Stourhead

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The Temple of Apollo high on a hill overlooking the gardens. The design was based on a circular temple at Baalbec.

Stourhead is a 2,650 acre (11 km²) estate at the source of the River Stour near Mere, Wiltshire, England. The estate includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens, farmland, and woodland. Stourhead has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1946.

The Stourton family had lived in the Stourhead estate for 700 years when they sold it to Henry Hoare I, son of wealthy banker Sir Richard Hoare in 1717. The original manor house was demolished and a new house, one of the first of its kind, was designed by Colen Campbell and built by Nathaniel Ireson between 1720 and 1724. Over the next 200 years the Hoare family collected many heirlooms, including a large library and art collection. In 1901 the house was gutted by fire. However, many of the heirlooms were saved, and the house rebuilt in a near identical style. Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, whose heir had been killed in World War I, gave the house to the National Trust in 1946, one year before his death.

Stourhead House

Stourhead's lake and foliage as seen from a high hill vantage point.

The gardens were designed by Henry Hoare II and laid out between 1741 and 1780 in a classical 18th-century design set around a large lake, achieved by damming a small stream. The inspiration behind their creation were the painters Claude, Poussin and, in particular, Gaspar Dughet, who painted Utopian-type views of Italian landscapes.

Included in the garden are a number of temples designed to show off the Hoare family's education and wealth. On one hill overlooking the gardens there stands an obelisk and King Alfred's Tower (a 50-metre-tall, brick folly designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1772); on another hill the temple of Apollo provides a vantage point to survey the magnificent rhododendrons, water, cascades and temples. Amongst the woodland surrounding the site there are also two Iron Age hill forts: Whitesheet Hill and Park Hill Camp. The gardens are home to a large collection of trees and shrubs from around the world.

The lake at Stourhead, view to the Temple of Flora.

[edit] Trivia

A miniature replica of Stourhead House featured as Lady Penelope's residence in the Thunderbirds television series.

[edit] References

H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 (1997) ISBN 0-300-07207-4
C. Hussey, English country houses: Mid Georgian, 1760–1800 (1956) pp.234–8