Hanbury Hall
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| Hanbury Hall | |
| stately home | |
| Country | England |
|---|---|
| Region | Midlands |
| District | Worcestershire |
| Municipality | Worcester |
| Founded | 1701 |
| Owner | in the care of the National Trust |
| Visitation | accessible to the public with a fee (All year round) |
| Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk | |
Hanbury Hall is a large stately home, built in the early 18th century, standing in parkland at Hanbury, Worcestershire.
The main range has two storeys and is built of red brick in the Queen Anne style. It is a Grade I listed building.[1] The associated Orangery and Long Gallery pavilion ranges are listed Grade II*.[2][3]
History
Hanbury Hall was built by the wealthy chancery lawyer Thomas Vernon in the early 18th century. Thomas Vernon was the great grandson of the first Vernon to come to Hanbury, Worcestershire, Rev Richard Vernon (1549–1628). Rev Richard and his descendants slowly accumulated land in Hanbury, including the manor, bought by Edward Vernon in 1630, but it was Thomas through his successful legal practice who added most to estates, which amounted to nearly 8,000 acres (32 km2) in his successor Bowater Vernon’s day.
Hanbury Hall is thought to stand on the site of the previous mansion, Spernall Hall, and Thomas Vernon first describes himself as ‘of Hanbury Hall’ in 1706, and this and other evidence leads to a likely completion date of about 1706. The date of 1701 above the front door is thought to be a Victorian embellishment, but no building accounts are known to exist.
Although Hanbury Hall appears to be of a very uniform style, the rear wall is clearly of a different and rather earlier style, and may mark the first phase of a building campaign when Thomas Vernon and his wife Mary first came into possession of Spernall Hall in 1692 when his bachelor uncle John Vernon died.
A notable feature of Hanbury Hall is the painting of the staircase, hall ceiling, and other rooms by the English painter Sir James Thornhill. They include a small representation of Rev Henry Sacheverell being cast to the furies – this relates to an incident in 1710 when Sacheverell, a Tory, was put on trial for sedition by the Whig government, and dates the paintings to that year. The focus of the paintings around the stairwell is the life of the Greek hero Achilles, as told by a range of classical sources. They are surmounted by a large representation of the Olympian gods on the ceiling.
The original plan of the Hall had a large undivided central hall with the main staircase leading off it, with many rather small rooms in the corner pavilions and north range – the south range was given over mainly to service rooms. The 18th century Worcestershire historian Treadway Nash, in his Collections for the History of Worcestershire, wrote “Here is a large handsome house built by Counsellor Vernon about the year 1710 when a bad style of architecture prevailed; many windows and doors, rooms small, many closets, few arched cellars, large stables and offices in full view, are marks of that time”.
When the heiress Emma Vernon (1754–1818) married Henry Cecil, 1st Marquess of Exeter in 1776, Cecil clearly was of the same opinion, as he remodelled the interior (other than the great hall) creating larger rooms and enlarging the north east pavilion. On the south façade, having removed a doorway he repositioned all the windows to lie under their first floor equivalent. On the south side there had been large formal gardens, clearly shown in Dougharty’s perspective drawing contained in the estate maps of the 1730s, and Cecil swept all these away (including the farm buildings in front of the Hall) and landscaped the park in the fashion of the time – he would have had contact with Capability Brown when being brought up by his uncle 9th Earl of Exeter at Burghley House.
Following Henry and Emma’s divorce in 1791 the contents were all sold, and the house remained empty until Henry’s death in 1804, when Emma and her third husband, John Phillips, were able to regain possession. As the house had lain unoccupied for so long, many repairs had to be carried out at that time. Emma died in 1818 and left her second cousin, Thomas Shrawley Vernon (1759-1825), as the heir to her estate after the death of her husband John Phillips. Phillips married again and had two daughters in Hanbury before finally moving out in 1829. From then, the eldest son of Emma's heir, Thomas Tayler Vernon (1792–1835), was able to occupy it. His grandson Harry Foley Vernon (1834–1920) MP, was created 1st Baronet of Hanbury in 1885, and was succeeded by his son Sir (Bowater) George Hamilton Vernon (1865–1940), 2nd Baronet. Sir George led an unhappy life, separating from his wife Doris, and spending his last 10 years living with his secretary and companion Ruth Horton, who later changed her name by deed poll to Vernon. During this time the agricultural depression led to a reduction in rental income, and Hanbury Hall suffered a lack of care.
In poor health, Sir George Vernon took his own life in 1940. There were no further heirs to the Baronetcy which became extinct. Sir George's estranged wife was able to move back in after his death, dying there in 1962. In the meantime, negotiations had led to the National Trust having the reversion, and after making essential repairs on Lady Vernon’s death, the hall was let to tenants and opened to the public on a restricted basis. In recent years the hall has been managed more commercially and is now open daily.
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Hanburyhallmorris edited.jpg
Hanbury Hall circa 1880
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Hanbury orangery.JPG
The orangery, in the gardens to the south-west of the main range.
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Hanbury Hall Long Gallery.jpg
The Long Gallery to the north-west of the main range.
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Hanbury Hall orchard.JPG
The walled orchard at Hanbury, containing a wide range of traditional English fruit varieties.
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The parterre, viewed from a first floor window of the hall.
Sources
- Vernon archives in the Worcestershire Record Office BA 7995.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hanbury Hall. |
External links
- National Trust profile
- Photographs of Hanbury Hall
- BBC Hereford & Worcester feature including 360 panoramic of Hanbury Hall
- Hanbury Hall on pbase.com
- photos of Hanbury Hall and surrounding area on geograph
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- Pages with broken file links
- Geobox usage tracking for other type
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- Country houses in Worcestershire
- National Trust properties in Worcestershire
- Houses completed in 1706
- Historic house museums in Worcestershire
- 1706 establishments in England
- Grade I listed buildings in Worcestershire
