Welders House

Welders House is a Grade II listed house located in the village of Jordans, in Buckinghamshire, England.

It was built between 1898 and 1899 for the politician Charles Thomson Ritchie by his son-in-law Mervyn McCartney.[1][2] The governors of the St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London bought Welders House in 1910 along with its 100-acre estate and the nearby 35-acre Jordans Farm. The farm was sold in 1911 to the Religious Society of Friends. The house operated as a convalescent home for women with mild nervous maladies from 1911 to 1916. Welders Orchard of 11​3⁄4 acres and a field of 6​3⁄4 acres were purchased in 1917. The 5-acre Welders Wood was bought in 1920. The War Office loaned the house from St Luke's in 1918 for a Home of Rest for army nurses suffering from the mental strains of the First World War. The house closed in 1927 having been received by the Governors of St Luke's from the War Office in 1922. In 1940 the Welders House estate was leased to a couple who unsuccessfully planned to create a private nursing home, it was subsequently leased to the Bon Secours Sisters in 1942 and was part of the St Joseph Nursing Home in nearby Beaconsfield until April 1947.[3]

It has been Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England since December 1984.[2] The formal grounds feature a Rose garden, a copy of the Bethesda Fountain in New York City's Central Park, and a K6 telephone box.[4] Two time Academy Award winning Special Effects legend John Stears sold Welders House to Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in 1993.[5]

Since this time significant renovation and expansion work has been undertaken adding an alternative driveway, a tennis court and gymnasium.[6] The house was chosen by Sharon Osbourne due to its extreme distance from any public houses.[6]

The house is built of red brick and has 2 storeys with Dutch style gabled attics.[2] The gardens of Welders House were featured in the 2017 book The Secret Gardeners by Victoria Summerley and photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas.[4] Ozzy believes that there was a murder or something happened in the house saying he feels there’s something in there that makes him feel uncomfortable gives him cold chills and just makes him feel uneasy. The previous occupants, the Stears Family, also reported a number of unexplained phenomena and a sense of general uneasiness in and around the house.

References
  1. Frederick Chatterton (1923). Who's who in architecture, 1923. The Architectural Press. p. 162.
  2. Historic England, "Welders House (1124836)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 14 October 2017
  3. "St Lukes-Woodside Hospital". Lost Hospitals of London. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  4. Summerley and Rittson Thomas, 2017 pg. 117
  5. Kemps International Film & Television Year Book. Kemps Group Limited. 1985. p. 47.
  6. Sharon Osbourne (10 October 2013). Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Autobiography. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7515-5463-2.
  • Osbourne, Ozzy (2009) I Am Ozzy Sphere ISBN 9780751543407
  • Summerley, Victoria, and Rittson Thomas, Hugo (2017) The Secret Gardeners Francis Lincoln ISBN 9780711237636

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