![Compton Verney 1 (7622649778)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Compton_Verney_1_%287622649778%29.jpg)
Compton Verney House () is an 18th-century country mansion at
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first r ...
near
Kineton
Kineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-east Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278, increasing to 2,337 at the 2011 Census.
Kine ...
in
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 an ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is located on the west side of a lake north of the
B4086 about north-west of Banbury. Today, it is the site of the
Compton Verney Art Gallery
Compton Verney Art Gallery is an art gallery at Compton Verney, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest an ...
.
Overview
![Compton Verney 2 (7622670256)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Compton_Verney_2_%287622670256%29.jpg)
The building is a
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 Irel ...
house built in 1714 by
Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke
Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke and ''de jure'' 19th Baron Latimer (28 January 1622 – 18 July 1711) was a peer in the peerage of England, High Sheriff and Member of Parliament.
He was born in 1622, the second son of Sir Grevil ...
. It was first extensively extended by
George Verney, 12th Baron Willoughby de Broke
George Verney, 12th Baron Willoughby de Broke and de jure 20th Baron Latimer (13 October 1659 – 26 December 1728) was a peer in the English peerage.
George Verney was born on 13 October 1659, the second son of Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willou ...
in the early 18th century and then remodelled and the interiors redesigned by
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...
for
John Peyto-Verney, the 14th baron, in the 1760s. It is set in more than of parkland landscaped by
Lancelot "Capability" Brown
Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...
in 1769.
The house and its estate was sold by
Richard Greville Verney, the 19th baron, in 1921 to soap magnate
Joseph Watson who was elevated to the peerage as ''1st
Baron Manton
Baron Manton, of Compton Verney in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 25 January 1922 in recognition of war services for the Leeds industrialist Joseph Watson. the title is held by his g ...
of Compton Verney'' only two months before his death in March 1922 from a heart attack whilst out hunting with the Warwickshire Foxhounds at nearby Upper Quinton.
George Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton
Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton (1899–1968), (born George Miles Watson), of Compton Verney, Warwickshire and Plumpton Place, East Sussex, was an English peer and racehorse breeder.
Origins
George Miles Watson was born on 21 June 1899. He was ...
sold the property to Samuel Lamb. It was requisitioned by the Army during World War II and became vacant when the war ended.
In 1993 it was bought in a run-down state by the Peter Moores Foundation, a charity supporting music and the visual arts established by former
Littlewoods
Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe, but subsequently declined in the face of increased com ...
chairman
Sir Peter Moores. The property was restored to a gallery capable of hosting international exhibitions. Compton Verney Art Gallery is now run by Compton Verney House Trust, a registered charity.
The collections include
Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
art from 1600 to 1800; Northern European
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
art from 1450 to 1650; British portraits including paintings of
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
,
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
and
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...
and works by
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...
;
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
bronzes including objects from the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
and
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
periods; British
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...
; and the Enid Marx / Margaret Lambert Collection of
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...
from around the world which inspired the textile designs of 20th century artist
Enid Marx
Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx, RDI (20 October 1902 – 18 May 1998), was an English painter and designer, best known for her industrial textile designs for the London Transport Board and the Utility furniture Scheme. Marx was the first female eng ...
.
History
Medieval
![Wenceslas Hollar - Compton Murdack (Verney)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Wenceslas_Hollar_-_Compton_Murdack_%28Verney%29.jpg)
According to
William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
Life
Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coleshi ...
there was a manor-house built at Compton Verney in about 1442. In 1656 William Dugdale wrote in his ''Antiquities of Warwickshire'':
Tudor and Stuart
The house was further extended in the late sixteenth century, following the marriage of Sir Richard Verney (1536-1630) to Margaret, daughter of
Sir Fulke Greville (1535-1606). Richard inherited her family estates and claims to the barony of
Willoughby de Broke.
Very little is known about this early house at Compton Verney. A drawing by
Wenceslaus Hollar
Wenceslaus Hollar (23 July 1607 – 25 March 1677) was a prolific and accomplished Bohemian graphic artist of the 17th century, who spent much of his life in England. He is known to German speakers as ; and to Czech speakers as . He is particu ...
of about 1655, published by William Dugdale, shows a great hall, a long south wing with gabled dormer windows and chimneys looking down to the lake. It had octagonal turrets at either end, kitchens to the left (south west) and a chapel.
