In this post, I will describe our day in Henley-on-Thames and Greys Court, a National Trust property in Oxfordshire.
We were spending the weekend at our friend’s house in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, and the previous day we visited Waddesdon Manor in the small town of Waddesdon. Next day, we went to Greys Court on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames.
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Below is a map showing where Henley-on-Thames and Greys Court are:
VISITING GREYS COURT
We went first to Greys Court, which is a very different property from the one we visited on the previous day, Waddesdon Manor. It’s much smaller and feels cosier and not as opulent as the other one.
Greys Court is a Tudor country house near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. It blends medieval ruins with Elizabethan refinement. Originally a fortified manor, its current form reflects 16th-century architecture layered with Georgian and Victorian additions.
The estate has deep aristocratic roots. It was owned by nobles, courtiers, and eventually the Brunners, an industrialist family who preserved it with restraint.
Unlike Waddesdon’s theatrical grandeur, Greys Court is intimate and human scaled. Its interiors feel lived-in rather than curated.
The walled gardens, ancient tower, and crumbling cloisters suggest quiet continuity rather than spectacle. It’s less about wealth and more about the endurance of English gentry culture.
We enjoyed our visit to the house, and after seeing everything, we moved on to the gardens.
The garden at Greys Court is a layered, domestic-scale space, structured but unpretentious.
It’s a patchwork of formal rooms: a wisteria-clad wall, a cherry garden, a turf maze, and a kitchen garden that still produces. Each area reflects a different era and function, evolving with its owners rather than being imposed by landscape architects.
The wisteria, some of it over a century old, is the centrepiece—florid but fragile. The rose garden and herbaceous borders show 20th-century influences, particularly from Lady Brunner, who treated the garden as a living extension of the home, not a showpiece.
There’s no Capability Brown sweep or Versailles symmetry, just cultivated English restraint. It’s a lived garden, not a spectacle, revealing a more domestic, interactive relationship between land and beauty.
After enjoying our visit to the house and gardens, we drove to the centre of Henley-on-Thames for lunch.
HENLEY-ON-THAMES
We parked at the Greys Road Car park and walked in the direction of the Market Place.
There was a fair at the Market Place on that day, and we looked at the stalls selling clothes and decorations.
We continued down Hart Street up to Henley Bridge and decided to have lunch at the “Angel on the Bridge”, a pub with tables alongside the river with nice views.
Lunch was pleasant and good, and we spent a few hours chatting and enjoying the views.
After lunch, everybody decided to go home as we had to travel about two and a half hours to Cambridgeshire, others travelled to London and Buckinghamshire.
We didn’t have time to explore Henley, but it is a small town with not much to see. It is more about the sights that show a blend of English tradition and riverside charm.
The river is an attraction that can be experienced by walking the towpath or in a boat. This way, Henley’s identity can be appreciated by watching the rowers, swans and Georgian façades reflected in the water.
Henley is famous for its annual “Henley Royal Regatta”. It happens end of June, early July.
Henley Royal Regatta is Britain’s most elite rowing event, and a ritual of class performance disguised as sport.
Held annually since 1839 on a straight stretch of the Thames, it’s ostensibly about rowing. It is five days of side-by-side knockout races in traditional wooden boats. But the real spectacle is on the banks.
Enclosures are rigidly stratified: the Stewards’ Enclosure requires a formal dress code and multiple layers of social access—old school ties, inherited membership, invitation-only culture. It’s not just who you are, but who recognises you.
The Regatta Enclosure is public but still curated—less aristocratic, more corporate.
It’s less like Wimbledon, more like a live-action diagram of the British class system. Champagne flows, blazers signal tribe, and conversation often outweighs attention to the races. Yet the athleticism is real, Henley is a global rowing milestone, drawing Olympic-level crews.
Below is a reel from The Travelling Surveyor Instagram account with more photos of Greys Court and Henley-on-Thames. Check it out and follow me on Instagram as well.
I hope this post will give you some idea of what can be done in a day in Greys Court and Henley-on-Thames and will help you plan your own visit there.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR VISIT
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in the area. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
PLEASE NOTE: Every hotel, restaurants and attractions I mention on my blogs are not sponsored reviews and we always paid the full price when visiting. We give our own opinion of the place and detail our experience, good or bad.
WHERE TO STAY AROUND GREYS COURT
ACCOMMODATION
1 – Danesfield House Hotel and Spa – 4* – £££ – Marlow
2 – The Relais Henley – 4* – £££
3 – Hotel du Vin Henley – 4* – £££
4 – Flower Pot Hotel – ££
5 – Heart of Henley 1 and 2 bedroom apartments – 3* – ££
6 – Mary Anne House – £££
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation, search and book via the below widget:
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BEST PLACES TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 – The Angel on the Bridge – *** – ££
2 – Luscombes – ££
3 – Bistro at the Boathouse – ££
4 – Côte – ££
5 – Shellfish Cow – ££
6 – Orwells Restaurant – £££
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
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