main house is effectively arranged on an L-shaped plan, with the refectory plus a kitchen and living room on one side, and a series of other rooms – sitting room, dining room, drawing room, study and a further kitchen on the other.
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Above, there are four first floor bedrooms, while above that is a further bedroom accessed via a spiral staircase from the first floor landing.
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Beyond the main house there are various outbuildings including a summerhouse, barn, workshop and pavilion that includes a sauna, as well as serving as the poolhouse.
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What we wouldn’t give to beam those Benedictine monks forward in time a thousand years so that they could see the place now…
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The real draw of the outside space isn’t in the buildings, though: it’s in the shady lawns and ancient moats, the stretches of riverside fringed by mature trees, the nooks and crannies of grounds which have long been famous — and were visited by Queen Mary in the 1930s.
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The location is as good as the house: it stands at the extreme northern end of the quiet high street (it’s a no-through road) in the heart of medieval Hurley. Marlow is only four miles away, and it’s only five miles to Maidenhead with its mainline station, yet the privacy and seclusion within this three-acre site on the southern bank of the river makes it a joyous place. No wonder the monks settled here so happily.
The Cloisters is for sale through Savills at £5.5 million — see more details.