Newstead Abbey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Newstead Abbey, west facade
Schematic site plan of Newstead Abbey

Newstead Abbey is a manor in Nottinghamshire, England . It is located about seven kilometers south of Mansfield and a little over two kilometers northeast of the town of Newstead in the heart of the former Sherwood Forest . Contrary to what the name suggests, Newstead was never an abbey , only a priory of the Augustinian Canons . Nevertheless, the facility has been called that since the 15th century. It arrived after their dissolution in the 16th century in the possession of the noble family Byron that the monastery at a country estate ( English country house ) redesigned. The property became known through the English poet Lord Byron , who inherited the country palace , which had hardly changed until then, in 1798. The property came to the Webb family through Thomas Wildman, an old school friend of Byron's. Both the Wildmans and the Webbs made numerous alterations and changes to the buildings and the palace gardens and gave them their current appearance: a closed four-wing complex in the Victorian style , the wings of which surround an inner courtyard and extensions from the 19th century at the two southern corners have. To the east and south of it, a total of eleven different gardens extend over a total area of 10  hectares , most of which were laid out or redesigned by the Webb family in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1925 Sir Julian Cahn acquired Newstead Abbey and donated it to the City of Nottingham in 1931 . They had extensive restorations carried out and now operates a museum in the castle with memorabilia about the writer and exhibits related to the owner families and the history of the house. The property stands in its entirety as a grade II * - Listed building since 1 January 1986 under monument protection . The four-winged mansion - like many other buildings on the property - has been listed separately as a Grade I individual monument in the list of monuments since May 14, 1952 .

history

Monastery time

The English King Henry II founded the St. Mary of Newstead priory on the site of today's castle between 1163 and 1173. Its building was rebuilt and expanded in the late 13th century. Among other things, the monastery church was enlarged and the east wing including the chapter house and the south wing of the complex were completely rebuilt. During the 15th century, the complex was expanded again, adding a dormitory , the great hall and an accommodation for the prior. In addition, the cloister was completely rebuilt. When numerous Catholic monasteries in England were dissolved in the course of the English Reformation , the priory in Newstead was initially spared, although his annual income was less than 200 pounds and therefore a compulsory dissolution was intended for the institution. When John Blake ran the priory, it was finally dissolved on July 21, 1539, and the monastery property fell to the English crown.

Byron family

East view of the manor on a painting from 1758

Henry VIII sold St. Mary's house, church, steeple, and churchyard with 750  acres of land on May 28, 1540 for £ 810 to Sir John Byron of Colwick , Lieutenant of Sherwood Forest. His family remained the owners for almost 280 years. In contrast to many others who bought former church property from the crown, John Byron did not have the monastery demolished, but converted it into a country residence for his family. Only the church, which made up the northern part of the complex, he had - with the exception of the west facade from the 13th century - laid down. The former dormitory was converted into bedrooms, and the refectory , in a modified form, served as a dining room and large salon . The converted Great Hall was also used for residential purposes, while the former chapter house was converted into a family chapel . Byron's grandson, the fifth sir, named John , was made a baron by King Charles I of England in 1643 . Because he died childless, the property passed through his brother Richard and his son William in 1695 to the fourth Baron Byron, who was also named William . In the early 18th century he laid out gardens, ponds and lakes in the extensive palace gardens . In addition, at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century, he initiated an extension in the neo-renaissance style on the southeast corner of the previous building , after his predecessors had already made various minor changes to the north and east facade in the 16th and 17th centuries . William Byron was inherited by his son of the same name in 1736 when he was only 14 years old. Like many aristocrats of his time, the heir went on a grand tour and brought back Italian craftsmen from his trip who set up today's music room for him . The fifth was Lord of the Upper Lake Lake mentioned in the castle park in the late 1740s enlarge greatly and on the west side two Follys in the form of sham forts built. They served as accessories for staged naval battles that the fifth Baron Byron organized with miniature warships on the lake to entertain his guests. Around 1770 he had the stables on the east bank of the lake converted into a third fort. However, at the end of his life he let the property deteriorate more and more. To pay off his high debts, numerous trees had to be felled on the property and the wood and fallow deer from the forests had to be sold. When he died in 1798, the property was ruined. His son had died before him in 1776 - like his grandson in 1794 - and so William's great-nephew George Gordon, who later became known as a poet under the name of Lord Byron, succeeded him.

Lord Byron had repairs done, but never stayed long at Newstead Abbey; Portrait from 1873.

