Stoneleigh Abbey is an English country house and estate situated south of Coventry. Nearby is the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. The Abbey itself is a Grade I listed building. [1]
Stoneleigh Abbey is an English country house and estate situated south of Coventry. Nearby is the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. The Abbey itself is a Grade I listed building. [1]
In 1154 Henry II granted land in the Forest of Arden to a group of Cistercians from Staffordshire. There are various traces remaining of the original Abbey buildings, most notably the 14th-century Gatehouse. [2]
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the estate was acquired by Sir Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London in 1558. Charles I gave Leigh the barony for his offering hospitality when the gates of Coventry were closed to the king during the English Civil War. A house was built (which now forms the north and east wings of the present house) on the site of the monastic buildings. It was the home of the Leigh family from 1561 to 1990. In due course the Leigh family became the largest land owner in Warwickshire.
Between 1714 and 1726 a new palatial four-storey fifteen-bay wing was built to designs by architect Francis Smith of Warwick. The result was an impressive baroque West Wing, built of silver-coloured stone, which was fashionable at that time. The Abbey's remarkable feature is the Saloon, one of the great interiors of Georgian England. Andor Gomme referred to it as "almost the swan song of baroque figurative plasterwork in England".
From the view over the River Avon we can see some of the changes introduced by Humphry Repton. During his time he was well known for his works at several large country houses.
In 1806 the estate passed to Rev. Thomas Leigh. He came to view his inheritance, bringing with him his cousin Cassandra Austen and her two daughters, Cassandra and Jane. Jane Austen writes of Repton as the gardener making changes to the grounds at the fictional Sotherton Court in Mansfield Park . When he undertook the works at Stoneleigh, he hoped to create an arcade on the side of the house overlooking the river. That never came to fruition, however he did redirect the river (Avon) and flood a section of the river to create a mirror lake. When viewed from a raised platform across the river, the house is perfectly reflected in the surface of the water. There were two small parterres in front of this side of the house where the grass is now, along with other features of the grounds that can be viewed by walking along the paths (wilderness, mill bridge, weirs, etc.)
The adjacent stables and riding school block [3] and the conservatory [4] are separately listed as Grade II*.
Up until the early 1800s, this side of the house would have looked out on a yard with sheds, pigsties, and other ‘unsightly’ outbuildings. It was during this time that considerations for the health of residents saw the outbuildings move away from the house. This opened up a good view from the new West Wing, and allowed space for the creation of a cricket pitch. William Henry Leigh's second son Edward Chandos was an avid cricket player, and was delighted when his father allowed the pitch to be built. It is said that Lord Leigh would give a silver sixpence to any boy who could break a window of the house with a ball. It is still used today by Stoneleigh Cricket club and has been voted the most beautiful cricket pitch in England by Wisden.
One of the rooms of the West Wing hosts the bust of Byron by Edward Hodges Baily. Chandos Leigh and Lord Byron were school friends at Harrow and dined together on the day before Byron left England for the last time in April 1816.
Queen Victoria stayed in Stoneleigh Abbey for two nights in 1858. Victoria was given a suite of five rooms with mahogany furniture painted white and gold, since William Henry Leigh was told this was the Queen's preference.
In 1946 Stoneleigh Abbey was one of the first stately homes to open its doors to the public. In 1960 a disastrous fire did extensive damage to the West Wing.
In 1996 Lord Leigh transferred the ownership of Stoneleigh Abbey and its 690-acre (279 ha) grounds to a charitable trust, the Stoneleigh Abbey Preservation Trust, of which he himself was the Trustee. Between 1996 and 2000 it was extensively renovated with the help of grants including a £7.3 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and additional grants of more than £3 million from English Heritage fund and the European Union. [5] More than 1,000 tonnes of Grinshill stone were used to restore the exterior of the West Wing and up to 45 stonemasons were employed during the main stage of the work. The upstairs floors were initially converted into flats by Kit Martin and houses and apartments were established in the West Wing, South Wing and East Wing. The money received by the original Preservation charitable trust was the subject of an episode of The Mark Thomas Comedy Product , which proved that some of the trust's debts were paid using the National Lottery money earmarked for restoration, as well as paying for private development. [5] With the failure of the preservation trust under Lord Leigh, a new independent charitable trust was set up to safeguard the future of the Abbey. With the ties to Lord Leigh severed, the new charitable trust acquired a new chairman, local business man Tony Bird OBE. In the early 2000s Charles Church built two groups of houses in the grounds of Stoneleigh Abbey, named The Cunnery and Grovehurst Park.
The property remains open to the public. The former Orangery now houses a tea room.
A historic pump house and water wheel at Stoneleigh Abbey has been restored to its former glory as part of a large restoration project to save and protect structures in the grounds, along with reinstating many of the views and walks inspired by Sir Humphry Repton's designs from his Red Book also on display at the Abbey. Mr Tony Bird OBE Chairman of the Stoneleigh Abbey Charitable Trust has overseen the full restoration not only of the large wheel but also the full restoration of the 1851 Tangye of Birmingham water pump. The repairs to the Pump House were partly funded by Natural England, including replacement of the roof, years of lime scale being chipped off, and the water wheel itself restored. Stoneleigh Abbey Trustee Dorothy Ingle said: “It is wonderful to see the wheel turning and people being able to see how the pump house was used now fully restored to its former glory. The wheel doesn’t pump water to the house any more but it still represents part of the history of how the garden and house was operated 100 years ago." The pump-house was built in 1851 on the site of the Abbey's former medieval water mill on the River Avon. Visitors can now see the restored pump house as part of the Abbey's country park.
