Weston Park
| Weston Park | |
|---|---|
 The South (garden) frontage | |
| Type | House |
| Location | Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire |
| Coordinates | 52°41′34″N 2°17′16″W / 52.6929°N 2.2879°W |
| Built | c. 1670 |
| Architect | attributed to Elizabeth Wilbraham |
| Architectural style(s) | Carolean |
| Governing body | Private |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | Weston Hall and service wings to north and east |
| Designated | 16 May 1953 |
| Reference no. | 1039264 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Orangery and attached link to house, 25 m west of Weston Hall |
| Designated | 16 May 1953 |
| Reference no. | 1374071 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Gateway attached to south west of Stable Block of Weston Hall |
| Designated | 4 July 1985 |
| Reference no. | 1374073 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Stable Block, 60 m to north east of entrance front of Weston Hall |
| Designated | 16 May 1953 |
| Reference no. | 1188130 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Stables and Granary at Weston Hall |
| Designated | 16 May 1953 |
| Reference no. | 1188133 |
  Location of Weston Park in Staffordshire | |
Weston Park is a
Grade I listed building and several other features of the estate, such as the Orangery
and the Stable block, are separately listed as Grade II.
Weston Park House and the surrounding parkland were given to the nation in 1986 by the 7th Earl of Bradford, with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund. It is now in the care of the trustees of the Weston Park Foundation. The house retains its art collection with over 30,000 objects and is open to the public.
History
Weston lies within land that was first mentioned in the
medieval deer park and forest. Originally belonging to the de Westons of Weston, it passed by inheritance to a branch of the Mytton family when their heiress, Elizabeth Mytton married Sir Thomas Wilbraham. Eventually the land passed to Earls of Bradford when their younger daughter, Mary Wilbraham, married Richard Newport, 2nd Earl of Bradford
of the first creation.
The house was built in 1671 for
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura) remains in the collection at Weston Park. The three-storey, twelve-bayed south front of the house was originally the entrance front but alterations and improvements carried out in the latter 19th century for Countess Selina and Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford of the second creation, involved the movement of the main entrance to the east front. The original courtyard of the U-shaped house was roofed over above the ground floor, and closed off by a new front.[3]
In the eighteenth century, with the failure of the male line of the Newport Earls of Bradford, Weston was inherited by Sir Henry Bridgeman, 5th Baronet, whose mother Lady Anne Bridgeman (née Newport) was a granddaughter of Lady Wilbraham. The Bridgemans were already substantial landowners in Shropshire and in Warwickshire but chose to make Weston their main seat. Sir Henry Bridgeman commissioned Capability Brown to landscape the park. He also employed James Paine in the 1760s to make alteration to the house and to add a Roman Bridge and Temple of Diana in the park.[4][5]
Art collection
The collection includes many portraits from the 17th to 20th centuries, with rare pieces such as two portraits of ladies of the Wilbraham family by
Claude Joseph Vernet (Calm and Storm).[6] There is a rare toilet service in silver of 1679, one of only 12 English-made early services left in the country.[7] There is good furniture, including many pieces made for the house by Thomas Chippendale, and a room with tapestries from the Gobelins Manufactory made for Weston in the 1760s. The elaborately embroidered ceremonial purse (or "burse") of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, in his office of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
(1667–72), is displayed next to a portrait of him with it.
Beyond the house
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Adjacent to the house is the estate church, dedicated to
Heritage Lottery Fund
and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
There are gardens and a large park, which includes a lake and a
P.G. Wodehouse.[2]
Visits and festivals
King
G8 Summit Retreat was held at the house with heads of State or government present including US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin
.
From 1999 until 2017 the grounds of Weston Park were used as one of the sites of the annual dual-site Hylands Park in Chelmsford
.
The park is the site for the annual Midland Game Fair which takes place on the third weekend of September. The fair, which consists of traditional British country pursuits including working dog trials, fishing and animal husbandry, attracts up to 50,000 visitors from both Britain and Ireland.
In 2023, Weston Park hosted Camp Bestival Shropshire.[12]
Gallery
-
Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham, the possible architect of Weston, by Sir Peter Lely, one of the portraits in the collection -
Mary Wilbraham by John Michael Wright -
Grace Wilbraham by John Michael Wright -
Main entrance -
Stable block -
Temple of Diana -
Ceremonial purse of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 1667–72, at Weston Park -
The 1679 toilet service
Footnotes
- ^ In support of William Taylor being the architect, Weston Park notes the architectural similarities between the house and the Church of the Holy Trinity at Minsterley, 30 miles away across the county border in Shropshire, which is known to be by Taylor.[2]
See also
- List of Grade I listed buildings in Staffordshire
- Listed buildings in Blymhill and Weston-under-Lizard
References
- ^ Pevsner 1974, pp. 305–306.
- ^ a b c "The History of Weston Park". The Weston Park Foundation. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Historic England. "Weston Hall and service wings to north and east (Grade I) (1039264)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Bridge at Weston Hall (Grade I) (1039268)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Temple of Diana (Grade I) (1188135)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ "The Collection at Weston Park Shropshire". The Weston Park Foundation. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ "A Queen Anne silver-gilt toilet service –The Norfolk toilet service, Expert adviser’s statement, to the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, Great Britain: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2012 (with useful Appendix on major toilet services in England), accessed 24 June 2015
- ^ Pevsner 1974, pp. 306–307.
- ^ Historic England. "Orangery (Grade II) (1374071)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Historic England. "Stable Block (Grade II) (1188130)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Historic England. "Stables and Granary at Weston Hall (Grade II) (1188133)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ "A stately welcome as Weston Park gears up for Camp Bestival Shropshire". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
Sources
- ISBN 0-14-071046-9.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Weston Park, Weston-under-Lizard.
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