![The Darnley Mausoleum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/The_Darnley_Mausoleum.jpg)
The Darnley Mausoleum, or Cobham Mausoleum as it is often now referred to, is a Grade I
Listed building
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 ...
, now owned by the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
and situated in
Cobham Woods, Kent (
OS grid ref: TQ694684).
[Detailed Record]
/ref>[: English Heritage : English Heritage]
/ref> It was designed by James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
for the 4th Earl of Darnley
Earl of Darnley is a hereditary title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of Ireland.
The first creation in the Scots Peerage came in 1580 in favour of Esme Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox ...
of Cobham Hall
Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527†...
according to detailed instructions in the will of the 3rd Earl of Darnley
Earl of Darnley is a hereditary title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of Ireland.
The first creation in the Scots Peerage came in 1580 in favour of Esme Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox ...
.[http://www.gravesham.gov.uk/media/pdf/h/o/Mausoleum%20leaflet.pdf Gravesham leaflet] It was never used for interments. The woodland is part of the parkland laid out by Humphry Repton
Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...
, and is 1.6 km from the North Downs Way
The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Be ...
.
History
The Earls of Darnley had been buried at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
, but after the death in 1781 of John Bligh, the 3rd Earl, spaces at the Abbey were no longer available. James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
(1746–1813), a fashionable and extremely prolific architect of the time, was commissioned to design a mausoleum to hold the coffins of the Earls and their family members. Wyatt exhibited the design at the Royal Academy in 1783. A slightly modified design was completed in 1786 under the supervision of George Dance the Younger
George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist.
The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists an ...
(1741–1825), as Wyatt had a poor reputation for supervising the execution of his work. For obscure reasons the mausoleum was never consecrated so no bodies were laid to rest there. However, shortly after it was completed, Humphry Repton
Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...
(1752–1818) started to redesign the landscapes around Cobham Hall
Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527†...
for the 4th Earl in the 1790s and subsequently over nearly 30 years. As a result the mausoleum became an important landscape feature, sitting at the highest point of the Darnley estate.[Display boards erected by the Cobham Ashenbank Management Scheme behind the security fence at the mausoleum. 2005]
Design
The mausoleum is built of brick faced with Portland stone, is square with projecting chamfered corners, and surmounted by a pyramid. The form is an unusually grand classical temple, using Roman Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...
, fluted columns in antis
An anta (pl. antæ, antae, or antas; Latin, possibly from ''ante'', "before" or "in front of"), or sometimes parastas (pl. parastades), is an architectural term describing the posts or pillars on either side of a doorway or entrance of a Greek ...
on the face, prostyle
Prostyle is an architectural term designating temples (especially Greek and Roman) featuring a row of columns on the front. The term is often used as an adjective when referring to the portico of a classical building, which projects from th ...
on the angles. The mausoleum is a high point of the neo-classical period in Britain, which was much more concerned than the preceding baroque period that classical architecture should be used correctly according to ancient Greek and Roman precedent. However, the pyramid-shaped roof, the mausoleum's most distinctive feature, while usual in classical architecture may have been derived by Wyatt from a painting by Nicolas Poussin rather than directly from antique precedents. There is a flying staircase to the piano nobile. There are lunette openings above the cornice filled with amber glass to create an ethereal light inside. Tomb chests are above the angle architraves. On the piano nobile, there is a circular chapel with Tivoli variant Corinthian order columns of rose marble and a coffer
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.
A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...
ed dome of stone. The crypt at the lower level is accessed by steps at the rear and is lined in stone. It has 32 coffin shelves under a shallow stone dome.[ The mausoleum is important because of its architect, its situation in parkland at a predominant position on the ]North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...
, and as a demonstration of 'the Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
's preoccupation with a 'classical way of death'.[
]
Decline
The Darnley family sold off the hall in the 1950s though they kept the mausoleum and some of the land. Without the gamekeeper
A gamekeeper (often abbreviated to keeper), or in case of those dealing with deer (deer-)stalker, is a person who manages an area of countryside (e.g. areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland) to make sure there is enough game for s ...
maintaining security the building became prone to vandalism. On 5 November 1980, an arson attack in the crypt brought down the chapel floor. It continued to decline, and schemes proposed included moving it to Shorne Wood Country Park
Shorne Wood Country Park is located between Strood and Gravesend, Kent, Gravesend, in the English county of Kent. It was once part of a large estate, later passed to the county council to be used as a country park.
History
This park was once ...
or the United States, or for major extensions to form a large classical house. These came to nothing. In the same period vandalism and joy-riding of stolen cars became endemic in the woods, making it effectively out-of-bounds to mainstream users.
Restoration
In 2001, Gravesham
Gravesham ( ) is a local government district with borough status in north-west Kent, England. Its administrative centre and largest town is Gravesend, which was known as ''Gravesham'' in ancient times.
Gravesham was formed on 1 April 1974 ...
Council purchased the mausoleum and its surrounding woods from the liquidators with funding from Union Railways, which built the High Speed One
High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...
railway nearby, as part of the environmental remediation programme for the new line. The Cobham Ashenbank Management Scheme, known as CAMS, was formed as a consortium comprising the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
, English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
, Cobham Hall
Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527†...
, Natural England
Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...
, Kent County Council and Gravesham Council. CAMS carried out the restoration of the mausoleum and the parkland around it with the help of a £6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
. Some original drawings exist and in 1946, James Wraight RIBA photographed and made full, measured drawings of the building, which facilitated restoration to its previous state before any vandalism. In 2013, on completion of the restoration of the mausoleum, it was transferred to the National Trust, along with the area of historic pasture and grazed woodland surrounding it. The mausoleum is now regularly open to the public with visitor facilities in a nearby barn. The restoration of the mausoleum is part of a larger scheme to restore Cobham Park and its landscapes to close to those designed by Humphry Repton, and return Cobham Woods to a wood pasture
Silvopasture (''silva'' is forest in Latin) is the practice of integrating trees, forage, and the grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way. It utilizes the principles of managed grazing, and it is one of several distinct forms ...
managed environment.[ The architects for the restoration were Purcell Miller Tritton. The building won the 2010 Kent Design Award in the Conservation & Craftsmanship Category and also the Project of the Year award.]
References
External links
{{coord, 51.3891, 0.4340, display=title, region:GB, format=dms
National Trust Cobham Wood & Mausoleum visitor website link
Cobham Woods information site
Grade I listed buildings in Kent
Buildings and structures completed in 1786
Mausoleums in England
Gravesham