The first surviving inventory of the house, which dates from the middle of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
in 1642, describes a house of thirty rooms (including a hall, two parlours, seventeen bedrooms, an armoury and study as well as servants’ quarters and outbuildings), furnished with velvet, tapestry and pictures to a total value of £900. A silk and wool embroidery showing Lucretia’s Banquet may have been one of the original pieces hanging in the Great Hall from this period. Records show that this was sold in 1913 to the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Richard and Margaret's only son, Greville Verney (c.1586 - 1642), the 7th Baron Willoughby de Broke and 15th Baron Latimer held tenure of Compton Verney from his father's death in 1630 until his own death in 1642.
At this time the house was passed to Greville Verney (1619 - 1648). Upon his death, tenure then passed to Sir Greville Verney (1649 - 1668) and then on to William Verney (1668 - 1683) the 10th Baron Willoughby de Broke who died aged 15 with no heir. The title went into abeyance until William's great-uncle Richard Verney (1621-1711), who inherited the estate in 1683, decided to exert his claim to the barony. In 1695 the House of Lords accepted the claim and Richard Verney became the 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke.
Georgian
In 1711, George Verney (1661–1728) the 12th Baron Willoughby de Broke, inherited the estate and decided to rebuild the house and re-landscape the gardens. This was a period when medieval houses were being remodelled in the classical style, and new country seats such as the Duke of Marlborough’s Blenheim Palace in nearby Woodstock were being built. George commissioned an extensive reconstruction of the earlier house, whilst preserving much of the plan of the original building.
The new design that was commissioned – the basis of the house which we see today – has been convincingly attributed by architectural historian
Richard Hewlings to the
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
master-mason
John Townesend (1678–1742) and his son William, who had worked at
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non- episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, on ...
and at many of the new college buildings being built in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
The basic layout of Compton Verney in the 1730s can be reconstructed from the surviving evidence, which includes two inventories dating from this period. It was a courtyard house, entered from the east (as today), through an archway with a cupola in the now-lost east wing. The main apartments were in the west and south wings, with the servants’ quarters on the north side where the service buildings were. The west wing was dominated by the Great Hall, which probably occupied the same site as the original medieval Hall built in the 1440s. The Great Staircase (now lost) led up from the Hall to the main apartments above.
The Stable Block
Stables were built to the north of the house in 1735 by architect
James Gibbs
James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transi ...
; these can still be seen today. Extensive formal gardens were also added to the north and south, and the main approach to the house ran east to west, with an ornamental canal on the west lawn.
A visitor,
John Loveday of
Caversham, described the house in 1735, writing:
After both sons died, the estate was inherited by George’s great-nephew, John Peyto Verney, (1738-1816) subsequently 14th Baron, who was also fortunate enough to inherit the neighbouring estate of Chesterton, thus raising the family’s income to a substantial £4,000 a year. This additional income and his marriage in 1761 to the sister of Lord North (from nearby
Wroxton Abbey
Wroxton Abbey is a Jacobean house in Oxfordshire, with a 1727 garden partly converted to the serpentine style between 1731 and 1751. It is west of Banbury, off the A422 road in Wroxton. It is now the English campus of Fairleigh Dickinson Uni ...
, Oxfordshire) may have been what encouraged John Peyto Verney to improve the estate and completely remodel the house as George had done.
Robert Adam remodelled
John commissioned the prominent Scottish neoclassical architect,
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...
, to propose alterations to Compton Verney. Adam’s proposed remodelling was much more extensive than anything that had taken place before. His drawings of the ground, first and attic storeys show what was to be retained from the original building and what was demolished. Three of the four sides of the original courtyard house (the east, north and south wings) were to be torn down, and Adam proposed the addition of a portico on the new east front and the reconstruction of the north and south wings, giving the house its present U-shape.
The building work for Adam's alterations was carried out from about 1762–1768, supervised by the Warwick architect and mason, William Hiorn, who was also employed locally at
Charlecote House and
Stoneleigh Abbey
Stoneleigh Abbey is an English country house and estate situated south of Coventry. Nearby is the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. The Abbey itself is a Grade I listed building.
History
In 1154 Henry II granted land in the Forest of Arden t ...
. The stone came from the estate and the surrounding local quarries of Warwick, Hornton,
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
and
Painswick
Painswick is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew from the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The village is mainly ...
. The most important changes include the removal of the Great Staircase on the west front and its replacement by a Saloon with pairs of columns, plus alterations to the Hall, as well as the creation of an attic storey above it. Adam also added a library and octagonal study to the south wing and adapted the brewhouse and bakery to the north of the house.
