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Alscot Park
Alscot Park is an English Grade I listed Georgian country house in Preston on Stour, some 3 miles (5 km) south of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. It was built in a Rococo Gothic style for James West in the early 18th century. The house itself is built of limestone ashlar to a T-shaped plan with a hipped slate roof and has a two-storey frontage of 7 bays. It stands in 4000 acres of park and farmland, which is Grade II listed and bisected by the River Stour. Several other associated buildings, such as stables and entrance lodges, are also listed. A number of former features of the estate, such as pleasure grounds, an obelisk and a Chinese pavilion have since been lost. History In 1747 James West bought the manors, then secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the MP for St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Preston On Stour
Preston on Stour is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. History It is situated some four kilometres south of the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. The population of the civil parish as at the 2011 census was 244. As its name suggests, the village stands on the River Stour, which flows northward, just east of the village centre. The A3400 main road parallels the river about one kilometre further east. To the east of the village lies the country estate of Alscot Park with its Grade I listed Georgian mansion house. Historically Preston was a part of the county of Gloucestershire but the parish was transferred to Warwickshire on 1 April 1931. The village church is dedicated to Saint Mary. The village formerly had a Junior school and Infant school but this was closed in 1974. Notable locals include Judy Craymer, producer of the '' Mamma Mia!'' film franchise. Nearby The children's television show ''Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon and Victorian novelist George Eliot, (born Mary Ann Evans), at Nuneaton. Other significant towns include Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Kenilworth and Atherstone. The county offers a mix of historic towns and large rural areas. It is a popular destination for international and domestic tourists to explore both medieval and more recent history. The county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon. The current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. The historic county boundaries included Coventry, Sutton Coldfield and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham and Tamworth. Geography Warwickshire is bordered by Leicestershire to the nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grade I Listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland. The term has also been used in the Republic of Ireland, where buildings are protected under the Planning and Development Act 2000. The statutory term in Ireland is " protected structure". A listed building may not be demolished, extended, or altered without special permission from the local planning authority, which typically consults the relevant central government agency, particularly for significant alterations to the more notable listed buildings. In England and Wales, a national amenity society must be notified of any work to a listed building which involves any element of demolition. Exemption from secular listed building control is provided for some buildings in current use for worship, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and ''trompe-l'œil'' frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement. The Rococo style began in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the more formal and geometric Louis XIV style. It was known as the "style Rocaille", or "Rocaille style". It soon spread to other parts of Europe, particularly northern Italy, Austria, southern Germany, Central Europe and Russia. It also came to influence the other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware, glassware, painting, music, and theatre. Although originally a secular style primarily used for interiors of private residences, the Rococo had a spiritual aspect to it which led to its widespread use in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James West (antiquary)
James West FRS (2 May 1703 – 2 July 1772) was a British politician and antiquary, who served as President of the Royal Society between 1768 and 1772. Life and career He was the only son of Richard West of Priors Marston, Warwickshire and St. Swithin's, London and educated at Balliol College, Oxford (1719). He then entered the Inner Temple to study law and was called to the bar in 1728 and made a bencher in 1761. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1727, and acted as the society's treasurer from 1736 to 1768. He served as President of the Royal Society from 1768 until his death in 1772. He was elected as MP for St Albans at the 1741 general election which he represented until 1768. The historian Lewis Namier claims that in two volumes of correspondence relating to West's management of the constituency only three items are about matters of public interest, the rest mostly being requests for jobs and other favours. In 1746 he had purchased a new house at Linc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, . ''Magnesian limestone'' is an obsolete and poorly-defined term used variously for dolomite, for limes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvius as opus isodomum, or less frequently trapezoidal. Precisely cut "on all faces adjacent to those of other stones", ashlar is capable of very thin joints between blocks, and the visible face of the stone may be quarry-faced or feature a variety of treatments: tooled, smoothly polished or rendered with another material for decorative effect. One such decorative treatment consists of small grooves achieved by the application of a metal comb. Generally used only on softer stone ashlar, this decoration is known as "mason's drag". Ashlar is in contrast to rubble masonry, which employs irregularly shaped stones, sometimes minimally worked or selected for similar size, or both. Ashlar is related but distinct from other stone masonry that is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleasure Ground
In English gardening history, the pleasure ground or pleasure garden was the parts of a large garden designed for the use of the owners, as opposed to the kitchen garden and the wider park. It normally included flower gardens, typically directly outside the house, and areas of lawn, used for playing games (bowling grounds were very common, later croquet lawns), and perhaps "groves" or a Wilderness (garden history), wilderness for walking around. Smaller gardens were often or usually entirely arranged as pleasure grounds, as are modern public parks. The concept survived a number of major shifts in the style of English gardens, from the Renaissance, through Baroque formal gardens, to the English landscape garden style. The pleasure grounds of English country house gardens have typically been remade a number of times, and awareness has recently returned that even the designs of the famous 18th-century landscapists such as Capability Brown originally included large areas of pleas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used the Greek term to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic; they consist of a single stone. Most modern obelisks are made of several stones. Ancient obelisks Egyptian Obelisks were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, and played a vital role in their religion placing them in pairs at the entrance of the temples. The word "obelisk" as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, the Greek traveler, was one of the first classical writers to describe the objects. A number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the " Unfinished Obelisk" found part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Pavilion
A Chinese pavilion (Chinese 亭, pinyin ''tíng'') is a garden pavilion in traditional Chinese architecture. While often found within temples, pavilions are not exclusively religious structures. Many Chinese parks and gardens feature pavilions to provide shade and a place to rest. History Pavilions are known to have been built as early as the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE), although no examples of that period remain today. The first use of the Chinese character for pavilion dates to the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BCE) and the Warring States period (403–221 BCE). During the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) they were used as watchtowers and local government buildings. These multi-story constructions had at least one floor without surrounding walls to allow observation of the surroundings. During the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties wealthy officials and scholars incorporated pavilions into their personal gardens. During this period t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neale(1818) P2
Neale may refer to: * Neale (surname) * Neale, County Mayo * Neale (electric car) See also * Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ..., containing Neale as a given name {{disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Albans (UK Parliament Constituency)
St Albans is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Daisy Cooper, a Liberal Democrat. This article also describes the parliamentary borough (1554-1852) of the same name, consisting only of the city of St Albans, which elected two MPs by the bloc vote system. History The Parliamentary Borough of St Albans was represented by two MPs for over 300 years, until it was disenfranchised as a result of electoral corruption in 1852. The constituency was re-established in an enlarged form by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (which followed on from the Third Reform Act) as one of four Divisions of the abolished three-member Parliamentary County of Hertfordshire, and was formally named as the Mid or St Albans Division of Hertfordshire. 1885 to date ; Political history before 1997 Until 1997 the seat was held by one Conservative or another save for the very early 20th century Official Opposition leadership of Henry Campbell-Bannerm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
