Stanhope Mews
Stanhope Mews in South Kensington, London.
View the entire London Set
View my - Most Interesting according to Flickr
Autumn in Weardale
10404280176_bd8ee5a779_b
Wentworth Gardens near Barnsley, Yorkshire, England - October 2015
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wentworth_Castle
Wentworth Castle is a grade I listed country house, the former seat of the Earls of Strafford, at Stainborough, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is now home to the Northern College for Residential and Community Education.
An older house existed on the estate, then called Stainborough, when it was purchased by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (later Earl of Strafford), in 1711. It was still called Stainborough in Jan Kip's engraved bird's-eye view of parterres and avenues, 1714, and in the first edition of Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715 (illustration, left). The name was changed in 1731. The original name survives in the form of Stainborough Castle, a sham ruin constructed as a garden folly (illustration below) on the estate.
The Estate has been in the care of the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust since 2001 and is open to the public year round 7 days a week. The castle's gardens were restored in the early 21st century, and are also open to visitors.
History
The original house, known as the Cutler house, was constructed for Sir Gervase Cutler (born 1640) in 1670. Sir Gervase then sold the estate to Thomas Wentworth, later the 1st Earl of Strafford. The house was remodelled in two great campaigns, by two earls, in remarkably different styles, each time under unusual circumstances.
The first building campaign
The first building campaign to upgrade the original structure was initiated c.1711 by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (1672-1739). He was the grandson of Sir William Wentworth, father of Thomas Wentworth, the attainted 1st Earl. Raby was himself created 1st Earl of Strafford (second creation) in 1711.
The estate of Wentworth Woodhouse, which he believed was his birthright, was scarcely six miles distant and was a constant bitter sting, for the Strafford fortune had passed from William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, the childless son of the great earl, to his wife's nephew, Thomas Watson; only the barony of Raby had gone to a blood-relation. M.J. Charlesworth surmises that it was a feeling that what by right should have been his that motivated Wentworth's purchase of Stainborough Castle nearby and that his efforts to surpass the Watsons at Wentworth Woodhouse in splendour and taste motivated the man whom Jonathan Swift called "proud as Hell".[1]
Wentworth had been a soldier in the service of William III, who made him a colonel of dragoons. He was sent by Queen Anne as ambassador to Prussia in 1706-11 and on his return to Britain, the earldom was revived when he was created Viscount Wentworth and Earl of Strafford in the Peerage of Great Britain. He was then sent as a representative in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Utrecht, and was brought before a commission of Parliament in the aftermath. With the death of Queen Anne, he and the Tories were permanently out of power. Wentworth, representing a clannish old family of Yorkshire, required a grand house consonant with the revived Wentworth fortunes, he spent his years of retirement completing it and enriching his landscape.
He had broken his tour of duty at Berlin to conclude the purchase of Stainborough in the summer of 1708, and returned to Berlin, armed with sufficient specifications of the site to engage the services of a military architect who had spent some years recently in England, Johann von Bodt. who provided the designs.[2] Wentworth was in Italy in 1709, buying paintings for the future house: "I have great credit by my pictures," he reported with satisfaction: "They are all designed for Yorkshire, and I hope to have a better collection there than Mr. Watson."[3] To display them a grand gallery would be required, for which James Gibbs must have provided the designs, since a contract for wainscoting "as desined by Mr Gibbs" survives among Wentworth papers in the British Library (Add. Mss 22329, folio 128). The Gallery was completed in 1724.[4] There are designs, probably by Bodt, for an elevation and a section showing the gallery at Wentworth Castle in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E.307-1937), in an album of mixed drawings which belonged to William Talman's son John.[5] the gallery extends one hundred and eighty feet, twenty-four feet wide, and thirty high, screened into three divisions by veined marble Corinthian columns with gilded capitals, and with corresponding pilasters against projecting piers: in the intervening spaces four marble copies of Roman sculptures on block plinths survived until the twentieth century.[6] Construction was sufficiently advanced by March–April 1714 that surviving correspondence between Strafford and William Thornton concerned the disposition of panes in the window sashes: the options were for windows four panes wide, as done in the best houses Thornton assured the earl, for which crown glass would do, or for larger panes, three panes across, which might requite plate glass: Strafford opted for the latter.[7] The results, directed largely by letter from a distance,[8] are unique in Britain. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner found the east range "of a palatial splendour uncommon in England."[9] The grand suite of parade rooms on the ground floor extended from the room at the north end with a ceiling allegory of Plenty to the south end, with one of a Fame.