The sixth Baron Byron, who was only 10 years old, inherited a highly indebted property that was also badly dilapidated. The estate's annual income was less than £ 800 and the buildings required numerous repairs. His impressions of the heritage of the poet wrote in 1806 in his elegy to the Abbey Newstead ( English Elegy on Newstead Abbey ) down. Byron's mother decided not to live in Newstead with her son, but moved into an apartment in Nottingham. From January 1803 the facility was leased to Henry Edward Yelverton , 19th  Baron Gray de Ruthyn , until the poet came of age in 1808 . Then Byron had renovations and repairs carried out on some rooms. For him, rooms in the north-west corner of the house were prepared, while redesigned rooms in the south-east corner were reserved for guests. However, the work was more cosmetic than substantial, so that just a few years later, moisture had ruined all of Byron's efforts. The poet never used Newstead Abbey as a permanent residence, but only stayed there temporarily. Nevertheless, this property was of great importance to him and his work, which is clear from the fact that numerous poems by Lord Byron deal with the castle and its surroundings or borrow from them. His last visit took place in the autumn of 1814. He had previously tried to sell the property because of his immense debts. An auction on August 14, 1812, however, had no result. When a buyer was found in Thomas Claughton who was willing to pay 140,000 pounds for the property, the deal fell apart because Claughton only paid part of the agreed discount. At the end of July 1815 a new attempt to auction the property started, but again unsuccessfully. In December 1817, George Gordon Byron received an offer from an old school friend: Major (later Colonel ) Thomas Wildman, whose fortune came from sugar cane plantations in Jamaica , offered him £ 94,500 for Newstead Abbey. Byron, who was in Venice at the time, signed the purchase agreement in November of the following year.

Thomas Wildman

Wildman invested an additional £ 100,000 in the property to have it repaired and remodeled between 1818 and about 1829. He essentially gave the mansion its current appearance. The designs for the extensive architectural remodeling were provided by the London architect John Shaw , who was previously responsible for the reconstruction of the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West . The south and west facades were given a fundamentally different design. To the west, Shaw relocated the entrance on the first floor, previously equipped with stairs, down to the ground floor. He moved the no longer needed portal from the 16th century to the east side. According to Shaw's suggestions, the so-called Sussex Tower , a massive square tower in the neon-Norman style, and a kitchen building were added to the southwest corner of the house . Inside, Wildman had the Great Hall repaired very freely in the neo-Gothic style , and the bedrooms in the east wing were also restored. At the same time as the building, Thomas Wildman had the garden changed. The monk's garden , the American garden , the kitchen garden and the lake called Garden Lake south of the mansion date back to his time as the castle owner . Most of the work was finished in 1829.

Webb family

Newstead Abbey on a colored engraving from 1880

After Wildman's death in 1859, his widow Newstead Abbey sold two years later to William Frederick Webb, who was good friends with the Africa explorer David Livingstone . He visited Webb in his new domicile and during that time lived in a room in the Sussex tower , which is now named after him. There Livingstone wrote his book The Zambezi and Its Tributaries ( German  The Zambezi and its tributaries ). Webb modernized the mansion by installing running water and electricity. In addition, the chapel in the east wing was redesigned by Charles Alban Buckler . He also had the interior design and furniture of some rooms changed. Most of the furniture that can be seen in Newstead Abbey today dates from the time of the Webb family. The Webbs left their most lasting mark on Newstead's gardens. Most of them were created by William Frederick's wife, Emilia Jane, and his daughters over the course of more than 40 years. These include the Fern Garden (1864 to 1865), the long perennial borders on the northern edge of the garden area (around 1870), Venetia's Garden (around 1874), the Spanish Garden (1896), the Small Walled Garden (1898), the Japanese Garden (1899 ) and the Subtropical Garden (early 20th century). The existing American garden was redesigned to a rhododendron garden in 1874 , and the French garden received a simpler design under the Webbs in 1916. Among other things, a new stable complex was added in 1862–1863, and also in the 1860s the three lodges at the Newstead Abbeys entrance gates and a gardener's house in the kitchen garden.

After Frederick Williams' death, the property went to his four children in turn; first to Geraldine, then to Ethel and subsequently to Roderick, before his eldest daughter Augusta, married Fraser, inherited the property in 1916. However, she did not live on Newstead herself, but rented it to Sir Arthur Markham and his wife Lucy, née Cunningham, who stayed at Newstead Abbey even after Markham's sudden death.

Todays use

Augusta Fraser left the large country palace to her son Charles Ian Fraser, who sold it to Sir Julian Cahn, a businessman from Nottingham, in 1925. Cahn did not keep the property long, but gave it to the city of Nottingham as a gift in 1931. This began in 1939 with repairs and restorations and then set up a museum there. With this, Nottingham's city council continued an old tradition, because since the death of George Gordon Byron, his followers and admirers made pilgrimages to Newstead to visit his temporary residence. Both Thomas Wildman and his wife and their successor, the Webb family, opened Newstead Abbey to visitors and did not use it as a purely private residence. Today you can see mainly pieces from four different collections: firstly, the large Roe Byron collection, which includes exhibits related to the famous poet, including family portraits, manuscripts and letters, but also some pieces of furniture. It was given to the museum in 1937. Second, the museum owns the Fraser collection with items from the poet's personal possessions. This material is completed by the Gatty collection with furniture from the Byron and Webb families. On the other hand, the museum has a large collection of clothing from previous centuries. Visitors can try on some pieces for themselves in the famous poet's dressing room. In addition, there are many exhibits in the manor house that belonged to the former owner families, such as certificates, diaries and photo albums with recordings from the Victorian era .

