Burghley House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Burghley House |
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The façade of Burghley House
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| Type | Prodigy house |
| Location | Cambridgeshire |
| Built | 1555-1587 |
| Architect | William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley |
| Architectural style(s) | Elizabethan |
| Website | burghley.co.uk |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name: Burghley House | |
| Designated | 16 January 1956 |
| Reference no. | 1127501 |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name: Stables with forecourt railings and service wings and servants wing, brewery and porters lodge | |
| Designated | 16 January 1956 |
| Reference no. | 1127502 |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name: The Orangery | |
| Designated | 16 January 1956 |
| Reference no. | 1127503 |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name: North Forecourt Area Railings and Gates at Burghley House | |
| Designated | 16 January 1956 |
| Reference no. | 1331234 |
| Official name: Burghley House | |
| Designated | 16 January 1985 |
| Reference no. | 1000359 |
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Burghley House is a huge and beautiful country house built in the 1500s. It's located near Stamford in England. This amazing building is a top example of an Elizabethan prodigy house. These were very grand homes built by important people during the time of Queen Elizabeth I.
The house was built by the Cecil family, and they still live there today! It looks mostly the same on the outside as it did hundreds of years ago. But many of the rooms inside were updated before the 1800s.
Today, you can visit Burghley House during certain times of the year. You can explore its fancy rooms, which are filled with beautiful furniture and art. The large park around the house was designed by a famous landscape architect named Capability Brown.
Burghley House is managed by a special trust. This trust makes sure the house is kept safe and open for everyone to enjoy.
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History of Burghley House
Burghley House was built for Sir William Cecil. He was a very important advisor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was the Queen's chief treasurer. Building the house took a long time, from 1555 to 1587. It cost about £21,000 back then, which was a huge amount of money!
After Sir William Cecil, his family continued to live in the house. They became Earls, and later Marquesses of Exeter. Since 1961, a special trust set up by the family has owned the house. This helps protect it for the future.
Victoria Leatham, who is an expert in old items, helped run the house from 1982 to 2007. Her father was David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter, an Olympic athlete. Today, her daughter, Miranda Rock, is very involved in looking after Burghley House.
Burghley House is a great example of how buildings were made in the 1500s. It shows off amazing stonework and careful design. The house even has rooms updated in the fancy baroque style. These rooms feature beautiful carvings by a famous artist named Grinling Gibbons. The main part of the house has 35 big rooms on the first two floors. There are also over 80 smaller rooms and many hallways.
The house was originally built in the shape of the letter "E." This was to honor Queen Elizabeth I. However, one part of the house, the northwest wing, was later taken down. This happened when Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter owned the house. He worked with the famous landscape designer, Capability Brown. Removing the wing helped create better views of the new parkland.
You can also see amazing ceiling paintings in the house. The "Hell Staircase" and "Heaven Room" have huge paintings by Antonio Verrio. These were painted between 1697 and 1699.
Amazing Art Collection
Burghley House has a huge and impressive collection of art. Even though some pieces were sold in the 1960s, most of the collection is still there. You can see hundreds of paintings, many from the 1600s.
Much of this art was bought in Italy by John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter and Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter. They visited Italy many times, bringing back lots of art. John Cecil bought 300 artworks during his time at Burghley.
The chapel inside the house has a large painting for the altar by Paolo Veronese. There are also two big paintings by Johann Carl Loth. You can find seven works by Luca Giordano, including a painting he did of himself.
In the Pagoda Room, you can see portraits of the Cecil family. There are also famous historical figures like Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, and Oliver Cromwell. Many of the walls and ceilings in the house are decorated with delicate paintings by Antonio Verrio.
The house also has a very important collection of Japanese export porcelain. These are special because many pieces can be matched to a list made in 1688. This makes them some of the earliest recorded pieces of Japanese porcelain in Europe!
You'll also find beautiful furniture, including pieces by famous 18th-century makers like Ince and Mayhew. There are also collections of silver, tapestries, and other porcelain. Many of these items are on display in the main rooms. A new area called the "Treasury" shows different parts of the collections each year.
Beautiful Parkland
The wide paths and tree-lined avenues in the park were all designed by Capability Brown. He worked on the park from 1755 to 1779. He made sure to keep older trees that were already there, some from the 1500s!
Capability Brown also created the park's large man-made lake between 1775 and 1780. He found a special waterproof clay in the ground. This allowed him to make the original small pond much bigger, turning it into the 26-acre lake you see today. The lake is designed to look like a winding river. Brown also designed the Lion Bridge in 1778. He was paid a lot of money for his work on the park. To keep Brown's design alive, 30,000 new trees were planted between 2012 and 2016.
The park is famous for hosting the annual Burghley Horse Trials. It's a big event where horses and riders compete. The park is also used for a run for Stamford School and for the Cambridge University Draghounds.
Recently, new areas have been added to the park. There's a sculpture garden around the old ice house. In 2007, a "garden of surprises" was created. It uses old ideas like water traps and shell grottos but in a modern way. The Burghley House trust also asks modern artists to create new artworks for the grounds.
The park and gardens of Burghley House are very important. They are listed as Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Burghley House Today
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Burghley House is a very important historic building. It is a Grade I listed building. This means it is protected because of its special history and architecture. The north courtyard and gate are also Grade I listed.
Since 2007, Miranda Rock and her family have lived at Burghley House. Miranda is the director of the Burghley House Preservation Trust. She is the granddaughter of the 6th Marquess of Exeter. Thanks to her efforts, the number of visitors to Burghley House has almost doubled to 110,000 each year!
Filming Location
Burghley House is so grand and beautiful that it has been used in many films and TV shows. You might have seen it without even knowing!
Some of the movies and shows filmed here include:
- Treasure Houses of Britain (1985)
- Middlemarch (1994)
- Antiques Roadshow (1998, 2009)
- Pride & Prejudice (2005)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006)
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
- The Crown (2016)
- Top Gear (2018)
- The Flash (2023)
Lost Village Mystery
There was once a medieval village called Burghley. It was mentioned in a very old record called Domesday. But this village was abandoned by the year 1450. No one has found where it was located. People think it might have been very close to Burghley House, perhaps even underneath the estate!
See also
In Spanish: Burghley House para niños
- Burghley Nef, a silver-gilt salt cellar now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum
- Susanna and the Elders (1622) by Artemisia Gentileschi in the collection at Burghley
- Cecil House, 16th- and 17th-century demolished London residences
- Theobalds House, second house half-way to London, built by the founder in Hertfordshire
Images for kids
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William Cecil presiding over the Court of Wards, c. 1585
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The Three Brothers Browne, by Isaac Oliver, 1598. L to R: John, Anthony, William; grandsons of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montague.
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The courtyard of Burghley House, as drawn by Joseph Nash in the 19th century, with figures in Elizabethan costume.
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The Burghley Nef, 1527–1528, France, V&A Museum no. M.60-1959
