Castle Howard is a
stately home
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
in
North Yorkshire, England, within the
civil parish of
Henderskelfe
Henderskelfe is a civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The parish does not contain any villages, though it is named after a previous settlement and castle which occupied the land on which Castle Howard is now built. Historically the area ...
, located north of
York. It is a private residence and has been the home of the
Carlisle branch of the
Howard family
The House of Howard is an English noble house founded by John Howard, who was created Duke of Norfolk (third creation) by King Richard III of England in 1483. However, John was also the eldest grandson (although maternal) of the 1st Duke of the ...
for more than 300 years. Castle Howard is not a fortified structure, but the term "castle" is sometimes used in the name of an
English country house that was built on the site of a former
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
.
The house is familiar to television and film audiences as the fictional "Brideshead", both in
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...
's
1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's ''
Brideshead Revisited
''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...
'' and in a two-hour
2008 adaptation for cinema. Today, it is part of the
Treasure Houses of England
The Treasure Houses of England group is a heritage consortium. It was founded in the early 1970s by nine of the foremost stately homes in England still in private ownership, with the aim of marketing and promoting themselves as tourist venues.
H ...
group of heritage houses.
History
In 1577, the
4th Duke of Norfolk's third son,
Lord William Howard
Lord William Howard (19 December 1563 – 7 October 1640) was an English nobleman and antiquary, sometimes known as "Belted or Bauld (bold) Will".
Early life
Howard was born on 19 December 1563 at Audley End in Essex. He was the third son ...
, married his step-sister Elizabeth Dacre, youngest daughter of the
4th Baron Dacre. She brought with her the sizable estates of Henderskelfe in Yorkshire and
Naworth Castle
Naworth Castle, also known or recorded in historical documents as "Naward", is a castle in Cumbria, England, near the town of Brampton. It is adjacent to the A69, about east of Brampton. It is on the opposite side of the River Irthing to, and ...
in what was then
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 1974 ...
, now
Cumbria.
Castle Howard was commissioned by the
3rd Earl of Carlisle, who was a
male-line descendant of Lord William Howard. The site selected was part of the Henderskelfe estate. The creation of Castle Howard, began in 1699, with the start of design work by
John Vanbrugh. It was completed with the decoration of the Long Gallery in 1811.
The house is surrounded by a large estate which, at the time of the
7th Earl of Carlisle, covered over and included the villages of
Welburn,
Bulmer,
Slingsby Slingsby may refer to:
* Slingsby (surname)
* Slingsby, North Yorkshire
* Slingsby Aviation, formerly Slingsby Sailplanes, a manufacturer of gliders and other aircraft
* Slingsby Channel Slingsby Channel is a strait on the north side of Bramham I ...
,
Terrington and
Coneysthorpe
Coneysthorpe is a small village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated near Castle Howard and west of Malton. The Centenary Way
The Centenary Way is a route devised to celebrate the 100th anni ...
. The estate was served by its own railway station,
Castle Howard station, from 1845 to the 1950s.
While attending
Girton College
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...
during the early
Edwardian era
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victor ...
, Lady Dorothy Georgiana Howard, the daughter of the
9th Earl and "
Radical Countess" of Carlisle, befriended six of her fellow students, including the future archaeologist
Gisela Richter
Gisela Marie Augusta Richter (14 or 15 August 1882 – 24 December 1972) was a classical archaeologist and art historian. She was a prominent figure and an authority in her field.
Early life
Gisela Richter was born in London, England, the daught ...
and future candidate for Roman Catholic Sainthood
Anna Abrikosova
Anna Ivanovna Abrikosova (russian: Анна Ивановна Абрикосова; 23 January 1882 – 23 July 1936), later known as Mother Catherine of Siena, O.P. (russian: Екатери́на Сие́нская, transcribed Ekaterina Sienska ...
. All six were invited by Lady Dorothy to Castle Howard as guests during holidays.
After the death of the
9th Earl in 1911, Castle Howard was inherited by his fifth son,
Geoffrey Howard, with later earls having
Naworth Castle
Naworth Castle, also known or recorded in historical documents as "Naward", is a castle in Cumbria, England, near the town of Brampton. It is adjacent to the A69, about east of Brampton. It is on the opposite side of the River Irthing to, and ...
as their northern country house. In 1952, Castle Howard was opened to the public by its then-owner,
Lord Howard of Henderskelfe, a younger son of Geoffrey Howard. It is now owned by a Howard family company, Castle Howard Estate Limited,
[Castle Howard Estate Limited]
/ref> and managed by the Hon. Nicholas Howard (the second son of Lord Howard of Henderskelfe) and his wife, Victoria.