description

Newstead Abbey is a large Victorian-style country house in the middle of a large castle park with lakes, ponds and various gardens. The property is located in the valley of the River Leen , the course of which significantly shaped the shape and design of the palace gardens.

architecture

Mansion

View over the eagle pond to the garden side of the manor house

The mansion of Newstead Abbey is a closed four-wing complex of greywacke and stone built around and on the cloister of the monastery of St. Mary of Newstead. At the southwest corner of this square is the four-story Sussex Tower ( English Sussex Tower ) in neon-Norman style. It takes its name from August Frederick , Duke of Sussex , who was a frequent guest at Newstead Abbey in Thomas Wildman's time. This is followed by a building from 1819 with an octagonal kitchen inside. Tower and kitchen with the three-story office wing ( English Office Wing connected) extending from there with polygonal covers floor plan to the west. The southeast corner of the mansion joins the L-shaped family wing ( English Family Wing ) Neo-Renaissance to. It is so named because the owner families did not use the large building in the 19th century, but only this smaller wing for residential purposes. Since 1979 it has also been accessible as part of a museum visit. On its east side is the former entrance door of the west facade from 1631.

The facade of the west wing, whose name, Prior's Lodgings , suggesting the former use, shows three large rectangular windows where the Great Hall ( English Great Hall ) is located. They are two storeys high. To the left of it, the viewer sees two bay windows lying one above the other on the first and second floors . The ogival main portal of the house is on the ground floor on the west side . To the right of it are two semicircular windows protruding like a bay window, behind which the large staircase is located. The flat gable roof of this building section rises behind a crenellated wreath . The east facade of the manor house facing the garden shows a well-preserved entrance from the middle of the 13th century. It leads into the former chapter house, which was converted into a chapel in the 16th century.

Fountain in the cloister courtyard

In the center of the cloister courtyard is a fountain from the early 16th century, which has been a listed building since October 13, 1966 (Grade II). Lord Byron described him in one of his cantos from don Juan . 18th century paintings show him in the meadow south of the manor house. It appears Lord Byron had it put back in its original place. The hexagonal fountain attachment stands in the middle of a round water basin set into the ground. In the lower area it has arched niches with shell decoration on all sides. In addition there is a frieze with quatrefoil -Zier and coats of arms, on which a battlement rises. Stone grotesques sit on the corners . Another octagonal tower with half-columns at the corners rises behind the battlements. They have two more friezes, the upper, larger one of which has a diamond pattern. In turn, stone figures sit on the corners of the fountain above the frieze. An inscription dates the fountain to 1720, but its design identifies it as a 16th century work. The text could indicate a repair of the fountain by William Byron or the relocation of the cloister courtyard to the south side.

Church ruin

The 257 foot (78.3 meter) long priory church formerly stood north of the mansion  . The only thing that still exists of it is the west facade from around 1270, which belongs to the decorated style . The first church does not appear to have had aisles , but one was added to the north side in the late 13th century, while the cloister on the south side was directly adjacent to the main nave. The symmetrically designed western front rose as a glare facade in front of an asymmetrical building. Four buttresses studded with branches divide the facade into three parts. In the middle is the large, ogival main portal with rich profiles and the figure of Christ enthroned in the tympanum. In the two lateral axes there are also ogival but smaller entrances. Above this are blind arcades with tracery . The large tracery window, which was formerly divided into six lanes, is flanked by four-lane blind windows. The gable triangle of the facade shows a niche and a seated Madonna made of stone. Two procession doors in the north wall of the cloister, which formerly led from the south side of the church into the cloister and are now walled up, also date from the construction period . The church facade and the mansion are listed as a listed building on the list of monuments . The place where the priory church used to stand is also protected as a Scheduled Monument .

Stables and follys

The stable complex (right) and the pseudo fort next to it (left)

Around Upper Lake, northwest of the mansion, there are two follys that the fifth Baron Byron had built there. On the western shore of the lake, about 450 meters from the manor house, a mock gun is gone , which was built around 1749 of hewn stone blocks. There is a jetty on its north side . The Webb family used the Grade II * listed building as a boathouse . Just opposite across the lake Baron Byron was in 1770, the former stables to another bill Fort ( English mock continued ) remodel. The Webbs had been using the Folly again as a cowshed since 1877 at the latest.

