Gervase Frank Ashworth Jackson-Stops (26 April 1947 – 2 July 1995, 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 ...

) was an architectural historian and journalist.

Education

He was educated at Harrow and later won an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

and here he was amused that his tutor put down on his list as required reading

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Br ...

. His grandfather, Herbert Jackson-Stops, founded the eponymous and up-market estate agency. He trained with a

Museums Association The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals, museums, galleries and heritage organisations, and companies that work in the museum, gallery and heritage s ...

Studentship at 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 ...

from 1969–71 and as a research assistant at 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 ...

between 1972 & 75.

National Trust

He was the Architectural Adviser to the National Trust for over 20 years, earning enormous respect as result of which he broke fresh ground when he fought for the rescue of the decaying Northamptonshire manor-house at

Canons Ashby Canons Ashby is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Preston Capes. Its most notable building is Canons Ashby House, a N ...

. It was the first time that Government funds, rather than the traditional family endowment, were used to save an historic house. He was also the curator of various exhibitions including "The Treasure Houses of Britain", held at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

in 1985–86. He also contributed numerous scholarly architectural articles to '' Country Life'' magazine between 1973 and 1995. He was appointed OBE in 1987.

The Menagerie

Jackson-Stops developed a unique home in The

Menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern Zoo, zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to ...

, a

Grade II 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 ...

listed building at

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, part of the estate buildings for the now demolished

Horton House Horton House (also known as Horton-duBignon House, Brewery Ruins, duBignon Cemetery) is a historic site on Riverview Drive in Jekyll Island, Georgia. The tabby house was originally constructed in 1743 by Major William Horton, a top military ai ...

and seat of the

Earl of Halifax Earl of Halifax is a title that has been created four times in British history—once in the Peerage of England, twice in the Peerage of Great Britain, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The name of the peerage refers to Halifax, We ...

. The building is a one-storey building with corner pavilions and a raised central area. The surrounding windows are by Gibbs. The work has most recently been attributed to Thomas Wright who undertook work for Lord Halifax in the 1730s. The saving of this unusual building was Jackson-Stops's own private achievement; when he first heard of the property in 1972, he found an architectural dream; here he restored one of the finest English

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, ...

plasterwork rooms, complete with Father Time, the Four Winds, and above the cornice 12 large-scale medallions of the Zodiac. Later on in the gardens he added two further follies and, with his friend Ian Kirby, created a romantic English garden which incorporated both a formal period-design an exciting modern planting. For Jackson-Stops, the Menagerie was his own country house in miniature and in the manner of a country house and in the tradition of the

fête champêtre A fête champêtre was a form of entertainment in the 18th century, taking the form of a garden party. This form of entertainment was particularly practised by the French court, where in the Gardens of Versailles and elsewhere areas of the park ...

, he hosted a succession of parties, often accompanied by the staging of operatic works. A week or so before his death he gave what would be his final party to celebrate the opening of his "shell grotto" with its suggestions of the underworld. He died of an

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

-related illness. A paint colour,
Gervase Yellow
, has been developed by the paint manufacturers Farrow & Ball in Jackson-Stops' memory.

References

External links

COPAC listing of his published works
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson-Stops, Gervase 1995 deaths 1947 births Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford British architecture writers AIDS-related deaths in England People educated at Harrow School