Bodt's use of a giant order of pilasters on the front and other features, suggested to John Harris that Bodt, who had been in England in the 1690s, had had access to drawings by William Talman. Talman was the architect of Chatsworth, considered to be England's first truly Baroque house. Indeed there are similarities of design between Wentworth's east front and Chatsworth. Both have a distinctly Continental Baroque frontage. Wentworth has been described as "a remarkable and almost unique example of Franco-Prussian architecture in Georgian England".[10] The east front was built upon a raised terrace that descended to sweeps of gravelled ramps that flanked a grotto and extended in an axial vista framed by double allées of trees to a formal wrought iron gate, all seen in Jan Kip's view of 1714, which if it is not more plan than reality, includes patterned parterres to the west of the house and an exedra on rising ground behind, all features that appear again in Britannia Illustrata, (1730).[11] An engraving by Thomas Badeslade from about 1750 still shows the formal features centred on Bodt's façade, enclosed in gravel drives wide enough for a coach-and-four. The regular plantations of trees planted bosquet-fashion have matured: their edges are clipped, and straight rides pierce them.[12] All these were swept away by the second earl after mid-century, in favour of an open, rolling "naturalistic" landscape in the manner of Capability Brown.[13]
The first earl's landscape
Strafford planted avenues of trees in great quantity in this open countryside, and the sham castle folly (built from 1726 and inscribed "Rebuilt in 1730", now more ruinous than it was at first) that he placed at the highest site, "like an endorsement from the past"[14] and kept free of trees (illustration, left) missed by only a few years being the first sham castle in an English landscape garden.[15] For its central court where the four original towers were named for his four children, the earl commissioned his portrait statue in 1730 from Michael Rysbrack, whom James Gibbs had been the first to employ when he came to England;[16] the statue has been moved closer to the house.
A staunch Tory,[17] Lord Strafford remained in political obscurity during Walpole's Whig supremacy, for the remainder of his life. An obelisk was erected to the memory of Queen Anne in 1736, and a sitting room in the house was named "Queen Anne's Sitting Room" until modern times. Other landscape features were added, one after the other, with the result that today there are twenty-six listed structures in what remains of the parkland.
The second earl at Wentworth Castle
The first earl died in 1739 and his son succeeded him. William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722-1791) rates an entry in Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects as the designer of the fine neo-Palladian range, built in 1759-64 (illustration, upper right). He married a daughter of the Duke of Argyll[18] and spent a year on the Grand Tour to improve his taste; he eschewed political life. At Wentworth Castle he had John Platt (1728–1810)[19] on the site as master mason and Charles Ross ( -1770/75) to draft the final drawings and act as "superintendent"; Ross was a carpenter and joiner of London who had worked under the Palladian architect and practiced architectural ammanuensis, Matthew Brettingham, at Strafford's London house, 5, St James's Square, in 1748-49. Ross's proven competency in London in London doubtless recommended him to the Earl for the building campaign in Yorkshire.[20] At Wentworth Castle it was generally understood, as Lord Verulam remarked in 1768, "'Lord Strafford himself is his own architect and contriver in everything."[21] Even in the London house, Walpole tells us, "he chose all the ornaments himself".
Horace Walpole singled out Wentworth Castle as a paragon for the perfect integration of the site, the landscape, even the harmony of the stone:
"If a model is sought of the most perfect taste in architecture, where grace softens dignity, and lightness attempers magnificence... where the position is the most happy, and even the colour of the stone the most harmonious; the virtuoso should be directed to the new front of Wentworth-castle:[22] the result of the same judgement that had before distributed so many beauties over that domain and called from wood, water, hills, prospects, and buildings, a compendium of picturesque nature, improved by the chastity of art."[23]
Later history
With the extinction of the earldom with the third earl in 1799, the huge family estates were divided into three, one third going to the descendants of each daughter of the 1st Earl. Wentworth Castle was left in trust for Lady Henrietta Vernon's grandson Frederick Vernon, (of Hilton Hall, Staffordshire) whose trustees were William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, and Walter Spencer Stanhope. Frederick Vernon added Wentworth to his surname and took charge of the estate in 1816. Between 1820 and 1840 the old chapel of St. James was replaced with the current building and the windows of the Baroque Wing were lowered on either side of the entrance hall. Frederick Vernon Wentworth also amalgamated two ground floor rooms to make what is now the blue room. In July of 1838 a freak hail storm badly damaged the cupola and windows of the house as well as all the greenhouses within the walled gardens, yet this pales into insignificance when compared with the nearby Huskar Colliery disaster where 26 child miners lost there lives due to flooding following the hail storm. In May of 1853 a freak snow storm also caused severe damage, particularly to the mature trees within the gardens, some of them rare species from America planted by the 1st and 2nd earls. Frederick Vernon Wentworth was succeeded by his son Thomas in 1885 who added the iron framed Conservatory and electric lighting by March of the following year. The Victorian Wing also dates from this decade and its construction allowed the Vernon-Wentworths to entertain the young Duke of Clarence and his entourage during the winters of 1887 and 1889. The estate was inherited by Thomas' eldest son Captain Bruce Canning Vernon Wentworth, M.P. for Brighton, in 1902. Preferring his Suffolk estates, the Captain put the most valuable of his Wentworth Castle house contents up for sale at auction with Christies after the First World War. The paintings sold at Christie's on 13 November 1919.[24] Bruce Vernon-Wentworth, who had no direct heirs, sold the house and its gardens to Barnsley Corporation in 1948, while the rest of his estates, in Yorkshire, Suffolk and Scotland were left to a distant cousin.[25] The remaining contents of Wentworth Castle were emptied at a house sale,[26] and the house became a teacher training college, the Wentworth Castle College of Education, until 1978. It was then used by Northern College.[27] It was featured in the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition "The Country House in Danger". The great landscape that Walpole praised in 1780 was described in 1986 as now "disturbed and ruinous", the second earl's sinuous river excavated in the 1730s reduced to a series of silty ponds,.[28]
Wentworth Castle is the only Grade I Listed Gardens and Parkland in South Yorkshire. The Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust was formed in 2002 as a charity with the aim “To undertake a phased programme of restoration and development works which will provide benefit to the general public by providing extensive access to the parkland and gardens and the built heritage, conserving these important heritage assets for future generations”. Today, the landscape is gradually being restored by the Trust. The restoration of the Rotunda was completed in 2010, the parkland has been returned to deer park. The restoration of the Serpentine will form a future project as funding allows.
