Tabley House
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tabley House is an 18th-century Palladian mansion in Knutsford, Cheshire. It is a Grade I listed building.[1]
It was designed by John Carr as the country house of Sir Peter Byrne Leicester and was completed in 1767.[2] A major feature of the house is its portico of four Doric columns above two sweeps of curved flights of steps. Each column measures more than 23 feet (7 m) high and each is fashioned from a single piece of Runcorn sandstone. Immediately to the west of the hall is St Peter's Church which is also a Grade I listed building and which is joined to the house by a passage.[3] The house was home to Sir John Leicester, created Baron de Tabley, a great collector of British works of art, for which a Picture Gallery was added to the house, to designs of Thomas Harrison, about 1810;[4] it contains works by many artists, some of whom were visitors to the house. These include J. M. W. Turner, Henry Thompson and James Ward.[5]
A fire damaged the east wing, which was put in order by the architect George Moneypenny in 1819-21.[6] The house remained in the possession of the Leicester/Warren/Leighton family until the death, in 1975, of the last remaining heir, Lt. Col. John Leicester-Warren. The University of Manchester acquired the property after an offer to the National Trust was declined. Tabley House was converted to a private school in 1947. It remained a school until its new owners, the University of Manchester, closed the school in 1984. The house is still owned by the University, but has been leased to a health care company on a 125-year term. The house is open to the general public at advertised times.[5]
In 2007 the university sold 3,600 acres (14.6 km²) of the Tabley estate, consisting mainly of tenant farms, to The Crown Estate. This was part of the University's estates plan of selling unwanted land to fund the building program following the merger in 2004.[7] The landscape park of around 150 hectares is listed at Grade II on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[8] Knutsford services on the M6 motorway occupies land which used to be part of the Tabley House estate.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Images of England: Tabley House. English Heritage. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ Vitruvius Britannicus, v, pls 16-19, where it is called "Oakland House" (Colvin 1995)
- ^ Richards, Raymond (1947). Old Cheshire Churches. London: Batsford, 260.
- ^ Colvin 1995, noting Ackermann's Repository of the Arts, 3rd ser., ii, 1823.
- ^ a b Tabley. Tabley House. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
- ^ Colvin 1995, s.v. George Moneypenny
- ^ Shirley, Andrew (2007-07-24). Crown Estate buys Manchester University land in £35m deal. Farmers Weekly. Reed Business Information. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
- ^ U.K. Database of Historic Parks and Gardens: Tabley House. University of York. Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
[edit] References
- Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 3rd ed. (Yale University Press), 1995, s.v. John Carr, Thomas Harrison, George Moneypenny
- Hussey, Christopher) in Country Life 21 and 28 July 1923.
- ———, English Country Houses: Mid-Georgian 1956:56-60.
[edit] External links
[edit] Images
 Tabley House and grounds from the air; a show in its grounds, 3 June 2007 |
 Tabley House and grounds from the air; a show in its grounds, 3 June 2007, closer |
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