Wotton House | |
---|---|
Type | House |
Location | Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire |
Coordinates | 51°50′24″N1°00′23″W / 51.8401°N 1.0065°W |
Built | 1704-1714 |
Architect | William Winde, later John Soane |
Architectural style(s) | English Baroque |
Governing body | Private |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | Wotton House, with walls to pavilions |
Designated | 25 October 1951 |
Reference no. | 1124221 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | The Clock Pavilion, Wotton House |
Designated | 25 October 1951 |
Reference no. | 1275066 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | The South Pavilion, Wotton House |
Designated | 25 October 1951 |
Reference no. | 1332825 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | Entrance Gates and screen across east front of Wotton House, with gazebo and walls to pavilions |
Designated | 25 October 1951 |
Reference no. | 1124222 |
Wotton House, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England, is a stately home built between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House. The house is an example of English Baroque and a Grade I listed building. The architect is uncertain although William Winde, the designer of Buckingham House, has been suggested. The grounds were laid out by George London and Henry Wise with a formal parterre and a double elm avenue leading down to a lake. Fifty years later William Pitt the Elder and Capability Brown improved the landscape, creating pleasure grounds with two lakes. After a fire gutted the main house in 1820 Richard Grenville, 1st Earl Temple, commissioned John Soane to rebuild it. After the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, the last direct Grenville male heir, died in 1889, the house was let to a succession of tenants; including, notably; the philanthropist, Leo Bernard William Bonn (1850–1929) who became deaf while residing at Wotton, and later founded (1911) what became the RNID. His son and heir, the decorated First World War hero, Major Walter Basil Louis Bonn, DSO, MC, MA (Oxon.) FRSA, FZSL (1885–1973) is also listed as resident at Wotton House; in the New College archives, at Oxford University; during his three years as an Oxford undergraduate, there, 1903–1906, while living fifteen miles away from his family home of many years, at Wotton House.
In 1929 Wotton was bought by Major Michael Beaumont MP who renovated it. In 1947 Beaumont sold the estate to a charity who divided the grounds into small parcels and let the main house to two boys' schools. By 1957 the house had become derelict and was due to be demolished when Elaine Brunner found it and with the help of the architect Donald Insall restored most of the Soane features. Her daughter and son-in-law David Gladstone have continued the work she started. The main house in now owned by David Gladstone.
The South Pavilion (the former coach house) was sold separately in 1947. It has had a number of notable owners including Sir Arthur Bryant and Sir John Gielgud, and is now co-owned by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie.
Since the twelfth century there had been a manor house at Wotton Underwood owned by the Grenville family. In 1704 Richard Grenville (1646–1719) built Wotton House on a new site on a mound looking down to a natural lake. The design was very similar to that of Buckingham House which was built at the same time and later became Buckingham Palace. The architect is unknown, but Sir Howard Colvin suggested John Fitch; [lower-alpha 1] John Millar believes it could be by Elizabeth Wilbraham; [1] while Historic England suggests William Winde, [2] whom Pevsner also references. [3]
In 1749 Richard Grenville, the elder brother of George Grenville (Prime Minister between 1763 and 1765), inherited Stowe House through his wife Hester, sister of Viscount Cobham. Wotton was then run in tandem with Stowe by the Viscount Cobham as owner. A fire destroyed the interior of the house in 1820 but the coach house and kitchen pavilion (the "Clock Pavilion") survived intact. Richard Grenville, Earl Temple (later Duke of Buckingham and Chandos), immediately engaged John Soane to restore the main house. Soane lowered the house, removing the top floor and reducing the height of the first floor windows, giving it a Georgian proportion. He made inventive use of the existing floor plans and created a three-storey, top-lit "Tribune", alongside a new stone staircase, in place of the old entrance hall. [4] With its Soane interiors Wotton had a succession of Grenville occupiers until 1889, when the 3rd Duke of Buckingham, the last direct male heir, died, the house was let to a succession of tenants. It was rented and then bought by Michael Beaumont (MP for Aylesbury) in 1929 and had it renovated by the architect Arthur Stanley George Butler, [lower-alpha 2] concealing all of Soane's detailing including the central three-storey tribune. [2]
When Beaumont moved to Kildare in Ireland, [5] the house was sold to a charity, the Merchant Venturers of Bristol. It was neglected down through the Second World War (when it was not requisitioned), but it was put up for sale shortly thereafter. [6] After the war much of the grounds were sold in small parcels and in the early 1950s the building was used by two boys' boarding schools, Wotton House Boys' School followed by Cokethorpe School (since relocated to near Witney). [7]