The estate opened fully to visitors in 2007, following the completion of the first phase of restoration, which cost £15.2m.[29] The Gardens at Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park are open 7 days a week year round (closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day). Information for visitors, groups and schools and the latest information on restoration progress is available from the Trust's website. Tours of the house are available by arrangement.
Wentworth Castle was featured on the BBC TV show Restoration in 2003, when a bid was made to restore the Grade II* Listed Victorian conservatory to its former glory, though it[30] did not win in the viewers' response. Subsequently, the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust took the decision in 2005 to support the fragile structure further with a scaffold in order to prevent its total collapse. The Trust succeeded in raising the £3.7 million needed to restore the conservatory in 2011 and work began in 2012, with grants from English Heritage, the Country Houses Foundation, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. The Trust completed the restoration of its fragile Victorian glasshouse in October 2013 – 10 years after its first TV appearance the Restoration series. It was opened by the Mayor of Barnsley on 7 November 2013 and opened to the general public the following day.
Stanhope Woods
I've been visiting this area for years and accidentally stumbled on this beautiful walk
Wall in bloom
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Spring at Hyde Park in London, UK - April 2018
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.
The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park is 142 hectares (350 acres)[1] and Kensington Gardens is 111 hectares (275 acres),[2] giving an overall area of 253 hectares (625 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 hectares or 484 acres), but smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 hectares or 843 acres). To the southeast (but outside of the park) is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.
The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.
The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park.
On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses.
History
In 1536, Henry VIII acquired the manor of Hyde from the canons of Westminster Abbey, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest;[3] it was enclosed as a deer park and remained a private hunting ground until James I permitted limited access to gentlefolk, appointing a ranger to take charge. Charles I created the Ring (north of the present Serpentine boathouses), and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public.
In 1689, when William III moved his habitation to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, he had a drive laid out across its south edge, formerly known as "The King's Private Road", which still exists as a wide straight gravelled carriage track leading west from Hyde Park Corner across the south boundary of Hyde Park to St. James's Palace. The drive is now known as Rotten Row, possibly a corruption of rotteran (to muster),[4] Ratten Row (roundabout way), Route du roi or rotten (the soft material with which the road is covered).[5] Public transport entering London from the west paralleled the King's private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides.[6]
The first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline;[7] under the supervision of Charles Withers, Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit for it, it was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of ₤20,000. Bridgeman's piece of water called The Serpentine, formed by damming the little Westbourne that flowed through the park was not truly in the Serpentine "line of beauty" that William Hogarth described, but merely irregular on a modest curve. The 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat.[8] The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie (1826).
One of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the south side of the park. The public in general did not want the building to remain in the park after the closure of the exhibition, and the design architect, Joseph Paxton, raised funds and purchased it. He had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London.
Grand Entrance
The Grand Entrance to the park, at Hyde Park Corner next to Apsley House, was erected from the designs of Decimus Burton in 1824-25.[10] An early description reports:
"It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, with three carriage entrance archways, two foot entrances, a lodge, etc. The extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft (33 m). The central entrance has a bold projection: the entablature is supported by four columns; and the volutes of the capitals of the outside column on each side of the gateway are formed in an angular direction, so as to exhibit two complete faces to view. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae. All these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession. This frieze was designed by Mr. Henning, junior, the son of Mr. Henning who was well known for his models of the Elgin marbles. "The gates were manufactured by Messrs. Bramah. They are of iron, bronzed, and fixed or hung to the piers by rings of gun-metal. The design consists of a beautiful arrangement of the Greek honeysuckle ornament; the parts being well defined, and the raffles of the leaves brought out in a most extraordinary manner."
Rose garden
A rose garden, designed by Colvin & Moggridge Landscape Architects, was added in 1994.
Sites of interest
Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the northeast corner near Marble Arch), close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, and Rotten Row, which is the northern boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. South of the Serpentine is the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on 6 July 2004. To the east of the Serpentine, just beyond the dam, is London's Holocaust Memorial. A magnificent specimen of a botanical curiosity is the Weeping Beech, Fagus sylvatica pendula, cherished as "the upside-down tree". Opposite Hyde Park Corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough.
Stanhope Lodge (Decimus Burton, 1824-25) at Stanhope Gate,[12] demolished to widen Park Lane, was the home of Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade. After leaving the army, Parkes became Inspector of the Park Constables of the Park and died in the Lodge on 14 November 1864.
Hyde Park has been the venue for some famous rock concerts including the major location for the Live 8 string of benefit concerts. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played in Hyde Park and made a multi-million selling live album from the concert.
No Entry!
