Crichel House
Crichel House is a
History
The original
On Humphrey Sturt's death in 1786, his second son, Charles, inherited Crichel and let it. His son
Beginning in 1905, Crichel was further remodelled by Henry Sturt's son Humphrey Napier Sturt, the second Baron, and his wife Lady Féodorovna, and again in the late 1920s by their son Napier Sturt, 3rd Baron Alington. The facades were returned to a more Georgian appearance, including the restoration of glazing bars in the plate glass windows, and Harold Peto designed an Italian garden.[4]
in 1938, the Crichel estate was requisitioned by the
Mary Anna Marten ended the lease with Cranborne Chase School in 1961 in order to make Crichel House her residence. The school relocated to New Wardour Castle, near Tisbury in Wiltshire; the house was restored under architect E.F. Tew of Bath, with demolition of the Victorian north wings, the family accommodations were placed on the top floor, and almost all the main rooms were redecorated under the supervision of the firm of Mallets. Architectural features from the Italian garden, removed shortly after the war, were used to create a sunken courtyard with balustrades. Further internal modifications were carried out in 1979–80, including the recreation of a long gallery that had been subdivided.[4]
Mary Anna Marten died in 2010; in 2013 her son, Napier Marten, sold Crichel House and a portion of the land to the American billionaire Richard Chilton.[7][8] Chilton has extensively restored the house, reinstating many elements of James Wyatt's interiors and adding furnishings.[4]
Crichel Down estate
The landscaping of the parkland for Humphrey Sturt involved moving the village of Moor Crichel a mile to the south to create the lake. Many of the villagers were moved to Witchampton. The 1850 former parish church of St Mary's, a Grade II* listed building, remains in place near the lake.[9]
At the death of Mary Anna Marten, the Crichel Down estate comprised 7,932 acres (3,210 hectares), including four villages, St. Mary's church, a school and a cricket club, and was bequeathed to Napier Marten and his five sisters.[7] As of January 2020[update] the remainder is divided between multiple holding companies, one of which appears to be an agency of the Phillimore family.[10] The gardens have been occasionally opened to the public under the National Garden Scheme.[4]
Notable visitors
References
- ^ Historic England. "Crichel House (1120155)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
- ^ Historic England. "Crichel House (1000716)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
- ^ John Cornforth notes payments, starting in 1744, to Bastard and also to Francis Cartwright (Cornforth, "The Building of Crichel" Architectural History 27, Design and Practice in British Architecture: Studies in Architectural History Presented to Howard Colvin [1984], pp. 268-269).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j John Martin Robinson, "The magnificent puzzle of Crichel, one of Dorset's grandest Georgian houses", Country Life [2017] 30 April 2019.
- ^ Cornforth 1984 noted payments to Wyatt 1772-80, "R. Biagio" 1776, J. Devall, Linnell and Ince and Mayhew.
- ^ Colvin, 1995 sub "William Burn", "Thomas Hopper".
- ^ a b Jim Durkin, "American billionaire buys Crichel House", Bournemouth Echo, 24 July 2013.
- ^ Nicholas Hellen and Simon Trump, "A voice told me: shave head and give up £115m", The Sunday Times, 3 March 2013.
- ^ "Moor Crichel (Former Church of St. Mary)", Dorset Churches, 27 January 2015.
- ^ Guy Shrubsole, "The ten landowners who own one-sixth of Dorset", Who Owns England?, 4 January 2020, updated 9 February 2020.
- ^ "Crichel House", The Ancient Feudal Manor and Lordship of Winterborne St. Martin (Dorsetshire): The family of Napier, archived from the original on 10 July 2012.
- Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 3rd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press) 1995.
External links
- Media related to Crichel House at Wikimedia Commons