After a lengthy planning process
culminating in a two day public enquiry, planning consent was
obtained and the process of conversion began. The Bridge club is
now located in the original barn, which has been extensively and
tastefully refurbished. (Click on any small picture to enlarge it)
In 1990, bridge enthusiast Laurie Champniss decided to look for suitable premises to convert into a full time Bridge Centre. He received details of a property known as "The House of Prayer” which had originally been a farm but for the past 70 years had been a convent. The possibilities became apparent as soon as he entered the barn, and a purchase was made by the Champniss family Company, Panstar Properties Ltd.
After a lengthy planning process
culminating in a two day public enquiry, planning consent was
obtained and the process of conversion began. The Bridge club is
now located in the original barn, which has been extensively and
tastefully refurbished.
A derelict building adjoining the barn has been rebuilt in similar style and is used as a restaurant and the original farmhouse has been converted into serviced offices, with individual rooms and small suites available for a fully inclusive rent.
Following the public enquiry extensive work was undertaken to bring the premises up to modern standards of heating and ventilation.
The outer structure of the barn was stripped completely to leave just a skeleton of original beams.
Insulation was installed to modern standards before the roof was lowered back on and the walls re-plastered in the original style.
Work on repairing and re-tiling the roof.
Most of the original beams were retained but those which were completely rotted were replaced with modern oak, every care being taken to ensure that the appearance of the original method of assembly was retained.
Replacement of part of a rotted beam at the base of the wall
Underfloor heating by means of circulating hot water was installed. In addition, thermostatically regulated warm air is introduced through hidden vents under staircases to the new mezzanine floors which were added at each end. Two years after the opening of the club the provision to be able to introduce air cooled by means of chillers was implemented to allow the barn to be cooled on the few days each summer when it became too hot.
The shed which had originally stood at the end of the barn away from the farmhouse was derelict and was completely rebuilt using new materials but keeping to the same style as the main barn, to serve as a restaurant (and an overflow bridge room when needed).
Extensive work was also carried out to the interior of the farmhouse to bring it up to required modern standards and now offers several comfortable and attractive small office suites. One of them includes the chapel from the convent with its original stained glass windows. This house is now known as Brightwell Grange, retaining the name of a local well, which later became changed to Britwell.
Part of Brightwell Grange and the gateway through to the coutyard and the Bridge Club
The care put into the restoration to keep the buildings with as much of the original character as possible, but with modern standards of comfort, convenience and ease of access resulted in a conservation award from the Burnham Society.
The new Bridge centre was opened in 1994 by Peter Stocken, Chairman of the English Bridge Union. Eminent bridge visitors since then have included Zia Mahmood, Tony Forrester and Andrew Robson and Ron Klinger, all of whom have agreed that this must be one of the world’s outstandingly attractive bridge venues.
Zia Mahmood assisted by Michelle Handley entertains Club Members
The Centre has 6 acres of attractive
grounds. The restaurant’s picture windows open onto this
patio and lawn with a large plum tree and some smaller trees and
plant tubs.
The meadow beyond this had in earlier this century been part of an extensive orchard. Most of the trees were dead or dying and have been removed, but a few apples and pears still survive; the meadow is now used by a neighbour as grazing for ponies
Large car parks have been constructed at the side of and behind Brightwell Grange, the former farm house . An old brick wall has been retained to conceal these from the road. Behind the car parks are wooded areas with flowers and shrubs, lawns and a small graveyard for the nuns, surrounded by a tall yew hedge.
Outside the main barn entrance is a gravelled courtyard with tubs of flowers and surrounded by several outbuildings, one which had been used in the early 1990s as a small workshop by a local potter. This has now been converted into a teaching room for bridge classes and another overflow room for matches and small bridge events of up to about 8 tables.
The clock tower which is an attractive feature of the main courtyard
The site is now controlled by South Bucks Bridge Centre Ltd. a separate company owned by Laurie Champniss.
The buildings recently known as The House of Prayer had originally been Lower Britwell Farm and at the time of the purchase by Panstar were known to be more than 200 years old.
Diaries for years between 1787 and 1810 of a local farmer, John Edgson were published by Burnham Historians in 1992 with the title “Both Teams at Plough”. They are mostly the record of daily work concerned with the running of the farm, but they reveal interesting insights into the history of Lower Britwell Farm
In the 18th Century the owner was John Bayley, who died at an early age in 1787, leaving his widow Fanny Bayley in charge until their son came of age. John Edgson, who owned nearby Upper Britwell Farm befriended Fanny Bayley and helped her with the running of her farm. Their working friendship gradually developed until John moved in with Fanny towards the end of 1789 and a daughter, Emma, was born to the couple a year later.
There is a gap in John’s diaries from 1791 to 1803 and we do not know in any detail what happened in those years, except that the relationship did not survive for very long. John moved back to Upper Britwell Farm and Fanny married a farmer and corn merchant, John Webster in 1796 and bore him three more children, but she died herself in 1801 and Lower Britwell Farm passed into the possession of William Bayley, son of her first husband and it continued to be farmed by him and his descendants for many years.
In this century, the use as a farm ceased and the premises were used as a convent from 1920 to 1991. The number of nuns in the order gradually declined over the years and in 1991 the few remaining moved to smaller premises in Edgware.
When Panstar bought the property in 1993, little more was known about the early history and the property was said to be “over 200 years old”. Renovations to the farm house revealed that extensive changes and extensions had been made to it over the years and some parts were clearly much older than others.
Laurie Champniss decided to have the barn dated more accurately and called in an expert who dated the original oak beams by dendrochronology at 1505. The beams evidently come from nearby Burnham Beeches and this is assumed to be about the date when the barn was constructed to adjoin the farmhouse, which must therefore be at least as old.
At nearly 500 years, the Centre can truly claim to be a contender for the world’s oldest bridge club as well as possibly the most attractive!
Dendrochronology is the dating of wood by the structure of the rings in it. A core sample is taken of the wood. The rings vary in size and structure in a consistent manner depending upon the climatic conditions for each year, so that the exact age can be determined by comparison with a database of local wood samples of a known age.