51. Kenilworth Castle:
This castle sits in Kenilworth, Warwickshire in the Forest of Arden. Throughout the 12th and 13th Centuries monarchs strengthened it as a Royal castle. It has a major historical pedigree involving monarchs and pretenders to the throne. In 1244 it was granted by Henry III to Simon de Montford, the Earl of Leicester, but he and the Castle became the center of a civil war against Henry III. When Henry regained it he bestowed it on his youngest son Edmund Crouchback. It was inherited by his grandson, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and then passed to his son-in-law, John of Gaunt.
It was gradually converted to a family home and passed to John Dudley in 1553 by Edward VI. He was executed by Elizabeth I in 1563 and it passed to her favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. He added the Leicester Building, a large apartment and residential block overlooking the lake. Elizabeth visited him there a number of times, the final time being in 1575. He entertained her with pageants, bear hunting and lavish banquets costing some 1,000 pounds per day at that time – a sight never before seen in England. She stayed a month and almost bankrupted him. She tasted a new vegetable for the first time there – a potato from America. She ate it uncooked, disliked it, threw it out the window where it seeded – the area now called Little Virginia.
On Dudley’s death the Crown reclaimed the Castle. It was badly damaged by the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War in the mid 17th Century. With the Restoration of the Stuart Kings with Charles II in 1660, he gave the Castle to Sir Edward Hyde, who he created Baron Hyde of Hindon and Earl of Clarendon. It remained in this family until 1937! when it passed to John Davenport Siddeley, 1st Baron Kenilworth. The family gave the Castle to the town of Kenilworth in 1959 and it has been looked after by English Heritage since 1984.
Archaeological digs have been going on there since 2005 and is expected to conclude in 2008. See www.english-heritage.org.uk/server-php?show=nav.16873 for directions and more information.
50. Kedleston Hall
This property in Derbyshire is the ancestral home of Lord George Curzon, 1st Marquis of Kedleston (1859-1925), Viceroy of India and major official in the British government in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, including Foreign Secretary.
This property in Derbyshire is the ancestral home of Lord George Curzon, 1st Marquis of Kedleston (1859-1925), Viceroy of India and major official in the British government in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, including Foreign Secretary.
It is located in Kedleston, Derbyshire, 5 miles NW of Derby off A52. It is undoubtedly one of the very top Treasure Houses in all of the UK. It is a must visit! The Curzon family have, if you can imagine, owned the property since 1297, occupying a number of successive grand homes in the same general area as the present great house! Their name is Norman from the small community in Normandy from which they came: ‘Notre-Dame-de-Courson’.
The Curzon family owned the estate for over 700 years!, until Lord Curzon, having no male heirs (only 2 daughters) willed it to the National Trust on his death in 1925. Most the Curzons going back to the 12th Century are buried in the church on the property including George Curzon and his first wife Mary. Few families could ever trace their descent in such an interrupted way going back so far, and George Curzon was greatly proud of it.
The title of the family is Scarsdale (Lord Scarsdale) and Kedleston Hall was designed and built by Robert Adam. The great house is Palladian in architectural style, and like Holkham House in Norfolk the plan for Kedleston is based on the never built Villa Mocenigo of Palladio. The house is regarded as one of the finest Palladian facades in Britain. It sits on the site of a previous medieval manor and was begun in 1759, and was completed including its parks over the next 15 years. Major plans for pavilions connected to the project Rotunda were dropped due to funding. There are luxurious staterooms to investigate containing their original paintings, sculpture and furniture. The front has the classic Palladian Corinthian columns and the triumphant arch and the wonderful curved double stairway leading on both sides up to a massive glass front door.
Inside is breathtakingly colossal and very much a world of Antiquty, with Corinthian facades in the saloon and great marble hall, alabaster columns, a drawing room with a huge Venetian window, a dining room with a huge apse and its ceiling a duplicate of the Palace of Augustus, a grand staircase only completed in 1922 and ‘Caesar’s Hall’ on the main floor. Also in the house is the Eastern Museum containing the cherished artifacts brought back by Lord George Curzon from his stay as Viceroy of India from 1899-1905, including the famous 1903 Delhi Durbah formal dress of Lady Mary Curzon called the ‘peacock dress’. It was sparkled with real diamonds. While now replaced by replicas, it still is stunding.
The parkland stretches over 820 acres. It was significantly altered when the house was started in 1759, moving a village, a small stream was made larger and the roads diverted away from view from the house. There are wonderful gardens with follies, an Orangery (completed in 1800), a Long Walk (1760). It is rumored that in 1763 Lord Curzon gave his gardener a rare seed: a ‘Rodo Dendrone’ (sic.), many of which bloom there now.