The floor plans of the house were published in the fifth volume of ''Vitruvius Britannicus'' in 1771 by
Colen Campbell
Colen Campbell (15 June 1676 – 13 September 1729) was a pioneering Scottish architect and architectural writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style. For most of his career, he resided in Italy and England. As well as his architectural ...
, and show various differences from Adam’s drawings, some of which suggest that some of the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
interiors had been left as they were. Robert Adam was often responsible for the interior decoration as well as the architectural design of his buildings. However, at Compton Verney he designed the decoration of only a few rooms, including the Hall and the Saloon. The rest were decorated by local craftsmen using their own pattern-book designs.
His drawing for the decoration of the Hall in the
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
shows three large plaster picture frames placed high on the walls that originally contained large landscape paintings with classical ruins. These landscapes were painted by the Venetian artist and favoured collaborator of Robert Adam,
Antonio Pietro Francesco Zucchi (1726-1795). They were removed from the house and sold at a later date, and only the plaster frames remain. It is this period in the history of the house that is captured in the famous painting by the artist
Johann Zoffany
Johan Joseph Zoffany (born Johannes Josephus Zaufallij; 13 March 1733 – 11 November 1810) was a German neoclassical painter who was active mainly in England, Italy and India. His works appear in many prominent British collections, includin ...
, now owned by the J.Paul Getty Museum in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. The painting shows John, 14th Baron and his family in the breakfast room on the ground floor at Compton Verney.
Although Adam’s work on the mansion was completed in 1769, building work continued on the other buildings at Compton Verney until the 1780s and it was during this period that the grounds were re-landscaped. In 1769-70 the ‘Green House’ (which no longer survives) was constructed, and in 1771-72 the Ice-House and ‘Cow House’ were finished.
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown at Compton Verney
In 1769, landscape architect
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown was employed to lay out the grounds in keeping with the new taste for more naturalistic landscape.
He eliminated all trace of the earlier formal gardens, including the canal on the west front and the avenues running east to west. These were replaced with grassland and trees, with the planting of cedars and over 2,200 oak and ash saplings. Brown also turned the lakes into a single expanse of water by removing the dam between the Upper Long Pool and the Middle Pool to make way for his Upper Bridge.
The Ice House
The
Ice House was built in 1772 by ‘Capability’ Brown during the extensive remodelling. An Ice House was a ‘must have’ accessory of the day amongst leading gentry, with growing demand for refrigerated food, sorbets and ice creams.
Ice was cut in blocks from the lake during the winter and dragged up to the Ice house. A drain at the bottom allowed water from the melted ice to escape. The structure was built mainly underground where the temperature is more consistently cool.
The Ice House at Compton Verney was originally thatched, but after 1817 there are no further records of re-thatching or repair and the Ice House was either abandoned or possibly covered in earth and grass – an approach seen with other Ice Houses – as this was how it was found when the present owners took over Compton Verney in the 1990s.
Clearance of the Ice House at Compton Verney started in 2008. The Ice House has now been fully restored.
19th century
When
The 14th Baron Willoughby de Broke died in 1816, the house was inherited by
The 15th Baron Willoughby de Broke, and on his death by his younger brother, who became
The 16th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1773-1852), an eccentric character who became increasingly reclusive. He made minor alterations to the building, such as architect Henry Hakewill’s transformation of the Saloon into a Dining room in 1824. There was also some work in the grounds, including the extension of the lower lake in around 1815 by the engineer William Whitmore, and the erection of a White Cornish
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
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 Anc ...
over the old family vault near the lake in about 1848. This structure is said to have been based on the
Lateran Obelisk
The Lateran Obelisk is the largest standing ancient Egyptian obelisk in the world, and it is also the tallest obelisk in Italy. It originally weighed , but after collapsing and being re-erected shorter, now weighs around . It is located in Rome ...
in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
[Nicholson, Jean et al: ''The Obelisks of Warwickshire'', page 28. Brewin Books, 2013] The 17th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1809-1862), whose name was originally Robert John Bernard, did very little to the house as he was more interested in hunting.
The 18th Baron invited architect John Gibson to work on the site. He made changes to the Hall, which included the addition of a splendid hunting frieze, the decorated ceiling and a new external door. He also added lodges to the main gates.
The 18th Baron also made significant changes to the landscape, the most dramatic being the addition of a long, majestic crescent of Wellingtonia (also known as Giant Sequoias or Sierra Redwoods) between the Upper bridge and the south-eastern gate.
