Beningbrough Hall

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Beningbrough Hall
The front facade of Beningbrough Hall.jpg
Front facade of Beningbrough Hall
Type Country house
Location Beningbrough, North Yorkshire
Coordinates 54°01′15″N1°12′38″W / 54.02070°N 1.21060°W / 54.02070; -1.21060
Built1716
Built forJohn Bourchier III
Original usePrivate home
Current use Museum
Architect William Thornton
Architectural style(s) Baroque
Owner National Trust
Website nationaltrust.org.uk/beningbrough-hall-gallery-and-gardens
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameBeningbrough Hall
Designated28 Feb 1952
Reference no. 1150998
Official nameBeningbrough Hall
Designated10 May 1984
Reference no. 1001057
North Yorkshire UK location map (2023).svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire

Beningbrough Hall is a large Baroque [1] [2] mansion near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire, England, and overlooks the River Ouse.

Contents

It has baroque interiors, cantilevered stairs, wood carving and central corridors which run the length of the house. Externally the house is a red-brick Baroque mansion with a grand drive running to the main frontage and a walled garden, The house is home to changing exhibitions on the first floor art gallery and stories of the estate on the ground floor. It has a restaurant, shop and garden shop, and was shortlisted in 2010 for the Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award.

The Hall is set in extensive grounds and is separated from them by a ha-ha (a sunken wall) [3] to prevent sheep and cattle entering the Hall's gardens or the Hall itself. The gardens are undergoing a redesign by garden designer Andy Sturgeon.

History

Beningbrough Hall, situated 6.2 miles (10 km) [4] north-west of York, was built in 1716 by a York landowner, John Bourchier III [5] to replace his family's modest Elizabethan manor, which had been built in 1556 by Sir Ralph Bourchier on his inheritance to the estate. [6] Local builder William Thornton oversaw the construction, but Beningbrough's designer remains a mystery; possibly it was Thomas Archer. [7] Bourchier was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1719–1721 and died in 1736 at the age of 52. [8]

Beningbrough Hall by Alexander Francis Lydon (1880) CS p5.356 - Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire - Morris's County Seats, 1880.jpg
Beningbrough Hall by Alexander Francis Lydon (1880)

John Bourchier (1710–1759) followed his father as owner of Beningbrough Hall and was High Sheriff in 1749. It then passed to Dr. Ralph Bourchier, a 71-year-old physician and from him to his daughter, Margaret, who lived there for 70 years. Today a Bourchier knot is cut into a lawn adjoining the house. [9]

After over 100 years in the Bourchiers' possession, the estate passed in 1827 to the Rev. William Henry Dawnay, the future 6th Viscount Downe, a distant relative. [5] He died in 1846 and left the house to his second son, Payan, who was High Sheriff for 1851. [10] The house was neglected, prompting fears that it might have to be demolished. In 1916, however, a wealthy heiress, Enid Scudamore-Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield, bought it and immediately set about its restoration, filling it with furnishings and paintings from her ancestral home, Holme Lacy in Herefordshire. [8]

Rear facade of Beningbrough Hall Rear facade of Beningbrough Hall.jpg
Rear facade of Beningbrough Hall

During the Second World War the hall was occupied by the Royal Air Force then latterly, the Royal Canadian Air Force, when under No. 6 Group of Bomber Command, they took over some of the bases in the region (such as the nearby RAF Linton-on-Ouse and RAF Leeming). [11]

Lady Chesterfield died in 1957, and in June 1958 the estate was acquired by the National Trust after it had been accepted by the government in lieu of death duties at a cost of £29,250. [12] In partnership with the National Portrait Gallery the hall exhibits more than a hundred 18th-century portraits [13] and has seven new interpretation galleries called 'Making Faces: 18th-century Style'. Outside the main building there is a Victorian laundry and a walled garden with fruit and vegetable planting, the produce from which is used by the walled garden restaurant. [14]

Beningbrough Hall includes a wilderness play area, community orchard, an Italianate border and garden shop. It hosts events, activity days, family art workshops, [15] and an annual food and craft festival which in 2010 was a Big Green Festival. [16]

The ha-ha at Beningbrough Hall gardens Haha at Beningbrough Hall.jpg
The ha-ha at Beningbrough Hall gardens

See also

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Beningbrough is a civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It contains twelve listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The most important building in the parish is Beningbrough Hall, which is listed at Grade I. All the other listed buildings are associated with the hall, and are either in close proximity to it, or in its grounds. These include a stable block, a former brew house and a laundry, a ha-ha, farm buildings, a pump house, and various walls and gates.

References

  1. ↑ Historic England. "BENINGBROUGH HALL, Beningbrough (1150998)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  2. ↑ "History of Beningbrough Hall | Yorkshire". National Trust. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Beningbrough Hall (1001057)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "105" (Map). York & Selby (C ed.). 1:50,000. Landranger. Ordnance Survey. 1998. ISBN   0-319-22407-4.
  5. 1 2 Mitchinson, James, ed. (26 June 2021). "A Corner of Yorkshire: Beningbrough Water Tower". The Yorkshire Post. The Magazine. p. 4. ISSN   0963-1496.
  6. ↑ Hunt, Abby (2006). "Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire; an archaeological survey and investigation of the Post-Medieval park and gardens". English Heritage Research Department Report Series (79). English Heritage: 3. ISSN   1749-8775.
  7. ↑ Pevsner 2002, p. 78.
  8. 1 2 "Nostalgia on Tuesday. Hall of History". The Yorkshire Post. 29 November 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  9. ↑ "Look for inspiration in the kitchen gardens at Beningbrough Hall, near York", Yorkshire Life magazine, 23 May 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2013
  10. ↑ Davenport-Hines, Richard (23 September 2004). "Dawnay, Guy Payan". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45721.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ↑ "HISTORY IS MADE AT LINTON AS 426 (THUNDERBIRD) SQN RETURN TO BASE". RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  12. ↑ National Trust Beningbrough Hall Guidebook
  13. ↑ "A walk on the outskirts of York: Beningbrough, North Yorkshire". The Guardian. 12 May 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  14. ↑ Barnet, Ben (3 October 2013). "Historic garden set for bumper apple harvest". The Yorkshire Post. p. 9. ISSN   0963-1496.
  15. ↑ "Family days out at Beningborough Hall". National Trust. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  16. ↑ "Beningbrough Hall bedding down for Big Green Festival", The Press, 23 September 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2013

Sources

Further reading

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