Lord Scarsdale, Lord Curzon’s father, died in 1917. He had lived at Kedleston House lived for over 60 years and had done very little if anything to keep it up. Lord Curzon turned his attention to try to renovate it. In the 1920’s, his principal private project was its renovation and refurbishment. Pictures were reframed, electricity was extended throughout the house and 15 new bathrooms were put in! He was still working to improve Kedleston so he could move his family there from Hackwood when he died in 1925.
Visitors will find a wonderful Gothic memorial chapel in the family church on the property to his first wife Mary, built at Kedleston by Lord George Curzon on the north side of the nave. He took 6 years to collect all the best of materials. Her tomb is of white marble. At his death in 1925 Lord Curzon joined her there. On the north wall is a plaque containing a heartfelt poem (he was an accomplished poet as well) he wrote to his dead wife, who he loved dearly. This chapel is a must see.
Oddly the movie, The Dutchess, made in the last few years about the Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was made here at Kedleston Hall and not at her own historic Treasure home, Chatsworth.
For more information contact: telephone: 01332842191; or the website www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedlestonhall or email them at kedlestonhall@nationaltrust.org.uk. Adult fees are in the range of 8 pounds and children 4.5 pounds. There is a family fee. The house is open March 2 – November each year, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 2-5 P.M.
Enjoy this Treasure House and its property. It is a gem beyond description and we must thank Lord George Curzon for that. I cry each time I leave it.
The Curzon family owned the estate for over 700 years!, until Lord Curzon, having no male heirs (only 2 daughters) willed it to the National Trust on his death in 1925. Most the Curzons going back to the 12th Century are buried in the church on the property including George Curzon and his first wife Mary. Few families could ever trace their descent in such an interrupted way going back so far, and George Curzon was greatly proud of it.
The title of the family is Scarsdale (Lord Scarsdale) and Kedleston Hall was designed and built by Robert Adam. The great house is Palladian in architectural style, and like Holkham House in Norfolk the plan for Kedleston is based on the never built Villa Mocenigo of Palladio. The house is regarded as one of the finest Palladian facades in Britain. It sits on the site of a previous medieval manor and was begun in 1759, and was completed including its parks over the next 15 years. Major plans for pavilions connected to the project Rotunda were dropped due to funding. There are luxurious staterooms to investigate containing their original paintings, sculpture and furniture. The front has the classic Palladian Corinthian columns and the triumphant arch and the wonderful curved double stairway leading on both sides up to a massive glass front door.
Inside is breathtakingly colossal and very much a world of Antiquty, with Corinthian facades in the saloon and great marble hall, alabaster columns, a drawing room with a huge Venetian window, a dining room with a huge apse and its ceiling a duplicate of the Palace of Augustus, a grand staircase only completed in 1922 and ‘Caesar’s Hall’ on the main floor. Also in the house is the Eastern Museum containing the cherished artifacts brought back by Lord George Curzon from his stay as Viceroy of India from 1899-1905, including the famous 1903 Delhi Durbah formal dress of Lady Mary Curzon called the ‘peacock dress’. It was sparkled with real diamonds. While now replaced by replicas, it still is stunding.
The parkland stretches over 820 acres. It was significantly altered when the house was started in 1759, moving a village, a small stream was made larger and the roads diverted away from view from the house. There are wonderful gardens with follies, an Orangery (completed in 1800), a Long Walk (1760). It is rumored that in 1763 Lord Curzon gave his gardener a rare seed: a ‘Rodo Dendrone’ (sic.), many of which bloom there now.
Lord Scarsdale, Lord Curzon’s father, died in 1917. He had lived at Kedleston House lived for over 60 years and had done very little if anything to keep it up. Lord Curzon turned his attention to try to renovate it. In the 1920’s, his principal private project was its renovation and refurbishment. Pictures were reframed, electricity was extended throughout the house and 15 new bathrooms were put in! He was still working to improve Kedleston so he could move his family there from Hackwood when he died in 1925.
Visitors will find a wonderful Gothic memorial chapel in the family church on the property to his first wife Mary, built at Kedleston by Lord George Curzon on the north side of the nave. He took 6 years to collect all the best of materials. Her tomb is of white marble. At his death in 1925 Lord Curzon joined her there. On the north wall is a plaque containing a heartfelt poem (he was an accomplished poet as well) he wrote to his dead wife, who he loved dearly. This chapel is a must see.
Oddly the movie, The Dutchess, made in the last few years about the Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was made here at Kedleston Hall and not at her own historic Treasure home, Chatsworth.
For more information contact: telephone: 01332842191; or the website www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedlestonhall or email them at kedlestonhall@nationaltrust.org.uk. Adult fees are in the range of 8 pounds and children 4.5 pounds. There is a family fee. The house is open March 2 – November each year, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 2-5 P.M.
Enjoy this Treasure House and its property. It is a gem beyond description and we must thank Lord George Curzon for that. I cry each time I leave it.
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