Capability photos on Flickr

Charlecote Park - The House from the Parterre - weather vane by Elliott Brown

A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.

Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.

From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).

Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.

From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.

Charlecote Park House is a Grade I Listed Building

Charlecote Park

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/19 Charlecote Park

06/02/52

(Formerly Listed as:

Charlecote Park House)

GV I

Formerly known as: Charlecote Hall.

Country house. Begun 1558; extended C19. Partly restored and

extended, including east range, 1829-34 by CS Smith;

north-east wing rebuilt and south wing extended 1847-67 by

John Gibson. For George and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.

MATERIALS: brick, that remaining from original building has

diapering in vitrified headers, but much has been replaced in

C19; ashlar dressings; tile roof with brick stacks with

octagonal ashlar shafts and caps.

PLAN: U-plan facing east, with later west range and south

wing.

EXTERIOR: east entrance front of 2 storeys with attic;

3-window range with long gabled projecting wings. Ashlar

plinth, continuous drip courses and coped gables with finials,

sections of strapwork balustrading between gables; quoins.

2-storey ashlar porch has round-headed entrance with flanking

pairs of Ionic pilasters and entablature, round-headed

entrance has panelled jambs, impost course and arch with lion

mask to key and 2 voussoirs, strapwork spandrels and stained

glass to fanlight over paired 4-panel doors; first floor has

Arms of Elizabeth I below projecting ovolo-moulded

cross-mullion window, with flanking pairs of Composite

detached columns; top balustrade with symmetrical balusters

supports Catherine wheel and heraldic beasts holding spears;

original diapered brick to returns.

3-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor to left,

that to first floor with strapwork apron. Large canted bay

window to right of 1:3:1 transomed lights with pierced

rosettes to parapet modelled on that to gatehouse (qv) and

flanked by cross-mullioned windows, all with moulded reveals

and small-paned sashes; C19 gables have 3-light

ovolo-mullioned windows with leaded glazing.

Wings similar, with 2 gables to 5-window inner returns,

ovolo-moulded cross-mullioned windows. Wing to south has much

diaper brickwork and stair window with strapwork apron.

East gable ends have 2-storey canted bay windows dated 1852 to

strapwork panels with Lucy Arms between 1:3:1-light transomed

windows; 3-light attic windows, that to north has patch of

reconstructed diaper brickwork to left.

Octagonal stair turrets to outer angles with 2-light windows,

top entablatures and ogival caps with wind vanes, that to

south mostly original, that to north with round-headed

entrance with enriched key block over studded plank door.

North side has turret to each end, that to west is wholly C19;

3 gables with external stacks with clustered shafts between;

cross-mullioned windows and 3-light transomed stair window on

strapwork apron; 2-light single-chamfered mullioned windows to

turrets.

Single-storey east range of blue brick has 2 bay windows with

octagonal pinnacles with pepper-pot finials and arcaded

balustrades over 1:4:1-light transomed windows; central panel

with Lucy Arms in strapwork setting has date 1833; coped

parapet with 3 gables with lights; returns similar with

3-light transomed windows.

Range behind has 3 renewed central gables and 2 lateral stacks

each with 6 shafts; gable to each end, that to south over

Tudor-arched verandah with arcaded balustrade to central arch

and above, entrance behind arch to left with half-glazed door,

blocked arch to right; first floor with cross-mullioned window

and blocked window, turret to right is wholly C19. South

return has cross-mullioned window to each floor and external

stack with clustered shafts.

South-west wing of 2 storeys; west side is a 7-window range;

recessed block to north end has window to each floor, the next

4 windows between octagonal pinnacles; gabled end breaks

forward under gable with turret to angle; rosette balustrade;

stacks have diagonal brick shafts, gable has lozenge with Lucy

Arms impaling Williams Arms (for Mary Elizabeth Lucy).

Cross-mullioned windows, but 2 southern ground-floor windows

are 3-light and transomed.

South end 4-window range between turrets has cross-mullioned

windows, but each end of first floor has bracketed oriel with

strapwork apron with Lucy/Williams Arms in lozenge and dated

1866, rosette balustrade with to each end a gable with 2-light

single-chamfered mullioned window with label, and 3 similar

windows to each turret, one to each floor.

East side has 3-window range with recessed range to right.

South end has Tudor-arched entrance and 3-light transomed

window, cross-mullioned window and 3-light transomed window to

first floor and gable with lozenge to south end; gable to

full-height kitchen to north has octagonal pinnacles flanking

4-light transomed window and gable above with square panel

with Lucy/Williams Arms to shield; recessed part to north has

loggia with entrance and flanking windows, to left a

single-storey re-entrant block with cross-mullioned windows;

first floor has 5 small sashed windows. South side of

south-east wing has varied brickwork with mullioned and

transomed windows, 2 external stacks and 2 gables with 3-light

windows.

INTERIOR: great hall remodelled by Willement with wood-grained

plaster ceiling with 4-centred ribs and Tudor rose bosses;

armorial glass attributed to Eiffler, restored and extended by

Willement; wainscoting and panelled doors; ashlar fireplace

with paired reeded pilasters and strapwork to entablature, and

fire-dogs; white and pink marble floor, Italian, 1845.

Dining room and library in west wing have rich wood panelling

by JM Willcox of Warwick and strapwork cornices, and strapwork

ceilings with pendants; wallpaper by Willement; dining room

has richly carved buffet, 1858, by Willcox and simple coloured

marble fireplace, the latter with bookshelves and fireplace

with paired pilasters and motto to frieze of fireplace, paired

columns and strapwork frieze to overmantel with armorial

bearings; painted arabesques to shutter backs.

