Buscot Park facts for kids
Buscot Park is a beautiful country house located near Faringdon in Oxfordshire. It's a very old and important building, officially listed as Grade II*.
The house was built between 1780 and 1783 for Edward Loveden Loveden. It was designed in a simple, elegant style called neoclassical. The Loveden family owned it until 1859, when it was sold to Robert Tertius Campbell, who was from Australia. Campbell's daughter, Florence, later became well-known as Mrs Charles Bravo. After Campbell passed away in 1887, the house and its land were bought by Alexander Henderson, a wealthy financier who later became Baron Faringdon.
When the 1st Baron Faringdon died in 1934, his grandson, Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon, inherited Buscot Park. He made many changes to the house, bringing it back to its original 18th-century look. The architect Geddes Hyslop helped with this work. During this time, the amazing art collection, started by the 1st Baron, grew much larger.
In 1956, Buscot Park and its estate were given to the National Trust. This organization helps protect historic places. The valuable art collection inside the house, which includes works by famous artists like Rembrandt and Burne-Jones, is owned by the Faringdon Collection Trust. Today, the house is lived in and looked after by the current Lord Faringdon. You can visit the mansion and its beautiful gardens during the summer.
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Architecture of Buscot Park
Building Buscot Park started in 1780 for Edward Loveden Loveden. His family had owned land nearby since 1557. The architect who designed the house isn't known for sure. It's thought that Loveden himself might have helped with the design. Some famous architects like Robert Adam have been mentioned, but there's no proof they worked on Buscot. We do know that James Paine helped with fireplaces and building costs. However, the overall design of the house is simpler than Paine's usual work.
The house is built from local stone with fancy Portland stone decorations. The roof is made of Westmorland slate. Some of the building materials were even bought second-hand from other old houses being taken apart. The design of Buscot Park doesn't strictly follow the rules of the Palladian style, which was going out of fashion, or the newer neoclassical style. One historian, Christopher Hussey, said in 1940 that the architect probably got ideas from Robert Adam and popular building guides of the time.
Unlike many houses from this period, Buscot Park doesn't have a grand entrance porch or tall, decorative columns called pilasters. This makes its front look quite plain. Old drawings show that the main entrance used to have a curved pediment, which was a style from the Baroque period, already old-fashioned by the 1780s. The main rooms, like the living rooms, were placed on the first floor. This is called a piano nobile and was common in the Palladian style. The ground floor was used for offices and service rooms. However, in a more neoclassical way, the second floor windows are just as big as the ones below. This shows that the main bedrooms were on the second floor, not just servant rooms.
The front of the house has nine sections, called bays. Its plain look is only broken up by a decorative band between the two main floors. The middle three bays stick out slightly and have a low pediment on top. The ground floor has a rough, textured stone finish called rusticated, which was a Palladian tradition. The roof has a very low wall, called a parapet, so you can see the sloped roof and chimneys. The high slate roof has two windows that look more like a farmhouse than a grand mansion. The north side of the house looks more like the English neoclassical style of the late 18th century, with two large curved sections on either side of the middle.
In 1859, Edward Loveden Loveden's great-grandson sold the house and land to Robert "Tertius" Campbell. Campbell was an Australian gold trader who loved farming. He spent a lot of money making the estate more modern. In the 1850s, Campbell thought about making the house much bigger, with towers and a more English Renaissance style. But he decided against it. Instead, he just added a porch, a parapet, and gabled windows to the south front. These additions didn't quite match the original neoclassical style.
During this time, many of the estate's woodlands were planted. New gardens and the main driveway were also created, which are still part of the gardens today. Campbell died in 1887, having spent most of his money. The estate was then bought by Alexander Henderson, who became the first Baron Faringdon. Henderson, a successful financier, made the house larger by adding a big new wing.
In the 1930s, many country houses were being torn down or turned into schools. But Buscot Park had a new beginning. In 1934, the 2nd Lord Faringdon inherited it from his grandfather. He immediately started a big project to change the house. He removed the additions made by his grandfather and Campbell, bringing the outside of the house back to its simple 18th-century look.
To make up for the space he removed, he asked the architect Geddes Hyslop to design two new wings. These wings were built in a loose Palladian style. They looked like small temples and added grandeur to the sides of the mansion. Hyslop connected these new buildings to the main house with tall yew hedges that act like walls. This made the whole design look more unified and Palladian.
Hyslop also added new features. Next to the east side of the house, he created a swimming pool garden. In the 20th century, owners of country houses often tried to hide their swimming pools. At Buscot, the pool looks like a formal canal pond in a Renaissance-style garden.
Inside the House
The inside of Buscot Park has been changed and restored many times since it was built. The rooms are arranged in a circle. The main room, called the saloon, has slightly smaller rooms next to it. It's unlikely these smaller rooms were ever main bedrooms, as they might have been a few years earlier. The layout was probably quite modern for its time. This is shown by where the dining room and drawing room are placed.