In addition to the second apparent fort on the eastern bank of the Upper Lake , about 230 meters from the manor house, there is the second stable complex on the property, which was built for the Webb family in 1862/1863 by the architect Matthew Ellison Hadfield . It has been under protection as a single monument (Grade II) since April 27, 1987. Like the neighboring Scheinfort, it is privately owned and used for residential purposes. The neo-Gothic building ensemble consists of single-storey Grauwackebauten with slate roofs , which occupy a rectangular area and enclose an inner courtyard. On the south side is the gatehouse with a pointed arched gate entrance and a coat of arms in the gable. An inscription in the form of the year 1862 attests to the date of construction. Right next to the gate is a tall square tower with a pyramid helmet and an open lantern , which is crowned by a weather vane .

inside rooms

Ground floor plan from 1860

The living quarters of Newstead Abbey are located on the upper floors and have furnishings that are typical of a large English country house of the 19th century. They can all be reached via the courtyard-facing galleries in the four wings of the building. Historians have long assumed that these were built into a country residence during the redesign of the priory and thus date from the 16th century, but in the recent past there have been signs that these galleries already existed during the monastery period.

West wing

Lord Byron's bed

Behind the portal on the west side is a 74 feet × 23 feet (approximately 14.3 m × 7 m) large, crypt-like vaulted room ( English undercroft ) on the left. Its ribbed vault with eight bays rests on octagonal pillars without warriors. In the room are some tombs of members of the Byron family who have been moved from their original location in Colwick Church. To the right of the entrance is the neo-Gothic staircase designed by John Shaw that leads to the Great Hall . George Gorden Byron used this hall for shooting and boxing exercises. It measures 64 feet by 36 feet (approx. 19.5 m by 11 m) and, with its height of 36 feet (11 meters), occupies both the first and second floors of the west wing. The room has a neo-Gothic style resulting from a redesign under John Shaw. These include oak paneling , which is said to have been made from the wood of a single tree, and a wooden musician gallery . The oak ceiling, however, dates back to 1623. A special piece of equipment is a three-part privacy screen made of oak in the style of the flamboyant .

North of the Great Hall is on the first floor of the small former Salon du Prieur ( English Prior's Parlor ), which is accessible from the western gallery. The room is furnished in Tudor style and was used by Lord Byron as a dining and breakfast room. The walls are paneled with black oak, and the ornate, coffered mantelpiece shows coats of arms as well as relief heads and figures. In the center is the Byron family coat of arms. The essay dates from 1556 and is originally from Colwick Hall , another Byron property that the family sold in the 18th century. The furniture in this room comes from the well-known cabinet maker George Hepplewhite . The second floor of the west wing can be reached via a narrow spiral staircase next to the salon des prior . There, above the drawing room, lies the prior's former bedroom, which Lord Byron also used as a bedroom. It is the only room in Newstead Abbey that has not been changed since the poet left. Byron's gilded bed can still be seen there.

North wing

The two-story north wing is the only wing of Newstead Abbey that consists only of corridor-like passages. The old monastery cloister is on the ground floor, and above it is the north gallery, which was converted into a library in the 19th century under Thomas Wildman. It has a mid-18th century marble fireplace, possibly made by Thomas Carter.

East wing

On the first floor of the east wing is the Newstead Abbey chapel, which is now available for rent for weddings. It was created by converting the former chapter house. However, when George Gorden Byron took over his inheritance in the late 18th century, this room was used as a hay store. Byron himself is said to have set up a menagerie there. The room has a square floor plan with a side length of 24 feet and is covered by a cross vault supported by two bundles of columns . The room is entered from the eastern cloister through a large, double-winged arched door . During the time of the monastery, there was a narrow corridor on the north side of the chapel, through which it (then still the chapter house) was connected to the southern transept of the priory church. Thomas Wildman redesigned the corridor into a family loft for the chapel. The interior of the church dates from the 1860s and was installed under William Frederick Webb to designs by the architect Charles Alban Buckler. The windows with stained glass come from the manufactory of John Hardman & Co. North of the chapel in the northeast corner of the mansion is the former orangery with a ceiling from the 19th century. It may have been installed elsewhere before and imitates a 17th century stucco decoration . To the south of the chapel there are two more rooms with vaulted ceilings. They are called Becket Room ( English Becket Room ) and Plantagenet Room ( English Plantagenet Room ) and have served as a wine cellar and dining room since the 19th century.

The dormitory used to be on the upper floor of the east wing. Under John Byron, it was divided into several smaller bedrooms. They all have lavish neo-Gothic furnishings such as heavy paneling and tapestries and are named after English kings or high nobility. One of them is the room of Charles II ( English Charles II Room ). Its painted ceiling with grotesque decoration dates from around 1720 and is attributed to William Kent . In the Edwards III. ( English Edward III Room ) and the Duke of Sussex ( English Duke of Sussex Room ) the fireplaces are provided with elaborately designed attachments from the 16th century. Like the one in the parlor des prior , they are probably from Colwick Hall.

