Broadlands

Last updated

Broadlands
Broadlands.jpg
Broadlands, 2000
Type Country house
Location Romsey
Coordinates 50°58′50″N1°29′49″W / 50.98056°N 1.49694°W / 50.98056; -1.49694
OS grid reference SU 35391 20242
Area Hampshire
Built1767
Architect Henry Holland
Capability Brown
Architectural style(s) Palladian
Owner The 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameBroadlands House
Designated29 May 1957
Reference no. 1166489
Official nameBroadlands
Designated31 May 1984
Reference no. 1000166
Hampshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Broadlands in Hampshire

Broadlands is a country house located in the civil parish of Romsey Extra, near the town of Romsey in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its formal gardens and historic landscape are Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [1] The house itself is Grade I listed. [2]

Contents

History

The original manor and area known as Broadlands belonged to Romsey Abbey since before the Norman Conquest.

In 1547, after the dissolution of the monasteries, Broadlands was sold to Sir Francis Fleming. His granddaughter married Edward St Barbe, and the manor remained the property of the St Barbe family for the next 117 years. Sir John St Barbe, 1st Baronet (c.1655–1723) made many improvements to the property but died without children, bequeathing his estate to his cousin Humphrey Sydenham of Combe, Dulverton. In the chancel of Ashington Church, Somerset, is a monument of grey and white marble, inscribed: [3]

Here lies Sir John St. Barbe, Bart. possessed of those amiable qualities, which birth, education, travel, greatness of spirit, and goodness of heart, produce. Interred in the same vault lies his second wife Alice Fiennes, aunt to the present Lord Say and Sele. His first was Honour, daughter of Colonel Norton. He died at his seat of Broadlands in Hampshire Sept. 7, 1723, leaving for his only heir and executor Humphrey Sydenham, esq., of Combe in Somersetshire, who ordered this marble to his memory.

Having been ruined by the 18th-century South Sea Bubble, Sydenham sold Broadlands in 1736, with its Tudor and Jacobean manor house, to Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston, for £26,500. The Viscount began the deformalisation of the gardens between the river and the house and produced the broad-lands, a "gentle descent to the river". In 1767, a major architectural "transformation" of the house and garden was begun by Capability Brown, the celebrated architect and landscape designer, and completed by the architect Henry Holland, which made Broadlands the Palladian-style country house seen today. Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston had requested that Brown go there and seize upon the "capabilities" of the earlier manor house. Between 1767 and 1780, William Kent's earlier "deformalising work" was completed, as well as further landscaping, planting, clearing and riverside work.

Broadlands was the country estate of the 19th-century British prime minister Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston. [4] After his death, the estate was inherited by his step-son, William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple (1811–1888). A devout Christian, he held public prayer meetings in the grounds and also banned all blood-sports on the property. On his death, the estate passed to a great-nephew, Evelyn Ashley (1836-1907), a younger son of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885). [5] Subsequently, Broadlands passed to Evelyn Ashley's son Wilfrid Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple, who died in 1939 and left it to his daughter Edwina Ashley, the wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth) and Prince Philip spent their honeymoon at Broadlands in November 1947; the first Earl Mountbatten of Burma, whose home Broadlands was at the time, was Philip's uncle. [6] In 1981, the newly married Prince (later Charles III) and Princess of Wales also spent the first three days of their honeymoon at Broadlands, travelling to the estate by train from London Waterloo. [7]

The present

Broadlands is the home of the Earl and Countess Mountbatten of Burma. The house is open to the public for guided tours on weekday afternoons in summer. [8]

On 1 August 2004, Irish vocal pop band Westlife held a concert at Broadlands as part of their Turnaround Tour promoting their album Turnaround. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romsey</span> Town in Hampshire, England

Romsey is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Southampton, 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Winchester and 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of its eastern edge. The population of Romsey was 14,768 at the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl Mountbatten of Burma</span> Title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Earl Mountbatten of Burma is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1947 for Rear Admiral Louis Mountbatten, who in 1946 had been created the first Viscount Mountbatten of Burma. He was later promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viscount Palmerston</span>

Viscount Palmerston was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 12 March 1723 for Henry Temple, who subsequently represented East Grinstead, Bossiney and Weobley in the British House of Commons. He was made Baron Temple, of Mount Temple in the County of Sligo, at the same time, also in the Peerage of Ireland. He was succeeded by his grandson, the 2nd Viscount, who represented seven constituencies in the House of Commons and served as a Lord of the Admiralty and Lord of the Treasury. On his death the titles passed to his son, the 3rd Viscount, who became a distinguished politician and served three times as Foreign Secretary and twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At his death in 1865 the 3rd Viscount was granted a state funeral, the fourth non-royal to be given this honour. Lord Palmerston was childless and the barony and viscountcy became extinct on his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Shaftesbury</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Earl of Shaftesbury is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley, a prominent politician in the Cabal then dominating the policies of King Charles II. He had already succeeded his father as second Baronet of Rockbourne in 1631 and been created Baron Ashley, of Wimborne St Giles in the County of Dorset, in 1661, and he was made Baron Cooper, of Paulett in the County of Somerset, at the same time he was given the earldom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple</span> British politician

