Mereworth Castle

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Mereworth Castle in the 18th century
Capriccio with a View of Mereworth Castle (1746)

Mereworth Castle is a country house in the village of Mereworth in the English county of Kent . The Palladian style building has been listed as Grade I Historic Building by English Heritage .

history

Originally there was a fortified manor house at this point , for which a fortification license ("License to crenellate") was granted in 1332. The current building is not a real castle, but was made in the 1720s as an almost exact copy of Palladio's La Rotonda . It was designed in 1723 by Colen Campbell , who was commissioned by John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland . The stucco work inside is attributed to Giovanni Bagutti and the frescoes to Francesco Sleter . The house is located in a landscape park in a valley and is surrounded by a series of pavilions and loggias, which have also been listed as historical buildings of the first degree.

The house was bequeathed to the Barons Oranmore and Browne , whose family seat it became. It was sold in 1930 and served as a prisoner of war camp during World War II . In the 1950s and 1960s it belonged to artist Michael Lambert Tree (1921-1999), son of Ronald Tree and heir to Marshall Field , and his wife, the former Lady Anne Cavendish , daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire . Tree inherited the house from his uncle Peter Beatty , who died on October 26, 1949.

The Wateringbury Stream runs through the property. He drove a fulling mill on the eastern edge of the property.

Mereworth Castle is now owned by Mahdi Al-Tajir , the former Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United Kingdom and owner of the Highland Spring mineral well , which he bought in 1976 for $ 1.2 million. The house is usually not open to the public, but there are occasional guided tours.

In the James Bond parody Casino Royale (1967) , the castle was the domicile of James Bond.

Individual references and comments

  1. ^ Mereworth Castle (main block) with moat walls to north, Maidstone Road (south side), Mereworth, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent . English Heritage . Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 6, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  2. ↑ This source attributes the stucco work to Francesco Bagutti, but Giovanni Bagutti seems more likely.
  3. ↑ Five houses were built in Great Britain on the model of Palladio's La Rotonda. In addition to Mereworth Castle, these were Nuthall Temple in Nottinghamshire (demolished), Henbury Hall in Cheshire , Chiswick House in Greater London and Foots Cray Place in Kent (demolished).
  4. ↑ General John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland on thepeerage.com , accessed September 10, 2016.
  5. ^ Images of England , Pavilion to the North East of Mereworth Castle, Maidstone Road (south side), MEREWORTH, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent . English Heritage. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 6, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  6. ^ Pavilion to the North West and Stables of Mereworth Castle, Maidstone Road (south side), MEREWORTH, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent . English Heritage. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 6, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  7. ↑ Lord Oranmore and Browne's obituary Telegraph
  8. ↑ Island farm . Islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  9. ↑ Eve colpus: Tree, Lady Anne Evelyn Beatrice (1927-2010) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press. 2015. doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 103305 . Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  10. ↑ British tax may topple castle of a Field heir . In: Chicago Tribune . June 20, 1952. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  11. ↑ Michael Fuller: `` The Watermills of East Malling and Wateringbury Streams ''. Christine Swift, Maidstone 1980. Part 2. Chapter 1.
  12. ^ Fuller & Spain: Watermills (Kent and the Borders of Sussex). Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone 1986. ISBN 0-906746-08-6 . P. 134.
  13. ^ Sunday Times Rich List 2010: Britain's richest see wealth rise by one third . In: The Daily Telegraph . April 24, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  14. ↑ Monday, August 2, 1976: BRITAIN: Dinner for 370,000, Please, James . TIME. August 2, 1976. Retrieved November 6, 2015.

swell

  • Howard Stutchbury: The Architecture of Colin Campbell , Harvard University Press, 1967. ISBN 0-674-04400-2 . Pp. 54-58.
  • John Harris: The Palladians , Trefoil Publications, 1981. ISBN 0-86294-000-1 . Pp. 66-67.
  • Country Life . Book XLVII: pp. 808, 876, 912; Booklet XCV: p. 242; Booklet CIV: p. 728; Booklet CXVI: p. 209.
  • Michael Fuller: The Watermills of East Malling and Wateringbury Streams . Christine Swift, Maidstone 1980.
  • Fuller & Spain: Watermills (Kent and the Borders of Sussex) . Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone 1986. ISBN 0-906746-08-6 . P. 134.

Web links

Commons : Mereworth Castle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 14 "  N , 0 ° 23 ′ 24.7"  E