South wing

The music room

With the exception of a narrow staircase, the two floors of the south wing are occupied by a single room on each floor. On the ground floor of the so-called lies Guesten room ( English Guesten Chamber ), a 71 foot x 35 foot (m about 21.6 x 35 m) measuring space in the Middle Ages as Xenodochium was used and after the convent resolution as a lounge for staff. Similar to the entrance hall on the west side, it has a cross vault supported by six pillars. The room could be heated by a large chimney on one of the longitudinal walls. On the upper floor of the south wing is the Music Room ( English Music Room or Great Drawing Room ), which was formerly also called the Saloon . It arose from the refectory of the former monastery and measures 75 feet by 35 feet (approximately 22.9 m by 10.5 m). Its wooden furnishings date from the mid-19th century, only the stuccoed coffered ceiling is older. It dates from 1631–1633. However, only the eight cassettes at the eastern end are original; the others were destroyed in a fire in 1965 and reconstructed during a restoration the following year. The mid-18th century marble fireplace is attributed to Thomas Carter. Its lintel , crowned by a small triangular gable, shows a relief with the story of Androclus and the lion. The chimney opening is flanked by two steles that carry the busts of Demosthenes and Cicero . Next to the fireplace is a wall painting damaged by the fire in 1965 , which could date from the late 12th century. The music room was restored during the restoration and then furnished as it looked in 1840. This includes the wallpaper by Thomas Willement as well as the furniture from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Castle park and gardens

Newstead Abbey has large land holdings consisting of around 273 hectares of park and woodland and a total of 10 hectares of gardens. There are three driveways, all of which are flanked by a lodge. The three buildings were all built in 1862 by the architect Charles Alban Buckler and are listed as individual monuments of level III (grade III) in the English list of monuments.

English landscape garden

View across Upper Lake to the stable complex and mansion

Newsteads Park consists of an English landscape garden , which is strongly shaped by the River Leen. This feeds the waterfalls , lakes and ponds of the property, which were created by its damming. From Upper Lake it flows over a cascade to Garden Lake and from there to a small waterfall in the Japanese Garden , before it reaches the southernmost of the lakes, Lower Lake , also called Sherwood Lake . This is now privately owned and no longer belongs to Newstead Abbey. The westernmost body of water is the approximately 12 hectare Upper Lake . It already existed at the time of the monastery. Because earlier mills stood on its banks, it was called at that time the mill pond ( English Mill Lake ). The middle of the lakes is called Garden Lake . It takes up about two hectares and was laid out by Thomas Wildman around 1820. Its north side is about 150 meters south of the manor house. Bald cypresses , Spanish oaks , medlars and willow cover its banks . Swamp irises , forest angelica , swamp forget-me-nots , bulrushes , rushes , marsh marigolds and water mint grow in the lake . The lake is home to the black-headed Ruddy Duck , gray heron and kingfisher as well as various types of dragonflies . In the meadow between the manor house and Garden Lake is the ivy-covered stump of an oak tree that the poet Byron planted there as a young boy and to which he dedicated his poem To An Oak At Newstead around ten years later . The tree was a major visitor attraction to Newstead Abbey in Victorian times, but had to be felled in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Castle gardens

To the north, east and south-east of the manor house are the partly formal gardens of Newstead Abbey. They were mostly built in the 19th century, only the Great Garden ( English Great Garden ) is older. The formal gardens are surrounded by walls, some of which date from the time of the monastery, but most of them date to the 18th century.

Monk's Garden and Boatswains Monument
Boatswains Monument

North of the mansion is the established under Colonel Thomas Wildman monk garden ( English Monk's Garden ) with its straight roads and its planting of early bloomers like snowdrops , crocuses and daffodils . There is a fountain in it, which the Webb family installed there as one of two. At the time, they replaced two simple fountains with round water basins that had been installed by the Wildman family. The second was transferred to the rose garden in 1965 . The Webbs also used the Mönchsgarten as a pet cemetery, which has since disappeared. Only the tombstone of a parrot is still preserved and exhibited in the manor house.

In a meadow east of the Mönchsgarten stands Boatswain's monument , which Lord Byron had erected in the winter of 1808/1809 for his favorite dog, the Newfoundland dog Boatswain, who died in November 1818 . He chose this location because he wrongly assumed that the high altar of the priory church had previously stood there. In fact, the dog memorial, which has been a listed building since October 13, 1966, stands a little east of the former altar location. A round plinth with seven steps leads up to an urn, which stands on a square block of stone with four side panels made of white marble. The eastern plate bears an inscription with the epitaph to a dog , which Byron wrote in memory of his dog. The poet wanted to be buried next to Boatswain after his death, but his bereaved relatives, contrary to his wishes, had him buried in the family crypt in the church of Hucknall .

