"Owlpen, the situation giving the denomination … quasi 'hole-pen', being in as deep a bottom or hole as is elsewhere to be seen. It may perhaps like some to derive the Etimology from 'Owlepen', quasi a pen or Cage for owles; sith noe forest made up of Ivy bushes can exceed the fitness for the breed and harbour of owles."
JOHN SMYTH, 1639
"The church and houses lie dispersedly at the top of a deep and narrow combe, almost environed by steep hills, covered with hanging beech woods, and forming a kind of amphitheatre, except to the west."
SAMUEL RUDDER, born in Uley, 1779
"a singularly romantic and sequestered spot which it owes to a half dilapidated Court House overrun with ivy, a rude church, no buildings, but now and then a simple cottage of thatch, deep dells, amphitheatres of steep acclivities, clothed with fine wood, and interjacent knolls of heath, producing a paucity of enclosure, the ruin of the picturesque."
T.D. FOSBROOKE, 1807
"a garden house more than anything else ...
carefully and reverently preserved ... We may go a long way
before we find anything so quaint as this old house, making its
brave fight against consuming Time ... There is surely an enduring
charm in such a garden ... a pleasaunce of terraces and clipped
yews, of woodland and distant views - a true old garden of England."
AVRAY TIPPING, 1906
"Among little hillside gardens treated in a formal
fashion, none is more delightful than that of Owlpen Manor ...
with what modesty the house nestles against the hillside and seeks
to hide itself amidst regiments of yews."
GERTRUDE JEKYLL, 1914
"Owlpen Manor House . . . hidden away in the deep
country . . . [although] comparatively small, possesses a great
presence, the house and garden bound together so that they form
a single entity ... and the fabric ... practically unchanged
since the time it was built [in 1616]. The garden in which [it]
is set ... is one of the finest and most satisfying things
of its kind anywhere to be found."
HAROLD EBERLEIN, 1927
"Not for the most explicit of Ordnance Maps would I have forgone the folk directions given as follows: 'You must go along the green and down the hill by Fiery Lane until you come to Cuckoo Brook, then a little further on you will pass Horn Knep, after which you will go by Dragon's Den; next you go through Potlid Green; after that is Marling's End, and that will bring you to Owlpen, but you must take care not to miss the road."
"To Owlpen I came ... to the end of the world, a
very secret place, where a small manor and a small church are
screened by an abrupt, wooded conical hill at their backs and
a massed guard of trained yews in front. But in the winter, the
many-gabled little manor is of so transparent a grey between the
dusky shapes before and behind that it is owlish indeed in its
seclusion, in its mysterious greyness with the hill impending
at its back and the soft water-meadows in front, and in the composure
of a beauty that steals in so quiet a way upon the senses. This
rare Cotswold treasure ...[was built] very plainly and so sparingly
of ornament that the slight decoration at the apices of the gables
are all that the eye picks out. It depends ... upon line and
proportion and the treatment of space ... How pompous and overgrown
appear many an Elizabethan and Jacobean mansion in comparison
with the early Tudor of Owlpen whose architectural courtesy gently
rebukes their over-bearing manners!"
H.J. MASSINGHAM, 1937
"Owlpen in Gloucestershire -- ah, what a dream is
there! Owlpen, that tiny grey manor-house, cowering amongst enormous
yews, yews that make rooms ... dark secret rooms of yew hiding
in the slope of the valley."
VITA SACKVILLE-WEST, 1941
"in one of the deepest of the valleys penetrating
the Cotswold escarpment ... the vision [of Owlpen], is so out
of the world that momentarily it seems unreal, as if the descent
from the wide plateau above had led one down out of time into
the world of legendary shades ... Long recognised as one of
the treasures of Cotswold scenery, [Owlpen] in its incomparably
romantic situation [is] a dream made real, yet preserving, with
all the substance of its structure and history, something of a
dream's lovely unreality."
CHRISTOPHER HUSSEY, 1951
"Of medieval origin, [Owlpen] has always been
considered one of the most picturesque manor houses in the county.
. . a nostalgic symbol for anyone who has known and loved this
part of the West of England and been separated from it during
the world wars of this century. The drawings of F.L. Griggs
... have given the romance visible and literary form. Owlpen
in its remote and beautiful valley near the Severn estuary is
the epitome of romance."
DAVID VEREY, 1970
"By far the most perfect small Manor House, to
me, in all of England."
FRANCIS COMSTOCK, 1976
"The setting is unforgettable ... shut off
from the twentieth-century world. All -- manor house, outbuildings
and church, against a backdrop of woods -- are in stone and of a
piece. There is nowhere quite like Owlpen in the Cotswolds or,
indeed, anywhere else ... "
C.R. CROSHER, 1976
"Olla's pen ... a paradise on earth, steeped
in peace and timeless English beauty."
LEE PERSSON, 1983
"Owlpen's secluded site in one of the deepest
combes of the Cotswold escarpment ... The main front, its stone-tiled
roof lines wonderfully undulating, lacking any pretence of symmetry ...yet
a delight to witness ...we admire ...on picturesque grounds.
Owlpen is traditional, dignified and illogically satisfactory.
The interior is just as appealing ... cherished and very much
a home."
JAMES LEES-MILNE, 1985
"Owlpen ... the epitome of the English village
... Its character evolved through the slow passage of centuries
of rural life."
HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES, 1989
(quoted by kind permission)
"A breathtaking ensemble of truly English beauty."
HUGH MASSINGBERD, 1993
"Few English houses are more seductively beautiful
than this manor house of grey limestone, tucked away in a deep
wooded valley."
GEOFFREY TYACK, 1994