A forlorn railway line in Weardale, County Durham, now overgrown and rusting away. This is in fact part of the' Stanhope and Tyne Railway' system.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanhope_and_Tyne_Railway
Hyde Park, London, England - August 2009
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.
The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park is 142 hectares (350 acres)[1] and Kensington Gardens is 111 hectares (275 acres),[2] giving an overall area of 253 hectares (625 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 hectares or 484 acres), but smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 hectares or 843 acres). To the southeast (but outside of the park) is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.
The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.
The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park.
On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses.
History
In 1536, Henry VIII acquired the manor of Hyde from the canons of Westminster Abbey, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest;[3] it was enclosed as a deer park and remained a private hunting ground until James I permitted limited access to gentlefolk, appointing a ranger to take charge. Charles I created the Ring (north of the present Serpentine boathouses), and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public.
In 1689, when William III moved his habitation to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, he had a drive laid out across its south edge, formerly known as "The King's Private Road", which still exists as a wide straight gravelled carriage track leading west from Hyde Park Corner across the south boundary of Hyde Park to St. James's Palace. The drive is now known as Rotten Row, possibly a corruption of rotteran (to muster),[4] Ratten Row (roundabout way), Route du roi or rotten (the soft material with which the road is covered).[5] Public transport entering London from the west paralleled the King's private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides.[6]
The first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline;[7] under the supervision of Charles Withers, Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit for it, it was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of ₤20,000. Bridgeman's piece of water called The Serpentine, formed by damming the little Westbourne that flowed through the park was not truly in the Serpentine "line of beauty" that William Hogarth described, but merely irregular on a modest curve. The 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat.[8] The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie (1826).
One of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the south side of the park. The public in general did not want the building to remain in the park after the closure of the exhibition, and the design architect, Joseph Paxton, raised funds and purchased it. He had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London.
Grand Entrance
The Grand Entrance to the park, at Hyde Park Corner next to Apsley House, was erected from the designs of Decimus Burton in 1824-25.[10] An early description reports:
"It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, with three carriage entrance archways, two foot entrances, a lodge, etc. The extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft (33 m). The central entrance has a bold projection: the entablature is supported by four columns; and the volutes of the capitals of the outside column on each side of the gateway are formed in an angular direction, so as to exhibit two complete faces to view. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae. All these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession. This frieze was designed by Mr. Henning, junior, the son of Mr. Henning who was well known for his models of the Elgin marbles. "The gates were manufactured by Messrs. Bramah. They are of iron, bronzed, and fixed or hung to the piers by rings of gun-metal. The design consists of a beautiful arrangement of the Greek honeysuckle ornament; the parts being well defined, and the raffles of the leaves brought out in a most extraordinary manner."
Rose garden
A rose garden, designed by Colvin & Moggridge Landscape Architects, was added in 1994.
Sites of interest
Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the northeast corner near Marble Arch), close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, and Rotten Row, which is the northern boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. South of the Serpentine is the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on 6 July 2004. To the east of the Serpentine, just beyond the dam, is London's Holocaust Memorial. A magnificent specimen of a botanical curiosity is the Weeping Beech, Fagus sylvatica pendula, cherished as "the upside-down tree". Opposite Hyde Park Corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough.
Stanhope Lodge (Decimus Burton, 1824-25) at Stanhope Gate,[12] demolished to widen Park Lane, was the home of Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade. After leaving the army, Parkes became Inspector of the Park Constables of the Park and died in the Lodge on 14 November 1864.
Hyde Park has been the venue for some famous rock concerts including the major location for the Live 8 string of benefit concerts. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played in Hyde Park and made a multi-million selling live album from the concert.
St Thomas Church, Stanhope
45812991831_8ab64f21d0_b
The gardens at Haddon Hall
The gardens at Haddon Hall.
On a hill so multiple layers going down towards the river!
Although you can see the river, the gate to it is padlocked shut!
View of the hall from the garden at the back!
Haddon Hall is Grade I listed.
Haddon Hall, Nether Haddon
SK 26 NW PARISH OF NETHER HADDON HADDON ROAD
2/28 (North Side)
29.9.51 Haddon Hall
GV I
Large double courtyard, fortified manor house. Seat of the Dukes of Rutland
and built by the Vernon family. Fragments of C12 work but mainly of two periods
with the upper courtyard built mainly in the second quarter of Cl4 and the lower
courtyard built mostly in C15, but also with major refashionings and alterations
of C16 and C17 and a major restoration between 1920 and 1930, supervised by Mr
Leonard Stanhope, the Clerk of Works. Limestone and gritstone rubble and ashlar
gritstone with gritstone dressings and quoins. Leaded roof, mostly hidden by
embattled parapets with ridgeback copings, roofs and parapets mostly C20.
Numerous stone ridge and side wall stacks, mostly C20, some with crenellated tops,
plus massive late C15 external stacks to west side of Great Hall and, possibly
C14, corbelled out stone stacks to north walls. Two storeys with four storey
north-west gatetower, and three storey eastern Peveril Tower and north-east
lodgings to upper courtyard. Double courtyard plan on sloping site with upper
courtyard to north-east and lower courtyard to south-west. Upper courtyard has
Peveril's Tower, the original entrance, and the state bedroom to east range, Long
Gallery to south and the present Duke's apartments to north, whilst the lower
courtyard has the continuation of the private apartments and the north-west entrance
tower to north, offices and lodgings to west and the Chapel and the Earl's Bedroom
to south, between the two courtyards the Great Hall and its service rooms.
