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Medmenham Abbey is a Grade II* listedStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. mansion on the site of a 13th-century Cistercian abbey, four miles (6.4 km) southwest of Marlow in Buckinghamshire.[1][2][3]
The abbot and the single remaining monk were evicted from the original abbey in 1536, as a result of King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the buildings and land were granted to Thomas and Robert More. They then passed to the Duffield family. The present house was built in 1595 for Sir Francis Duffield, and underwent extensive restoration in 1898.[2]
During the late 1750s Medmenham Abbey and its grounds provided the setting for meetings of the notorious Medmenham Club or Order of St. Francis of Wycombe, later known as The Hell-Fire Club. A friezeHorizontal central band of an entablature, known as a pulvinated frieze if it has a convex profile. above the porch is inscribed “Fay ce que voudras” (“do what thou will”), the motto of the Hell-Fire Club.[2]
By the time of its listing in 1955 Medmenham Abbey had been converted into two private houses.[2] Both were bought by a “reclusive German owner”, who recombined the properties. In 2015 the house was offered for sale at a guide price of £10 million, and described as having:[4]