Ickworth House

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Ickworth House is a country house outside Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England. It is a neoclassical structure topped by a giant rotunda in a park laid out by Capability Brown.

Ickworth House is in the care of the National Trust, and, as part of the "Ickworth House, Park & Garden" property, is open to the public.

The house, park, and large endowment were given to the National Trust in 1956 in lieu of death duties. However, the endowment that was given with the house was larger than the total amount of death duties that needed to be paid.

Ickworth had been in the ownership of the Hervey family from the 15th century. When the house was given to the National Trust in payment of death duties, a 99-year lease on the 60-room East Wing was given to the Marquess of Bristol as consideration for the endowment. However, in 1998 the 7th Marquess of Bristol, for financial reasons, and in response to an eviction suit stemming from his behavior on the property, sold the remaining lease on the East Wing to the National Trust. There is now a 27-bedroom hotel in the East Wing. When the House was handed over to the National Trust in 1956, the Letter of Wishes of the 4th Marchioness of Bristol stated that accommodation always be available for the head of the Hervey family (The Marquess of Bristol) at Ickworth. The Trust have not honoured this wish by trying to evict the 7th Marquess due to his dangerous behavior while in residence and by agreeing to repurchase the remaining leasehold from him and further by refusing to undo that sale when the present 8th Marquess of Bristol so demanded; the 8th Marquess has vocally criticised the Trust for this.

[edit] Building

The front of Ickworth House is over 600 feet long, and the rotunda is over 100 feet high. The rotunda was built to the designs of Mario Asprucci, an Italian architect. Begun for the eccentric 4th Earl of Bristol in 1795, the house was still unfinished when the Earl died in 1803 and was completed by the 5th Earl of Bristol (later 1st Marquess of Bristol).

It contains paintings by Velazquez, Titian, Poussin, and Claude Lorraine, as well as an unrivalled series of 18th-century family portraits by artists such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Vigee-Lebrun, Batoni, Angelica Kauffman, Ramsay, Van Loo, and Hogarth. In addition, Ickworth has arguably the best collections in Britain of fine Georgian silver. The house also contains very good examples of Regency furniture, and porcelain.

The West Wing at Ickworth House went uncompleted until 2005, when a joint partnership between the National Trust and Sodexho Prestigeled to its subsequent renovation and reopening as a centre for conferences and events. The first wedding in the properties history took place in 2006.

All the Hervey family, since Thomas Hervey (d.1467) up to most recently 7th Marquess of Bristol, including all the Earl's and Marquesses of Bristol, have been buried at Ickworth Church which is located in Ickworth Park, a short walk from the house. The church is Norman with some later additions, and possesses a 15th-century wall painting of the Angel of the Annunciation, a 15th-century font, and roundels of Flemish glass from as early as 14th century, as well as numerous marble achievements to different members of the Hervey family over the centuries.