Houghton Hall facts for kids
Houghton Hall is a grand country house located in Norfolk, England. It is the home of the Marquess of Cholmondeley. This amazing house was built for Sir Robert Walpole, who was like the first Prime Minister of Britain. Construction started in 1722.
Houghton Hall is a very important building in the history of English architecture. It shows off the "Neo-Palladian" style. The house is a protected historical building, known as a Grade I listed building. It sits in a huge park of about 1,000 acres (4 square kilometers). It's also just a few miles from Sandringham House.
Contents
What is Houghton Hall Like?
The main part of Houghton Hall is a big rectangular building. It has a ground floor, a grand main floor (called the piano nobile), a bedroom floor, and attics. Two smaller wings are connected to the main house by colonnades, which are rows of columns. South of the house, there's a separate stable block shaped like a square.
The outside of the house looks grand but also simple. It's made of beautiful, silver-white stone. Round domes, designed by James Gibbs, sit on each corner. Inside, the rooms are much more colorful, fancy, and rich-looking than the outside. This was a common style for Palladian buildings.
The park around Houghton Hall was redesigned in the 1700s by Charles Bridgeman. During this work, the old village of Houghton was taken down. A new village was built near the main gates of the park. The only building left from the old village is the medieval Church of St Martin. It now stands alone in the park.
History of Houghton Hall
How Houghton Hall Was Designed and Built
The new Houghton Hall was built on the same spot where earlier Walpole family homes stood. Sir Robert Walpole inherited the property and its large 17,000-acre estate in 1700. He wanted to make some improvements. In 1720, he asked Thomas Badeslade to survey the house and its land.
The house is built in the Palladian style. However, the exact timeline of its design and who did what is a bit debated. It's most likely that Walpole first asked his friend Thomas Ripley to lead the design. Ripley was appointed as the surveyor in 1722 when building began. His apprentice, Isaac Ware, and Clerk of Works, Robert Hardy, also worked on the project. The first stone was laid on May 24, 1722. By December of that year, the brick cellars were finished.
Colen Campbell is often given the most credit for the design. But later studies show his main work on the design started in 1723. Campbell was involved, but his first designs showed different towers. The final round domes were designed by James Gibbs. The house was very expensive, costing over £200,000. Walpole said he burned most of the receipts, making it hard to know all the details. Only the best materials and designers were used. William Kent designed the beautiful ceilings for the main rooms and some furniture. Ripley's own records show he played a bigger role in the later stages of building the outside of the house. He changed some of the earlier designs by Campbell and Gibbs.
Who Owned Houghton Hall?
Sir Robert Walpole loved to entertain guests. Hunting parties with local families would last for weeks. Even royalty visited often. His fellow politicians, especially members of his Cabinet, held their meetings at Houghton every spring. These meetings were called the Norfolk Congress. Houghton Hall was meant to be a permanent home for his huge collection of over 400 Old Master paintings. These included works by famous artists like Van Dyck, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Velázquez.
Sir Robert Walpole became the 1st Earl of Orford in 1742. Ownership then passed to his son and grandson. When his grandson, the 3rd Earl, died in 1791, the house went to Sir Robert Walpole's youngest son, Horace Walpole. He became the 4th Earl of Orford. Sir Robert and his descendants are buried in St Martin's Church nearby.
When Horace Walpole died in 1797, Houghton Hall passed to the family of his sister, Lady Mary. She had married George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley. The Cholmondeley family has owned and cared for Houghton Hall ever since. A funny story: a book borrowed from Sidney Sussex College library in 1667 was found at Houghton in the 1950s. It was returned 288 years late!
Houghton Hall Today
The house, including its attached parts, was officially recognized as a Grade I listed building in 1953.
Houghton Hall has stayed mostly the same over the years. It wasn't heavily changed in the Victorian era, unlike many other houses. This is because the family mostly lived at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire during the 1800s. They only stayed at Houghton for shooting parties. Houghton Hall still belongs to the current Marquess of Cholmondeley. Parts of the house and grounds are open to the public at certain times of the year.
