Cusworth Hall
Cusworth Hall is an 18th century country house in the village of Cusworth near Doncaster in the English county of South Yorkshire . Listed by English Heritage as a Grade I Historic Building, nestled within Cusworth Park landscaped grounds, the home is a fine example of a Georgian country house . Today it houses a museum.
The country house was built from ashlar and covered with slate . The main house is rectangular and has a division of 6 × 5. Two wings for the servants are connected with a division of 5 × 2.
history
The Wrightson family had been noble since 1669.
The house, which has been preserved to this day, was built by George Platt for William Wrightson in the years 1740 to 1745 , replaced an earlier house and was rebuilt by the architect James Paine in 1749–1753 . After Lord Williams' death in 1760, the property fell to his daughter Isabella , who was married to John Battie . In 1766 he also adopted the name Wrightson and commissioned the landscape architect Richard Woods to redesign the park. Woods was part of a group of distinguished landscape architects working across the country in the 18th century, and Cusworth was one of his most important assignments in South Yorkshire, as was the park at Cannon Hall . Woods created a park of 100 hectares with a meandering , artificial river that ran through three lakes and had decorative pieces, such as a rock arch and a cascade .
The property later passed from John Battie-Wrightson and Isabella's son, William Wrightson (1752-1827). The latter was a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Aylesbury from 1784 to 1827 and High Sheriff of Yorkshire from 1819 to 1820 . He was followed by his son, William Battie-Wrightson (1789–1879), who was a member of Parliament for the constituencies of East Retford , Hull and Northallerton a few times . He died childless and Cusworth Hall fell to his brother Richard Heber Wrightson , who died in 1891.
The estate was then bequeathed to his nephew, William Henry Thomas , who took the name Battie-Wrightson with royal permission and died in 1903. He was married to Lady Isabella Cecil , the eldest daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Exeter . Between 1903 and 1909 Lady Isabella had other changes made to the house. She died in 1917, leaving behind as the only male descendant Robert Cecil-Battie-Wrightson (1888-1952). When he died, the property fell to his sister, a nurse who was married to Major Oswald Parker , but who later became known as Miss Pearse-Brown or Mrs Pearce . She had to sell the interior of Cusworth Hall in October 1952 to be able to pay inheritance tax that had been due after her brother's death. She then sold the country house to the Doncaster County Council.
'Old Hall' in Cusworth, Cusworth Hall and Cusworth Park
Cusworth Estate
Cusworth was first mentioned as Cuzeuuorde in the Domesday Book of 1086 , but an Anglo-Saxon settlement had been around for centuries . Many different families have owned and ruled the estate since then, but they did not always live in Cusworth.
'Old Hall'
A large house is first mentioned in 1327. Robert Wrightson bought the property with the manor of Cusworth in 1669 from Sir Christopher Wray . The oldest surviving map of Cusworth is that of Joseph Dickinson from 1719, showing the country house and gardens on an area of only 0.4 hectares, with the orchards covering another 0.8 hectares. The "park" with around 10 hectares was particularly typical at that time. The 'Old Hall' was near the fenced gardens in the center of the village of Cusworth. In 1726 the 'Old Hall' was expanded and the gardens changed between 1726 and 1735. The kitchen garden was also laid out in the size and shape you can see today and provided with a bowling green and a pavilion.
Between 1740 and 1745, George Platt, an architect of Rotherham, built a new country house for William Wrightson, which still stands today, high on an escarpment on magnesium limestone. The 'Old Hall' was demolished, many parts of it were processed in the new building and the family moved into the new country house.
Cusworth Hall
Cusworth Hall and its outbuildings are in the center of the park with a view of Doncaster City. Listed as a historical building of the first degree, the country house was designed by George Platt in the Palladian style . It's pretty and well proportioned; the stables and the large kitchen are housed in the side wings. James Paine later added a chapel and library. The outbuildings are also decorative, e.g. B. a brewery, further stables and a lodge. In addition, to the west, following the chapel, there is an ornamental garden called Lady Isabella's Garden . On its east side are the stables and the gardener's hut. Next to the gardener's hut is an area enclosed with a decorative iron fence called the Peacock Pen .
Cusworth Park
Custworth Park is a landscaped park listed by English Heritage as a Grade II Historic Facility. It was designed and created by the nationally renowned landscape architect Richard Woods to "upgrade" the park in the style made famous by Lancelot Capability Brown and now called the English Landscape Park. Work began in 1761 with the construction of the property and the meandering, artificial river.
The grounds of today's park are 25 hectares and were part of the much larger parkland with 100 hectares, or the estate of the Battie-Wrightson family with 8000 hectares.
The fenced in garden
The oldest description of the park and enclosed garden is that on the map by Joseph Dickinson from 1719. In 1761 Richard Woods changed the area within the garden enclosure. Together, Woods' kitchen garden and greenhouse garden cover the area shown as an orchard on Dickinson's map.
The purchase of the bricks from Epworth for the construction of the garden fence can be seen in the accounts of the new house.
The garden was divided into plots, with the focus in some sections on the cultivation of household plants, in others on exotic plants, fruits or flowers in the rest.
