If you can’t work out why Welford Park looks familiar, you’re not alone. Since 2014, its grounds have played a subtle but vital role in one of Britain’s most popular television programmes: The Great British Bake Off. The lawns you see, the house you only glimpse. It’s all Welford.
Located seven miles from Newbury, Berkshire, Welford may be Bake Off HQ each summer, but year-round it is the happy home of the Puxley family, descendants of City of London merchant Sir Francis Jones, who bought the estate in 1618.
Today’s custodians, Deborah and James Puxley, have lived at Welford since 1997, having inherited the estate from James’s mother, Aline Puxley. After the war, she took it on from her bachelor uncle, Henry Archer Houblon.
Welford was Aline’s life, explains Deborah. “She was born in the dower house and then inherited the estate. Everything was always about ‘how can we preserve it, how can we survive’, and that mentality has been there for generations.”
This remains today. When a location scout met Welford’s land agent at a party and said, “I need to find somewhere quickly,” the agent replied: “You need to go to Welford.” Back then, Deborah remembers: “I had never heard of Bake Off or Paul Hollywood, so my daughter showed them around. She said, ‘Mum, Mary Berry is in it!’ We never looked back.”
