Harlaxton Manor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harlaxton Manor, in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, was built from 1837 onwards by Gregory Gregory. It is currently the home of the University of Evansville's British campus. The house combines "Jacobethan" details with symmetrical Baroque massing to create a house more exuberant than any surviving Elizabethan or Jacobean mansion. The original architect was Anthony Salvin, who was replaced by architect William Burn, who is responsible for Harlaxton's interior detailing.
University students from schools throughout the United States reside at Harlaxton while spending a semester studying abroad.
The manor was also used in all the exterior shots for the 1999 remake of The Haunting, as well as interior and exterior shots in the films The Ruling Class, The Lady and the Highwayman, and The Last Days of Patton. It was also used to film the BBC drama, The Young Visitors. Most recently it was used as the setting for a TV program called Australian Princess.
[edit] History
The current manor house is the second Harlaxton Manor. The first was built on a different site during the fourteenth century and was used as a hunting lodge by John of Gaunt. By 1475, the de Ligne family purchased the manor. The original manor house was deserted after 1780 and, after Gregory inherited it, was torn down in 1857.
The current house was built by Gregory from 1837 to 1845 and helped usher in a renaissance of Elizabethan architecture. Upon Gregory's death, the manor passed to his cousin George Gregory and then in 1860 to a distant relative, John Sherwin. Upon the death of Sherwin's wife in 1892, it passed to his godson Thomas Sherwin Pearson, who owned the house but allowed it to fall into disrepair. Abandoned by 1935, the manor was purchased in 1937 by Violet van der Elst, the widow of a painter and a businesswoman, who developed the first brushless shaving cream. She restored the manor and arranged for it to be wired for electricity.
In 1943, the British Air Force used the manor to house a company of the 1st Battalion of the British Airborne Division. Five years later, Lady van der Elst was forced to sell the manor and it was purchased by The Society of Jesus. They sold the manor, while retaining rights to some of the lands, to Stanford University in 1965. The University of Evansville acquired the manor in 1971.