Elaine (Mrs Patrick) Brunner purchased the main house and the Clock Pavilion from Buckinghamshire County Council for £6,000 in 1957, two weeks before it was scheduled for demolition. [8] Brunner engaged Donald Insall Associates to carry out extensive work on the house, repairing the dilapidations, undoing most of the Butler alterations and restoring Soane's architectural details. However, the central feature of Soane's redesign, the "Tribune", which had been destroyed by Butler, was still unrestored when she died in 1998. [8] The house passed to April, Brunner's daughter and her husband David Gladstone. [8] [lower-alpha 3] The grounds are open to the public at least one day a week during the summer months, but viewing of the house is by appointment only. [7] In 2007 David Gladstone held a conference at Wotton in an attempt to determine the name of the original architect of the house. The conference generated at least two follow up papers: Howard Colvin (2010) proposed that John Fitch may have been the original architect, and later the same year John Millar (2010) proposed that it may have been Elizabeth Wilbraham (1632–1705). [lower-alpha 4] [1]
The original Coach House (later re-christened the South Pavilion) and the walled formal garden were purchased by Tristram Gilbert and Andre DuGuay shortly before Elaine Brunner purchased the main house. They restored both and lived there until about 1965. The walled garden was opened to the public. The South Pavilion was sold to Sir Arthur Bryant, the historian, and then to Sir John Gielgud who, photographs show, further restored it. In 2000 Gielgud died there. In 2008 it was bought by Tony and Cherie Blair for £4m. [9]
In 1726, Richard Grenville inherited from his father the Wotton estate, which yielded a rental income of over £3000 per annum. [10] In 1735, he introduced an Enclosure Act in Parliament which cleared the area of dwellings, enabling the transformation during the 1750s of the London & Wise garden into the new style of natural landscape.[ citation needed ] In 1754, another Hester, sister of Richard and George, married William Pitt the Elder at Wotton and soon took over the project that Richard had envisioned. By that date Richard had taken over at Stowe and George was living at Wotton. [11] Capability Brown had left Stowe House in 1749, where he had been working as head gardener [12] and was brought in to help Pitt execute the project, in particular the extensive water works. It is not known exactly what the relative roles and contributions of Pitt and Brown were, although Pitt was a well-known landscape designer in his own right. The Pleasure Grounds cover 200 acres (81 ha) and incorporate two lakes, one of 35 acres (14 ha) and one of 12 acres (4.9 ha), joined by a canal. [11] They are enclosed within a circular belt, as was common at the time, and the visitor encounters a series of temples, bridges and statues along the circuit. [13]
In April 1786, John Adams (the future second President of the United States on tour with Thomas Jefferson – who would serve as his vice-president before becoming president himself) spent a few days visiting some stately homes to the north west of London, and one of those they visited was Wotton. On their return to London Adams wrote "Stowe, Hagley, and Blenheim, are superb; Woburn, Caversham, and the Leasowes are beautiful. Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected". [14] Jefferson noted in his diary: "But two gardeners. Much neglected".[ citation needed ] On hearing of the historically dilapidated state of the Park; on 17 April 1988, and following attendance of Divine Service, at the neighbouring Buckinghamshire Parish Church of Dinton (see Parish News: May 2018, 30th Anniversary Royal Visit) Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, decided to make a dendrologically inspired visit to Wotton House, during the tenure of a thespian acquaintance; Sir John Gielgud; and while staying with the Cotton family, at nearby Tythrop Park; Princess Margaret thus undertook an informal Royal Visit, in order to view the gates, park, and South Pavilion, at Wotton; accompanied by the former (1901–1911) Wotton House resident's great-grandson (Commissioner Philip Bonn of the International Tree Protection Commission – ITPC) together with the Princess's friend; Mr Ned Ryan; and the RPS; who followed at a discreet distance behind the Princess's Rolls-Royce; containing the Princess and the guests from the weekend house party at Tythrop Park, Kingsley, in an adjoining district of Buckinghamshire.
All the grounds were sold by Major Beaumont in 1947 and were bought by neighbouring farmers in parcels. Between 1957 and 1985 Elaine Brunner gradually bought back 400 acres (160 ha) of the grounds. Since 1998 David Gladstone has overseen the restoration of much of the original scheme by his estate manager, Michael Harrison.[ citation needed ]
Lancelot "Capability" Brown was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. He is remembered as "the last of the great English 18th-century artists to be accorded his due" and "England's greatest gardener".
