Stourhead facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Stourhead
The Palladian bridge and Pantheon
Type	House and garden
Location	Stourton with Gasper, Wiltshire, England
Built	House: 1721–1724, destroyed in fire, rebuilt 1906 Gardens: 1741–1780
Architect	Colen Campbell
Architectural style(s)	Neo-Palladian
Governing body	National Trust

Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Stourhead House
Designated	6 January 1966
Reference no.	1131104


National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
Official name: Stourhead
Designated	1 September 1987
Reference no.	1000471


Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: The Palladian Bridge
Designated	6 January 1966
Reference no.	1131099


Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: The Pantheon
Designated	6 January 1966
Reference no.	1131102


Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: The Temple of Apollo
Designated	6 January 1966
Reference no.	1131100

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Stourhead is a huge estate in the southwest of England. It covers about 1,072 hectares (2,650 acres). This amazing place is found where the River Stour begins.

The estate is in Wiltshire county, but it also reaches into Somerset. Stourhead is famous for its beautiful 18th-century house and one of the most well-known English landscape gardens. It also includes the village of Stourton, farmland, and forests. Since 1946, the National Trust has helped look after Stourhead.

The Stourhead House
- Art Collection at Stourhead
Other Buildings and Structures
Gardens and Monuments
- Designing the Gardens
- Changes by Richard Colt Hoare
Images for kids
See also

The Stourhead House

The Stourton family lived at Stourhead for 500 years. They sold the estate in 1714 to Sir Thomas Meres. A few years later, in 1717, his son sold it to Henry Hoare. Henry Hoare's father, Sir Richard Hoare, was a very rich banker.

The old house was taken down. A new house was designed by Colen Campbell and built by Nathaniel Ireson. It was one of the first houses of its kind, built between 1721 and 1725.

Over the next 200 years, the Hoare family collected many valuable items. These included a large library and a collection of art. In 1902, a fire badly damaged the house. Luckily, many of the treasures were saved. The house was rebuilt to look almost exactly the same.

The last Hoare family member to own Stourhead was Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare. He gave the house and gardens to the National Trust in 1946. This was one year before he passed away. His only son, Captain Henry Colt Arthur "Harry" Hoare, had died in World War I in 1917.

The Stourhead House was officially listed as a Grade I building in 1966. This means it is a very important historic building.

Art Collection at Stourhead

Henry Hoare's amazing art collection is still on display at Stourhead. Many of his artworks are in the 'Painted Alcove' or Italian Room of the house.

Hoare collected many hand-coloured prints. These prints were so skillfully coloured that people sometimes thought they were oil paintings. They were engravings of works by famous Italian artists. The hand-colouring was likely done by Giacomo Van Lint, or perhaps with his father, Hendrik van Lint.

Other Buildings and Structures

While Colen Campbell was the main designer for Stourhead, other architects helped over the years. William Benson, Henry Hoare's brother-in-law, helped build parts of the estate in 1719. Francis Cartwright, a skilled builder, also worked on Stourhead from 1749 to 1755. He was known for carving wood and stone.

Nathaniel Ireson was the master builder for much of the estate. His work at Stourhead helped him become very well known in 1720.

The original estate stayed mostly the same, but new parts were added over time. Henry Flitcroft designed three temples and a tower on the property.

The Temple of Ceres was added in 1744.
The Temple of Hercules was built in 1754.
The Temple of Apollo was added in 1765.
In the same year, Flitcroft designed Alfred's Tower, which was built in 1772.

Later, Sir Richard Colt Hoare owned Stourhead. He had John Carter add a pretty cottage in 1806. The architect William Wilkins also created a Greek-style lodge in 1816.

In 1840, Charles Parker made more changes to the estate. A grand entrance (portico) was added to the main house. All the new additions were designed to match the original style of the buildings.

Gardens and Monuments

The large lake at Stourhead was made by people, not nature. Walking around the lake is meant to feel like a journey. It is inspired by the story of Aeneas going into the underworld from Greek mythology. The design also connects to the idea of the "spirit of the place".

Buildings and monuments in the garden remember family history and local events. Henry Hoare loved art, and one of his paintings, Aeneas at Delos by Claude Lorrain, inspired the garden's look. Quotes from Aeneas's journey are written in the temples around the lake.

The monuments are placed to create beautiful views of each other. For example, the Pantheon temple draws visitors in. Once you reach it, you can see amazing views from the other side of the lake. The garden uses hidden paths to make the landscape seem to stretch into the areas around it. This lets visitors enjoy the whole view.

The Pantheon was seen as the most important part of the gardens. It appears in many of Hoare's artworks about Aeneas's travels. The plants in the garden were arranged to create different feelings. Henry Hoare said that green plants should be grouped together like shades in a painting. This helps to make dark and light areas, and add small touches of lighter greens.

Designing the Gardens

Henry Hoare II designed the gardens. They were created between 1741 and 1780. The design is in a classic 18th-century style, built around a big lake. The lake was made by building a dam across a small stream.

The gardens were inspired by famous painters like Claude Lorrain, Poussin, and Gaspard Dughet. These artists painted beautiful, dream-like Italian landscapes. An early part of the garden, built before the lake, is the Temple of Flora (1744–46). It now has a copy of the Borghese Vase, made from a special stone called Coade stone.

Around the lake, you can find several interesting features:

The five-arched Palladian Bridge is at the east end of the lake.
The Rockwork Bridge crosses the road to the south.
To the west, there is a grotto (a cave-like structure) and the Gothic Cottage summerhouse.

Many temples in the garden are inspired by famous places in Europe. On one hill, you can see an obelisk from 1839 and King Alfred's Tower. This tower is a 50-meter-tall brick folly (a building built just for decoration). It was designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1772. On another hill, the Temple of Apollo offers a great view of the rhododendrons, water, waterfalls, and other temples.

The large medieval Bristol High Cross was moved from Bristol to the gardens. The gardens also have a huge collection of trees and shrubs from all over the world.

Changes by Richard Colt Hoare

Richard Colt Hoare, Henry Hoare II's grandson, took over Stourhead in 1783. He added a library wing to the main house. In the garden, he built the boathouse. He also removed some features that did not fit the classical or gothic styles, like a Turkish Tent.

He also planted many more trees and plants. The wooded slope where the Temple of Apollo stands was planted during his time. Richard Colt Hoare was very interested in ancient history. He had 400 ancient burial mounds dug up to help him write his important book, History of Ancient Wiltshire.

The gardens were officially listed as Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens in 1987.

Images for kids

View taken from the Grotto, of the lake in autumn colours
Stourhead's lake and foliage as seen from a high hill vantage point
Stourhead House
The Temple of Apollo high on a hill overlooking the gardens, based on a circular temple at Baalbec
Gatehouse
The Temple of Flora 1744-46 by Henry Flitcroft
Entrance front
Library
Bridge 1762 and Pantheon
The Pantheon 1753-54 by Henry Flitcroft
interior Pantheon
Temple of Flora and Bridge
View from Grotto
River God in Grotto
Sleeping nymph statue in the Grotto
Grotto text, a quotation from Pope
Temple of Apollo 1757, by Henry Flitcroft
The Lake
Rhododendrons in flower
Temple of Apollo from the lake
King Alfred's Tower c. 1770 by Henry Flitcroft
Gothic Cottage c. 1780 altered 1806
St Peter's Pump 15th century, relocated from Bristol to Stourhead 1766
Boathouse
The Convent c.1765
The Obelisk 1839-40
Bristol High Cross 1373 relocated to Stourhead 1764
The Lake