Rudding Park House

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Rudding Park House

Rudding Park House is a Grade I listed Regency-style country house in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.

It is situated within the 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) Rudding Park estate at Follifoot on the southern outskirts of Harrogate. It is a two-storey building made of ashlar with a Westmorland slate roof, designed in the style of the Wyatts by an unknown architect.[1]

History

Rudding Park was originally part of the forest of Knaresborough and still retains some of the ancient oak trees. In the early 18th century Rudding was owned in turn by Messrs Williamson of Wetherby, Craddock, James Collins (who enlarged the house and planted avenues in the park) and Thomas Wilson. In 1788 Alexander Wedderburn, Lord Loughborough, the future Lord Chancellor, acquired the estate and called in the garden designer Humphry Repton to remodel the landscape.

Chapel, Rudding Park

In 1805 the estate was purchased by the Hon. William Gordon,[2] who demolished the original house and commissioned the building of the present house in a new location. In 1824 the estate was sold to Sir Joseph Radcliffe, Bt. [3] with the new house still unfinished and he secured architect Robert Chantrell to oversee its completion. London architect A.E. Purdie designed a gothic revival chapel which was added in 1879. Several generations of the Ratcliffe family then occupied the house.

The Granada television series which screened in 1971 called "Seasons of the Year" was filmed here. This consisted of six plays involving the various occupants of the house {called 'Seasons'} over a 150 year period from the Napoleonic wars to the 1970s. In some ways this series was almost a precursor to the later "Brideshead Revisited" where the house was almost a character in its own right.

In 1972 the estate was acquired by the Mackaness family, who remain the owners to the present day. In recent times the estate has been heavily developed, with the opening of Rudding Holiday Park in 1973 and the use of the house as a conference and banqueting centre in 1987. An 18 hole golf course was opened in 1995 (complete with floodlit driving range) and 250 bedroom hotel adjoining the house in 1997.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Name: RUDDING PARK HOUSE List Entry Number: 1188343". Hritage Gateway. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  2. ↑ son of George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen
  3. ↑ Sir Joseph Radcliffe, 2nd Baronet

References

Coordinates: 53°58′25″N 1°29′34″W / 53.9735°N 1.4928°W / 53.9735; -1.4928

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