Ascott is a hamlet and country house in the parish of Wing in Buckinghamshire, England.

The hamlet lies completely within the boundary of the Ascott Estate; it is home to many of the estate and house staff.

Prior to the Norman conquest there was an abbey at Ascott, that had been given by Empress Maud to a Benedictine convent in Angiers . In 1415 however, the same year as the Battle of Agincourt, the convent was seized by the English church because it belonged to the French and awarded to the Convent of St Mary du Pre, near St Albans.

In the early 16th century the abbey (along with the manor in Wing) was seized by the Crown and given to Cardinal Wolsey, however not long after it was seized once again in the dissolution of the monasteries and given to Lord Dormer. It was in 1554 that Dormer entertained Princess Elizabeth at the house, when she was on the road to London under arrest as a Protestant because her sister Mary had just taken the throne.

The house itself once featured additions that were attributed to Inigo Jones. The original house fell into decay following the death without heir of its owner the Earl of Carnarvon in 1709.

In 1727 the house and estate were broken up, the deer sold and all the timber cut down and sold off.

The present Ascott House was once a significant farm house on the above estate, built in the reign of James I known as 'Ascott Hall'; a beam over the present front door testifies the date 1606. In the church in nearby Wing a tablet commerates Thomas Coates, Porter at Ascott Hall with a long epitaph.

The house was significantly enlarged by Leopold de Rothschild of Gunnersbury Park when it was given to him by Baron Mayer de Rothschild for a hunting box. He subsequently (in 1874) employed the architect George Devey to enlarge it. The present half timbered house is largely the result of that commission. Devey attempted to design a house that rambled as though it had grown and developed over centuries; to some extent he achieved this. However, the climbing shrubs he envisaged all over the house, are no longer there, which has made it rather stark, and spoilt the original effect.

On the death of Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild in 1937 the house was inherited by her son Anthony de Rothschild . It was he and his wife the former Yvonne D'Anvers who enlarged the house further, and are responsible for the present interiors, full of fine paintings and (unusually for a Rothschild House) magnificent collection of 18th century English furniture.

The magnificent and extensive gardens were laid out by the garden designer Sir Harry Veitch at the end of the 19th century. Today they are further enhanced by the interest of the present resident of the house. He has also expanded the estate, into one of the finest in Buckinghamshire today, there are miles of new road-side tree planting, immaculate hedging, and cropping, and yet the estate still retains some of the older permanent pasture and small fields which makes the countryside seem unspoilt. This is in spite of a new road ploughing through the area between the house and its Stud Farm .

Ascott House with some of its important art collection, and a small part of the estate was given in 1947 to the National Trust by Anthony de Rothschild. It is open to the public, but very much retains the feel of a private house, which in effect it is.

See also

• Rothschild properties in Buckinghamshire