William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple, PC, known as William Cowper before 1869 and as William Cowper-Temple between 1869 and 1880, was a British Liberal statesman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Mount Temple</span> Extinct barony in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Baron Mount Temple was a title that was created twice in British history, both times in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came on 25 May 1880 when the Liberal politician the Honourable William Cowper-Temple was made Baron Mount Temple, of Mount Temple in the County of Sligo. He was born William Cowper, the second son of Peter Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper by his wife the Honourable Emily, sister of the 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Emily married as her second husband the 3rd Viscount Palmerston, a man who would serve as British prime minister. Lord Palmerston, an Anglo-Irish peer, died in 1865 when the viscountcy and his junior title of Baron Temple, of Mount Temple, became extinct. Emily died 11 September 1869, leaving her second husband's estates, including Broadlands in Hampshire, to her second son, William, who thereupon adopted by royal licence the surname Cowper-Temple, in whose favour the Mount Temple title was revived in 1880. William was married to Georgina Tollemache.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brocket Hall</span> Country house in Hertfordshire, England

Brocket Hall is a neo-classical country house set in a large park at the western side of the urban area of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. The estate is equipped with two golf courses and seven smaller listed buildings, apart from the main house. The freehold on the estate is held by the 3rd Baron Brocket. The house is Grade I-listed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sadler's Mill</span> Watermill in The Causeway, Romsey

Sadler's Mill, also referred to as Saddlers Mill, is a watermill in Romsey, Hampshire, England. It is probably the best known of Romsey's surviving mills and is apparently the only mill to be developed on the main course of the River Test. The existence of Sadler's Mill is first recorded in the 16th century, when it was owned by the manor of Great and Little Spursholt. Functioning as a corn and grist mill, it has passed through a succession of owners including Lord Palmerston who rebuilt it in 1747 and sold it in 1777 to one Benjamin Dawkins. Following another succession of owners it returned to the Broadlands estate in 1889. Milling ceased in 1932, when the mill building became redundant. The Broadlands estate sold the building in 2003, at which point it was close to collapse having been derelict for many years. Anthony and Sarah de Sigley, restored the building in 2005, rebuilding much of the original structure. During the restoration evidence of an earlier structure was found; carbon-14 dating established the age of this to be c. 1650. The restoration was completed by Dave Northway and Amanda Deeming, the new owners from 2008 onwards.

Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, FRS, was a British politician.

Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston, of East Sheen, Surrey and Broadlands, Hampshire, was an Anglo-Irish landowner and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1727 to 1747.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orchard Wyndham</span> Grade I listed building in West Somerset, United Kingdom

Orchard Wyndham is a historic manor near Williton in Somerset, centred on the synonymous grade I listed manor house of Orchard Wyndham that was situated historically in the parish of Watchet and about two miles south of the parish church of St Decuman's, Watchet. Parts of the manor house are medieval. It has been owned for more than 700 years by the prominent Wyndham family, who continue there as of 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerswell Priory</span> Former priory in Devon, England

Kerswell Priory was a small Cluniac priory in the parish of Broadhembury in Devon, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humphrey Sydenham (1694–1757)</span>

Humphrey Sydenham, "The Learned", of Combe, Dulverton in Somerset, and of Nutcombe in Devon, was a Tory MP for Exeter, in Devon, between 1741 and 1754.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classiebawn Castle</span> Building in County Sligo, Ireland

Classiebawn Castle is a country house built for The 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) on what was formerly a 4,000-hectare (10,000-acre) estate on the Mullaghmore Peninsula near the village of Cliffoney, County Sligo, in the Republic of Ireland. The current castle was largely built in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combe, Dulverton</span> Historic estate in Somerset, England

Combe is a historic estate in Somerset, England, situated between the town of Dulverton and the village of Brushford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir John St Barbe, 1st Baronet</span>

Sir John St Barbe, 1st Baronet, of Ashington, Somerset and Broadlands, Hampshire, was Member of Parliament for Ilchester in 1681. He was created a baronet on 30 December 1662 at the age of 7.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humphrey Sydenham (1591–1650)</span>

Rev. Humphrey Sydenham, "Silver Tongue Sydenham", was a royalist divine, famous for his sermons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muriel Ashley, Lady Mount Temple</span> British aristocrat

Muriel Emily Ashley, Lady Mount Temple, also known as Molly Mountemple, was a British aristocrat. She was first married to Arthur Forbes-Sempill, a military officer and younger son of William Forbes-Sempill, 17th Lord Sempill. After their divorce in 1914, she married Wilfrid Ashley, who would later be created Baron Mount Temple in 1932. As the wife of Lord Mount Temple, she was the stepmother of Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Mary Cholmondeley, Lady Delamere. She was unpopular with her stepchildren, and described as "wicked" and "unkind" by friends of the family. She managed the family's estate Broadlands and two London town houses in Westminster. A bathroom in their second town house, done in the Art Deco style, was called "Lady Mount Temple's Crystal Palace" by the British press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romsey Town Hall</span> Municipal building in Romsey, Hampshire, England

Romsey Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place in Romsey, Hampshire, England. The structure is the meeting place of Romsey Town Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corn Exchange, Romsey</span> Commercial building in Romsey, Hampshire, England

The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in the Corn Market, Romsey, Hampshire, England. The structure, which has been used extensively as a bank branch, is a Grade II* listed building.

References

  1. Historic England, "Broadlands (1000166)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 13 June 2017
  2. Historic England. "Broadlands (1166489)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  3. Collinson, Rev. John, History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, Vol. 3, Bath, 1791, p. 213
  4. Mee, Arthur (1967). Long, E T (ed.). The King's England, Hampshire with the Isle of Wight. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 200–201. ISBN   0-340-00083-X.
  5. Broadlands, lordmountbattenofburma.com
  6. "Queen releases 60 wedding facts". BBC News. 18 November 2007.
  7. Downie Jr., Leonard (30 July 1981). "Britain Celebrates, Charles Takes a Bride". The Washington Post.
  8. "Visitors to Broadlands". Broadlands Estate. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  9. "Upcoming Events". Westlife Official Website. Simco Limited. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.

Bibliography