Since then, the history of the estate over the last 150 years has been a chequered one. Compton Verney suffered in the
agricultural depression of the 1870s and 1880s, in common with other landed estates across the country, as they were dependent on agricultural rent for income. The house was let out from 1887 to 1902 due to this.
20th century
The last Verney to live in the mansion was Richard Greville Verney (1869-1923), 19th Baron Willoughby de Broke, whose nostalgic memoir, ''The Passing Years'', offers a sentimental description of life in the house before he was obliged to sell it in 1921. He died two years later, in 1923.
During the next 70 years the estate changed hands a number of times. The new owner in 1921 was
Joseph Watson (1873-13 March 1922), of Linton Spring near
Wetherby
Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrogat ...
in Yorkshire, a soap manufacturer at Leeds.
Having merged the core part of his business into what became
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
and sold his holding, he retired relatively young in his 40s intending to devote the rest of his life to horse-racing, fox-hunting and the life of a country gentleman, whilst also redirecting his business acumen into pioneering industrial agriculture on other estates he had acquired with his proceeds, namely at nearby Offchurch, at
Selby
Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731.
The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...
in Yorkshire and at
Orford in Suffolk. He purchased the famous racehorse training estate of
Manton in Wiltshire, and in 1921 had already produced horses which won
The Oaks, the
Grand Prix de Paris
The Grand Prix de Paris is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Longchamp over a distance of 2,400 metres (about 1½ miles), and it ...
(the world's highest prize-money) and a 3rd place in
The Derby, for which the racing press called him "Mr Lucky Watson".
In 1922, he was made The 1st
Baron Manton
Baron Manton, of Compton Verney in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 25 January 1922 in recognition of war services for the Leeds industrialist Joseph Watson. the title is held by his g ...
, ''of Compton Verney in the
County of Warwick
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 ...
'',
[ for his wartime services in manufacturing munitions at ]Barnbow
Barnbow was a small settlement situated near the city of Leeds in the township and parish of Barwick in Elmet. The site is noted as the location of a munitions factory founded during the First World War. It was officially known as National Filling ...
near Leeds; however, just a few months later, he died from a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
following a fall whilst out hunting with the Warwickshire Foxhounds near his new seat. Lord Manton was buried at his nearby manor of Offchurch, where he was living pending the refurbishment of Compton Verney. His funeral procession departed Compton Verney followed on foot by over one hundred estate workers to the church at Offchurch. His eldest son Miles, 2nd Baron Manton (1899–1968), sold the house in 1929 (having, with much public disapproval, sold the mediaeval stained glass in the Verney Chapel) to the Manchester cotton manufacturer Samuel Lamb, who moved out during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
when Compton Verney was requisitioned by the army. During the war the grounds were used as an experimental station for smoke-screen camouflage, as an outstation of the Camouflage School established at Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
.
After the army left in 1945, the house was never lived in again. In 1958, it was acquired by Harry Ellard, a local property and nightclub owner, who occasionally authorised film companies to shoot there. One such film was Peter Hall's 1968 film of Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', which was shot both inside the house and in the grounds. ''Licking Hitler
"Licking Hitler" is the 12th episode of the eighth series of the BBC anthology ''Play for Today'' British TV series. The episode was originally broadcast on 10 January 1978. "Licking Hitler" was written and directed by David Hare (playwright), Da ...
'', a fictional account of a wartime propaganda station in a requisitioned house, was filmed at the property in 1977.
By the 1980s, Compton Verney had become semi-derelict.
Peter Moores Foundation
In 1993 the visual arts charity Peter Moores Foundation bought the property and restored the original building. The architectural practice Stanton Williams
Stanton Williams is a British architectural design practice based in Islington, London.
The studio was founded by Alan Stanton and Paul Williams in 1985 and now has a team of over 85 people with four principal directors, two associate director ...
was commissioned to design a new wing, providing exhibition spaces and visitor facilities. This now houses the British Folk Art Collection, the largest collection of British naive art
Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may b ...
in the UK.
See also
* Compton Verney Art Gallery
Compton Verney Art Gallery is an art gallery at Compton Verney, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest an ...
References
External links
Compton Verney Art Gallery website
Peter Moores Foundation website
History of the manor at British History.ac.uk
{{coord, 52.17348, N, 1.54519, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SP312529), display=title
Gardens in Warwickshire
Country houses in Warwickshire
Grade I listed buildings in Warwickshire
Museums in Warwickshire
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first r ...