Grittleton House is a country house in the village of Grittleton, Wiltshire, England, about 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) northwest of the town of Chippenham. It is a building of historical significance and is Grade II* listed on the English Heritage Register.
Grittleton House is a country house in the village of Grittleton, Wiltshire, England, about 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) northwest of the town of Chippenham. It is a building of historical significance and is Grade II* listed on the English Heritage Register.
On this site, across the road from St Mary's Church, stood a three-bay Jacobean manor house, dating from 1660. The estate was bought in 1828 by Joseph Neeld, a London lawyer who had inherited a substantial sum, and Grittleton became his country seat. [1]
Architect James Thomson partly refaced and added to this house during 1832–40 for Neeld. In 1852–6 there was a partial demolition of the original manor with the new additions being designed again by Thomson, who was replaced by Henry Clutton in 1853. However, Thomson appears to have completed the house in 1854–6. [2] Pevsner wrote of the house: "It is really a monstrosity. It has Jacobean gables and a Jacobean central tower, but windows of a long, thin, Veneto-Byzantine variety, and odd oriels in unexpected places". [3]
In 1988 the house was designated as a Grade II* listed building. [2] Many notable people have been residents of the house, and today it is a venue for events, particularly weddings.
Joseph Neeld (1789–1856), from Hendon, Middlesex, who commissioned the building of Grittleton House, was a barrister and Member of Parliament. [4] In 1827 he inherited an enormous fortune from his great uncle Philip Rundell who was a London silversmith and had been appointed as Goldsmith and Jeweller to the King. [5]
Neeld was a collector of British art, and – according to the historian John Britton – by about 1830 he had numerous works by Chantrey, Gibson, Baily, Wyatt, Papworth, Constable, Gainsborough, Etty, Roberts, Stanfield, Wilson, Ward, West, and many others. [6] He desired a house that was more in keeping with his status and would be able to accommodate his collection of sculpture and paintings. He therefore commissioned the architect James Thomson to make substantial additions to the existing manor house.
When Joseph Neeld died in 1856, the house was inherited by his younger brother Sir John Neeld [1] (1805–1891), Member of Parliament for Cricklade from 1835 to 1859. In 1845 he married Harriet Eliza Dickson, daughter of Major General William Dickson of Beneham House, Berkshire. [7] They lived at Grittleton House for 35 years and held numerous Balls which were reported in the newspapers. In 1864 one of these events, which was for 400 guests, was described in the following terms:
When Sir John died in 1891, his eldest son Sir Algernon William Neeld, 2nd Baronet, became the owner. After his death in 1900, Sir Audley Dallas Neeld, Algernon's younger brother, inherited the house. Audley was the owner for the next 41 years until his death in 1941 at the age of 92.
Audley Neeld was born in 1849 at Holt, Wiltshire. He was educated at Harrow and the University of Oxford. In 1873 he married the Hon Edith Vivian, daughter of the second Lord Vivian, but the couple had no children. He joined the 2nd Life Guards and became a commanding officer. He fought in the Boer War and when he returned in 1900 he took up residence in Grittleton House which he had recently inherited. [9]
He was a long-term member of the Beaufort Hunt and in 1929 the members celebrated his 80th Birthday at Grittleton House. He died in 1941, and as he had no heirs the property was inherited by a descendant of Joseph Neeld's illegitimate daughter Ann Maria, wife of Lieutenant Colonel Inigo William Jones. The new owner was Lionel Inigo-Jones.
Lionel William Neeld Inigo-Jones (1885–1956) and his successors remained at their main home, Kelston Park near Bath, and rented Grittleton House to various tenants. During the 1940s the house was used by the MOD to store historical documents. Also during this period, foreign fighter pilots stayed at the house. In 1948 a private girls' school rented the property and in 1967 Joanna Shipp, who had been running her own private day school in Rangeworthy Court, Gloucestershire since 1951, moved into the house. In 1972 she bought the property and began extensive renovations. The Shipp family still owns the house and today it is a venue for special events, particularly weddings. [10]
Thomson designed an extensive complex of stables, coach houses and related facilities, built to the south of the house c. 1835. [11] Nearby improvements to the estate included the destruction of the hamlet of Upper Foscote, except for one 17th-century house. [12]
Thomson also designed Fosse Lodge, in the north of the estate on the Fosse Way, with a tall, octagonal tower (1835); [13] and Malmesbury Lodge in Grittleton village (c. 1840), its octagonal spirelet with bell-stage noted as "remarkable" in the building's National Heritage List entry. [14] Stable Lodge, at the entrance to the stables on the Yatton Keynell road, and Woodman's Lodge, in the southeast, are of similar date. [15] [16] West Lodge, at the principal western entrance to Grittleton House, was built in 1854–5 to designs by Clutton, based on the plan of Malmesbury Lodge. [17]
The house was the home of Grittleton House School between 1951 and 2016. [18]
Sherston is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) west of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England. The parish is bounded to the north by the county boundary with Gloucestershire, and to the southeast by the Fosse Way, a Roman road. The parish includes the hamlets of Easton Town, immediately east of Sherston; Pinkney, further east along the Malmesbury road; and Willesley, to the north.
