 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2022) |
Ickworth House is a country house at Ickworth, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. It is a neoclassical building set in parkland. The house was the residence of the Marquesses of Bristol until 1998; the house was given to the National Trust in 1956, but between then and 1998 the marquesses leased the east wing.
The house, built between 1795 and 1829, was formerly the chief dwelling of an estate owned by the Hervey family, later Marquesses of Bristol, since 1467. The building was the creation of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry (known as the Earl-Bishop), who commissioned the Italian architect Antonio Asprucci to design him a classical villa in the Suffolk countryside. Originally it had been planned as an art gallery but the Earl's collection was seized by Napoleon. [1] The Earl died in 1803, leaving the completion of house to his successor.
In 1956, the house, park, and a large endowment were given to the National Trust in lieu of death duties. As part of the handover agreement, a 99-year lease on the 60-room East Wing was given to the Marquess of Bristol. However, in 1998 the 7th Marquess of Bristol sold the remaining lease on the East Wing to the National Trust. He was succeeded by his half-brother Frederick William Augustus Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol (born 19 October 1979). The National Trust refused to sell the remaining lease term back to the 8th Marquess, thereby contravening the Letter of Wishes which states that the head of the family should always be offered whatever accommodation he chooses at Ickworth.
The family's once private East Wing is now run as The Ickworth Hotel on a lease from the National Trust. Apartments, also leased from the Trust, are located in the Dower House in the grounds. [2]
The West Wing at Ickworth House went uncompleted until 2006, when a joint partnership between the National Trust and Sodexo Prestige led to its renovation and opening as a centre for conferences and events. The first wedding in the property's history took place in 2006.[ citation needed ]
As one of England's more unusual houses, Ickworth has been unflatteringly described as resembling "a huge bulk, newly arrived from another planet" and as "an overgrown folly". [3] It is now being architecturally reassessed and recognised as the only building in England comparable with the monumental works of Boullée and Ledoux. [3]
The design concept was based on the designs of Italian architect Antonio Asprucci, most noted for his work at the Villa Borghese, which the Bishop-Earl had seen. Asprucci's plans were adapted and the building work overseen by the Irish architects Francis Sandys and his brother Joseph Sandys.
The façades are of brick covered in stucco; beneath a roof of slate and lead. The central rotunda is 105 ft. high with a domed and balustraded roof. the building is entered through the central entrance ionic pedimented portico.
The rotunda is decorated with pilasters, which on the lower floor are Ionic and Corinthian above. The ground and first floor and the third floor and the balustraded parapet are divided friezes bas-relief.
The rotunda is flanked by segmental single story narrow wings (appearing as a blind arcade) linking, in the palladian fashion, to two terminating pavilions; these segmental wings are broken at their centre by projecting bays which house the Smoking Room and the Pompeian Room, both later 19th century additions.
Unlike the design of a true Palladian building, the terminating pavilions, rather than minor balancing appendages, are in fact large wings, complementary in weight to the rotunda which becomes their corps de logis. The East Wing, a small mansion in itself, was designed to be the everyday living quarters of the family (which it remained until 1998), thus permitting the more formal rooms of the rotunda to be reserved for entertaining and display. The west wing, intended as an orangery, sculpture gallery and service rooms remained an unfinished shell until the beginning of the 21st century. For much of the time it was used as agricultural storage and latterly for playing squash on a court installed by the 4th Marquess. [4]
The house has paintings by Velázquez, Titian, Poussin, and Claude Lorrain, as well as an unrivalled series of 18th-century family portraits by artists such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Vigee-Lebrun, Batoni, Angelica Kauffman, Ramsay, van Loo, and Hogarth. In addition, it has arguably the best collections in Britain of fine Georgian silver. The house also contains very good examples of Regency furniture and porcelain. As well, Geraldine Hervey, Marchioness of Bristol used to collect elaborately decorated fans, which are now on display at the house.
Most members of the Hervey family, from Thomas Hervey (d. 1467) up to the 7th Marquess of Bristol (d. 1999), have been buried at Ickworth Church, which is located in the Park, a short walk from the house. The church is Norman with some later additions, and possesses a 15th-century wall painting of the Angel of the Annunciation, a 15th-century font, and roundels of Flemish glass from as early as 14th century, as well as numerous marble achievements to different members of the Hervey family over the centuries. It remains in the hands of the Hervey family and has recently undergone repairs to make it safe with the help of a grant from English Heritage.
