Tring Park

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Tring Park is a large country house near Tring, Hertfordshire.

The early history of the site is not clear, although a house was in Royalist hands in the times of Charles I. When Charles II came to the throne in the English Restoration in 1660, he gave the house to his Groom of the Bedchamber, Henry Guy. Guy built a new house to a design by Christopher Wren. Guy was sent to the Tower of London soon after William and Mary came to the thone in the Glorious Revolution in 1688.

The house passed through various hands until it was rented by Nathan Mayer Rothschild in the 1830s. It was purchased by Baron Lionel de Rothschild for £230,000 in May 1872, with 4,000 acres (16 km²), to serve as his principal country residence. Rothschild extended the house significantly to occupy his guests. George Devey is believed to have worked on the "improvements" at Tring Park between 1874 and 1878, turning the Wren house into a dix-huitième French chateau complete with mansard roof.

Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum was built in the grounds in 1889 by Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild to house his private collection of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. It was first opened to the public in 1892 and is now part of the Natural History Museum.

Rothschild Bank moved to the house at the beginning of the Second World War in 1939. The Arts Educational School moved to the house in 1945, and bought the freehold in 1970.

In 1975 the A41 Tring Bypass was opened, splitting the park in two. The house, now known as Tring Mansion, remains the home of The Arts Educational School, Tring Park

[edit] Tring Park Today

"Tring Park" now usually refers to that part of the original estate south of the A41. It is public open space, owned by Dacorum Borough Council and managed by the Woodland Trust. Half of the 300 acres is undulating grassland, grazed by cattle. To the east and south and the park includes the wooded chiltern escarpment in which there are former carriage rides. One of these, the King's Ride, forms part of the Ridgeway_National_Trail. In this part of the park are two monuments: an obelisk known locally as Nell Gwyn's monument, and a summer house.