Daylesford House

Daylesford House is a Georgian country house in Adlestrop, England, built in the neoclassical style with a central dome and a Tuscan columned entrance. The residence sits within landscaped parkland covering roughly 300 acres (120 hectares) and holds Grade I listed status for its architectural importance.

Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal, commissioned construction between 1788 and 1793 to buy back his family's ancestral land. After Hastings died in 1818, the property remained with his descendants before passing through sale to other families over the following centuries.

The estate takes its name from the village of Daylesford, where Hastings spent his childhood before leaving for India. Visitors walking the grounds can see the Gothic orangery from 1789, a garden building with pointed arches and delicate tracery that reflects the taste for ornamentation favored by landowners returning from overseas.

The house remains privately owned and is not open to the public on a regular basis, though occasional open days allow visitors to view the exterior and walk parts of the grounds. Anyone planning a visit should check in advance for scheduled access, as these events are infrequent and announced ahead of time.

An Anglo-Indian ivory armchair that once belonged to Warren Hastings traveled from this residence to the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts. The chair stands as evidence of the link between British colonial service and craftsmanship from Bengal in the late eighteenth century.

Location: Adlestrop

GPS coordinates: 51.93610,-1.63145

Latest update: December 5, 2025 22:29