National Trust Wimpole Hall

Website http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-wimpolehall/

Classification Historic Building

DescriptionA magnificent 18th-century house, with fine interiors, set in an extensive wooded park

Wimpole Hall is a country house located in Arrington, Royston, Cambridgeshire, England, about 8½ miles (14 km) southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its 3,000 acres (12 km²) of parkland and farmland are owned by the National Trust and are regularly open to the public.

Wimpole is the largest house in Cambridgeshire. Over the centuries, many notable architects have worked on it, including its first owner, Thomas Chichely (between 1640 and 1670), James Gibbs (between 1713 and 1730), James Thornhill (1721), Henry Flitcroft (around 1749), John Soane (1790s), and H. E. Kendall (1840s).

Before the present Wimpole Hall was built in around 1640, there was a moated manor house set in a small 81 hectare (200 acre) deer-park. Situated to the north and south of this were three medieval villages: Bennall End, Thresham End and Green End. Wimpole Hall's grounds were laid out and modified by landscape designers such as George London and Henry Wise (1693–1705), Charles Bridgeman (1720s), Robert Greening (1740s), 'Capability' Brown (1767), and Humphry Repton (1801–1809). The parkland as it exists today is an overlay of the work of these landscape designers and gardeners was completed under the auspices of Elsie and George Bambridge. Elsie, the daughter of Rudyard Kipling revitalised the house. Thanks to her efforts, this National Trust property is in the state it is in today.

Bridgeman's formal grand avenue sweeps away from the south front of the house for two and a half miles in contrast with the remainder of the park which was "naturalised" by Capability Brown. The North Park is particularly attractive with its belts of woodland, gentle rolling hills with individual and clumps of trees. The central feature of the North Park is the Gothic Tower and the restored lakes in the valley below.

In the grounds are a chain of lakes (1695–1767), a church (1749), a folly (the false Gothic Tower; 1768), a farm (1792), a walled garden (18th century), and a stable block (1851).
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Position

Photographs

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The AddressWimpole Hall, Old Wimpole Road, Arrington, Royston, SG8 0BW

Phone01223 206000

DateOct 19, 2006

Contact NameNational Trust

CategoryEngland > Cambridgeshire
England > Bedfordshire > Attractions in Biggleswade

Email send email to National Trust

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