At the southern end of the town the lofty heights of the three storied Winslow Hall, and its prominent chimneys, dominate the skyline, and, as opposed to the situation with Willen church, it is no tall story to say that Christopher Wren was the architect, since William Lowndes, by whose instigation in 1699 the house would be built, was a great friend of the eminent architect. In fact Wren would not only design the new building, but also personally check many of the building accounts. Having worked under Wren’s supervision on St. Paul’s Cathedral the King’s carpenter had responsibility for all the woodwork, and indeed Wren’s influence is apparent with the oak panelling, (fashioned from some of the 111 oak trees used in the construction of the Hall, many of which were brought from Stowe Park), as also with the thin brass cased locks, manufactured by His Majesty’s locksmith. Of the Lowndes previous residence, Thomas Deely, a bricklayer from a long established family in the town, agreed to take down, clean and stack the 60,000 bricks, and 12,000 tiles, for the sum of £7 4s, and with £8 10s 6d ‘paid for digging the foundation of ye new House’, construction then began. From Hampton, Middlesex, the chief bricklayer, John Yeomans, was directed that the House should measure ‘sixty three foot in length, and forty two in breadth, or thereabouts, the Cellars to be nine foot high in the clear and vaulted over and strengthened with Brick Partitions, the Rooms in the first and second floor each to be twelve foot high in the clear, and the Tyling to be nailed down between the Guttars and the Flatt intended to be on the Topp of the House’, and in the course of the work he would make use of 1 million ordinary bricks, with 100,000 rubbing bricks manufactured at the local works of Stony Stratford, Fenny Stratford and Deanshanger. The renowned pottery area around Brill supplied the roofing tiles, and when finally complete the three storied mansion incorporated a uniform, if somewhat peculiar, feature in the provision of a small corner chamber on each floor, including the cellars. However, those on the upper levels were probably meant as powder closets. The final cost of the building totalled £6,686 10s 2½d, and above the entrance door may still be seen the inscribed stone documented in the original accounts; ‘Paid for cutting the Letters of Mr. Lowndes name and date of the year (1700) – 5/-’. William then lived at his new home until his death in 1724, after which although his descendants retained possession they would often be resident elsewhere. Consequently during the 19th century the accommodation suffered a variety of uses, including possibly that as an asylum. However, from 1830 until 1870 it was more definitely in use as Dr. Lovell’s school, which was perhaps the first co-educational example in the country. The premises were then later occupied by a variety of private tenants including H. Lambton, who took a 14 year lease until his move in 1885 to ‘Redfield’. (Previously known as Winslow House and Selby Lodge, this was a large 19th century dwelling on the road towards Buckingham. Possibly it had been built from an old farmhouse, and following Mr. Lambton’s purchase a major reconstruction was undertaken the following year, with the addition of a new front by Mr. Parnell). As for Winslow Hall, this remained the property of the descendants of William Lowndes until 1897, when on July 27th 1897 it was sold, at an auction held at the Bell Hotel, to Norman McCorquodale, from Wargrave Hall, Berkshire. The bidding began at £6,000, and after regular increments of £250 finally realised a price of £9,159. Born in 1863 at Newton le Willows, Lancashire, and educated at Harrow and Oxford, McCorquodale became a magistrate for Bucks and Lancaster, and by 1910 was High Sheriff of Bucks. In 1913 he then built the still apparent St. Lawrence room, of the Square at Winslow, adjoining the contemporary bank, and after his death in 1938 in January of the following year his widow, Constance, placed stain glass in a window of the north aisle of the church to his memory. At the outbreak of World War Two Winslow Hall was sold to the United Glass Bottle Co., from London, as a remote refuge for their staff and records, but the premises were requisitioned in 1941 by the Air Ministry and, controlling a nationwide extent of airfields, subsequently became the headquarters for 92 Group Bomber Command, (including from May 11th 1942 the local training station at Wing). With the male personnel accommodated amongst local families, the W.A.A.F.s were billeted in the bungalow conversion of the Redfields stables, and the actual house became the officers mess. After the war the ownership of Winslow Hall was returned to the United Glass Bottle Co., but in November 1947 they sold the building for £8,000 to a demolition contractor. Yet although the old kitchen quarters were subsequently pulled down, the rest of the building was saved by the timely intervention of the Wren Society, which persuaded Bucks County Council to invoke their powers under the new Town and Country Planning Act. However, instead of using the accommodation for offices the Council sold the premises, which would then be let for a while to John Ambler and his wife Princess Margaretha, of Sweden, with a private visit being made during this period by the monarch of that country, King Gustav. Considerable alterations had been made to the property, and in 1956 a library wing, (built in 1906), was sold as a chapel to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton for £2,000. In 1959 the premises were then purchased by Sir Edward Tomkins, the British Ambassador to Paris when Britain joined the Common Market, and has since pased through several ownerships.