| Mereworth Castle | |
|---|---|
 Mereworth Castle in the 18th century | |
  Location of Mereworth Castle in Kent | |
| General information | |
| Type | Country house |
| Architectural style | Neo-Palladian |
| Classification | Grade I listed |
| Location | Mereworth, Kent |
| Coordinates | 51°15′14″N0°23′25″E / 51.25389°N 0.39028°E |
| Construction started | 1723 |
| Completed | 1725 |
| Owner | Mahdi Al-Tajir |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Colen Campbell |
Mereworth Castle is a grade I listed Neo-Palladian country house in Mereworth, Kent, England. [1]
Originally the site of a fortified manor house with licence to crenellate in 1332, the manor of Mereworth was inherited by Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland (1580-1629) (son and heir of Sir Thomas Fane (died 1589) of Badsell in the parish of Tudeley in Kent) from his mother Mary Neville, suo jure Baroness le Despenser (c. 1554–1626), [2] sole daughter and heiress of Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny (died 1587). The present building is not actually a castle, but was built in the 1720s by John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland [3] to the 1723 design of the architect Colen Campbell being an almost exact copy of Palladio's Villa Rotunda near Venice. [4] The interior features plasterwork by Giovanni Bagutti and fresco painting by Francesco Sleter. The house is situated in a landscaped park and valley with a number of surrounding pavilions and lodges which are also Grade I listed. [5] [6]
The house passed through descent to Barons Oranmore and Browne whose family seat it became. It was sold in 1930 [7] and used as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. [8] In the 1950s and 1960s it was owned by artist Michael Lambert Tree (1921–1999 [9] ), a son of Ronald Tree and an heir to the Marshall Field mercantile fortune, and his wife, Lady Anne Cavendish, daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire. Tree inherited the house from his uncle, Peter Beatty, who died on 26 October 1949. [10]
The Wateringbury Stream passes through the grounds of the castle. It powered a fulling mill at the eastern end of the castle grounds. [11] [12]
Mereworth Castle is owned by Mahdi Al-Tajir, the former United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United Kingdom and owner of the Highland Spring bottled water company, [13] who purchased it in 1976 for $1.2 million. [14] It is not generally accessible to the public, but does open on rare occasions for guided tours.
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles (113 km). About 13 miles (21 km) of the river lies in East Sussex, with the remainder being in Kent.
Tonbridge and Malling is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. Tonbridge is the largest settlement but the authority is based in the modern development of Kings Hill.
Baron Oranmore and Browne, of Carrabrowne Castle in the County of Galway and of Castle Macgarrett in the County of Mayo, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1836 for Dominick Browne, who had earlier represented County Mayo in the House of Commons. His son, the second Baron, sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1869 to 1900. Lord Oranmore and Browne assumed the surname of Guthrie on his marriage in 1859 to Christina Guthrie. He was succeeded by his son, the third Baron. He was an Irish Representative Peer from 1902 to 1926 and a member of the short-lived Senate of Southern Ireland. In 1926 he was created Baron Mereworth, of Mereworth Castle in the County of Kent, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This title gave the barons an automatic seat in the House of Lords until the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. On his death in 1927 the title passed to his son, the fourth Baron. He married, as his third wife, the actress Sally Gray. Lord Oranmore and Browne died in August 2002, aged 100 years and 291 days. He was thereby the third-oldest hereditary peer ever. As of 2014 the titles are held by his son, the fifth Baron, who succeeded in 2002.
Hadlow is a village in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone.
Colen Campbell was a pioneering Scottish architect and architectural writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style. For most of his career, he resided in Italy and England. As well as his architectural designs he is known for Vitruvius Britannicus, three volumes of high-quality engravings showing the great houses of the time.
Four major rivers drain the county of Kent, England.
West Malling is a market town in the Tonbridge and Malling district of Kent, England. It has a population of 2,590.
Tonbridge and Malling is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative. The constituency is located in Western Kent, in South East England.
East Peckham is a village and civil parish in Kent, England on the River Medway. The parish covers the main village as well as Hale Street and Beltring.
Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, 2nd Baron Mereworth, was a British peer and legislator.
The A228 road is an important transport artery in Kent, England. It begins at the Isle of Grain and runs in a south-westerly direction to connect eventually with the A21 trunk road at Pembury. It serves existing communities and new and proposed housing developments and commercial enterprises. The most influential force on the recent upgrading of the road has been the development of Kings Hill near West Malling.
Ditton is a large village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The village is 4.6 miles (7.4 km) west-northwest of Maidstone and 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of West Malling. The parish, which is long and narrow, straddles the A20, with farmland to the south and industry to the north. It lies in the Medway Valley, on the northern edge of the Kent Weald, and adjoins the ancient parishes of Larkfield, Aylesford and Barming.
John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, styled The Honourable John Fane from 1691 to 1733 and Lord Catherlough from 1733 to 1736, of Mereworth Castle in Kent, was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in three separate stretches between 1708 and 1734.
Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, of Mereworth in Kent and of Apethorpe in Northamptonshire was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1624 and then was raised to the Peerage as Earl of Westmorland.
Mereworth is a village and civil parish near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The Wateringbury Stream flows through the village and powered a watermill, the site of which now lies within the grounds of Mereworth Castle.
Wateringbury is a village and civil parish near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The Wateringbury Stream flows into the River Medway just above Bow Bridge. It formerly powered three watermills in the village, one of which survives. The Wateringbury railway station is on the Medway Valley Line.
West Peckham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The River Bourne flows through the extreme west of the parish, and formerly powered a paper mill and corn mill. The Wateringbury Stream rises in the parish. Oxon Hoath is the former manor house of West Peckham.
The Wateringbury stream is a tributary of the River Medway in Kent, England. It rises at Swanton, West Peckham parish, flows south east towards Mereworth and then flows in a generally easterly direction to join the River Medway at Wateringbury. It is some four miles (6 km) long and powered a number of watermills.
Thomas Fane of Badsell Manor in the parish of Tudeley in Kent, and of Mereworth Castle, Kent, was Sheriff of Kent. He is not to be confused with his younger brother, Thomas Fane, of Burston, Hunton, Kent, a Member of Parliament for Dover.
St Lawrence's Church is an Anglican parish church at Mereworth, Kent, United Kingdom. It is in the deanery of West Malling, the Diocese of Rochester and Province of Canterbury. The church was built in the mid-1740s by John Fane, the 7th Earl of Westmorland, following his removal of the village's 12th century place of worship to allow for the enlargement of Mereworth Castle.
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