House
The 3rd Earl of Carlisle first spoke to William Talman, a leading architect, but commissioned Vanbrugh, a fellow member of the Kit-Cat Club
The Kit-Cat Club (sometimes Kit Kat Club) was an early 18th-century English club in London with strong political and literary associations. Members of the club were committed Whigs. They met at the Trumpet tavern in London and at Water Oakley ...
, to design the building. Castle Howard was that gentleman-dilettante
Dilettante or dilettantes may refer to:
* An amateur, someone with a non-professional interest
* A layperson, the opposite of an expert
* ''Dilettante'' (album), a 2005 album by Ali Project
* ''Dilettantes'' (album), a 2008 album by You Am I
* ...
's first foray into architecture, but he was assisted by Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
.
Vanbrugh's design evolved into a 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 th ...
structure with two symmetrical wings projecting to either side of a north–south axis. The crowning central dome was added to the design at a late stage, after building had begun. Construction began at the east end, with the East Wing constructed from 1701 to 1703, the east end of the Garden Front from 1701 to 1706, the Central Block (including dome) from 1703 to 1706, and the west end of the Garden Front from 1707 to 1709. All are exuberantly decorated in Baroque style, with coronets, cherubs, urns and cyphers, with Roman Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
pilasters on the north front and Corinthian on the south. Many interiors were decorated by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (29 April 1675 – 2 November 1741) was one of the leading Venetian history painters of the early 18th century. His style melded the Renaissance style of Paolo Veronese with the Baroque of Pietro da Cortona and ...
.
The Earl then turned his energies to the surrounding garden and grounds. Although the complete design is shown in the third volume of 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 ...
's '' Vitruvius Britannicus'', published in 1725, the West Wing was not yet started when Vanbrugh died in 1726, despite his remonstration with the Earl. The house remained incomplete on the death of the 3rd Earl in 1738, but the remaining construction finally started at the direction of the 4th Earl. However, Vanbrugh's design was not completed: the West Wing was built in a contrasting Palladian style to a design by the 3rd Earl's son-in-law, Sir Thomas Robinson
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, (c. 169530 September 1770), of Newby, Yorkshire, was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1727 and 1761.
Early life
Robinson was a younger son of Sir William Robin ...
. The new wing remained incomplete, with no first floor or roof, at the death of the 4th Earl in 1758; although a roof had been added, the interior remained undecorated by the death of Robinson in 1777. Rooms were completed stage by stage over the following decades, but the whole was not completed until 1811 under Charles Heathcote Tatham
Charles Heathcote Tatham (8 February 1772 in Westminster, London – 10 April 1842 in London), was an English architect of the early nineteenth century.
Early life
He was born in Duke Street, Westminster, the youngest of five sons of Ralph Tath ...
.
A large part of the house was destroyed by a fire which broke out on 9 November 1940. The dome, the central hall, the dining room and the state rooms on the east side were entirely destroyed. Antonio Pellegrini's ceiling decoration, the ''Fall of Phaeton'', was lost when the dome collapsed. In total, twenty pictures (including two Tintorettos) and several valuable mirrors were lost. The fire took the Malton and York Fire Brigades eight hours to bring under control.
Some of the devastated rooms have been restored over the following decades. In 1960–61 the dome was rebuilt, and in the following couple of years Pellegrini's ''Fall of Phaeton'' was recreated on the underside of the dome. The East Wing remains a shell, although it has been re-roofed.
In 2009 an underwater ground-source heat recovery system was installed under the castle's lake that halved the heating bill.
According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, over 269,000 people visited Castle Howard in 2019.
Gardens
Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind the house. The house is prominently situated on a ridge and this was exploited to create an English landscape park
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...
, which opens out from the formal garden and merges with the park. The gardens are Grade I listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Two major garden buildings are set into this landscape: the Temple of the Four Winds at the end of the garden, and the Mausoleum in the park. There is also a lake on either side of the house. There is a woodland garden
A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shr ...