George Grenville was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain, during the early reign of the young George III. He served for only two years (1763-1765), and attempted to solve the problem of the massive debt resulting from the Seven Years' War. He instituted a series of measures to increase revenue to the crown, including new taxes and enforcement of collection, and sought to bring the North American colonies under tighter crown control.
William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was a British Pittite Tory politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars. As prime minister, his most significant achievement was the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However, his government failed to either make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation and it was dismissed in the same year.
Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, KG, PC was a British politician and peer who served as Lord Privy Seal from 1757 to 1761. He is best known for his association with his brother-in-law William Pitt, serving with him in the Pitt–Newcastle ministry during Britain's participation in the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1761. He resigned, along with Pitt, in 1761 in protest over the ministry's refusal to declare war on Spain.
George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham,, known as George Grenville before 1779 and as The Earl Temple between 1779 and 1784, was a British statesman.
Hester Grenville, 1st Countess Temple, 2nd Viscountess Cobham was an English noblewoman. She was the mother and grandmother of the Prime Ministers George Grenville and William Grenville.
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in under-developed countryside near Quainton, in the English county of Buckinghamshire, 44 miles (71 km) from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a railway station at the nearest point to it. Serving a relatively underpopulated area, Quainton Road was a crude railway station, described as "extremely primitive".
Stowe is a civil parish and former village about two miles northwest of Buckingham in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Boycott, Dadford and Lamport.
Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham was a British soldier and Whig politician. After serving as a junior officer under William III during the Williamite War in Ireland and during the Nine Years' War, he fought under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, during the War of the Spanish Succession. During the War of the Quadruple Alliance Temple led a force of 4,000 troops on a raid on the Spanish coastline which captured Vigo and occupied it for ten days before withdrawing. In Parliament he generally supported the Whigs but fell out with Sir Robert Walpole in 1733. He was known for his ownership of and modifications to the estate at Stowe and for serving as a political mentor to the young William Pitt.
Wotton Underwood is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, 7 miles (11 km) north of Thame, Oxfordshire.
Viscount Cobham is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1718. Owing to its special remainder, the title has passed through several families. Since 1889, it has been held by members of the Lyttelton family.
Captain William Winde (c.1645–1722) was an English gentleman architect, whose military career under Charles II, resulting in fortifications and topographical surveys but lack of preferment, and his later career, following the Glorious Revolution, as designer or simply "conductor" of the works of country houses, has been epitomised by Howard Colvin, who said that "Winde ranks with Hooke, May, Pratt and Talman as one of the principal English country house architects of the late seventeenth century".
The Baronetcy of Temple, of Stowe, in the Baronetage of England, was created on the 24th of September 1611 for Thomas Temple, eldest son of John Temple of Stowe, Buckinghamshire. His great-grandson Sir Richard, 4th Baronet, was created Baron Cobham on 19 October 1714, and Viscount Cobham and Baron Cobham on 23 May 1718, the latter with a special remainder, failing his male issue to his sisters and their heirs male. Upon his death on the 13th September 1749, the barony of 1714 became extinct. Both the viscountcy and barony of 1718 passed to his elder sister, and the baronetcy passed to his second cousin once removed William Temple, of Nash House, who became 5th Baronet. On the death of Sir William's nephew Sir Richard Temple, 7th Baronet, on 15 November 1786, the baronetcy became dormant.
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos,, styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century. He was a close friend and subordinate of Benjamin Disraeli and served as the secretary of state for the colonies from 1867 to 1868 and governor of Madras from 1875 to 1880.
Stowe House is a grade I listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of the private Stowe School and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust. Over the years, it has been restored and maintained as one of the finest country houses in the UK. Stowe House is regularly open to the public.
James Grenville was a British politician.
Sir Richard Grenville was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1727. Part of the Grenville family that welded great influence during the eighteenth century his descendants have included three Prime Ministers.
Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet, KB was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1697.
Elizabeth Grenville was an English artist and writer. She was the wife of George Grenville, prime minister from 1763 to 1765; the daughter of Sir William Wyndham, a prominent Tory politician; and the mother of William Grenville, prime minister from 1806 to 1807.
Stowe Gardens, formerly Stowe Landscape Gardens, are extensive, Grade I listed gardens and parkland in Buckinghamshire, England. Largely created in the 18th century, the gardens at Stowe are arguably the most significant example of the English landscape garden. Designed by Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Capability Brown, the gardens changed from a baroque park to a natural landscape garden, commissioned by the estate's owners, in particular by Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, his nephew Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, and his nephew George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham.