This old print of a painting named “All that was left of them” by R. Caton Woodville hung on the wall of my grandfather’s home near the back door of 83 Hambleden when I was a boy, which was a stone’s throw from Hambleden Manor House. To the left of the front gates of this fine 1603 Jacobean building is a plaque stating “James Thomas Brudenell, Lord Cardigan, led the Charge of the Light Brigade. Born here in 1797”. Both my mother Ethel Plumridge, later Cook and my aunt Edith Cook, later Wheeler worked here as servants after leaving school at the age of 14, and both had plenty of stories from these days! It was owned by the descendants of the W H Smith stationers from the early 20th century until 2008 when it was bought by the Schwarzenbach family. King Charles I stayed here during his escape from Oxford in 1646 during the civil war.
Lord Cardigan is reputed to have this woolly garment named after him. His munition chest from the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War is now kept in Hambleden church right opposite. This disastrous military mistake has been blamed on Cardigan by Alfred Lord Tennyson, who married Emily Selwood at nearby Shiplake Church, and whose lines “into the valley of death rode the six hundred” in his poem The Charge of the Light Brigade we all learnt at school!
The house itself is not really visible to the public, but if you think it’s slightly familiar then it may be because it has featured as a location for filming Mothering Sunday, Cranford, Marple, The Marlow Murder Club, Band of Brothers and many more.
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