Ickworth Park covers an area of over 1,800 acres (730 ha). [5] The park contains "some of the finest ancient trees in the area." [6] The Tea Party Oak, which is at least 800 years old, is located south of Ickworth Lodge and has a diameter of over 9 metres (30 ft). [5] It is one of the county's oldest surviving oak trees. Another tree, in Albana Wood, is about 600 years old. [6] [7]
Marquess of Bristol is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom held by the Hervey family since 1826. The Marquess's subsidiary titles are Earl of Bristol, Earl Jermyn, of Horningsheath in the County of Suffolk (1826), and Baron Hervey, of Ickworth in the County of Suffolk (1703). The Hervey barony is in the Peerage of England, the earldom of Bristol in the Peerage of Great Britain and the Jermyn earldom in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Earl Jermyn is used as courtesy title by the Marquess's eldest son and heir. The Marquess of Bristol also holds the office of Hereditary High Steward of the Liberty of St Edmund. The present holder of these titles is Frederick Hervey, the 8th Marquess and 12th Earl of Bristol.
Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII presented Wilton Abbey and its attached estates to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. The house is linked by some with the premiere of Shakespeare's As You Like It, and an important literary saloon culture under its occupation by Mary Sidney, wife of the first Earl.
John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol was an English Whig politician.
Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol,, was an 18th-century Anglican prelate.
Frederick William Augustus Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol, is a British peer.
Ashton Court is a mansion house and estate to the west of Bristol in England. Although the estate lies mainly in North Somerset, it is owned by the City of Bristol. The mansion and stables are a Grade I listed building. Other structures on the estate are also listed.
Lady Isabella Frederica Louisa de Pauw is a British model, socialite, aristocrat, and reality TV personality. She is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, the sister of Lady Victoria Hervey and the incumbent 8th Marquess of Bristol, and half-sister of the 7th Marquess of Bristol.
Frederick William John Augustus Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, also known as John Jermyn and John Bristol, was a British hereditary peer, aristocrat and businessman. Although he inherited a large fortune, he died almost penniless from funding a chronic and persistent drug addiction.
Victor Frederick Cochrane Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol, was a British aristocrat, hereditary peer and businessman. He was a member of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the International Monarchist League, and an active businessman who later became a tax exile in Monaco.
Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for the 6th Earl of Coventry, and they were Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the mansion's rooms were designed by Robert Adam. St Mary Magdalene's Church, Croome D'Abitot that sits within the grounds of the park is now owned and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.
Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century. The present house replaced a timber-framed hall nearby. It was built at the start of the 19th century for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, who designed most of it himself in the form of a crenellated castle. After the death of the Marquess, the house was extended to designs by Robert Smirke to produce the building in its present form. The house is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.
Ickworth Church is a former parish church in Ickworth Park near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England.
Stiff Leadbetter was a British architect and builder, one of the most successful architect–builders of the 1750s and 1760s, working for many leading aristocratic families.
Horringer, formerly also called Horningsheath, is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It lies on the A143 about two miles south-west of Bury St Edmunds. The population in 2011 was 1055.
Ickworth is a small civil parish, almost coextensive with the estate of the National Trust's Ickworth House, in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, eastern England, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) south-west of Bury St Edmunds. The population of the parish was only minimal at the 2011 Census and is included in the civil parish of Lawshall.
Lord Arthur Charles Hervey was an English bishop who served as Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1869 to 1894. He was usually known by his aristocratic courtesy title, "Lord", rather than the style appropriate to a bishop, the Right Reverend.
Felton Hervey was an aristocratic English politician from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and a member of the British royal household. He took his son and daughter on a grand tour of Italy where he met Johann Zoffany and Pope Clement XIV.
Ballyscullion House refers to two country houses built for the Hervey family near Bellaghy in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, close to Lough Beg at north-west corner of Lough Neagh.
Little Horringer Hall is a Grade II-listed house in Horringer, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England.
Yvonne Marie Hervey, Dowager Marchioness of Bristol, is a British peeress, the widow of Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol, and the mother of the incumbent Frederick Hervey, 8th Marquess of Bristol, as well as Lady Victoria Hervey and Lady Isabella Hervey.