Spanish and French gardens
Spanish garden

South of Boatswain's monument , separated from it by a yew hedge and directly to the east of the rear of the manor house, lies the Spanish Garden, laid out in 1896 by Geraldine Webb as a flower parterre . It got its name from the fountain attachment from Spain, which is placed in the middle of the garden. It was created on the site of the former monastery cemetery and has geometric shapes. Its ornamental beds with annual plants and flowers are bordered by low, shaped box hedges . A stone balustrade separates the garden from the higher terrace to the east , which leads to the large garden . South of the Spanish Garden is the French Garden , which has only recently been restored. The baroque garden used to be much more elaborate. Its current, simple appearance with gravel paths and planters goes back to 1916. A sundial stands in its center .

Big garden
The eagle pond in the Great Garden

Stairs lead from the Spanish Garden up to the 230-foot (around 210-meter) long terrace, which was given its current, basic shape in 1896. It frames the Great Garden on the west and south sides , which occupies the northeastern area of ​​the garden area. Surrounded by a wall on the north, east and south sides, it is divided into two roughly equal parts. In the western, formally designed half is the square eagle pond ( English Eagle Pond ), also called mirror pond ( English Mirror Pond ), which is surrounded by terraced paths. The design is similar to the Dutch gardens that were fashionable during the reign of Queen Maria II , which is why the 300-foot by 100-foot (91.5 m by 30.5 m) pond may have been created around that time. Possibly it goes back to a monastic fish pond. The name of the pond comes from a find made while working under the fifth Baron Byron. From the mud at the bottom of the basin, the workers recovered an eagle's desk that the monks and two brass candleholders had thrown into the pond when the monastery was closed to hide it. The pieces eventually ended up in Southwell Cathedral via several owners , where they are still kept today. The right half of the Great Garden , which is planted with some birch trees from the late 20th century, Felwood ( English Devil Wood ) called. The superstitious rural population gave it its name in the 18th century because of two statues that the fifth Baron Byron had erected there in 1784. They are two meter high lead figures on rectangular house stone plinths, depicting a male and a female satyr . They date from the early 18th century and may have been made by John Nost . Both have been under protection as Grade II memorials since October 13, 1966. The residents of the area around Newstead Abbey thought the two statues were devil figures and named their location accordingly Devil's Forest . During the time when the family Webb owner was the property, the garden was this area Abtswald ( English Abbot's Wood ) called.

Along the north side of the Great Garden and the Mönchsgarten there is a 720 foot (almost 220 meter) long border, which was created by the Webb family around 1870 and redesigned again in 1896. The hardy plants from back then were replaced by today's planting in the 1990s.

Stew Pond and Subtropical Garden
Plants in the subtropical garden

In the southern extension of the eastern terrace is a pond called Stew Pond . It may also be traced back to a monastic fish pond and may have been modified by the Byron family in the early 18th century to make it an ornamental canal. In Victorian times, carp were kept in the canal . Paths flanked by yew trees run along both long sides of Stew Pons . To the east of the ornamental canal is the subtropical garden . It was laid out in the early 20th century on a triangular floor plan and restored in 1990 based on a photograph from 1917. In the past, eucalyptus trees , pampas grass , lead root, speedwell and other exotic plants were found there, today mahonia , yuccas and bamboo dominate . A specialty is the handkerchief tree to be found there , which bears its name because of the elongated white flowers. In the days of the Webb family, this garden was surrounded by rhododendrons.

Small walled garden and rose garden
rose Garden

To the east of the subtropical garden and thus south of the Teufelswald lies the area of ​​the former 2.5 acres (about one hectare) kitchen garden, which goes back to the Wildman family. It consists of a small former orchard in the North, who now Small Walled Garden ( German  small walled garden ) is called, and the larger former vegetable garden in the southern part. He is also surrounded by a wall. The Small Walled Garden was converted into a rose and carnation garden by the Webbs in 1898, as the carnation was the favorite flower of William Frederick Webb's wife, Emilia Jane. In 1960 the 72 yard (65.8 meter) long garden was redesigned, this time it was changed to an iris garden. This garden only recently received its current design, in which it was divided into two areas enclosed by box hedges by a straight path. A gate in the south wall leads into what is now known as the rose garden , the southern part of the former kitchen garden . A row of conifers also marks the border. Today's rose garden was created in 1998. It has rose and shrub beds and small topiarys . Its boundary walls are covered with climbing plants. It is divided into four equal-sized rectangles by two straight, crossing paths. At the intersection of the paths there is a fountain, which has been moved from the Mönchsgarten under the Webbs . The family also built heated greenhouses in the garden to grow grapes, peaches and melons. The gardener's house in the southeast corner from the 1860s also goes back to her. The conversion to a rose garden did not take place until 1965, when the old greenhouses were also demolished. To the west of the rose garden there is a children's playground that was laid out in the 1960s, including a picnic area for visitors.

