Lilford Hall
Lilford Hall is a manor house in Northamptonshire , England . English Heritage has listed it as a Grade I Historic Building. Construction began in 1495 in the Tudor style , a substantial expansion in the Jacobean style was added in 1635 and the 5100 m² interior was redesigned in the Georgian style in the 1740s . The 100 room country house is located in the eastern part of Northamptonshire County, south of Oundle and north of Thrapston .
The Browne (Elmes) family resided in the country house from 1495 to 1711 and the Powys ( Baron Lilford ) family from 1711 to 1990 . Today the Micklewright family lives there , only the third family in over 500 years. Lilford Hall and the surrounding 1.4 km² parkland are approximately a mile (1.6 km) on the banks of the River Nene and northwest of the village of Lilford , part of the Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe and Thorpe Achurch parish . The land that was later converted to parkland is in the Domesday Book and then belonged to King David I of Scotland .
history
The Lilford estate was bought in 1473 by the wealthy merchant and landowner William Browne , a wealthy Stamford wool merchant and landowner, from the property of Baron Welles , who was beheaded by King Edward IV for treason. William Browne bequeathed the property to his only child Elisabeth in 1489 and the mansion was built in 1495 by William Elmes , Elisabeth's son.
Robert Browne (1550–1633), the founder of the Brownists , who seceded from the Church of England early, lived at Lilford Hall from 1616 to 1631 when he returned to the Church of England. From 1591 to 1631 he held the benefice of the Achurch Church. Robert Browne is known as the "Pilgrim Father" and "Grandfather of the Nation" (USA) because of the separation of church and state and the acceptance of the first step in American democracy, namely the election of its own preacher by the congregation of each church Brownists, taught.
Thereafter, Sir Thomas Powys , Attorney General under King James II and chief prosecutor in the famous trial of the Seven Bishops , acquired the manor in 1711. In the 18th century, his grandson Thomas Powys, the elder , had the builder Henry Flitcroft rebuilt . His son, Thomas Powys, the Younger , was named Baron Lilford by Prime Minister William Pitt, the Younger .
Mansion
The main part of Lilford Hall is a Jacobean style mansion built from the 1630s to 1635 by William Elmes the Younger. Because of its parallels with the neighboring mansions Kirby Hall and Apethorpe Hall , it is closely linked to the Thorpe family of builders. In a traditional layout, the buildings are arranged around a U-shaped courtyard. The entrance leads into a screen passage, the large bedroom is above the entrance hall and leads to the main living rooms of the manor, which end with the parade bedroom.
Its development through successive generations of the Powys family shows respect for the old house, but each stage of development shows a clearly visible clarity and contributes to the bigger picture. In addition to the construction of the two symmetrical stable wings by Henry Flitcroft and the successive, small extensions in the form of additional floors on the east side of the two wings, the work was limited to changes in the house and renovations.
The Jacobean style house is considered quite significant, as is Flitcroft's changes in the Georgian style in the 1740s. Flitcroft's particular achievement was not only to convert the main rooms into a series of Palladian rooms, but also to bring light into the interior of the building. The play of sequence of 18th century rooms within the structure of the Jacobean house is one of the most notable details of Lilford Hall.
The changes from the early 19th century are just as significant as William Gilbee Habershon's work from the 1840s. But the latter was mainly concerned with the exterior and the integration of the house and gardens. More important is the extension of the house in 1909 by William Dunn and Robert Watson from Dunn & Watson , whose proposals creatively expanded the north and south rooms, reminiscent of other Scottish architects such as Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer .
The importance of the house is increased, firstly through its association with Thomas Powys, the younger, who was made first Baron Lilford between 1774 and 1794 in recognition of his role as a politician, and secondly through its association with the 3rd Baron Lilford, who was made by 1831 to 1837 Lord of the Bedchamber of King William IV , then from 1837 to 1841 Lord-in-Waiting (Government Whip in the House of Lords ) in the Whig Government of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne , and third by the Connection of parkland with ornithological studies, especially those of Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford .
Park and gardens
The relationship between the manor house and its frame is just as remarkable, especially because of the integration of the house into the pleasure garden and the wildlife park. The Lilford Park was built from 1747 to 1776 by Flitcroft. He had the whole village (12 houses and a rectory) and the church of St. Peter, which was south of the manor house, demolished. The remains of the church were then used to build a folly on the Achurch side of the park.
Lilford Park currently consists of around 40 hectares of pleasure grounds around the manor house in the west, around 40 hectares of the former game park in the north and 60 hectares of forest in the east and south.
In the park there are also various aviaries for Thomas Powys, the 4th Baron Lilford, a well-known ornithologist. The 7th Baron Lilford re-equipped these aviaries with more than 350 birds of 110 different species around 1970 and opened the park to the public.
Lilford Park has not been open to the public since autumn 1990. The park and mansion are now owned by the Micklewright family, who use it as their family home.
Thomas Powys, the 4th Baron Lilford, founded the British Ornithological Union in 1858 and was its president from 1867 until his death. He was also the first President of the Northamptonshire National History Society . Lilford traveled extensively, particularly in the Mediterranean region, and kept his extensive collection of birds at Lilford Hall. There were birds from all over the world in his aviaries. B. rheas , kiwis , rose-headed ducks and even a free-flying pair of bearded vultures . He was responsible for introducing the little owl to England in the 1880s.
Recent history
In World War II Lilford Hall also served as accommodation for the nurses of the 303rd Station Hospital of the USAAF , which was in the park of the mansion. After the war, from 1949 and 1954, the former hospital buildings in the park were used for a Polish school called Lilford Technical School . The Lilford family now owns Bank Hall in Lancashire , which appeared in the BBC's first series of restorations in 2003.
Lilford Hall and Lilford Park were featured in the illustrated magazine Country Life on January 27, 1900 . Also played an episode of the BBC television series By the Sword Devided in the 1980s.
Gallery images
Aerial view of the south facade of Lilford Hall
Stone vase on the south facade
Covered seating on the south terrace
View over the north and west fronts of Lilford Hall
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lilford-with-Wigsthorpe . British History Online. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
- ↑ Thomas Babington Macauley: A History Of England - From the Accession of James II. Chapter VIII . Usenet . Retrieved January 27, 2015.
- ^ Polish Merchant Navy College - Lilford Technical School . Polish Resettlement Camps in the UK. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
- ↑ By the Sword Devided . IMDb. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
literature
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England - Northamptonshire . ISBN 0-300-09632-1
- John Heward, Robert Taylor: The Country Houses of Northamptonshire . ISBN 1-873592-21-3
- Peter Inskip: Lilford Hall Conservation Statement . Architects Peter Inskip and Peter Jenkins
- A History of the County of Northampton . Volume 3 (1930), 'Parishes: Lilford-with-Wigsthorpe', pp. 227-231.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 26 ′ 42.4 " N , 0 ° 29 ′ 12.5" W.