Wynyard Park, County Durham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wynyard Park, County Durham, England, sometimes known as Wynyard Hall is a large country house -- the Entrance Front is 13 bays with a 6-column giant Corinthian Portico. The house used to be the home of the Londonderry family but it ceased to be their home in the 1980s but they retained the estate.
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[edit] The house
The Entrance Hall looked like that of Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland. It has a coffered segmental tunnel vault with apses at both ends and in the middle, suspended from the ceiling there was a large Crystal chandelier. The main octagonal center hall extends the full height of the house and has a dome with caryatids around it and a skylight. There is also a mirrored Drawing Room with a gilded and painted ceiling, and a vast Ballroom similar to that of the family's London residence - Londonderry House.
[edit] The gardens
As one first sees the house you can see many statues in the entrance court outside the house and in the distance the is an Obelisk. The vast obelisk, 127 feet high, commemorating the visit of the Duke of Wellington in 1827.
At its height in the 19th century, the Wynyard Estate occupied 7,000 acres in Teeside - a time that has long gone.
The grounds today include a 15-acre ornamental lake, a walled garden, two entrance lodges, three cottages, a former racing yard, and productive farmland.
[edit] Brief history
The mansion was started by Benjamin Wyatt and completed by Philip Wyatt for the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, a famous coal magnate and founder of Seaham Harbour. The Marquess spent the then-enormous sum of £130,000 to build and furnish the House. In 1841, just as the mansion was being completed, a fire broke out and gutted the house; it was later restored and remodeled.
There had been a house on the site since the Middle Ages, and the 3rd Marquess incorporated parts of an earlier 18th century building into his house.
In the 19th century, Sir George Vane-Tempest, who became Earl Vanein 1854 and the 5th Marquess of Londonderry in 1872, owned vast estates: 27,000 acres in Ireland and 23,000 acres in England and Wales; he also sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for 26 years.
Upon the death of the 5th Marquess in 1884 his eldest son, Charles, became the 6th Marquess; it was the 6th Marquess's wife, Lady Londonderry, who was the model for the famous Lady Roehampton in Vita Sackville-West's The Edwardians.
The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) were frequent visitors to Wynyard. The Estate remained in the Londonderry family until 1987, though it was let as a training school for teachers from 1945 until 1960, during which time it lost most of its original contents through sales and breakages.
The Estate was sold in 1987 to Sir John Hall, along with 5,000 acres. Sir John spent £4 million to restore the house, hiring Rupert Lord to oversee the restoration; he later moved his company headquarters, as well as his home, into the mansion. The Estate, comprising the House and 780 acres of parkland, was listed for sale in July 2002 for £8 million.
