Rediscovering Rycote

Manuscripts, letters, accounts, maps and drawings from medieval and modern times charting the history of Rycote, an Oxfordshire Tudor mansion.

Rycote Park, near Thame in Oxfordshire, was the site of a mansion originally built in Tudor times for Sir Richard Fowler, Giles Heron or John, Baron Williams of Thame - which one is not known. It was almost completely demolished in June 1807 and all that remains today is part of the south-west tower.

The Tudor mansion at Rycote was arguably the dominant country house in early modern Oxfordshire and played host to six English kings and queens, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The mansion archive was destroyed on a bonfire, but the Bodleian Library holds many manuscripts, letters, accounts, drawings and maps relating to Rycote.

These images were captured for Rediscovering Rycote (2009-2013), a local history project by the Bodleian Libraries, and migrated to Digital Bodleian in 2019.