Fern garden and American garden

To the south of the rose garden are four other gardens, all of which have the character of a landscape garden . To them that counts fern garden ( English Fernery ), which was created in 1864 by the then landlady Emilia Jane Webb, together with the head gardener Anderson. The two of them planted hundreds of fern species and equipped the garden with an artificial grotto . Some of the stones used for this may have come from the old priory church. Inside, the cave with tuff from Derbyshire lined. The terracotta pedestals standing there date from 1860 according to their labeling and probably used to carry planters with individual ferns.

East joins the fern garden of the American garden ( English American Garden ), also Heidegarten ( English Heather Garden ) called on. In 1855 there was an aviary with numerous birds, including pheasants, surrounded by roses and other climbing plants . In 1874 the Webbs had the aviary demolished and a rhododendron garden laid out there. In addition, numerous plants and trees from Canada and the USA have been planted, such as magnolias , azaleas , an amber and a tulip tree . That is why the current name has been in use since Victorian times. A yew hedge set in 1868 separates the American Garden from the rose garden to the north .

Venetia's Garden and Japanese Garden
Part of the Japanese garden

South of the American Garden is a rock garden called Venetias Garten ( English Venetiaʼs Garden ). His name suggests that it is a reminiscence of Venice, but in fact he was inspired by a wild garden in Benjamin Disraeli's novel Venetia ( German  The Great Lord. Roman ). Geraldine Webb created it around 1874 together with the then chief gardener Belliss. Geraldine and her mother continued to add more species to the collection of rock plants growing there before the garden was redesigned in 1895/1896 and planted again.

The southernmost of all gardens of Newstead Abbey is the Japanese Garden ( English Japanese Garden ), which is also the south-east Garden Lakes is located. Around 310 meters from the manor house, it is a miniature replica of a Japanese landscape. It was laid out in 1899 for Ethel Webb by a Japanese horticulturist who had been brought to England especially for the purpose. The work was still going on when the First World War broke out and it ended. Many of the plants in the garden are imported from Japan, for example bonsai trees and plants such as maples , quinces and conifers. The stone lanterns set up in the garden also come from the East Asian island. Characteristic of the "Japanese style" are small stone bridges over narrow streams, paths made of stepping stones that lead to small islands, and a thatched tea house .

literature

  • Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. The Seat of Mr. WF Webb. In: Country Life Illustrated . Vol. 3 No. 59 & 60, 1898, ISSN  0045-8856 , pp. 208-210, 240-244.
  • John Beckett, Sheila Aley: Byron and Newstead. The Aristocrat and the Abbey. University of Delaware Press, Newark 2001, ISBN 0-87413-751-9 ( excerpts from Google Books ), ( review , PDF; 99 kB).
  • City of Nottingham: Newstead Abbey Nottinghamshire. A concise handbook to the abbey ruins the mansion with its Byron and other relics and the gardens. Burrow, Nottingham 1938 ( online ).
  • Rosalys Coope, Pete Smith: Newstead Abbey. A Nottinghamshire Country House: its Owners and Architectural History 1540-1931 (= Thoroton Society Record Series. Volume 48). Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, Nottingham 2014, ISBN 978-0-902719-26-2 .
  • JB Firth: Newstead Abbey I & II, Nottingham. The Residence of Lady Markham. In: Country Life. Vol. 42, No. 1089 & 1090, 1917, ISSN  0045-8856 , pp. 468-474, 492-497.
  • Andrew Ginger: Country Houses of England, Scotland and Wales. A Guide and Gazetteer. George Philip, London 1991, ISBN 0-540-01221-1 , pp. 119-120.
  • Candida Lycett Green: Country Life. 100 Favorite Houses. MacMillan, London 1999, ISBN 0-7522-1333-4 , pp. 120-121.
  • Simon Jenkins: England's thousand best houses. Penguin Books, London 2004, ISBN 0-141-00625-0 , pp. 578-580.
  • Nikolaus Pevsner, Elizabeth Williamson: Nottinghamshire (= The Buildings of England. Volume 2). 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 2001, ISBN 0-14-071002-7 , pp. 201-209
  • Geoffrey Tyack, Steven Brindle: Country Houses of England. A & C Black, London 1994, ISBN 0-7136-3780-3 , pp. 405-406.

