If you’re a Bridgerton fan looking for a day trip from north London – it doesn’t get much more fascinating than West Wycombe Park.
The National Trust-run 45-acre park has been used to shoot scenes set on the Bridgerton family’s estate, Aubrey Hall and the grand Palladian mansion has been used as the home of Sir Philip Crane.
It’s been closed for the past three weeks for filming but reopened on Tuesday (July 7) for the rest of the summer.
The golden ball on top of St Lawrence’s Church could seat 10 people and was said to have been used by the Hellfire Club. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
One of the first things you spot as you near it is a church with a golden ball on top.
It’s one of many temples, monuments, a mausoleum and a cave that are indelibly linked to the notorious past of Sir Francis Dashwood.
He was a libertine Baronet who built the grand Palladian mansion as a private pleasure palace from 1735 until his death in 1781.
The entrance to The Hellfire Caves in West Wycombe (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
He landscaped the park with Italian and Greek-inspired temples, follies and a lake with dramatic settings.
He was also co-founder of the secretive Hellfire Club – an elite 18th-century society known for its secretive gatherings and strange rituals.
The club first met at nearby Medmenham Abbey on the banks of the River Thames and attracted members of high social and political rank, including the Earl of Sandwich.
Statues underground in the Hellfire Caves carved out by Sir Francis Dashwood and said to be the location of secretive rituals and parties. (Image: SHONA HUNTER/Wikimedia Commons)
But in the mid-18th century, Sir Francis commissioned the excavation of a network of chalk passages, which became known as the Hellfire Caves.
These served as an after-dark meeting place for the secret society whose official name was the Order of the Knights of St Francis – and whose motto was reportedly ‘Do What Thou Wilt.’
To this day, their events were shrouded in secrecy – American statesman Benjamin Franklin is believed to have visited – and rumours circulated about wild parties, heavy drinking, orgies and Black Masses.
One of the temples at West Wycombe Park. (Image: Wikimedia Common)
In Sir Francis’ time the caves provided a hidden passage from the hillside entrance to an ‘Inner Temple’ near the park.
What we do know is that he loved to entertain, sailing his guests across the man made lake and staging mock battles, sporting fancy dress or staging music and plays in the grounds.
And that golden ball that he put on top of St Lawrence’s Church could seat up to 10 and was said to have hosted club members.
The mausoleum next to it contained an urn holding the heart of Paul Whitehead, a satirical poet and secretary of the club.
Records indicate the club disbanded in the early 1760s, though occasional gatherings may have continued and the caves fell into disuse until they were restored by the Dashwood family in the 1950s and opened to the public to help fund repairs to the house.
Today you can visit the caves as well as West Wycombe Park to wander the beautiful grounds and explore the grand rooms with their marbled columns, painted ceilings and art collections – and the Buckinghamshire mansion’s colourful history.
The estate and its underground chambers offer insight into 18th-century the private lives of the Georgian elite, and the legacy of a secretive society that continues to capture the imagination.
Further details at nationaltrust.org.uk