North elevation has late C15 entrance tower to west with C14 kitchen range to east
and beyond the Duke's apartments, mostly C17 but much restored. Entrance tower
has steps up to moulded, shallow pointed arch with hoodmould and double studded
oak doors. To west a slit window and beyond an ornate ashlar, stepped buttress with
relief carving to upper part. Above door a blank plaque with hoodmould and 3-light
cavetto moulded mullion window with pointed lights and incised spandrels, set in
ovolo moulded recess with hoodmould. Above again similar plaque, but decorated with
upturned acorns, and similar 3-light window. Similar blank plaque and window over
with large coat of arms immediately above, breaking through the moulded stringcourse
with gargoyles,on to the parapets. Beyond the C14 stacks to east, a Cl7 wing with
range of recessed and chamfered mullion windows. Attached to west corner of tower
an embattled ashlar wall with four-centred arched doorcase with hoodmould, under
large coat of arms of the 'Kings of the Peak', which has to either side a carved
frieze of the Vernons family shields. West side of tower has polygonal staircase
turret to south corner, corbelled out at first floor level.
Garden front to south of limestone and gritstone rubble with gritstone quoins and
continuous moulded sill bands to first floor windows and continuous moulded eaves
stringcourse. Four bay, early C17, section to east with advanced square, two
storey bay flanked by canted, two storey, bay windows with another window to east,
and attached to west a five bay C16 section, much refashioned in C17, with the Chapel
beyond to west. Eastern section has a range of recessed and ovolo moulded, double
transomed windows to Long Gallery at first floor level with recessed and chamfered
windows below. Lower section attached to west with two storey canted bay window
with large carved crest on parapets, beyond. To west again three, first floor,
oriel windows, each with recessed and ovolo moulded mullion and transomed windows,
central oriel with double angled sides. To extreme west, the Chapel, set at a
different angle, with Perp 5-light east window, two flat headed Perp chancel windows,
C13 lancets in the south aisle and C15 cusped clerestorey windows. To opposite
side of the Chapel in the lower courtyard stands a C15 octagonal bell turret with
cusped Y-tracery arches to all sides at the top. Attached to east end of the Chapel
the remains of C14 timber walling, now mainly enveloped in the late C16 rebuilding
of the Earl's Bedroom which has mullion and transomed canted bay windows at first
floor level. Great Hall to east range of the lower courtyard has C14, 2-light,
low transomed, windows with central quatrefoil over cusped lights, to either side
of late C15 external stack. To north C15 three storey porch and to south projecting
parlour wing.
Interior - the Chapel has two bay arcades of double chamfered pointed arches,
that to north on C15 capital and polygonal column, that to south on mutilated
late C12 scalloped capital and column. Fine 'grisailles' wall paintings to nave
and early C17 oak pews and furnishings, inscribed 'GM 1624'. C15 stained glass
to east, north and south windows, east one inscribed 'Ornate pro animabus Riccardi
Vernon et Benedicte uxoris eius qui fecerunt anno dni 1472'. Below east window
a C14 Nottingham alabaster reredos, introduced in C20. C12 plain circular font
with C17 cover of double curved scrolls meeting at central knob and 1894 marble
tomb to Robert Manners, with figure of dead boy to top and coats of arms and heads
of family to sides, to south side of nave. Opposite a C15 stoop on octagonal stem
with crenellated top. Great Hall has C15 timber screens passage with cusped
panelling and gallery over, also arched braced roof dated 1923, C16 panelled lobby
to south through to parlour and C16 panelling to the walls; large cavetto moulded
fireplace to west and four,four-centred arched doorcases to north of screens
passage, eastern one opens on to the staircase up to the gallery, whilst the other
three lead to the kitchen, pantry and buttery, all have original oak studded doors.
C14 kitchen has two massive segmental fireplaces, impressive C17 oak kitchen
furniture and C16 chamfered cross beam roof supported near centre by braced wooden
pier. Bakehouse beyond to east with breadovens and dough troughs, with slaughter
house beyond again to east. Parlour to south of the Great Hall has its original
cl500 painted ceiling, and panelling throughout,dated 1545, with carved frieze
next to ceiling. Above is the Earl's Bedroom, refashioned in C17, when plasterwork
frieze and ceiling, and panelling inserted. Beyond this room to west another
apartment with the remains of C14 timber walling still visible. Long Gallery
and State Bedroom to east, both C17. Long Gallery has classically inspired
panelling, hugh windows and plasterwork ceiling. State Bedroom beyond, has fireplace
with elborate plaster overmantle similar to those at Hardwick. Sources see
Country Life CVI (1949) December 23, pp 1884, 'Haddon Hall' by Christopher Hussey,
The Royal Archaeological Institute Journal Vol 118, 'Haddon Hall and Bolsover
Castle', pg 188 by P A Faulkner and the National Ancient Monument Review Vol I
'The reinstatement of Haddon Hall' by John Swarbrick pg 135.
