Written by John Bishop
Sarah Summerville had moved to Shaw House from High Clere Castle as “Visitor Service Operator”. The house is run by West Berkshire Council and putting a guide book in place was her immediate priority. Records of the house date back to the Doomsday Book. In 1581 Thomas Dolman built a show-off home specifically designed to attract royalty. And that it did. In 1592 Queen Elisabeth stayed for two nights. Thomas’ father was in the cloth trade and, like John Winchcombe, had acquired vast wealth. Thomas Junior inherited the huge estate around the old house. To prove wealth and therefore acquire status the house had to be built of bricks, have many windows (and therefore glass) and the number of chimneys showed how many servants you had to keep the home fires burning. He was a fiercely proud man who had little regard for the rest of humanity. Indeed, they wrote of him as he flaunted his wealth at the same time as running down his Newbury-based clothier business in order to retire to the country, “Lord have mercy upon us, miserable sinners, Thomas Dolman has built a new house And has turned away all his spinners. “ Dolman is said to have retorted “The toothless man envies the teeth of those who eat, While the mole treats the eyes of the roe deer as of no importance.” and above the lintel of the principal doorway is another appropriate motto in Greek: “Let no envious person enter here”.
Externally the house has seen little change. The Dolmans continued to live there for six generations. In 1644 Thomas Dolman 111, a Royalist, allowed the house to be used as a stronghold during the second Battle of Newbury. He was knighted for his support to the Crown. In 1711 his son died and the estate passed to his niece who had no choice but to sell up because of huge debts. Shaw House remains a rare example of a house that those on Royal Progress would still recognise. It is likely that the Dolman family impressed the Queen with hunts in the park, lavish dinners and walks in decorative Tudor gardens. Later every reigning member of the Stuart dynasty would visit. Queen Anne’s stay in 1703 was preceded by major alterations to the internal layout of the house but Dolman 1V got a knighthood out of it. The estate was purchased by James Brydges, Duke of Chandos in 1728. Following his death, his son took over and found he had inherited huge debts and was forced to sell. The new owners were the Andrews family who had acquired their wealth from sugar plantations in the West Indies. He died two years later. His son made many donations to the poor of the parish and London Hospitals with particular reference to the so called Speenhamland Scheme directed at boy chimney sweeps. In 1822 the house was passed down to Revd Thomas Penrose and then on to the Eyre family, the first owners to raise a family there in 100 years. They sold in 1905 to a Mrs Farquhar, a wealthy widow. The house was requisitioned by the War Office. It appears that the American troops stationed there broke into the wine cellar, one soldier writing “I am not condoning the deed but the spirits were the most excellent I have ever tasted”. In February 1943 the local senior school was destroyed by an enemy raid, killing 15 and injuring 44. So children
were rehoused there, and the house was purchased by the local authority. In 1988 it was considered unsafe and after a further 13 years major restoration funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, West Berks Council, Vodafone and English Heritage restored this “jewel in the south east’s crown”. So, from the pride of Thomas Dolman, with the surrounding land all dispersed, it is a place for all to enjoy regardless of age, wealth or status!
