Cholmondeley Castle

Cholmondeley Castle from the south

Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the municipality of Cholmondeley the English county of Cheshire . The house is surrounded by a formal garden and park. The estate has been the seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century . The current mansion replaced a timber frame house nearby. It was built in the early 19th century for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley , who designed it mostly himself in the form of a crenellated castle. After the death of the Marquess, the house was expanded according to plans by Robert Smirke as it is today. English Heritage has it as a historical building II *. Grade listed.

The first formal garden was designed by George London in the 17th century . After it was overgrown in the 18th century, William Emes , who also created the landscape park, rearranged it. In the 20th century it was expanded by Lavinia , widow of Hugh Cholmondeley, 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley . In the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens , the garden and park are listed as II degrees. There are a number of other listed historical buildings in the park and garden. The most important of these is St Nicholas' Chapel , which dates back to the 13th century, contains many furniture from the 17th century and is listed as a Grade I Historic Building. In the main driveway is a wrought iron gate that was created for the old mansion by Robert Bakewell in 1722 and moved here in the early 19th century. It is a historical building II *. Grade listed. The altered remains of the old manor house, five lodges in and around the property and a number of structures in the gardens are considered to be historical buildings of the second degree.

During the Second World War , the house and property served a number of military purposes, e.g. B. the operation of a hospital. Since 2014 the current Marquess of Cholmondeley no longer lives here, but in the other family seat of Houghton Hall in Norfolk . Only his mother Lavinia still lives in Cholmondeley Castle. The house is not open to the public, but the park and gardens are open in the summer season. A number of events take place on the property and one of the lodges can be rented as a holiday home.

history

Old mansion

Drawing of the old mansion

The estate has been the seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century. The house from the 16th century was built with timber framework on a platform surrounded by a moat. In the following century, the manor and separate chapel were destroyed by the Roundheads during the English Civil War, but then rebuilt by Robert Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of Leinster . In 1701, Hugh Cholmondeley commissioned William Smith of Warwick to clad the house with bricks and to install components such as huge columns and balustraded parapets with urns and statues. In 1712 the Earl had lost patience with Smith and asked John Vanburgh to come up with new plans, but they were never carried out. In 1722, a wrought iron gate and wrought iron fences, made by Robert Bakewell, were installed to fence in the forecourt of the house. The manor house was neglected in the 18th century. In 1770 it was inherited by George Cholmondeley, 4th Earl of Cholmondeley, who decided to replace it with a new building and demolish most of the old mansion.

New mansion

Construction of the new mansion in the style of a castle began in 1801. It was mainly from the Earl himself in collaboration with the architect William Turner from Whitchurch designed. The design was symmetrical, the entrance facade faced west and the building consisted of two crenellated blocks with a single-storey loggia inserted between them . Behind the loggia was an entrance hall at full height of the building. The three main showrooms were on the east side of the house, facing the garden. The house was completed in this first phase of construction in 1805. Many building materials were reused from the demolition of the old mansion, e.g. B. Bricks, glass, windows, wooden structures and mantels. Bakewell's fences without the entrance gate were put together to form a screen for the driveway. In 1817, George Cholmondeley (now 1st Marquess) began a series of additions to the house, starting with a new dining room. Two years later, a family wing with a tall, rectangular tower was added to the south side of the house. Both changes were designed by the marquess himself. Two octagonal towers followed at the corners. The marquess died in 1828 and soon afterwards Robert Smirke was commissioned to carry out further additions and changes. The most important extension was a round tower on the southeast corner of the family wing. Smirke also left the central tower of the eastern facade leaped by a bay window yoke grew, received its present appearance which the mansion. This work was completed in 1829.

Later story

The building that housed the Royal Navy Auxiliary Hospital .

Like many other country houses and mansions, Cholmondeley Castle was used for special purposes during World War II. From July to October 1940, the troops of the Czechoslovak government in exile were housed on the property . They were later used in Operation Anthropoid , an attempted assassination of Reinhard Heydrich . Cholmondeley Castle also served as the Royal Navy Auxiliary Hospital , where seafarers were treated with mental breakdowns.

On June 10, 1952, the manor was designated Historic Building II * by English Heritage. Grade listed. The current Marquess, David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley , does not live at Cholmondeley Castle, but at the other family seat of Houghton Hall in Norfolk.

architecture

Facades

The mansion was built of sandstone and has roofs made of slate and lead . It has two main floors and a basement; the towers reach greater heights. The entire building is provided with a crenellated parapet. The entrance facade faces west and consists of two three-story wings in three bays with a one-story loggia with three bays in between. The windows in the side blocks have pointed arches and Y-shaped tracery . In the loggia, the windows each have two panes and almost semicircular headboards above. Above and behind the loggia there is also Y-shaped tracery on the upper floors of the entrance hall. On the right side of the entrance facade there is a five-story tower with a square floor plan, which is connected to the octagonal turrets with loopholes . The garden facade, which faces east, has turrets at the corners, between which a large, protruding bay window that extends upwards in the form of a half tower. To the left of this is a south facade with two floors and three bays. It contains pendulum windows and windows with three-pass heads and Y-shaped tracery. This is followed by a section with two storeys and two yokes and finally Smirke's wing for the servants with the large, round tower with loopholes.

