Charlecote Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house in an ancient deer park on the banks of the River Avon, 6 km east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 9 km south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade II* listed building
The Lucy family, who came to England with William the Conqueror, has owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.
In the middle of the 19th century the Fairfax Baronets inherited the property when the male line of the Lucy family failed. The baronets changed their family name to Lucy to reflect the traditions of Charlecote.
The Great Hall has a barrel-vaulted ceiling made of plaster painted to look like timber and is a fine setting for the splendid collection of family portraits. Other rooms have richly coloured wallpaper, decorated plaster ceilings and wood panelling. There are magnificent pieces of furniture and fine works of art, including a contemporary painting of Queen Elizabeth I. The original two-storey Elizabethan gateway that guards the approach to the house remains unaltered.
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 hectares), backing on to the Avon. Apocryphal stories recount that William Shakespeare poached deer in the park. It was landscaped by Capability Brown circa 1760
In the Tudor great hall, Charlecote Park, Warks is a 1680 painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. It is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands. It shows a black boy in the background of a painting of Captain Thomas Lucy. The boy is in a blue livery coat and red stockings. He also wears a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy".
In 1735, a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
[edit] References
- History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3 (1835) John Burke. Lucy of Charlecote pp 97-101. (ISBN 9781847271686)
[edit] External links
