Building record 1156600000 - COWSHEDS, QUEEN STREET

Grade II. Cowsheds. Circa 1880-90, probably by W. Taylor of Bierton, estate building for Ferdinand de Rothschild. Red brick, with blue diapers to S. front, roughcast and half-timbering to gables and upper storey, central gable with some tile hanging. Tiled roofs. Courtyard plan building with picturesque S. front. Mostly of one storey, part with hayloft. S. front of 5 bays has flanking 2-storey towers with pyramid roofs and 3-light wooden casements in oriel windows to first floor. Gabled bay to centre. Intermediate bays have strip windows below eaves and small ornamental gables in roof. Plainer wings to rear. Courtyard now has C20 roof and cattle pens. Included for group value (B1).
In 1989 Lord Rothschild converted the farm into an events venue (B3).
Built around 1885, the Dairy [and cowsheds] was created as a working dairy for the estate of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor. Though practical in purpose, it was picturesque by design, overlooking its own ornamental lake and rockwork garden. In 1909, Country Life praised it as 'one of the most charming we have ever seen… We doubt if there is a more beautiful one in Great Britain.' By the 1950s, the building had become part of a working farm. After a period of decline, the cattle were removed and it was restored as an entertaining space in the late 1990s by Julian and Isobel Bannerman, before being further revitalised in 2020 (B4).