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Burntwood Hall up for sale
Mansion Global reports that a stately country house in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, once owned by Jon Lord is up for sale. The Burntwood Hall has an eponymous track dedicated to it on Jon’s ’82 Before I Forget album.
Today, Kate and Ian Gethin are the owners of the home. They paid a little over £5 million for the property in 2009, records show.
“The link with Jon Lord often provides an interesting talking point and we have seen photographs of him sitting at a piano in the drawing room,” Ms. Gethin said in a statement. “The piece of music he named after the house is instrumental and I think it really captures the spirit of the property and surrounding countryside. It was obviously an inspirational and relaxing place for him to live—as it has been for us and I’m sure will be for others.”
The house is listed at 15,551 sq ft (1,444.73 m2), located on a 9.81 acres (3.97 Ha) property, and comes with 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 4 living rooms. The amenities include a bowling alley, a cinema, a swimming pool, a tennis court, a cricket pitch, and an outdoor kitchen. “Guide price” for the estate is £8,500,000.
Thanks to Mansion Global and Savills UK for the info, and to Jim Collins for the heads up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
A nice property indeed for Jon Lord & his family & guests. Burntwood is a superb instrumental from the Before I Forget album, one of my favourites. I should put a bid in for the property, but somehow I don’t think I will be able to match the offers the property will receive. A wonderful thought though. Cheers.
March 26th, 2022 at 21:40Lovely track with nice fretless bass playing from Neil Murray. It reminds me of the pastoral music he did for the TV series ‘Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady’ a few years later, pre-DP reunion in 1984.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8DYqnu01v0
(When will that ever be released on CD I cry?! I still have the vinyl.)
I was never aware that he actually moved from Burntwood. When and whereto?
March 28th, 2022 at 09:17That’s Awsome!!!😁
March 28th, 2022 at 12:18Thanks for the information on the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I am a sucker for the older quality movies & tv series & will have a look at it, if it is available to view somewhere. Movie & tv series soundtracks can often surprise us with their quality music & this series will also no doubt. I wasn’t even aware of this Jon Lord soundtrack. Cheers.
March 28th, 2022 at 23:24You guys didn’t know? I thought I was carrying coal to Newcastle!
I don’t believe that show ever aired in Germany, but in 1984 there was a little report or perhaps even only picture caption in BRAVO (a German teen mag which had been instrumental for DP’s German omnipresence in the early 70ies and which retained some loyalty to DP members even long after they had ceased to be teenybopper idols) which said something along the lines of “Things are going well for Jon. Not only is he set to join the DP reunion this year, but he has also just written the music for a successful English TV series called “The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady””.
The vinyl was of course not available in Germany, but I finally got a hold of it at HMV (remember?!) in London – in the “TV Soundtracks” department would you believe.
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/4245265-Jon-Lord-And-Alfred-RalstonCentral-Concert-Orchestra-The-Country-Diary-Of-An-Edwardian-Lady-The-Orig
https://www.musik-sammler.de/cover/523500/523204_2_1576321833_300.jpg
https://www.musik-sammler.de/cover/523500/523204_3_1576321833_300.jpg
I believe it never made it to CD, music cassettes were available though.
Not all the music is from Jon (there was a single with “Main Theme” and “Love Theme”, but the album features a few more compositions of his), but Alfred Ralston listened to the original handful of Lord compositions, liked what he heard, and proceeded to add music to it ‘in that vein’. It’s a pleasant, pastoral soundtrack.
March 29th, 2022 at 11:54@Uwe, Jon left Burntwood shortly after he wrote the song. He speaks about it in this inerview from 1984 at 4:40
https://youtu.be/wYkYoPF1UMw
March 30th, 2022 at 16:49#2 Uwe, are you saying you weren’t aware that he’s not with us anymore?
March 30th, 2022 at 17:16I was fortunate to go past “ Burntwood “ on a regular basis as my wife’s parents lived nearby to the house. When I saw Jon at the Liverpool Philharmonic back in 2010, I managed to have a chat with him about several things and I mentioned “ Burntwood” to him and he kindly chatted for ten minutes or so about Goring and Tommy Bolin. A really lovely person, so approachable and sadly missed. A side note to this, Pete Townsend, lived near Jon and Ian Gillan owned the “ Springs” hotel nearby
March 30th, 2022 at 20:02Honorable Reverend, Jon’s sad passing hasn’t escaped me (even when I heard of just the initial diagnosis, I wasn’t expecting a miracle, how many people survive pancreatic cancer and how many rock stars have died of it?). I just had always assumed that he had settled down in his country mansion and never moved house again.
“Goring” as in Hermann Göring? Some illustrious talking points you had!
March 31st, 2022 at 07:55Didn’t George Harrison mention knowing Jon Lord as a neighbour, in regards to that Harrison cameo in 1984 at the Sydney DP concert. This would have been Burntwood I presume & Ian Paice possibly lived nearby also, if I am correct in my memory of reading that somewhere.
April 1st, 2022 at 06:27In that link Jorg posted @ 6 – Lord says the house was too big for himself, his wife & one daughter at the time. It certainly would have been that, it is a decent abode for sure. Cheers.
@ 9 Uwe, Jon sold “ Burntwood” and ended up at Fowey, which is part of Henley On Thames, where George Harrison lived for decades.
Mac Gregor, your probably right about George Harrison as Henley is not far from Goring, Jon ended living in Henley anyway. Ian Paice lived in Shiplake which again is near Henley.
If you remember back in the 80’s there was talk of various musicians such as Jon, Ian, George Harrison and others playing in what was called “ Pisshill/ Pisshill Tapes”, the village again is near Henley and is Pieshell and called Pisshill as a joke.
The Hook End studio where Purple did the mixing etc for “ Nobody’s Perfect” was once owned by Alvin Lee, Dave Gilmore amongst others and is between Goring and Henley.
Burntwood was not only a big house but had about 9 acres of land , probably that’s why Jon said it was too big. I only knew this as family lived nearby
April 1st, 2022 at 17:28Impressive to say the least.
Makes one wonder with what exactly he could afford it.
April 2nd, 2022 at 15:25john @ 11- thanks for the information regarding that location in England. I was looking up Google maps yesterday out of curiosity. The poor village of Pieshell, ha ha. Jokes aside though it looks like a nice part of England indeed. Cheers.
April 2nd, 2022 at 22:01Rock Voorne: I’d be surprised if Jon was ever anything less than economically (very) saturated since DP’s career took off in the early 70ies. I remember an interview in the reunion era where he stated how he never gets tired of SOTW, but is eternally grateful to that song “which is still good for a substantial six-digit royalty cheque every year, it helped me buy my house, thank you!”.
And that is just one song. I don’t believe that anyone of the members inducted into the RRHF has to work/play music for a living anymore.
And John: Thanks for finally alerting me to the fact that Goring is in fact a place, not the name “Göring” misspelled without an umlaut – LOL!
April 12th, 2022 at 13:20Jon lived at Burntwood Hall in Goring-On-Thames from sometime in the late-1970s until around 1983. Ironically he left quite soon after the “Burntwood” track and the “Before I Forget” album was released given the size of the property and I guess the cost of maintaining it. He then lived at a similarly glorious but somewhat smaller residence called Yewden Lodge in Hambleden from around 1983 until around 2003 and then moved to a house called Hill House, in Benhams Lane, in Fawley, Oxfordshire, also not far from Henley. The Hill House residence was on the market at the time of his illness and sold a week after he passed away in July 2012. His wife Vicki continues to live in the Henley area.
July 27th, 2022 at 23:04