Luckington is a village and civil parish in the southern Cotswolds, in north-west Wiltshire, England, about 6+1⁄2 miles (10 km) west of Malmesbury. The village is on the B4040 road linking Malmesbury and Chipping Sodbury. The parish is on the county border with Gloucestershire and includes the village of Alderton and the hamlet of Brook End.
Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Somerset, within the unitary authority of North Somerset, in England. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. According to the 2011 census it has a population of 1,116. The village is about 12 miles (19 km) east of Weston-super-Mare on the A368 between Churchill and Compton Martin.
Leigh Delamere is a small village in the civil parish of Grittleton in the English county of Wiltshire, about 4 miles (6 km) northwest of the town of Chippenham. The M4 motorway passes some 250 metres to the south, and the motorway's Leigh Delamere services lie to the east of the village.
Hullavington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, just to the north of the M4 motorway. The village lies about 4 miles (6 km) southwest of Malmesbury and 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) north of Chippenham.
Stanton St Quintin is a small village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire in England. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Chippenham and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Malmesbury. The parish church dates in part from the 12th century.
Grittleton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Chippenham. The parish includes the hamlets of Foscote, Leigh Delamere, Littleton Drew and Sevington, and part of the hamlet of The Gibb.
Alderton is a village in Wiltshire, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of Malmesbury, in the civil parish of Luckington.
Hendon War Memorial in Hendon, North London is located on the central reservation at the junction between Watford Way and The Burroughs. It was unveiled on St George's Day, 23 April 1922, but was moved to its present location in 1962.
Gisborough Hall is a 19th-century mansion house, now a hotel, at Guisborough, Redcar and Cleveland, England. It is a Grade II listed building.
Joseph Neeld (1789–1856) was Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom for the rotten borough of Gatton, Surrey from March to July 1830 and for Chippenham, Wiltshire, England from September 1830 to March 1856.
Sir John Neeld, 1st Baronet (1805–1891) was Member of Parliament for Cricklade between 1835 and 1859, and Chippenham, Wiltshire, England between 1865 and 1868.
The Neeld Baronetcy, of Grittleton in the County of Wiltshire, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 April 1859 for John Neeld, a Conservative politician and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Victoria. The title became extinct on the death of the third Baronet in 1941.
Lucknam Park is a luxury hotel, spa and restaurant in west Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Corsham and 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Bath. The core of its building is a Grade II listed country house built in the late 17th or early 18th century. The hotel's restaurant has held one star in the Michelin Guide since 2006.
Braydon is a civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Swindon, between Purton and Minety. A thinly-populated farming area with no settlements apart from the farms, it is best known for sharing its name with Braydon Forest. The population of the parish was 48 in 1881 and was little changed in 2011, at 43.
St Margaret of Antioch Church in Leigh Delamere, Wiltshire, England was built on the site of a previous 12th-century church in 1846 and dedicated to Margaret the Virgin. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 1 November 1992, and was vested in the Trust on 16 December 1993.
Norton is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-west of Malmesbury. The parish includes the hamlets of Foxley and Bremilham.
Sevington School, near the village of Grittleton, Wiltshire, England, was built in 1848 by Joseph Neeld, a landowner, for the children of his estate workers. It was built in the fashionable Neo-Gothic style and included a schoolroom and teacher’s house with parlour, kitchen and two bedrooms. The curriculum of the private school was narrow and designed to fit pupils for their station in life, either in service or as farm labourers on the Neeld estates. In 1860 Miss Elizabeth Squire was engaged as schoolteacher and she remained in charge until the school closed in 1913. Today it is used as a re-enactment centre for primary school children, and is open to the public during the summer. The building is Grade II* listed by Historic England.
Cole Park is a Grade II* listed moated country house off Grange Lane, in the parish of St Paul Malmesbury Without, about 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) south of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. It stands on land once known as Cowfold that was owned in the Middle Ages by the Abbey of Malmesbury, and in the Tudor period was a royal stud.
Chippenham Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building in the High Street, Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Chippenham Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.