[8] In 1861 at the age of 34 he married Ursula, widow of the 1st Baron Londesborough and daughter of Vice-Admiral Charles Orlando Bridgeman.

The Fitzgeralds entertained at Oakley Court, their guests including Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France[9] and Lilly Langtry.

Lady Augusta Fane in her memoirs recalls a water party held at Oakley Court where Lilly Langtry was present.

His first wife Anna Louisa Avery died in 1902[15] and he married Suzanna Mathilde Crets in Paris in the same year.

Hammer shot five films there, including The Man in Black and The Lady Craved Excitement, before moving to the adjacent Down Place - which subsequently became Bray Studios - the following year.

[17] While the bulk of Hammer's best known horror movies were filmed at Bray in the late 1950s and early '60s, the studio continued to make occasional use of Oakley Court as an exterior location, for example in The Brides of Dracula (1962), The Reptile (1966), and The Plague of the Zombies (1966).

Other films shot there over the years include the William Castle horror-comedy The Old Dark House (1963); Witchcraft (1964); And Now the Screaming Starts!

(1973); the cult independent horror film Vampyres (1974); the mystery farce Murder by Death (1976); and the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore comedy, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978).

Freddie Francis was inspired by Oakley Court's exteriors and long wished to set a film there; his Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly (1970) was written specially to take advantage of the unique landscaping and architecture.

It was used as the location for Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle (called The Frankenstein Place) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

In 1995, it was featured as the "Laxton Grange Hotel" in the British television series Pie in the Sky starring Richard Griffiths.