Studley Priory, Oxfordshire
In 1947 the priory was leased by Raymond and Tessa Bawtree, who (with their partner, Wilma Hessey) ran it as a country-house hotel for the next 14 years. During that time, many eminent guests stayed there (including Adrian Boult, Gilbert Murray, Beverley Nichols and Sandy Wilson; it was a favourite hostelry of C.S. Lewis, who came regularly for a Sunday-morning beer after church and in later years stayed there with his wife Joy. The Bawtrees did not renew their lease in 1961; that year the Hendersons auctioned off their estate, including the priory. The priory was bought by the Parke family, who continued to run it as a hotel until 2004 when the business was placed in receivership due to mounting financial losses. The business failed to find a buyer and the Priory was sold for reconversion to a private house.
The monastery is mentioned in the historical novel Blanket In The Dark by John Buchan who lived at nearby Elsfield. It was used as a filming location for the exterior of Sir Thomas More's Chelsea home in the 1966 version of Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons (interior shots were done in a studio, not at Studley Priory).