Geddes Hyslop's changes in 1934 created several similar-looking reception rooms. These were designed to host large parties. Some smaller rooms, like the Dutch Room, were combined and changed. This hides what the rooms were originally used for. In the late 18th century, rooms were often designed for either men or women. The dining room and drawing room were usually the most important. They were often placed symmetrically, with a hall or saloon between them. This separating room helped to keep the noise from men enjoying their after-dinner drinks away from the ladies in the drawing room. It also made the formal walk from the drawing room to the dining room feel more grand.
Buscot's design suggests this was the case here. The dining room, library, and study were likely on one side of the hall for men. The drawing room, music room, and morning room were probably on the other side for women. The saloon, the grandest room with the best furniture, was a neutral space. It would have been used for big parties or for entertaining the most important guests.
The original use of the rooms is also shown by the second floor. Its windows are the same size as those below, meaning the main bedrooms were always there. The main staircase is quite small. It's not as grand as staircases in other neoclassical houses, where owners would go upstairs to their private rooms. Older Baroque houses, built just 50 years before, often didn't even have a main internal staircase because the owners rarely left the main floor.
The rooms at Buscot Park are most famous for their contents, especially the art.
The six main rooms on the first floor hold the best pieces from an art collection gathered by the three Barons Faringdon since the 1880s. The Dutch Room contains a famous portrait by Rembrandt called "Peter Six," along with works by other artists like Van Dyck.
The main room of the house, the saloon, displays The Legend of Briar Rose by Burne-Jones. This series of paintings was created over 19 years, starting in 1871. The first Lord Faringdon bought them in 1890. The room was then decorated to show them off. Burne-Jones visited Buscot and didn't like how they looked. So, he painted four more scenes to fill the empty spaces between the original paintings.
Other parts of the house feature art by famous artists such as Botticelli, Gainsborough, Kauffman, Lawrence, and many others.
Beautiful Grounds
Buscot Park is surrounded by a huge park, covering over 100 acres. It has woodlands, lakes, and formal gardens. The park started being created in 1782. In the early 1900s, a famous landscape architect named Harold Peto worked at Buscot. Water gardens became popular in the late 1800s. This was because new water-loving plants were brought in, and the first gardening magazines with pictures appeared. So, Peto was asked to design a water garden. He created a series of small canals and fountains, like those found in the Alhambra palace. These link the house to a large 20-acre lake in the distance. Even though it's in a woodland setting leading to an informal lake, the water garden itself is very formal. This was different from the popular picturesque movement of the time. Peto was influenced by architect Reginald Blomfield, who liked the formal, Italian-style gardens of the 19th century. Peto also designed a grand entrance court for the mansion, with huge gate pillars, to make the approach to the house impressive.
In front of the north side of the house is a formal lawn with a bronze fountain of Mercury, the Roman god. From near the house, several paths lead through the woods to smaller gardens. These round-shaped gardens include a citrus garden, a rose garden, and a swinging garden. Other paths lead to interesting garden statues, including a large urn that holds the ashes of the 2nd Lord Faringdon.
The huge walled kitchen garden has been replanted over the last 20 years by the current Lord Faringdon. It's designed to represent the four seasons, divided into quarters by trimmed hornbeam trees and Judas trees. Each section shows a different season. A fun feature, placed on a hill above the garden, is a fake waterfall. It's a modern sculpture that looks like a real rushing waterfall from a distance!
A Private Home and Public Gallery
In the 1940s, the 2nd Lord Faringdon worked with Ernest Cook to give Buscot Park and its estate to the nation. This was done through the National Trust. Ten years later, the valuable contents of Buscot, like the art and furniture, were protected. A family trust was created to own these items, and it became known as the Faringdon Collection. This collection is shown at Buscot Park and also at the family's town house in London.
One rule in the agreement with the National Trust was that the Barons Faringdon could continue to live at Buscot Park. This arrangement is still in place today. The current, 3rd Lord Faringdon and his wife live in the house. They are also in charge of its daily management and decoration. Although Lord and Lady Faringdon have built a smaller house in the grounds for their own use during the busy summer months, the inside of Buscot Park still feels very much like a private home, not just a museum.
The current Lord Faringdon has added many new works of art to the collection. These include modern paintings, ceramics, glass, and silver. The house, gardens, and grounds are open to the public every year from April to September.
The Farm Estate
In 1863, Robert Tertius Campbell built an irrigation system on the estate. He planned to grow sugar beet and use it to make alcohol. A distillery opened in 1869. Campbell even built a six-mile railway around the estate to collect the sugar beet and other farm products. The railway had an unusual track width of 2 feet 8 inches. Three small 0-4-0T locomotives were bought in 1871. They were named Edith, Emily, and Alice, after Campbell's daughters. The estate also had a telegraph system. The business was making money by 1871 but then started to decline. The distillery closed in 1879, and everything that could be sold was. The railway was still used for farm transport until about 1900, but since the locomotives had been sold, horses pulled the wagons.