Listing NGR: SK2348566368
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
The Queen Mother's Garden
Walmer Castle
Kent
Walmer Castle was built by Henry VIII in 1539–1540 as an artillery fortress to counter the threat of invasion from Catholic France and Spain. It was part of his programme to create a chain of coastal defences along England's coast known as the Device Forts or as Henrician Castles. It was one of three forts constructed to defend the Downs, an area of safe anchorage protected by the Goodwin Sands, in Kent, south east England. The other forts were at Deal and Sandown.
Design
At the centre of Walmer Castle is a circular keep, surrounded by an open courtyard and protected by a concentric wall, from which four, squat, semi-circular bastions project. The northern bastion forms the gatehouse and would have had a gun on its roof; the other bastions would have had guns mounted inside them and on the roof. The central keep would also have had guns mounted on its roof giving the castle the capacity to mount 39 guns. A gallery running around the castle at basement level has 32 loops for hand-guns covering the moat.
Lord Warden's residence & gardens
In 1708 Walmer Castle took on a new role as the residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Cinque Ports Confederation originated in the 11th century when the five ports of Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich joined forces to provide ships and men for the defence of the coast and protection of cross-channel trade. In return for these services they received substantial local privileges including immunity from all external courts of justice and from national taxation. In the 13th century the office of Warden was instituted to oversee and regulate the affairs of the Confederation. Initially this position carried real power, but with the forming of a Royal Navy and the decline of the Cinque Ports, the role of Warden became more of an honorary position bestowed to those who had given distinguished service to the state.
Over the years successive Wardens converted the fort and its grounds into a comfortable country house and gardens. Resident Wardens included William Pitt the Younger (whose niece Lady Hester Stanhope initiated the castle's gardens, using labour from the local militia), the Duke of Wellington (who died here), Sir Winston Churchill and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. Memorabilia from these past Wardens, including two rooms dedicated to the Duke of Wellington, can be viewed at the castle. The present warden is Admiral Lord Boyce.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmer_Castle
Beautiful tulips and a beautiful garden.
Gawsworth Old Hall
Gawsworth Old Hall is a Grade I listed country house in the village of Gawsworth, Cheshire, England. It is a timber-framed house in the Cheshire black-and-white style. The present house was built between 1480 and 1600, replacing an earlier Norman house. It was probably built as a courtyard house enclosing a quadrangle, but much of it has been demolished, leaving the house with a U-shaped plan. The present hall was owned originally by the Fitton family, and later by the Gerards, and then the Stanhopes. Since the 1930s it has been in the possession of the Richards family. Raymond Richards collected a number of items from other historic buildings and incorporated them into the hall.
Notable residents have included Mary Fitton, perhaps the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets, and Samuel "Maggoty" Johnson, a playwright described as the last professional jester in England, whose grave is nearby in Maggoty Wood, a small National Trust woodland. In 1712 a dispute about the ownership of the Gawsworth estate culminated in a celebrated duel, in which both the combatants were killed.
The hall is surrounded by formal gardens and parkland, which once comprised an Elizabethan pleasure garden and, possibly, a tilting ground for jousting.
Elvaston Castle Walled Garden 06
The Elvaston Castle Old English Garden is a hidden gem within the grounds of the country park and is really worth a visit. This walled garden, although not large, was originally an area for plants under glass within which fruit, vegetables and exotic plants were grown for the Stanhope family. Redesigned in the 1970’s, it's now a quiet corner of the park.
Hyde Park, London, England - August 2009
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.
The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park is 142 hectares (350 acres)[1] and Kensington Gardens is 111 hectares (275 acres),[2] giving an overall area of 253 hectares (625 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 hectares or 484 acres), but smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 hectares or 843 acres). To the southeast (but outside of the park) is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.
The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.
The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park.
On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses.
History
In 1536, Henry VIII acquired the manor of Hyde from the canons of Westminster Abbey, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest;[3] it was enclosed as a deer park and remained a private hunting ground until James I permitted limited access to gentlefolk, appointing a ranger to take charge. Charles I created the Ring (north of the present Serpentine boathouses), and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public.
In 1689, when William III moved his habitation to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, he had a drive laid out across its south edge, formerly known as "The King's Private Road", which still exists as a wide straight gravelled carriage track leading west from Hyde Park Corner across the south boundary of Hyde Park to St. James's Palace. The drive is now known as Rotten Row, possibly a corruption of rotteran (to muster),[4] Ratten Row (roundabout way), Route du roi or rotten (the soft material with which the road is covered).[5] Public transport entering London from the west paralleled the King's private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides.[6]
The first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline;[7] under the supervision of Charles Withers, Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit for it, it was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of ₤20,000. Bridgeman's piece of water called The Serpentine, formed by damming the little Westbourne that flowed through the park was not truly in the Serpentine "line of beauty" that William Hogarth described, but merely irregular on a modest curve. The 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat.[8] The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie (1826).
One of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the south side of the park. The public in general did not want the building to remain in the park after the closure of the exhibition, and the design architect, Joseph Paxton, raised funds and purchased it. He had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London.