Web links

Commons : Newstead Abbey  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e Entry by Newstead Abbey on pastscape.org , accessed September 20, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Entry of the property in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed September 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Entry of the mansion of Newstead Abbey in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed September 20, 2016.
  4. ^ William Page: A History of the County of Nottingham. Volume 2. Victoria County History, London 1910, p. 116 ( online ).
  5. ↑ a b J. Beckett, S. Aley: Byron and Newstead. 2001, p. 24 ( digitized version ).
  6. ^ CL Green: Country Life. 100 Favorite Houses. 1999, p. 121.
  7. ↑ a b c N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 204.
  8. ↑ a b J. B. Firth: Newstead Abbey II, Nottingham. 1917, p. 492.
  9. ↑ John Timbs, Alexander Gunn: Abbeys, castles and ancient halls of England and Wales, their legendary lore and popular history. Volume 3: North. Frederick Warne, London 1872, p. 42 ( digitized version ). A glorifying account of the property is found in Byron's Canto XIII of Don Juan , published in 1823 , in which the poet calls it Norman Abbey.
  10. ↑ Silvia Bordoni: George Gordon Lord Byron (1788-1824). University of Nottingham, Nottingham 2005 ( PDF ; 184 kB).
  11. ↑ a b c History of the property on the Newstead Abbey website ( September 24, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ newsteadabbeybyronsociety.org , access on September 21 2016th
  13. ↑ Review by J. Beckett, S. Aley: Byron and Newstead. The Aristocrat and the Abbey. In: The Newstead Abbey Byron Society (Ed.): Newstead Review. undated, p. 5 ( PDF ; 99 kB).
  14. ↑ a b c Review by J. Beckett, S. Aley: Byron and Newstead. The Aristocrat and the Abbey. In: The Newstead Abbey Byron Society (Ed.): Newstead Review. undated, p. 9 ( PDF ; 99 kB).
  15. ↑ Review by J. Beckett, S. Aley: Byron and Newstead. The Aristocrat and the Abbey. In: The Newstead Abbey Byron Society (Ed.): Newstead Review. no year, p. 10 ( PDF ; 99 kB).
  16. ^ A b N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 205.
  17. ^ Hugh W. Strong: Newstead Abbey. In: Francis B. Hayes: Historic houses of the United Kingdom. Cassell & Company, London, Paris, Melbourne 1892, p. 306 ( digitized version ).
  18. ↑ a b c d e f g J. B. Firth: Newstead Abbey I, Nottingham. 1917, p. 474.
  19. ^ G. Tyack, S. Brindle: Country Houses of England. 1994, p. 405.
  20. ↑ a b Information on the gardens at nottinghamcity.gov.uk , accessed on September 21, 2016.
  21. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj Information on the gardens on the website of Newstead Abbey ( Memento dated September 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ a b c d N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 208.
  23. ^ JB Firth: Newstead Abbey II, Nottingham. 1917, p. 494.
  24. ↑ a b c N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 209.
  25. ↑ Information on the museum collections on the Newstead Abbey website ( Memento from September 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ a b c d e f g h G. Tyack, S. Brindle: Country Houses of England. 1994, p. 406.
  27. ↑ Entry of the fountain in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on September 22, 2016.
  28. ↑ a b c d N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 206.
  29. ^ JB Firth: Newstead Abbey I, Nottingham. 1917, p. 468.
  30. ^ A b N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 201.
  31. ↑ Entry of the church locations in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on 23 September 2016.
  32. ↑ Entry of the stable complex in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on September 22, 2016.
  33. ^ JB Firth: Newstead Abbey I, Nottingham. 1917, p. 471.
  34. ↑ a b c d e f J. B. Firth: Newstead Abbey I, Nottingham. 1917, p. 472.
  35. ↑ a b S. Jenkins: England's thousand best houses. 2004, p. 579.
  36. ^ A b N. Pevsner, E. Williamson: Nottinghamshire. 2001, p. 207.
  37. ^ Hugh W. Strong: Newstead Abbey. In: Francis B. Hayes: Historic houses of the United Kingdom. Cassell & Company, London, Paris, Melbourne 1892, p. 302 ( digitized version ).
  38. ^ JB Firth: Newstead Abbey I, Nottingham. 1917, p. 473.
  39. ↑ South Lodge's entry in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on 23 September 2016.
  40. ↑ East Lodge's entry in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on 23 September 2016.
  41. ^ Entry of West Lodge in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on September 23, 2016.
  42. ↑ Entry of the monument in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed on September 24, 2016.
  43. ^ JB Firth: Newstead Abbey II, Nottingham. 1917, p. 496.
  44. ^ Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. The Seat of Mr. WF Webb. 1898, p. 210.
  45. ^ JB Firth: Newstead Abbey II, Nottingham. 1917, p. 495.
  46. ↑ Entry of the male satyr statue in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed September 24, 2016.
  47. ↑ Entry of the female satyr statue in the English list of monuments on historicengland.co.uk , accessed September 24, 2016.
  48. ↑ a b Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. The Seat of Mr. WF Webb. 1898, p. 242.

Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 42 "  N , 1 ° 11 ′ 33"  W.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 28, 2016 .