Dorneywood
Dorneywood is an 18th-century house near Burnham in southern Buckinghamshire. Originally a Georgian farmhouse, it has Victorian and later additions, and following a fire in 1910, was remodelled in 1919 by Sir Robert Lorimer. It is a Grade II listed building.
It was given to the National Trust by Lord Courtauld-Thomson in 1947 as a grace-and-favour country home for a senior member of the Government, usually a secretary of state or minister of the Crown. The Dorneywood Trust has the objective of 'maintaining the mansion house and gardens of Dorneywood'.
Occupancy of the house
The prime minister alone has the right to decide which minister or secretary of state is to occupy the house. In previous administrations it has been the residence of the chancellor of the exchequer and, prior to 31 May 2006, was occupied by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Prescott was forced to relinquish occupancy of Dorneywood, following a series of scandals over an affair with civil servant Tracey Temple and a snatched paparazzi photograph of him playing croquet on the lawn of the property whilst the Prime Minister Tony Blair was out of the country on a visit to Washington. However, given the controversies over John Prescott's use of the house, senior politicians were reluctant to use it. The house was eventually taken over by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer when Gordon Brown became prime minister in 2007. "A spokesman for Mr Brown... explained that the house... was owned by a trust, and would revert first to the Lord Mayor of London and then to the American Ambassador, if the Chancellor did not want it."Various former prime ministers have occupied the house, among them Anthony Eden. On becoming prime minister, Alec Douglas-Home was reluctant to forsake the more comfortable and modern Dorneywood for the antique splendours of Chequers. Another, James Callaghan as foreign secretary, also had the use of Dorneywood.
In 2010, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, took occupancy of the house. It was also used by Osborne's successors, Philip Hammond, Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves.