Sutton Place, Surrey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sutton Place, Surrey |
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Sutton Place photographed before 1899
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| Type | Manor house |
| Location | Woking, Surrey |
| Built | c.1525 |
| Architectural style(s) | Tudor |
| Owner | Alisher Usmanov |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name: Sutton Place including the service courtyard | |
| Designated | 22 Jul 1953 |
| Reference no. | 1236810 |
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Listed Building – Grade II
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| Official name: Entrance lodge and gates to Sutton Place | |
| Designated | 13 January 1972 |
| Reference no. | 1294915 |
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Sutton Place is a historic manor house located about 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Guildford in Surrey, England. It's a very important building from the Tudor period, built around 1525 by Sir Richard Weston. He was a close advisor to King Henry VIII.
Sutton Place is special because it was one of the first English buildings to show new Italian design ideas from the Renaissance. This was a time when art and architecture in Europe were changing a lot. In more recent times, many rich people have owned the estate. This trend started with J. Paul Getty, who was once the richest person in the world. He lived there for 17 years. Today, the house is owned by Alisher Usmanov, a wealthy Russian businessman.
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The Unique Architecture of Sutton Place
Sutton Place stands out because it mixes traditional English Gothic styles with new Italian designs. Experts say it was a "landmark" in bringing Renaissance ideas to England. It was one of the first country houses built for peaceful living, not as a fortress. This showed that the dangerous times of wars between powerful families were over. People could now live safely under the king's protection.
Sir Richard Weston was brave with his choices. For example, above the front door, he added playful decorations called amorini (little cherubs). This was a very different message from the serious, military-focused designs common at the time. It suggested his home was a place for love and fun, not war.
How the House Looks
The house is made of red brick. It was originally built with four sections around a square courtyard. One section, the northern part, was taken down in 1782. This made the house into its current U-shape, with two wings forming a courtyard that faces east.
An interesting fact is that the ground floor of the house is exactly level with the ground outside. This means there are no steps to enter the house from any side. The house is surrounded by a beautiful, old park, which is also a protected historic site.
Terracotta Decorations
Many of the decorations on the outside of Sutton Place are made from molded terracotta. Terracotta is a type of baked clay. These designs show Italian Renaissance influences. The most striking decorations are the two rows of amorini (little cherubs) right above the main entrance.
This kind of Italian design had never been seen in English buildings before. It's thought that Sir Richard Weston saw similar designs during his trips to France. He might have seen new castles being built along the Loire River. Almost no stone was used in building Sutton Place. Instead, it was built and decorated almost entirely with brick and terracotta. This includes the bases, doorways, windows, and even the roof decorations.
Using terracotta in this way was very rare in England at the time. It was only found in two other buildings from that period: East Barsham Manor and Layer Marney Tower. The use of terracotta quickly stopped in England and didn't become popular again until the Victorian era. The terracotta at Sutton Place has lasted very well. In the 1980s, it had a big restoration project to repair and replace some parts, making sure the new clay matched the original colors.
Other terracotta decorations include the letters "R W" for Richard Weston. There are also symbols that look like a barrel with curved ends. This was a clever way to show Weston's name, as "tun" was a play on the last part of "Weston." Sometimes, this barrel is shown between two goose heads, but what they mean is not clear. Another repeated decoration is a double bunch of grapes, which some people think might represent hops.
Stained Glass Windows
The windows in the main hall have beautiful stained glass. Much of this glass was put in when the house was first built. It shows family symbols and other designs. There are 14 windows with 92 separate glass panels, each with a shield or design. They come from different times, but most are related to the Weston family. Some glass is even older than the house itself and might have come from an earlier building on the site.
Experts have called some of the glass "extraordinary beauty and rarity." They are considered some of the finest painted glass from the time of King Henry VIII. Besides family symbols, there are also symbols of King Richard III and the Red and White Roses. These relate to the Battle of Bosworth Field, where Sir Richard's father, Edmund Weston, may have helped Henry Tudor win the throne.
History of Sutton Place
The area where Sutton Place stands was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, an old record of land in England. It was called Sudtone back then. The original manor house was about a quarter of a mile from the current house.
Sutton Place once held some very interesting historical items. These included a blood-stained ruff (a type of collar) that belonged to Saint Thomas More. There was also a crystal pomegranate that belonged to Queen Catherine of Aragon. The pomegranate was Queen Catherine's symbol, and it appears in several places as a decoration in the house. This suggests that Sir Richard Weston built the house before King Henry VIII divorced Catherine in 1533.
Queen Elizabeth I visited Sutton Place on September 26, 1591, after staying at Farnham Castle.
Owners of Sutton Place
Sutton Place stayed in the Weston family, or families connected by marriage, until 1919. The Weston family kept their Catholic faith during the Reformation. This meant they couldn't take part in public life and were often viewed with suspicion. Because of this, later Weston owners lived quietly and didn't have a lot of money for big changes. This helped the house keep its original look over the centuries.