, Ray Wood (formerly Wray Wood), and the walled garden
A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...
contains decorative rose and flower gardens. The Ray Wood walls date from the 18th century and were restored in 2007.
Further buildings outside the preserved gardens include Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
's Pyramid, restored in 2015, an obelisk, and several follies and eyecatchers in the form of fortifications which have been restored in recent years. In nearby Pretty Wood, there are two more monuments, The Four Faces and a smaller pyramid by Hawksmoor.
Located on the estate, but operating separately from the house and gardens and run by an entirely independent charitable trust, is the Yorkshire Arboretum.
Listed status
The house is Grade I listed and there are many other listed structures on the estate, several of which are on the Heritage at Risk Register
An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...
.
Castle Howard as film location
Castle Howard appeared in film as Brideshead in both the 1981 television serial and 2008 film adaptations of Evelyn Waugh's novel ''Brideshead Revisited
''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...
''.
It featured in Peter Ustinov's 1965 film ''Lady L''[ and it appeared as the Kremlin, in ]Galton and Simpson
Ray Galton OBE (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) and Alan Simpson OBE (27 November 1929 – 8 February 2017) were English comedy scriptwriters whose partnership lasted over 50 years. They met in 1948 whilst recuperating from tuberculosis a ...
's 1966 film ''The Spy with a Cold Nose
''The Spy with a Cold Nose'' is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Laurence Harvey, Daliah Lavi, Lionel Jeffries, Denholm Elliott, and Colin Blakely. The film was nominated for Golden Globe Awards in the Best ...
''. It was then used as the exterior set for Lady Lyndon's estate in Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
's 1975 film ''Barry Lyndon
''Barry Lyndon'' is a 1975 Period film, period drama film written, directed, and produced by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'' by William Makepeace Thackeray. Starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Ma ...
'' and it appeared in the 1995 mini-series '' The Buccaneers''.
In 2003, a ''Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...
'' episode tried to discover traces of the old settlement of Henderskelf that had been demolished to make way for the castle. It was also used for the 2006 film '' Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties''.
Rooms (Great Hall Entrance, Turquoise Drawing Room) were used for indoor scenes in the 2013 TV series '' Death Comes to Pemberley''. The castle and its grounds were used as the setting for the 2015 Bollywood film '' Shaandar'' and in the 2016 ITV series ''Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seyche ...
''.[ The castle and mausoleum were used as the setting for the video for the 2018 ]Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. The group consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jamie Cook (guitar, keyboards), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Matt Helders (drums, back ...
song "Four Out of Five".
The castle was used as the setting for Clyvedon House, the family seat of the Duke of Hastings, in the Netflix series ''Bridgerton
''Bridgerton'' is an American historical- romance streaming television series created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix. Based on the book series by Julia Quinn, it is Shondaland's first scripted show for Netflix. It revolves around the eponymo ...
'' (2020).[
]
Gallery
File:Monument to 7th Earl of Carlisle - geograph.org.uk - 11840.jpg, Monument to the 7th Earl of Carlisle, 1869-70 by Frederick Pepys Cockerell
Frederick Pepys Cockerell (March 1833, 87 Eaton Square, London – 4 November 1878, 66 rue François Ier, Paris) was a British architect. He was the second son of Charles Robert Cockerell, also an architect, whose favour for French architecture a ...
File:Road to Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 13074.jpg, Approach with the Carrmire Gate at centre c.1730 by Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
, and the Pyramid Gate of 1719 by Vanbrugh on the skyline; wings added 1756 by Daniel Garrett
Daniel Garrett (died 1753) was a British architect who worked on the Burlington Estate, Culloden Tower, Raby Castle, and Banqueting House.
History
Garrett started as a clerk of works, then in 1735 set up his own practice in the North of England ...
File:The Obelisk At Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 211022.jpg, The Great Obelisk 1714 by Vanbrugh
File:Castle Howard 01.jpg, North front across great lake
File:Castle Howard 06.jpg, The west wing 1753-59 by Sir Thomas Robinson
File:Castle Howard 07.jpg, The south front
File:The "Four Faces" statue, Pretty Wood - geograph.org.uk - 74842.jpg, "Four Faces" statue in Pretty Wood c.1727 by Hawksmoor
File:Ruined Tower - geograph.org.uk - 32550.jpg, Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.