Main staircase, c1700, but probably extensively reconstructed

in C19, open-well with cut string, 3 twisted balusters to a

tread, carved tread ends and ramped handrail;

bolection-moulded panelling in 2 heights, the upper panels and

panelled ceiling probably C19.

Morning room to south of hall has Willement decoration: white

marble Tudor-arched fireplace with cusped panels; plaster

ceiling with bands.

Ebony bedroom, originally billiard room, and drawing room to

north-east wing have 1856 scheme with cornices and

Jacobean-style plaster ceilings; white marble C18-style

fireplaces, that to Ebony Bedroom with Italian inserts with

Lucy crest. Drawing room has gilded and painted cornice and

ceiling, and large pier glasses.

Rooms to first floor originally guest bedrooms: doors with

egg-and-dart and eared architraves; C18-style fireplaces, that

to end room, originally Ebony Bedroom, has wood Rococo-style

fireplace with Chinoiserie panel; 1950s stair to attic.

South-east wing has c1700 stair, probably altered in C19, with

symmetrical balusters with acanthus, closed string; first

floor has wall and ceiling paintings: land and sea battle

scenes painted on canvas, male and female grisaille busts.

First floor has to west the Green Room, with Willement

wallpaper and simple Tudor-arched fireplace with

wallpaper-covered chimney board; adjacent room has marble

fireplace.

Death Room and its dressing room to east end have wallpaper of

gold motifs on white, painted 6-panel doors and architraves,

papier-mache ceilings; bedroom has fireplace with marble

architrave. Adjacent room has bolection-moulded panelling with

c1700 Dutch embossed leather. Stair to attic has c1700

balusters with club-form on acorn. Attics over great hall and

north-east and south-east wings have lime-ash floors and

servants' rooms, each with small annex and corner fireplace;

some bells.

South wing has kitchen with high ceiling and 2

segmental-arched recesses for C19 ranges; Tudor-arched recess

with latticed chamber for smoked meats over door.

Servants' hall has dark marble bolection-moulded fireplace and

cornice; scullery has bread oven, small range, pump and former

south window retaining glass.

First floor has to south end a pair of rooms added for Mary

Elizabeth Lucy in her widowhood; bedroom to east with deep

coved cornice and Adam-style fireplace, sitting room to west

similar, with gold on white wallpaper, white marble fireplace

with painted glass armorial panels and 1830s-40s carpet; door

to spiral timber turret staircase.

Nursery has fireplace with faceted panels and C19 Delft tiles;

probably 1920s wallpaper.

Other rooms with similar fireplaces and coloured glazed tiles.

While dating back to the C16, the house is one of the best

examples of the early C19 Elizabethan Revival style. Property

of National Trust.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:

Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 227-9; The National Trust

Guide to Charlecote Park: 1991-; Wainwright C: The Romantic

Interior).

Listing NGR: SP2590656425

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

From the garden that is the Parterre.

weather vane

C-141B Starlifter by Kelly Michals

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March Field Air Museum

In over forty years of service, stretching from the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of the Persian Gulf, the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter the Air Force’s first jet-powered, heavy-lift cargo aircraft has earned the title of Americas airlift workhorse.

A product of John F. Kennedy’s first official order as President, the C-141 was designed to be a fast, long-range strategic and tactical transport capable of delivering 60,000 pounds of cargo 3,500 miles while retaining the slow speed capability to airdrop paratroopers and cargo while in-flight. Produced on-time and under budget, Lockheed engineers gave the C-141 a high-mounted wing swept back 25 degrees for high-speed performance, powerful flaps for low-speed capability, four under-wing TF33 turbofan engines, integral wing fuel tanks, a T-tail, externally housed landing gear, dual paratroop doors and rear-mounted clamshell doors with an integral loading ramp for quick on and off loads.

Brought into service in October 1964, in less than seven months squadrons of C-141s began ten years of nearly daily flights into Southeast Asia, carrying troops, equipment, supplies, medevacing wounded and, in 1973’s Operation Homecoming, repatriating freed POWs. In April 1975, C-141s airlifted the last remaining American personnel from Saigon as it fell to North Vietnamese forces.

In the following years, Starlifters supplied U.S. forces throughout the world, aiding in humanitarian efforts and military conflicts in Grenada and Panama and providing support to Israeli forces during several flare-ups in the

Middle East. In the first half of 1990, modified C-141Bs with 23-foot fuselage extensions permitting an increased cargo capacity of 13 pallets, 205 troops, 168 fully loaded paratroopers or 103 litters for wounded and equipped with an aerial re-fueling capability, were engaged in Operation Desert Shield. In an around the clock strategic airlift push, C-141Bs landed in Saudi Arabia at an astounding rate of one every seven minutes.

The last C-141 left the U.S. inventory in 2006 replaced by a new generation of global airlift, the C-17 Globemaster III.

The museum's C-141B Starlifter serial number 65-0257, currently on loan from the National Museum of the U.S.A.F., the “Spirit of the Inland Empire” entered active service in 1966. Its assignments have included Travis AFB, CA. McCord AFB, WA. Norton AFB, CA. and finally the 452nd Air Mobility Wing, at March. After completing 44,130 flight hours 65-0257 retired and moved across the runway to the March Field Air Museum on November 10, 1999.

Visitors inspecting the new bathroom at Croome Court, by the previous owner (a builder) - and as he left it, with the floor sunk due to the extra weight! by tedesco57

3 1

Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location[edit]

Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]

House[edit]

Croome Court South Portico

History[edit]

The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]

In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]

The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]

The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]

During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]

In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]

The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]

From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]

Exterior[edit]

The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]

Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]

A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior[edit]

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]

The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]

The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]

At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery

wikipedia

Charlecote Park - Victorian Kitchen - Union Jack Bunting and Earl Kitchener by Elliott Brown