Sir Richard Weston (who died in 1541) was given the land by King Henry VIII in 1521. Later, the family's wealth decreased. One notable family member was Sir Richard Weston (1591–1652), who built canals and was a pioneer in farming. He was the last important Weston in public life. The last direct Weston family member was Melior Mary Weston (1703–1782). She left all her property to a distant cousin, John Webbe, who then added "Weston" to his name.
In 1782, John Webbe-Weston took down the old, falling-apart gatehouse wing. He finished renovations in 1784. In 1857, Sutton Place was inherited by Francis Henry Salvin. He was an expert on falconry (hunting with birds of prey). He rented out the house to tenants, including the family of historian Frederic Harrison, who wrote an important history of Sutton Place. The Harrison family took great care of the house. From 1900, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, a newspaper owner, rented the house.
Recent Owners (1918–Present)
- George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland (died 1963): He bought the house and updated the inside.
- J. Paul Getty: He bought Sutton Place in 1959. At the time, he was one of the richest people in the world. His ownership made the house very famous. He lived a quiet life there. For the 2017 movie All the Money in the World, scenes set at Sutton Place were filmed at Hatfield House.
- Stanley J. Seeger: After Getty's death in 1976, Sutton Place was sold in 1980 for £8 million to a company owned by Stanley J. Seeger. He was an American art collector and supporter of arts and education. He created the Sutton Place Heritage Trust to care for the property. He redecorated the house and displayed some of his modern art there. He also hired a landscape architect, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, to redesign the park and gardens.
- Frederick R. Koch: After 10 years, Seeger sold the house to another American art collector, Frederick R. Koch. He set up the Sutton Place Foundation and used the house to show his own art collection to the public. Reports say he never actually spent a night there. He sold it for £32 million in 1999.
- Alisher Usmanov: A Russian businessman, Alisher Usmanov, is the current owner. Some parts of the estate have been sold off. The inside of Sutton Place House was extensively renovated and improved for him between 2007 and 2009.
Weston Chapel, Holy Trinity Church, Guildford
The "Weston Chapel" is a special chapel attached to the south side of Holy Trinity Church, Guildford. Its outside walls have a decorative checkerboard pattern of flint and stone squares. It was built around 1540 by Richard Weston (1465–1541) from Sutton Place. He built it mainly as his burial place, as stated in his will.
The Weston family remained Catholic during the Reformation. This was a big challenge for them, as it stopped them from holding public jobs and made them targets of suspicion. The Weston Chapel remained owned by the Weston family's descendants until 2005. Then, they gave it to the main Protestant Holy Trinity Church. Part of the agreement was that a Catholic mass would be held in the Chapel at least once a year.
There are three monuments to the Weston family in the chapel. Two are wall tablets. The oldest remembers Melior Mary Weston (died 1782), the last direct descendant of the chapel's founder. The other tablet is for Elizabeth Lawson, who died in 1791.
The third Weston Monument is a large chest tomb. It used to be in the center of the Weston Chapel but is now in the west porch of the main church. It belongs to Anne Pickering (died 1582), who was the wife of Sir Francis Weston. Sir Francis was the only son of the chapel's founder and was executed in 1536. Anne wanted to be buried near her first father-in-law. The tomb has a statue of a woman lying down, wearing a ruff.
St Edward the Confessor Church
Inside the grounds of Sutton Place, you'll find St Edward the Confessor Church. It is a Roman Catholic Parish church. It was built in 1875 in the early English Gothic style and is a Grade II listed building, meaning it's an important historic building.
The architect who designed it was Charles Alban Buckler. He is buried in the cemetery around the church. He also designed several other churches in England. The church officially opened on September 27, 1876. In 1911, Arthur Hinsley, who later became a cardinal, was the priest here. During his time, a decorative screen behind the altar, called a reredos, was added. Windows designed by famous glass artists were also installed around then.
Sutton Place in Books
The lives of some of the owners of Sutton Place have been turned into fictional stories. Author Dinah Lampitt (also known as Deryn Lake) wrote the "Sutton Place Trilogy" of novels. These books include Sutton Place (1983), which is about Richard Weston and his family, The Silver Swan (1984), about Melior Mary Weston, and Fortune's Soldier (1985), about Captain John Joseph Webbe Weston.
Images for kids
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Portrait of Sir Richard III Weston (d. 1652), attributed to Cornelis de Neve, c. 1630
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Portrait of John II Weston (d. 1730), by Jonathan Richardson
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Portrait of Melior Mary Weston (d. 1782), by Jonathan Richardson. This painting hung at Sutton Place in 1893, described by Harrison as "in the style of Kneller".
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Thomas Webbe (d. 1780), linen draper of Covent Garden, father of John Webbe-Weston. Portrait by circle of Joseph Highmore (1692–1780). This portrait was hanging at Sutton Place in 1893.
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Portrait of Anne Tancred, wife of Thomas Webbe & mother of John Webbe-Weston. By circle of Joseph Highmore (1692–1780). This portrait was hanging at Sutton Place in 1893.
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Portrait of John Webbe-Weston (d. 1823), pastel by John Russell, a painter born in nearby Guildford in 1745. This portrait hung at Sutton Place in 1893.
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Portrait of Capt. John Joseph II Webbe-Weston (killed in action 1849). By circle of Michael Angelo Hayes
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