Eighteenth-cent ...
depicting ruins
File:Temple of Four Winds.JPG, Temple of the Four Winds 1724-1726 by Vanbrugh
File:The Pyramid, Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 1134429.jpg, The Pyramid 1728 by Nicholas Hawksmoor
File:18-Castle Howard-028.jpg, The Atlas Fountain 1850, designed by William Andrews Nesfield, sculpted by John Thomas
File:Bridge At Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 384396.jpg, The Bridge 1744, by Daniel Garrett
File:Pyramid Gate, Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 1134482.jpg, The Pyramid Gate 1719 by Vanbrugh, wings added 1756 by Daniel Garrett
File:The Mausoleum, Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 1135349.jpg, The Mausoleum designed by Hawksmoor in 1728–29, started in 1731 and completed in 1742
File:Courtyard cafe, Castle Howard - geograph.org.uk - 1134510.jpg, The Stables courtyard, 1781-84 by John Carr
File:Potato field and Mausoleum - geograph.org.uk - 175984.jpg, The Mausoleum
File:Castle Howard Turquoise Drawing Room.jpg, Castle Howard Turquoise Drawing Room
File:Castle Howard The Great Hall Entrance.jpg, Castle Howard The Great Hall by Vanbrugh, paintings by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (29 April 1675 – 2 November 1741) was one of the leading Venetian history painters of the early 18th century. His style melded the Renaissance style of Paolo Veronese with the Baroque of Pietro da Cortona and ...
, the dome recreated in 1961 after its destruction by fire in 1940, and repainted by Scott Ackerman Medd
File:Castle Howard Lady Georgianas' Dressing Room.jpg, Castle Howard, Lady Georgiana's Dressing Room
File:Castle Howard Lady Georgianas' Bedroom.jpg, Castle Howard, Lady Georgiana's Bedroom
File:Castle Howard Crimson Dining Room.jpg, Castle Howard, Crimson Dining Room
File:Castle Howard Bedroom.jpg, Castle Howard Bedroom
File:Castle Howard Chapel.jpg, Castle Howard Chapel, altered and redecorated in 1875-78 by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones
File:Castle Howard Antique Passage.jpg, Castle Howard Antique Passage by Vanbrugh
File:The Octacon, Castle Howard - panoramio.jpg, The Octagon, in the Long Gallery 1802 by Charles Heathcote Tatham
Charles Heathcote Tatham (8 February 1772 in Westminster, London – 10 April 1842 in London), was an English architect of the early nineteenth century.
Early life
He was born in Duke Street, Westminster, the youngest of five sons of Ralph Tath ...
File:The Long Gallery, Castle Howard - panoramio.jpg, The Long Gallery 1802 by Charles Heathcote Tatham
File:Castle Howard from the lake YORYM-S194.jpg, Castle Howard from the lake in
File:Castle Howard tollgate YORYM-S193.jpg, The Carrmire Gate on the approach in
File:Castle Howard South Lake (2011.10.18).jpg, South Lake
See also
*Hampton National Historic Site
Hampton National Historic Site, in the Hampton area north of Towson, Baltimore County, Maryland, USA, preserves a remnant of a vast 18th-century estate, including a Georgian manor house, gardens, grounds, and the original stone slave quarters. T ...
, an 18th-century US mansion said to have been inspired by Castle Howard.
* Castle Howard railway station
Castle Howard railway station was a minor railway station serving the village of Welburn and the stately home at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, England. On the York to Scarborough Line it was opened on 5 July 1845 by the York and North Midl ...
* A more detailed architectural appraisal of Castle Howard is at John Vanbrugh.
* List of Baroque residences
This is a list of Baroque palaces and residences built in the late 17th and 18th centuries. Baroque architecture is a building style of the Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy and spread in Europe. The style took the Roman vocabulary of ...
References
External links
*
*
*
{{authority control
Houses completed in 1712
English Baroque architecture
English gardens in English Landscape Garden style
Gardens in North Yorkshire
Grade I listed buildings in North Yorkshire
Grade I listed houses
Country houses in North Yorkshire
+
John Vanbrugh buildings
Nicholas Hawksmoor buildings
Museums in North Yorkshire
Historic house museums in North Yorkshire
Arboreta in England
Woodland gardens