The 27,000 acre (113 square kilometre) Brocklesby Park estate has been in the possession of the Pelham family since the 16th century. A cadet branch of the Sussex Pelhams, Charles Pelham (c. 1679 – 1763) inherited the Brocklesby Estate from his father, and further land from his uncle.[1] Between 1708 and 1730, he extensively remodelled an earlier house on the site.[2] His great-nephew, Charles Anderson-Pelham (1749 – 1823), one of the richest commoners in England, was elevated to the peerage as first Baron Yarborough.[3] His heir, also Charles (1781 – 1846), was created Earl of Yarborough in 1837.[4] The father engaged Charles Heathcote Tatham to make extensions to the house, and Jeffry Wyatville drew up plans for a grandiose expansion.[a] These were not carried forward but James Wyatt did undertake some work on the estate, including the kennels and the mausoleum to Sophia Aufrere, Charles' wife, who died in 1786.[2] Charles Anderson-Pelham also employed Capability Brown to remodel the grounds, and Brown's work included the Newsham Bridge, to the north of the estate.[2]
In 1898, following a disastrous fire at the house, Reginald Blomfield undertook a major reconstruction, but most of his external work was removed in a drastic remodelling and reduction of the house by Claude Phillimore in 1957-1958.[6] The hall remains the private home of the Earls of Yarborough and is not open to the public.[7][8]
Architecture and description
Nicholas Antram, in his Lincolnshire volume of the Pevsner Buildings of England series, revised and reissued in 2002, notes that the architectural history of the hall is complex.[2] The combined efforts of Charles Tatham, Jeffry Wyatville and James Wyatt are hard to disentangle. William Burn also made contributions in the later 19th century, but much was destroyed, externally and internally, in the fire of 1898.[6] Sir Reginald Blomfield undertook a "meticulous" reconstruction, but most of this work was later removed by Claude Phillimore.[2] The present house is a large rectangular block in red brick, with a nine bay, three-storey façade.[6] This is a remodelling of the west wing of the original house.[9] A one-storey wing, a picture gallery designed by Tatham, remains to the side. Phillimore created a new entrance in the angle of the main block and this gallery. Antram considers it, "the least successful part of [his] work" at Brocklesby.[2]
The stable block has a turret clock by John Harrison, an early example of a wooden clock dating from c.1722.[10]
↑ Jeffry Wyatville envisaged the construction of a huge Neoclassical palace on a three-court plan. He donated his plans and perspectives to the Royal Academy in 1824, where they remain.[5]
↑ The Orangery contains a collection of Classical sculpture, moved from Appuldurcombe House, a property on the Isle of Wight which the Pelhams sold in 1855.[2]
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