inside rooms

The two-story entrance hall is accessed via the loggia. This has blind arches on the side walls. Opposite the entrance there is an open arch that leads to the north-south corridor. Below is an anteroom with its large, protruding bay window. This room has a simple dentil cornice . To the north is the dining room with a marble mantelpiece , a cornice adorned with gilded flowers and leaves, rosettes and a central rose with a chandelier on the ceiling. The salon is south of the anteroom. Here the cornice is decorated with arrows pointing downwards, and on the ceiling there is again a central rose with a chandelier. From there you can access the stairwell with an outside staircase. The stairwell is illuminated from above by a wooden lantern . The staircase is made of black marble and the wrought iron banister was created by Rober Bakewell and taken over from the old mansion. The handrail is made of rosewood . To the south of the stairwell are the children's rooms and the library. The '' Bird Room '' between the stairwell and the salon contains a collection of documents. The arrangement of the rooms and corridors on the upper floor is complex. The kitchens and rooms for the servants are in the basement.

estate

chapel

St Nicholas' Chapel

The St. Nicholas Chapel is listed as a historical building of the first degree and was initially built as a timber frame construction in the 13th century. In 1717 it was then framed in brickwork and expanded. Other additions date from 1829 and 1840. It has a slate roof and a floor plan in the form of a cross. Most of its furnishings date from the 17th century. The church stalls of the Cholmondeley family are in a higher position in the western part.

Gardens and park

The first formal gardens on the property were laid out by Hugh Cholmondeley in the 17th century. They were designed in the French style with canals and avenues . The gardens were designed by George London and included gates and railings by Jean Tijou and statues by Jan van Nost . After the garden was completely overgrown in the 18th century, the 4th Earl commissioned William Emes to redesign it. Emes transformed the formal gardens into a landscaped park by planting a number of trees and creating lakes. Further redesigns were made by John Webb , a student of Emes, who presumably designed the terrace directly surrounding the mansion. Lavinia, the widow of the 6th Marquess, has been looking after the gardens since the middle of the 20th century, cleaning and improving them and adding new details.

Temple Garden

The house is enclosed in the south by a terrace, from which one can access three connected gardens: The Silver Garden , the Lily Pool Garden and an area with a swimming pool. Behind it are lawns, groups of trees and bushes, gravel paths and an enclosed garden. Of particular interest is the Temple Garden ; it contains an irregularly shaped pond with two small islands. On one of the islands there is a building in the shape of a temple. There is a rotunda at the western end of the garden . To the northwest of the temple garden is the Rose Garden . Behind the gardens is the park, which mainly consists of grassland with a few trees. There is also a Ha-Ha and two lakes, the Chapel Mere (Kapellensee) and the Deer Park Mere (Rehparksee). Since June 10, 1985, the gardens and the park have been listed as Appendix II in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens . The listed area covers around 240 hectares.

Listed historical buildings

Beeston Lodge

In addition to the historical building II *. Grade listed mansion and the chapel listed as Grade I Historic Building, there are other historic buildings on the property. Richards Bakewell's garden umbrella in the driveway is considered Historic Building II *. Degree. All other structures are listed as historical grade II. Five of them are connected to the temple garden: the temple itself, the rotunda, the bridge over the pond with its parapets made of stone phine, a lead sculpture by van Nost depicting three putti, and the entrance gate, probably by Jean Tijou. The north and south gates to the enclosure of the chapel, created by Bakewell in 1722 and installed in its current location in 1829, are both listed. Five lodges in association with Cholmondeley Castle, three of them on the property, are listed: Dee Park Lodge on the southeastern driveway to the manor, Park House Lodge on the north driveway to the manor, and Somerset Lodge , a gatehouse on the east driveway to the manor which was designed by SS Teulon . The other two lodges are at the entrances to the property: Nantwich Lodge , the original south entrance, and Beeston Lodge, on the east driveway to the manor. The other listed historic buildings are the abandoned and altered old mansion, The Mews , the former stables, Park House and Scotch Farm , also built in the old stables. A bridge on the eastern driveway to the manor is also listed.

today

The house is not open to the public, but the gardens can be visited in summer. There you will find a kiosk, picnic and playground areas, and a nature trail. Visitors can see many different farm animals in the stables and on the paddocks. A program of events is organized in summer. There are events such as B. the annual Pageant of Power . The Somerset Lodge can be rented as a holiday home.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Cholmondeley Castle . Historic England. Retrieved April 22, 2015.

↑ ^a ^b Peter de Figueiredo, Julian Treuherz: Cheshire Country Houses . Phillimore, Chichester 1988. ISBN 0-85033-655-4 . P. 52.

↑ George Cholmondeley was raised to 1st Earl of Cholmondeley in 1815.

^ The London Gazette . Issue 17066, page 1997, September 30, 1815. Retrieved April 22, 2015.

↑ Peter de Figueiredo, Julian Treuherz: Cheshire Country Houses . Phillimore, Chichester 1988. ISBN 0-85033-655-4 . P. 53.

↑ Peter de Figueiredo, Julian Treuherz: Cheshire Country Houses . Phillimore, Chichester 1988. ISBN 0-85033-655-4 . Pp. 53-56.

^ Linden Groves: Historic Parks & Gardens of Cheshire . Landmark, Ashbourne 2004. ISBN 1-84306-124-4 . P. 25.

^ ^A ^b Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde, Edward Hubbard, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Cheshire . Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1971. ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6 . P. 286.

^ Czechs in Exile: Cholmondeley Castle . Czechoslovak Government in Exile Research Society. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 17, 2013. @1@ 2