Chevening

Coordinates: 51°17′56″N 0°07′53″E / 51.2990°N 0.1314°E / 51.2990; 0.1314
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about Chevening House. For the scholarship scheme, see Chevening Scholarship. For the village, see Chevening, Kent.

Chevening House
Country house
LocationChevening, Kent
Coordinates51°17′56″N 0°07′53″E / 51.2990°N 0.1314°E / 51.2990; 0.1314
Construction started1617
OwnerForeign Secretary
References
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameChevening House
Designated10 September 1954
Reference no.1085853
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
Official nameChevening
Designated26 August 1988
Reference no.1000258
GradeII*

Chevening House (

Grade II*.[2]

Formerly the principal seat of the

earls Stanhope, the house and estate are owned and maintained at the expense of the trust of the Chevening Estate, under the Chevening Estate Act 1959[3] (amended 1987), to serve as a furnished country residence for a person nominated by the prime minister, so qualified by being a member of the Cabinet or a descendant of King George VI. The nominee pays for their own private living expenses when in residence but government departments arrange and effect official business at the estate.[4] Chevening House is not an official residence, but has been traditionally used by the Foreign Secretary.[5]

History

There has been a house on the site since at least 1199 and the estate originally formed part of the

Hampton Court. Much remodelled by the 3rd Earl Stanhope in the late 18th-century, the house was extensively restored in the 1970s by Donald Insall Associates
for the Board of Trustees of the Chevening Estate.

For 250 years, the house was the principal seat of the

steam navigation, optics, musical notation
and fire-proofing in buildings were overshadowed at the time and subsequently by his reputation, as the self-styled "Citizen Stanhope", for eccentricity and political radicalism.

garden canal
at rear.

Save the Children Fund. James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope (also 13th Earl of Chesterfield), was a Conservative politician who held office almost continuously from 1924 to 1940, serving in Cabinet posts from 1936 under Baldwin and Chamberlain. He founded the National Maritime Museum
at Greenwich.

Chevening Estate Act 1959
Act of Parliament
Commencement
9 July 1959
Other legislation
Amended byChevening Estate Act 1987
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Chevening Estate Act 1959 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
Chevening Estate Act 1987
Act of Parliament
Commencement
1 September 1987
Other legislation
AmendsChevening Estate Act 1959
Status: Current legislation
Text of the Chevening Estate Act 1987 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

Having no children of his own and his only brother having been killed in the

Great War, the last Earl Stanhope wished to create at Chevening a lasting monument to a family that had provided for two and a half centuries politicians across the political spectrum and no fewer than five fellows of the Royal Society. He therefore drafted what became the Chevening Estate Act 1959[6] to ensure that the estate would not be broken up after his death, but would instead retain a significant role as a private house in public life. The ownership of the property would pass to a board of trustees, who would maintain it as a furnished country residence for a suitably qualified nominated person chosen by the prime minister. The nominated person would have the right to occupy the house in a private capacity and would pay for their private living expenses. The board of trustees would maintain the house and estate by means of their stewardship of the estate, with no grant from the Government. The Act was passed with cross-party support and, as amended by the Chevening Estate Act 1987, governs the estate to this day. The first beneficiary of the Act was the 7th Earl, who died in 1967, following which the board of trustees launched a major programme of restoration of the house, gardens and parklands funded partly by his endowment and partly through their own management of the estate.[7]

In 1974

Lady Diana Spencer.[11]

Current use

Under the terms of the Chevening Act, the prime minister has the responsibility of nominating a person to occupy the house privately as a furnished country residence. This person can be the prime minister, a minister who is a member of the Cabinet, a lineal descendant of King George VI or the spouse, widow or widower of such a descendant. The Canadian high commissioner, the American ambassador and the National Trust all have remainder interests in Chevening in the unlikely event that none of the others requires the house.

The usual nominee is the Foreign Secretary.[5] Under special arrangements with the board of trustees, the house is also available to the Secretary of State for International Trade and was available to the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. When circumstances permit, the house may be used for meetings or conferences, usually by other government departments, through arrangement with the trustees.

Literary connections

The poet Robert Selby was a longstanding resident of the Chevening area. His poetry collection The Coming-Down Time (Shoestring Press, 2020)[12] includes a sequence entitled 'Chevening', partially set in the grounds of Chevening House and in St Botolph's church opposite.

It has sometimes been suggested that Chevening served Jane Austen as a model for Rosings Park in her novel Pride and Prejudice, but the only established fact that links the novelist with Chevening is that the Revd John Austen, her second cousin and grandson of the solicitor Francis Austen, who lived in the Red House, Sevenoaks, became Rector of Chevening in 1813, the novel having been published in that January.[13] However, it was written from October 1796 to August 1797. John Halperin also relates that Francis Austen, an uncle of Jane Austen's father, was solicitor to the owners of Chevening during the latter third of the 18th-century; that Francis Austen owned property in the area, and that Jane Austen visited him and relatives in Kent several times between 1792 and 1796.[13]

Chevening scholarship programme

The Chevening Scholarship is the UK government's international awards scheme, founded in 1983 to develop global leaders. While the programme takes its name from the house, the Chevening Secretariat administers the awards on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The Secretariat is based at Woburn House in London and is part of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

See also

  • Chequers, the British Prime Minister's official country retreat, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire.
  • Dorneywood, a country retreat in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, periodically assigned to a senior British government minister.

References

  1. ^ Historic England. "Chevening House (1085853)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  2. ^ Historic England. "Chevening House (1000258)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  3. ^ Chevening Estate Act 1959 (1959 Chapter 49 7 and 8 Eliz 2)
  4. ^ Newman, Aubrey (1969). The Stanhopes of Chevening. Macmillan.
  5. ^ a b "Dominic Raab and Liz Truss agree to share 115-room mansion". BBC News. 13 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Chevening Estate Act 1959".
  7. ^ Wilson, Michael (2011). A House of Distinction.
  8. ^ Dimbleby (1994), p. 263.
  9. ^ Dimbleby (1994), p. 299.
  10. ^ Dimbleby (1994), p. 265.
  11. ^ Dimbleby (1994), p. 279.
  12. ^ The Coming-Down Time by Robert Selby – The Scores
  13. ^ a b Halperin, John (1989), "Inside Pride and Prejudice", Persuasions, no. 11, Jane Austen Society of North America, retrieved 9 December 2018

Bibliography

External links

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