Glyndebourne House is a Grade II‑listed English country house near Lewes in East Sussex, best known today as the home of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, but it has a interesting history stretching back several centuries with more than a few family dramas and quiet secrets.
 
There has been a manor at Glynde Bourne (as it was often spelled) since at least the fifteenth century, though the exact founding date of the present house is uncertain.  Surviving timber framing and early panelling suggest the core of the house may date from the early sixteenth century, making it roughly six hundred years old in its earliest fabric.  The estate stayed in local hands until 1618, when it passed to the Hay family
The pivot from country house to opera brand came with John Christie, who inherited the estate in 1920.  A passionate opera‑goer who had driven to Bayreuth before the First World War to hear Wagner, he and his wife, the soprano Audrey Mildmay, turned Glyndebourne into a private artistic project.  In 1934 they built a modest 300‑seat theatre in the grounds, effectively an “opera house in the back garden,” and launched the Glyndebourne Festival Opera as an invitation‑only, picnic‑laced summer event. sweet.
 
Interesting facts...
The previous owner James Hay Langham was declared a lunatic meaning he was not allowed to give up the estate. The family argued and one paid of the other to the tune of £50,000 a huge amount in 1825