Art at Houghton Hall
Houghton Hall once held a huge art collection belonging to Sir Robert Walpole. His grandson, the 3rd Earl, sold many of these paintings in 1779 to Catherine the Great of Russia. This was done to help pay off debts on the estate. Today, the collection still includes some important paintings. One example is Thomas Gainsborough's painting of his own family, Thomas Gainsborough, with His Wife and Elder Daughter, Mary.
Sir Robert Walpole also had many marble Roman busts. In the early 1990s, a famous painting by Hans Holbein the Younger called Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling was sold. It had been at Houghton since 1780. It was sold to the National Gallery for £17 million. This helped pay inheritance taxes and for the upkeep of the house.
Today, art prices are very high. This can make it tempting for old families to sell parts of their collections. In recent years, some art pieces from the Cholmondeley family have been given to the Victoria and Albert Museum instead of paying taxes. A big sale of art, furniture, and silver from Houghton happened in 1994. This was to create a fund to help preserve the building for the future. Some artwork, like William Hogarth's portrait of the Cholmondeley family, will likely stay at Houghton. However, the Marquess knows that theft is a risk. A painting by Jean-Baptiste Oudry called White Duck was stolen from Houghton in 1990 and is still missing.
Parkland and Gardens
.jpg)
Charles Bridgeman's plan for the parkland at Houghton is still mostly the same today. His "twisting wilderness paths" were created in the early 1700s and have been kept up since then. The park is very large and was recognized as a Grade I historic park in 1987.
Bridgeman changed the park from straight avenues to blocks of woodland and open parkland. He felt this better matched the grand design of the hall. Tree-lined views in four directions point towards the Hall.
The "ha-ha" barriers at Houghton were a new idea, often credited to Bridgeman. A ha-ha is a sunken fence that lets you see the landscape without a visible barrier. Horace Walpole explained that it helped the park blend with the wilder country outside.
Sir Robert Walpole also built a watertower (1731–32). It looks like a decorative building called a "folly". It was designed by Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke. The tower was restored in 1982 and is also a Grade I listed building.
In recent years, the current Marquess has added modern outdoor sculptures. To the west of the house, there's a circle of Cornish slate. This "land art" piece was designed by British sculptor Richard Long.
Two modern follies are in a wooded area near the west side of the house. American artist James Turrell created Skyspace for Houghton. From the outside, it looks like an oak building on stilts. Inside, you look up and see the sky framed by the open roof.
"The Sybil Hedge" is another folly nearby. It's based on the signature of the current marquess's grandmother, Sybil Sassoon. Scottish artist Anya Gallaccio made a marble structure that looks like a sarcophagus. It sits at the end of a path. Nearby, a copper-beech hedge is planted in lines that copy Sybil's signature.
A 5-acre (20,000 square meter) walled kitchen garden is located beyond the stables. Over time, the garden became smaller and mostly covered in grass. In 1996, the garden was redesigned and replanted. In 2007, it was named "Garden of the Year." Yew hedges divide the space into different "rooms." Each room is designed to create a different feeling or interest. The hedges give height and shape. The garden rooms include an Italian garden with box parterres, a formal rose garden, a French garden with pleached lime and plum trees, and a croquet lawn.
Danish artist Jeppe Hein created a Water Flame sculpture/fountain for this garden. This jet of water with a ball of flame on top is a modern folly, smaller than the other art pieces outside the garden walls.
In 2015, James Turrell created a special light show for Houghton House. It was part of the LightScape festival celebrating the house and gardens.
Horse Trials
The Houghton International Horse Trials have been held in the park every May since 2007. National events happen alongside the three-day international event.
Model Soldiers
The stable block at Houghton Hall houses the Cholmondeley Collection of Model Soldiers. This collection was moved to Houghton Hall in 1980. The 6th Marquess started the collection in 1928 and added to it throughout his life. It now includes about 20,000 figures!
See also
In Spanish: Houghton Hall para niños
- Treasure Houses of Britain
- Noble Households