In the kitchen garden there were “pineapple houses”, which later became heated greenhouses and mushroom houses.
Entrance terrace
Also called "upper terrace". Old plans show a narrow fence or "entrance patio" that runs east to west. The walls of this enclosure might have been made of stone or covered with stone; part of theirs has been preserved to this day. To the south of this are the main parts of the enclosed garden. A flight of stone steps leads from the terrace down to the bowling green.
Bowling green
It is described in Richard Woods' 1760 plans. It is an approximately square lawn area with a fencing of a terraced path with earth boundaries. The enclosure has a brick wall that is lowered on its west side and so opens up a view over the greenhouse garden.
Summer house and bowling pavilion
Made in 1726. The summer house is the most important architectural detail of the enclosed garden. It is two-story, with the upper floor accessible from the bowling green. Even more finely shaped corner stones can be guessed, but the walls were probably preserved in their original shape and later plastered on the outside. The bowling green can be seen from the windows on the upper floor, and the flower garden from those on the lower floor.
During the restoration in the 1990s, the upper floor was decorated with a trompe-l'œil , which shows a view over faked enclosed gardens in Cusworth.
flower garden
This garden has been designed to be viewed primarily from above from the bowling green. It was divided into four formal beds, crosswise with garden paths. The flower garden is one of the smallest parts of the garden, but it was planned very ornately. It should be a formal, colorful, architectural space that contrasts with the simplicity of the bowling green.
Hall Garden
The function of the Hall Garden is not clear, but it appears to have been a continuation of the decorative pattern of the flower garden. The Hall Garden is completely surrounded by a garden path and divided in the middle by another.
Peach house
This white painted wall indicates the location of the former peach house.
Melon beds
The melon beds are laid out in an east-west direction along this area.
Orchard
The orchard was not fenced in in the 18th century and remained open until the end of the 19th century. At that time it was twice the area it is today and stretched up to Cusworth Lane. In the 1960s, the northern part was sold as building land for residential buildings.
Former kitchen garden
The western, southern and eastern fencing of this garden still exists today, but the area was also sold as building land for residential buildings in the 1960s. There was a gate from Hall Garden into the kitchen garden that can still be seen on the northwest corner today. This garden had a surrounding garden path and was planted with trees in parallel rows around a small building at the north end of this garden.
Former greenhouse garden
The kitchen garden covered most of the original orchard from Dickinson's map of 1719. The remainder was described on Woods' plan as the "Green House Garden" and was divided into unequal parts. Both parts were probably planted with trees, probably fruit trees. One building adjoins the bowling green, roughly in the position shown on Dickinson's map, but there is another, almost square, building in the northwest corner of the enclosure. This was believed to be the pigeon house for which Wrightson paid the sum of £ 9, s 15, d 0 in 1736.
The western boundary wall still exists today, as does the low (eastern) boundary wall leading to the bowling green, but the site was also sold as building land for residential buildings in the 1960s.
Recent development
In 1961 the Doncaster Rural District Council bought Cusworth Hall and the adjacent parkland from the Battie-Wrightson family. The administration carried out an initial restoration of the site and also created the tearooms in the former stables. The former parade rooms and spacious galleries have housed the Museum of Life in South Yorkshire since September 30, 1967.
From 2002 to 2005, Cusworth Hall and Cusworth Park underwent a thorough £ 7.5 million restoration which included repairs to the cottage and an extensive restoration of the landscaped gardens. The exterior facades and roof of the country house were repaired so that they were waterproof, and the interior was improved so that new exhibitions could be built.
The restoration of the landscaped garden was carried out after a thorough analysis of the existing archive material, which included the original notes and sketches by Richard Woods for his site manager Thomas Coalie . A key aspect of the restoration was an included archaeological program that recorded details such as the rock arch, cascade and bridge. This restoration did not want to copy the patterns from the 18th century, although elements of them are still part of the "living" recreational garden that is now blooming as a result of the recent work carried out in collaboration with the "Friends of Cusworth Park".
The villa reopened on May 23, 2007; the new exhibits document the history of South Yorkshire and are a valued resource for local residents, students and school groups alike.
The museum and park provide the backdrop for a varied program of seasonal exhibitions, events and activities related to the history of the area, such as B. rural fairs, vintage car rallies, historical performances, wildlife events and the like.
In addition, the Museum Administration of Doncaster Schools and Education Centers offers a range of instruction. Specialists and educators offer learning workshops on various topics and leisure activities for families and communities.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cusworth Hall, Sprotbrough and Cusworth . British Historic Buildings. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
- ↑ a b Cusworth Park - Grade II . Doncaster Council. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
- ↑ WRIGHTSON, William (1752-1827), of Cusworth Hall, Doncaster, Yorks. . History of Parliament Online. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
- ^ Papers of Battie-Wrightson of Cusworth . National Archives. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
Web links
- Cusworth Hall site
- Papers of the Battie-Wrightson Family of Cusworth . Doncaster Council Archives Online.
Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '44.4 " N , 1 ° 10' 37.6" W.