Grand Entrance
The Grand Entrance to the park, at Hyde Park Corner next to Apsley House, was erected from the designs of Decimus Burton in 1824-25.[10] An early description reports:
"It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, with three carriage entrance archways, two foot entrances, a lodge, etc. The extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft (33 m). The central entrance has a bold projection: the entablature is supported by four columns; and the volutes of the capitals of the outside column on each side of the gateway are formed in an angular direction, so as to exhibit two complete faces to view. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae. All these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession. This frieze was designed by Mr. Henning, junior, the son of Mr. Henning who was well known for his models of the Elgin marbles. "The gates were manufactured by Messrs. Bramah. They are of iron, bronzed, and fixed or hung to the piers by rings of gun-metal. The design consists of a beautiful arrangement of the Greek honeysuckle ornament; the parts being well defined, and the raffles of the leaves brought out in a most extraordinary manner."
Rose garden
A rose garden, designed by Colvin & Moggridge Landscape Architects, was added in 1994.
Sites of interest
Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the northeast corner near Marble Arch), close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, and Rotten Row, which is the northern boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. South of the Serpentine is the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on 6 July 2004. To the east of the Serpentine, just beyond the dam, is London's Holocaust Memorial. A magnificent specimen of a botanical curiosity is the Weeping Beech, Fagus sylvatica pendula, cherished as "the upside-down tree". Opposite Hyde Park Corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough.
Stanhope Lodge (Decimus Burton, 1824-25) at Stanhope Gate,[12] demolished to widen Park Lane, was the home of Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade. After leaving the army, Parkes became Inspector of the Park Constables of the Park and died in the Lodge on 14 November 1864.
Hyde Park has been the venue for some famous rock concerts including the major location for the Live 8 string of benefit concerts. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played in Hyde Park and made a multi-million selling live album from the concert.
Royal Wedding of William and Catherine Duke & Duchess of Cambridge
Buckingham Palace, London.
Image shows the Bridal Procession returning down the Mall to Buckingham Palace.
More than 1,300 personnel from across the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force played a key role in the ceremonial elements of the Royal Wedding today. Their roles included Guard duties, lining the ceremonial route, musical support through ceremonial bands, and a spectacular seven-aircraft flypast from the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and two Tornado and two Typhoon fast jets.
Representing all of the Armed Forces inside the Abbey for the service was Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, Chief of the General Staff General Sir Peter Wall, and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton.
Further afield, troops in Afghanistan watched the service and held their own celebrations to wish the couple well. Alongside his current Royal Air Force Search and Rescue role, HRH Prince William is also Commodore-in-Chief of Submarines, Colonel of the Irish Guards, Royal Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Coningsby and Patron of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Fairyland Cannon Hall Cawthorne Barnsley
A part of the Cannon Hall Gardens were landscaped into a Fairytale folly for the children to play in. The Fairyland area was laid out in the late 19th Century by Sir Walter Spencer-Stanhope using stone arches form the Cawthorne and Silkstone churches.
Fairyland incorporates these stone arches with winding paths, fish ponds, stands of Yew trees and a stream with stone bridge to create a dream like garden that’s far removed from the usual formal gardens of stately homes in the UK.
Cannon Hall is a 17th century house set in 70 acres of parkland and gardens. The house contains furniture, paintings, glassware and pottery, in a series of period rooms and galleries.
For two hundred years Cannon Hall was home to the Spencer Stanhope family. From the 1760's the architect John Carr of York was commissioned to extend and alter the house while the designer Richard Woods was hired to landscape the parks and gardens.
Also in the house is the regimental museum of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars.
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Fairyland Cannon Hall Cawthorne Barnsley
A part of the Cannon Hall Gardens were landscaped into a Fairytale folly for the children to play in. The Fairyland area was laid out in the late 19th Century by Sir Walter Spencer-Stanhope using stone arches form the Cawthorne and Silkstone churches.
Fairyland incorporates these stone arches with winding paths, fish ponds, stands of Yew trees and a stream with stone bridge to create a dream like garden that’s far removed from the usual formal gardens of stately homes in the UK.
Cannon Hall is a 17th century house set in 70 acres of parkland and gardens. The house contains furniture, paintings, glassware and pottery, in a series of period rooms and galleries.
For two hundred years Cannon Hall was home to the Spencer Stanhope family. From the 1760's the architect John Carr of York was commissioned to extend and alter the house while the designer Richard Woods was hired to landscape the parks and gardens.
Also in the house is the regimental museum of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars.
2016-06-10 Unthank Gates, Stanhope 2
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My-world Elvaston park derbyshire uk -today(try large)
finished work bit fed up,went for a local walk...i cheered up lol......info ..In the 16th century the estate was held by the Shelford Priory. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Crown sold the Priory and its estates in 1538 to Sir Michael Stanhope of Rampton, Nottinghamshire. Sir John Stanhope(d1611) granted the estate to his second son, also Sir John Stanhope (d 1638) High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1629.
