Grimsthorpe Castle

Grimsthorpe Castle was originally a Tudor country house in Lincolnshire, 4 miles northwest of Bourne on the A151. It lies within a 3,000 acre (12 km²) park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by Capability Brown. While Grimsthorpe is not a castle in the strict sense of the word, its character is massive and martial ? the towers and outlying pavilions recalling the bastions of a great fortress in classical dress. Grimsthorpe has been the home of the de Eresby family since 1516. The present owner is Jane 27th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, granddaughter of Lady Nancy Astor, who died at Grimsthorpe in 1964.

Related Topics:
Tudor - Country house - Lincolnshire - Capability Brown - Nancy Astor

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Grimsthorpe was the site of a castle built in the early 13th century for Gilbert de Gant, Earl of Lincoln. King John's Tower, one of the original battlemented towers still remains as the southeast corner tower of the present house.

Related Topics:
Gilbert de Gant - Earl of Lincoln

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In 1516, Grimsthorpe it was granted by Henry VIII to the 10th Baron Willoughby de Eresby on the occasion of his marriage to Maria de Salinas, kinswoman and lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Their daughter Katherine inherited the title and estate on the death of her father in 1526, when she was aged just seven. In 1533, she became the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, a close ally of Henry the VIII. In 1539, Henry VIII granted Charles Brandon the lands of the nearby suppressed Vaudey Abbey, founded 1147, and he used its stone as building material for his new house. Brandon set about extending and rebuilding his wife's house, and in only eighteen months it was ready in time for a visit by King Henry, on his way to York in 1541 to meet with his cousin, James V of Scotland. Seemingly the additions were hastily constructed, as substantial repairs were required later due to the poor state of the foundations, but much of this Tudor house can still be seen today.

Related Topics:
Henry VIII - Baron Willoughby de Eresby - Catherine of Aragon - Duke of Suffolk - Vaudey Abbey - James V

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By 1707, when Grimsthorpe was illustrated in Britannia Illustrata, the 15th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 3rd Earl Lindsay had rebuilt the north front of Grimsthorpe in the classical style. However, in 1715, Robert Bertie, the 16th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, employed Sir John Vanbrugh to design a baroque front to the house to celebrate his enoblement as the first Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. It is Vanbrugh's last masterpiece. He also prepared designs for the reconstruction of the other three ranges of the house, but they were not carried out. His proposed elevation for the south front was in the palladian style, which was just coming into fashion, and is quite different from all of his built designs.

Related Topics:
Sir John Vanbrugh - Baroque - Palladian

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Inside, the Vanbrugh hall is monumental with stone arcades all around at two levels. Arcaded screens at each end of the hall separate the hall from staircases, much like those at Audley End House and Castle Howard. The staircase is behind the hall screen and leads to the staterooms on the first floor. The State Dining Room occupies Vanbrugh?s north-east tower, with its painted ceiling lit by a Venetian window. It contains the throne used by George IV at his Coronation Banquet, and a Regency giltwood throne and footstool used by Queen Victoria in the old House of Lords. There is also a walnut and parcel gilt chair and footstool made for the use of George III at Westminster. The King James and State Drawing Rooms have been redecorated over the centuries, and contain portraits by Reynolds and Van Dyck, European furniture, and yellow Soho Tapestries woven by Joshua Morris around 1730. The South Corridor contains thrones used by Prince Albert and Edward VII, as well as the desk on which Queen Victoria signed her coronation oath. A series of rooms follows in the Tudor east range, with recessed oriel windows and ornate ceilings. The Chinese drawing room has a splendidly rich ceiling and an 18th century, fan-vaulted oriel window. The walls are hung with Chinese wallpaper depicting birds amidst bamboo. The chapel is magnificent with superb 17th century plasterwork.

Related Topics:
Audley End House - Castle Howard - George IV - Queen Victoria - George III - Prince Albert - Edward VII

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It was originally the southern edge of the great Lincolnshire forest, and its medieval deer park and Tudor oak park are crossed by fine avenues of trees. Oak trees recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 were growing in the park when drawings of the park were made in the early 18th century. Some of these ancient trees were reportedly still alive in the 20th century. The present Grimsthorpe Castle park was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown (1771) and implemented by his patron, the Duke of Ancaster. The garden contains a knot garden, hedged rose gardens, a terrace with herbaceous and shrub borders, and a summerhouse designed by Vanbrugh. The formal flower and topiary garden leads imperceptibly into the woodland garden, and provides a fine setting for the ornamental vegetable garden and orchard, created in the 1960?s by the Countess of Ancaster and Peter Coates. Intricate parterres marked with box hedges lie close to the Castle, and a dramatic herbaceous border frames views across the lake.

Related Topics:
Domesday Book - Peter Coates

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