Knowsley Hall

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View from the west. The east wing.
View from the south. In the middle today's end of the south wing, on the left edge parts of the Dynamo Tower .
Loggia of the east wing

Knowsley Hall is a mansion near the city of Liverpool in the parish of Knowsley , Merseyside and has been a listed building in England since 1953 . It has been the ancestral home of the Stanley family , today's Earls of Derby , since the English Civil War . The mansion is surrounded by extensive parkland, which also includes the Knowsley Safari Park . The facility is still owned by the Stanley family to this day, but is no longer used for residential purposes, but mainly serves as an event location, for example for private celebrations, weddings and company events. The mansion and park are also actively marketed as a backdrop for filming .

History of the building and its owners

Originally, Knowsley Hall was a hunting lodge on the grounds of Lathom House , which was the main estate of the Stanley family in the Middle Ages. There is evidence of a building at this point from the late 14th century. Thomas Stanley received the title of Earl of Derby for helping Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth , whereupon the King was the Earl's guest in 1495 at Lathom House and in Knowsley, which was then still a hunting lodge. From this time comes the name Royal Lodging (roughly: "Royal Lodging") for the oldest parts of the building.

Today's appearance is the result of a large number of modifications and additions, especially since the 18th century. The first extensive renovation of Knowsley Hall in the early 18th century goes back to the wishes of the tenth earl . Under Edward Smith-Stanley , on the occasion of a visit by George IV from 1820 to 1821, the premises were expanded to include a representative dining room. From this time the main architects are known: John Foster worked around 1820, William Burn in the 1840s and WH Romaine-Walker from 1910.

The 13th Earl of Derby established a large natural history collection and library at Knowsley Hall , some of which still exist today . The most recent major expansion of the building by Romaine-Walker prompted Edward Stanley , who determined the current character of the complex with its extensive redesign, especially of the eastern part. As one of the main organizers of the British Army during World War I , Edward Stanley also made some of his Knowsley Hall property and the surrounding land available for military use. The building served as a hospital, convalescent home and accommodation. A large military camp and training area were established within the boundaries of the park.

After World War II , the 18th Earl of Derby had Claud Phillimore downsize the complex to a more manageable size and build a smaller and more modern home for the family. During this downsizing, a Victorian greenhouse and library from the same period in the north of the building and part of the old south wing were demolished, separating what is now known as the Dynamo Tower from the main building. Extensive and fundamental repairs took place under the current Earl .

architecture

The southern facade around 1880. The neo-Gothic south wing can be seen on the left and the loggia at the end of the east wing on the right .

Exterior

The building has an L-shaped floor plan, the wings of which are oriented in a north-south or east-west direction. The wing oriented in a north-south direction is usually referred to as the "east wing" because it is on the east side of the building. Similarly, the wing that is at right angles to it is called the "south wing". The south wing probably contains building material from the 15th century, two pillars in the interior are dated to this time. The red sandstone facade, decorated with two towers in the western part, dates from the late 17th century. The east wing is built in the Georgian steep , the facade made of bricks and white decorative elements dates from the 18th century. The building is two stories high throughout, the increase by one story in the middle of the east wing dates from 1912. The south end of the east wing has been designed as a loggia since 1732 and shows two rows of decorative pairs of columns.

Until well into the 20th century, the building was even more extensive than it is today. A description of the state from 1907 names the length of the east wing 415  ft (126  m ) and the length of the south wing 290 ft (88 m). Today the east wing is 290 ft (88 m) long and the south wing is 130 ft (40 m) long.

interior

There are only a few architectural elements from the 18th century in the building; the majority of the representative rooms today show the state from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The oldest clear element is a passage between the picture gallery and the stucco room, dated 1733 .

The spacious entrance hall has a richly designed wall paneling made of oak, the oldest parts of which date from the Jacobean period . Adjacent to the hall is the grand staircase designed by Romaine-Walker in the style of the late 17th century. The Walnut Drawing Room takes its name from the French-inspired furnishings in walnut wood . One of the largest rooms in the south wing is the 9 m high State Dining Room , designed in the early 19th century , a dining room in the form of a large hall with two neo-Gothic chimneys and large gold-plated chandeliers . The smaller representative rooms are the rococo- style Stucco Room , the Morning Room and Breakfast Room on the upper floor and the study known as Lord Derby's Room on the ground floor .

A large number of paintings by Italian and Flemish painters can still be found in the building; a large part of the library's holdings was sold after the Second World War.

Parkland

View over part of the park

The entire park is about 10.1  square kilometers in size and is since 1986 as a whole under monument protection . In its current form, the park is the work of the well-known landscape architect "Capability" Brown , who also had the lakes created for water supply. This chain of lakes, consisting of Home Pond, Octagon Pond and White Man's Dam, extends in the central part of the park south and east of the mansion. The southeastern part of the park was converted into a safari park in 1971 .

There are a number of smaller buildings in the park. These include the summer house The Octagon, attributed to William Kent , directly on Octagon Pond, stables, boathouses, various entrance buildings and a farm yard. Between Knowsley Hall and White Man's Dam, the New House, built in 1963, is now the Stanley family home.

The highest point of the park is to the east of the lakes on the border to the safari park and is at the same time the highest point in the vicinity with a height of just under 100 m. It offers a good view of the entire area.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Knowsley Hall (Grade II *) [1253241] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England . Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  2. ^ A b c d William Farrer, J Brownbill: A History of the County of Lancaster, Knowsley and Manor . tape 3 , 1907, pp. 157–165 ( online [accessed June 21, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Official overview of the facility. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  4. ^ History of the building on the website of the complex. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  5. ↑ Homepage of the Knowsley Safari Park. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  6. ^ History of the Stanley family on the homepage of the plant. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  7. ^ Homepage of the building as an event location. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  8. ↑ Presentation of the possibilities of the area for filming. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  9. ^ After Pollard, Pevsner, p. 218.
  10. ↑ Length of the building sections measured using Google Maps in the satellite image.
  11. ^ After Pollard, Pevsner, p. 220.
  12. ^ Samuel Lewis: Knowsley . In: A Topographical Dictionary of England . 1848, p. 708-710 ( British History Online [accessed June 21, 2018]).
  13. ↑ Area measured using Google Maps in the satellite image.
  14. ^ In Knowsley Hall and Estate . Jarrold, Norwich 2005. With 2500 acres an area is given which is identical within the scope of the measurement accuracy.
  15. ↑ a b c d e Knowsley Park (Grade II) [1000997] ( English ) In: National Heritage List for England . Historic England . Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  16. ↑ The Knowsley Hall homepage names Robert Adam as the architect of the Octagon. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  17. ↑ The Octagon is also explicitly mentioned in Pollard, Pevsner, but no architect is mentioned.
  18. ↑ Data on the highest elevation in the park. Retrieved June 20, 2018.

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 26 ′ 16.8 ″  N , 2 ° 50 ′ 18.2 ″  W.

Commons : Knowsley Hall  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Homepage of Knowsley Hall
  • Presentation of the work of the garden designer Capability Brown in Knowsley on a website for Brown's 300th birthday.
  • Depiction of Knowsley Hall on parks & gardens uk
  • History of Knowsley Hall and Park during World War I.