In 2016, Judy Stove, an Australian researcher into the life and times of Jane Austen, published a book (The Missing Monument Murders) which investigates a series of scandals at Stoneleigh Abbey in the first half of the nineteenth century. Inheritance contests led to claims about the unauthorized removal of monuments from Stoneleigh village church. It was even alleged that a number of witnesses might have been murdered in the period 1812–1815 – within the lifetime of Jane Austen herself. In 1848, Austen's relative Chandos, first Lord Leigh of the second creation (1791–1850), a Romantic poet and Whig essayist, was charged with two of the murders. [6]
Stove examines court transcripts and newspaper accounts from the time, which named the bridge, designed by Scottish engineer John Rennie (1761–1821) and built over the River Avon west of Stoneleigh Abbey, as the possible site of the murder of the workmen. The Rennie bridge still forms the main approach for visitors to Stoneleigh Abbey.
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles (140 km), made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the natural course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury, and from there to Reading on the River Thames. In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks.
Humphry Repton was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of the 19th century. His first name is often incorrectly rendered "Humphrey".
Baron Leigh has been created twice as a hereditary title, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England 1643 when Sir Thomas Leigh, 2nd Baronet, was created Baron Leigh, of Stoneleigh in the County of Warwick. The Leigh Baronetcy, of Stoneleigh in the County of Warwick, had been created in 1611 for his grandfather and namesake Thomas Leigh. The latter was the second son of Sir Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London in 1558, whose third son Sir William Leigh was the grandfather of Francis Leigh, 1st Earl of Chichester. The titles became extinct on the death of the fifth Baron Leigh in 1786.
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.
Claverton Pumping Station in the village of Claverton, in the English county of Somerset, pumps water from the River Avon to the Kennet and Avon Canal using power from the flow of the river. It is a Grade I listed building, having been upgraded from Grade II in 2019.
Blaise Castle is a folly built in 1766 near Henbury in Bristol, England. The castle sits within the Blaise Castle Estate, which also includes Blaise Castle House, a Grade II* listed 18th-century mansion house. The folly castle is also Grade II* listed and ancillary buildings including the orangery and dairy also have listings. Along with Blaise Hamlet, a group of nine small cottages around a green built in 1811 for retired employees, and various subsidiary buildings, the parkland is listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
Hall Place is a stately home in the London Borough of Bexley in south-east London, built in 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a wealthy merchant and former Lord Mayor of London. The house was extended in 1649 by Sir Robert Austen, a merchant from Tenterden in Kent. The house is a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, and surrounded by a 65-hectare award-winning garden. It is situated on the A223, Bourne Road, south of Watling Street (A207) and north of the Black Prince interchange of the A2 dual carriageway and two lesser roads.
Stoneleigh is a small village in Warwickshire, England, on the River Sowe, situated 4.5 miles (7.25 km) south of Coventry and 5.5 miles (9 km) north of Leamington Spa. The population taken at the 2011 census was 3,636. The village is about 600 yards (549 m) northeast of the confluence of the River Sowe and the River Avon. The village's church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Stoneleigh has no public house: all three were closed by Lord Leigh more than 100 years ago, after his daughter was laughed at by drunks when she was going to church on a tricycle. However it has a social club, which meets in the evenings on Vicarage Road.
Sir Edward Chandos Leigh was a British aristocrat of the Victorian era, a barrister by profession, and a first-class cricketer. He served as President of MCC for 1887–88.
The Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum of Steam Power and Land Drainage is a small industrial heritage museum dedicated to steam powered machinery at Westonzoyland in the English county of Somerset. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Bath Locks are a series of locks, now six locks, situated at the start of the Kennet and Avon Canal, at Bath, England.
Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh was a British landowner and minor poet. He was Lord of the Manor of Hunningham.
Edward Leigh, 5th Baron Leigh (1742–1786) was descended from Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London in 1558, and inherited the Leigh family seat at Stoneleigh Abbey, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire following the death of his father, Thomas Leigh, 4th Baron Leigh, in 1749. He was Lord of the Manor of Hunningham.
Stoneleigh Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs in Warwickshire, England. It was voted by Wisden Cricketer the most beautiful ground in England in 2003.
Little Leigh is a civil parish and village within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated on high ground on the north bank of the River Weaver; it is approximately 2 miles north of Weaverham on the A533 road and about three miles north-west of Northwich. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 567.
Widcombe is a district of Bath, England, immediately south-east of the city centre, across the River Avon.
Repton Abbey was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine abbey in Derbyshire, England. Founded in the 7th century, the abbey was a double monastery, a community of both monks and nuns. The abbey is noted for its connections to various saints and Mercian royalty; two of the thirty-seven Mercian Kings were buried within the abbey's crypt. The abbey was abandoned in 873, when Repton was overrun by the invading Great Heathen Army.
Endsleigh Cottage is a country house near Milton Abbot, about 6 miles NW of Tavistock, Devon in England. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade I listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The house was built in the early 19th century for the Duke of Bedford. Today, it is a hotel.
Hunningham is a medieval manor located in the West Midlands (region) of Warwickshire, England. Its location is just over three miles northeast of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. The River Leam – located on Hellidon Hill in Northamptonshire, which then flows through rural Warwickshire, including the town of Leamington Spa – forms the Manor boundary between north and west. The Fosse Way crosses the center of the town diagonally and here is a perfectly paved road. The southeast boundary of Hunningham is formed by the River Itchen, a tributary of the Leam. Today the Manor includes the parish of Hunningham. The history of the Manor of Hunningham is of great interest because it has been documented continuously for a thousand years, from the time of the Domesday Book to the present day. However, it is assumed that the creation of the Manor of Hunningham dates back to the 9th century, but there are currently no documents to prove this.
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