Hi Maggie,
I just joined this great site to reply to your posting from earlier this year.
I lived at Woodhouse until 2005 so I have quite a reasonable knowledge about it, I hope the information that follows will suffice for now, but don't hesitate to ask me more if you wish.
The Woodhouse is in Temple Guiting, but only by a few yards as the boundary crosses in front of the house and can be seen as a slight ditch which runs there still. However, the address is Guiting Power. These where formally Upper and Nether Guiting. Guiting Power means a rushing brook as the beginnings of the Thames start there (eventually that is as the brook becomes the Windrush, then the Isis before finally the Thames).
The house stands on the 13th century foundations of a farm, but became a large house in the 16th Century. It is said that for a time it was the hunting lodge for the monks at Hailes Abbey. The track that they took riding their horses there and back is quite easy to map out.
Eventually, when it was the trend, a grand Georgian front was added, at which point it was referred to as the Manor House. However this is confusing as there is already a Manor House in Guiting Power. In the mid 70's a fascinating person called Raymond Cochrane, who came from a wealthy Scottish family, decided to re-build Guting Power as it was quite decrepit. He bought most of the houses in the village and re-built them, fixing their rents at a pepper-corn level in order to preserve the native population. Woodhouse at the time was in a very poor state. It had been owned by villagers whose ancestors still live in or near to the village, but it was very much the old farmhouse behind the façade. There was purportedly still corn stored in one of the rooms on an upper floor, which resulted in a very healthy rat population.
Raymond had the house re-built virtually in its entirety, retaining only the Georgian frontage, but building an entirely grand, steel-framed interior. The drawing room alone was 42' x 16' and so too the library above it, which was full of bookshelves to every wall. (This was my studio for the time we were resident as I am a portrait painter.) He loved his village and yet was mistrusted by some of the villagers. Once his wife died he became something of a recluse, and handed over the running of the estate to a charitable trust. Unfortunately the Trust rode rough-shod over most of Mr Cochranes beliefs and requests and he appeared to die quite unhappy in the late 1990's. He kept a village newspaper going for years which is very interesting to read, but you can sense his frustration as the villagers appeared to believe he was only content on filling his pockets from them instead of seeing him as the philanthropist he was. He battled for some time to have the boundary moved behind the house in order that it might reside officially in his beloved Guiting Power, but to no avail. He again referred to it as The Manor House.
The farm-manager, Nick Bumford, who still runs the estate had many fond memories of him. He would tell me of the days he spent with him discussing the organic farming there and the abundance of rare birds and plants. It was Raymond's wish that the house become a foundation to promote wildlife conservation after his death. However, it was leased out privately which is how I came to enjoy it.
The cellars in the house still remain, in the original house they were the kitchens. The house in those days was full of small rooms and passage ways, and must have been quiet fascinating. On the roof is a cupola which contains the doorway from a spiral staircase on the top floor to access the roof. The views from there are spectacular, and it was quite something to witness the sheep in the parkland in front being herded up by the dogs. The park often had deer in it too as they came from the woods at the back.
The house is called Woodhouse because to the rear are 365 acres of the most wonderful woodland, criss-crossed by many paths. We spent so much time walking there, and we did get to know our way around. Despite its size, it was very rare to meet anybody else walking too.
In the lower garden is a well. We did measure it and it turned out to be 117' deep! On really cold days (like today) it would actually steam like a great funnel as the temperature difference was so much from bottom to top.
In the church is a plaque that remembers an 8 year old girl called Mary Elizabeth Bennett. We often heard 'Lizzie' on the top floor, especially when there were children in the house. She would also get toys out after they had been put away too. There is another plaque that states there is a bequest to the village of bread to the poor from Woodhouse.
We had many happy days there despite unfortunately suffering from great personal illnesses, and I always wanted to learn more. The greatest experience though was looking out of those great doors at the front over the Cotswold vista, sometimes the combine harvesters hauling over the distant hills, but most often the sheep with their lambs playing tag, and leaping onto the huge roots of the weeping ash trees that stood in the middle of the park.
Hope that helps.
Best wishes
Melissa
P.s., I do have more photographs