Originally a manor house built for the latter Sir John in 1633, it was redesigned in grand style by James Wyatt in the early 19th century for the 3rd Earl of Harrington. Further modifications were made in the 1830s by the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham. The gardens were also redesigned by William Barron who spent many years working for the fourth Earl. Barron brought in full size trees to try to give instant gratification to the Earl when he saw the new gardens.[2]
Detail from painting of William Barron in Derby Museum
The castle todayFollowing the Countryside Act in 1968, the estate was sold in 1969[3] by William Stanhope, the 11th Earl of Harrington to Derbyshire County Council. The Countryside Act proposed the creation of "country parks" "for the enjoyment of the countryside by the public". The council opened the estate to the public in 1970 and have operated it since then, as Elvaston Castle Country Park.
In 1969, Elvaston was also used as a location for Ken Russell's film adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence novel Women in Love.
For the last eight years the Derbyshire County Council has been marketing the estate to private companies, claiming that it cannot afford to repair and maintain it but its actions have come to nothing. The latest of these is an attempt to turn the Castle into an hotel and the Park into golf courses. This is being fiercely contested by "The Friends of Elvaston Castle" on behalf of the local community.[3]
Victoria Park near St. Johns Catholic Cathedral May 2018, 3 Stanhope road, Portsmouth PO1 3QL. England.
In May 2018 I visited Portsmouth and walked round most of the city visiting the Historic dockyard also. I parked in the Park and Ride car park and jumped on a bus into Portsmouth. The first stop being St. Johns Catholic Cathedral in Bishop Crispian Way, Portsmouth PO1 3HQ. Followed by the Victoria Park an oasis in the middle of a built up city, 3 Stanhope rd, Portsmouth PO1 3QL Portsmouth then next was the City Council buildings Civic Offices, Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth PO1 2AL. There are so many interesting places to see around this part of Portsmouth.
Portsmouth is a port city in Hampshire, England, mainly on Portsea Island, 70 miles ( 110 km ) south-west of London and 19 miles ( 31 km ) south east of Southampton. It has a total population of 205,400. The city forms part of the South Hampshire metropolitan area, which also covers Southampton and the towns of Havant, Waterlooville, Eastleigh, Fareham, and Gosport.
The city's history can be traced back to Roman times. A significant naval port for centuries, Portsmouth has the world's oldest dry dock and was England's first line of defence during the French invasion in 1545. Special Palmerston Forts were built in 1859 in anticipation of another invasion from continental Europe. By the early-19th century, Portsmouth was the most heavily fortified city in the world, and was considered the world's greatest naval port at the height of the British Empire. The world's first mass production line was set up in the city, making it the most industrialised site in the world. During the Second World War, the city was a pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings and was bombed extensively in the Portsmouth Blitz, which resulted in the deaths of 930 people. In 1982, a large proportion of the task force dispatched to liberate the Falkland Islands deployed from the city's naval base. Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia left the city to oversee the transfer of Hong Kong in 1997, which marked for many the end of the empire.
Portsmouth is one of the world's best known ports. HMNB Portsmouth is considered to be the home of the Royal Navy and is home to two-thirds of the UK's surface fleet. The city is home to some famous ships, including HMS Warrior, the Tudor Mary Rose and Horatio Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory ( he world's oldest naval ship still in commission ) The former HMS Vernon naval shore establishment has been redeveloped as a retail park known as Gunwharf Quays. Portsmouth is among the few British cities with two cathedrals: the Anglican Cathedral of St Thomas and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Evangelist. The waterfront and Portsmouth Harbour are dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, one of the United Kingdom's tallest structures at 560 feet ( 170 mtr ). Nearby Southsea is a seaside resort with a pier amusement park and medieval castle.
To the south of Portsmouth are the waters of Spithead, the wider Solent, and the Isle of Wight. The southern coast of the city was historically fortified by the Round Tower, the Square Tower, Southsea Castle, Lumps Fort and Fort Cumberland. Four sea forts were built in the Solent to protect Portsmouth by Lord Palmerston, these are named Spitbank Fort, St Helens Fort, Horse Sand Fort and No Mans Land Fort.
Victoria Park was the first public park to be opened in Portsmouth. When the fortifications around Portsea were levelled, land was obtained by the Corporation from the War Office for a peoples park. Victoria Park was designed by Alexander McKenzie and was opened on 25th May, 1878. Situated just to the north of Portsmouth Guildhall, across the railway lines, is this beautiful Park. This park covers almost 15 acres and is planted with trees, shrubs and flowers. Victoria Park is flanked to the west by the towering glass clad ex Zurich Insurance building. To the south by the Guildhall and University buildings formerly the Municipal College. To the east, across Anglesea road are more University buildings and Naval establishments and finally to the north on Edinburgh Road is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John.
Cannon Hall
Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and High Hoyland some 5 miles (8 km) west of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it now houses collections of fine furniture, paintings, ceramics and glassware.
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350 - Edmundbyers, County Durham, United Kingdom. - 2014.
Edmundbyers, County Durham, United Kingdom. - 2014.
How far between train stations at Bishop Auckland?
The siding on the left (in the distance) is the Northern Rail platform at Bishop Auckland (used for Darlington trains)
The line on the right is the route up the Wear Valley from Stanhope (via Bishop Auckland West)
The two stations are relatively close (as the crow flies), as you see from this picture), but a direct train journey between them would be impossible (without reversal) and it's a reasonable walk round the back of B&Q/ Royal Mail depot between the two stations
