Nostell Priory

Nostell Priory (1880)

Nostell Priory is a mansion in the village of Nostell in Crofton near Wakefield in English administrative unit of West Yorkshire . The house was built in 1733 in the Palladian style for the Winn family on the site of a former medieval priory. The manor and its contents were given to the National Trust in 1953 by the trustees of the property and Rowland Winn .

history

Nostell Priory - front facade

Stables and yard

The property belonged to the Gargrave family after it was bought by Sir Thomas Gargrave , Speaker of the House of Commons , in 1567 from James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy , for £ 3,560.

In 1654 the London councilor Sir Rowland Winn bought the property after the previous owner was declared bankrupt in 1650. Construction of the current house began in 1733 and the furniture, furnishings and decorations that were made for this house have remained there to this day. The Winns were cloth merchants in London, George Wynne of Gwydir was appointed Royal Cloth Merchant for Elizabeth I ; his grandson, Sir George Winn , received the title of Baronet of Nostell in 1660 and his family subsequently owed their wealth to the coal under the estate and later to the leasing of land in Lincolnshire for iron ore mining during the Industrial Revolution .

The mansion was designed by James Paine for Sir Rowland Winn , the 4th Baronet, on the grounds of a 12th century priory dedicated to Saint Oswald . Robert Adam was commissioned to add additional wings, but only one of those wings was completed. He should also finish the showroom. Adam added a double flight of stairs to the front of the house and designed buildings on the property, such as: B. the stables.

Nostell Priory has a large collection of Chippendale furniture, all specially made for this home. Thomas Chippendale was born in Otley in 1718 and had his workshop on St Martins Lane in London. The art collection of Nostell Priory contains z. B. the Calvary Procession by Pieter Brueghel the Younger , William Hogarth's scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest - the first depiction of a stage scene by Shakespeare ever - and a self-portrait by Angelika Kauffmann , as well as a copy of the Holbein painting by Sir Thomas More and made by Rowland Lockey his family (original from around 1527, but no longer preserved today). This copy was acquired by Thomas More's family in 1592 and moved to Nostell Priory in the 18th century. It should be the most similar copy of the work to the destroyed original.

A floor clock with an almost complete wooden mechanism, made by John Harrison in 1717 , can be found in the billiard room . Harrison, whose father Henry was believed to be the house carpenter for Nostell Priory, was born just half a mile from the property. He was called "John Longitude Harrison" because he had devoted his life to the problem of finding the longitude at sea and developed an accurate chronometer for seafaring. This timepiece became known as the H4 and can be seen at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London.

In August 1984 the property hosted a festival sponsored by Theakston Brewery . Although this was a commercial festival, the Peace Convoy organized a Free Festival right next to it. Police forces were mobilized to prevent this aspect of the festival.

In May 2007, a Waring & Gillow furniture group was returned to the mansion after restoration. These pieces now adorn the tapestry room , as does a pair of large Venetian wooden vases inlaid with ivory and semi-precious stones.

The stables built by Adam have undergone a major renovation and now form a visitor center for the house and the landscaped garden.

In June 2009 an upstairs suite of bedrooms was turned over to the National Trust. These dormitories, which had been used by the Winns, were never open to the public before. They contain original furnishings, e.g. Including a Regency four-poster bed and a range of Victorian bedroom furnishings . Another room that is now open to the public is the crockery room with an exhibition of the Winns' family silver in the adjacent steel cupboards.

estate

The lower lake of the Nostell Priory

Obelisk Lodge of Nostell Priory

The Nostell Priory estate consists of 121 hectares of landscaped gardens. There are lakeside paths and a collection of rhododendrons and azaleas . The main facade of the mansion faces east onto a lawn. The lawn in the essence of the house leads to a lake. In the landscaped garden there are paths along lakes and through sparse forest, views from the Druid's Bridge and paths to the restored Obelisk Lodge through wildflower meadows. The park was bought by Lord St Oswald's National Trust with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund . This grant also enabled the National Trust to purchase paintings, books, and furniture from the family.

The large lawn and lower fields to the east of Nostell Priory have been used for numerous events large and small over the years, but Central Yorkshire Scout County brought a whole new idea of use into play in 2000. The organization selected Nostell Priory for their Millennium Camp, which attracted approximately 2500 visitors from the Yorkshire Boy Scouting community. During the 12 month preparatory phase, Yorkshire Water employee Jon Potter convinced his employer to install a high pressure underground water line with taps all over the eastern part of the property free of charge. This was of great help to the Nostell Priory administration, who had already figured out how to finance such an improvement.

In 2012, the BBC reported that planning permission had been granted for a new Yorkshire Air Ambulance base of operations on the property. The new helipad with hangar and lounge for the crews went into operation in summer 2013. It replaced the previous facility at Leeds Bradford International Airport .

History of the priory

The priory was founded by the Augustinians in the 12th century, dedicated to Saint Oswald and initially supported by Robert de Lacy from Pontefract and Thurstan from York . Around 1114 Adlulf , the confessor of King Henry I , was the prior of a group of regular canons in Nostell. In the course of the dissolution of the English monasteries , the priory was closed in 1540. After the priory was dissolved, its lands came into the possession of Thomas Gargrave , a High Sheriff of Yorkshire , Speaker of the House of Commons and President of the Council of the North .