Shuckburgh Hall is a privately owned

country house 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 ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

Lower Shuckburgh Lower Shuckburgh is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Upper and Lower Shuckburgh, (which in the 2001 census had a population of 82) in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in eastern Warwickshire, England. In 1961 the parish ...

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 ...

, near to

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...

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 ...

. The estate has been the home of the Shuckburgh family since the 12th century. The house, which was granted

Grade II* 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 ...

status in January 1952, is not generally open to the public. The house has its origins in the 14th and 15th centuries but has been much altered and extended over many years. The main front, designed by

Henry Edward Kendall Jr. Henry Edward Kendall Junior (1805–9 June 1885) was a British architect. Background Kendall was the son of Henry Edward Kendall, also an architect. Both were among the co-founders of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects. ci ...

in an

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, was built on to the old house in 1844. Sir

George Shuckburgh-Evelyn Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh-Evelyn, 6th Baronet (23 August 1751 – 11 August 1804) was a British politician, mathematician and astronomer. Life George Shuckburgh was born on 23 August 1751, the son of Richard Shuckburgh of Limerick. ...

(1751–1804) placed an order with

Jesse Ramsden Jesse Ramsden FRS FRSE (6 October 1735 – 5 November 1800) was a British mathematician, astronomical and scientific instrument maker. His reputation was built on the engraving and design of dividing engines which allowed high accuracy measureme ...

for a telescope in 1781, and it was delivered ten years later. The telescope, known as the

Shuckburgh telescope The Shuckburgh telescope or Shuckburgh equatorial refracting telescope was a diameter aperture telescope on an equatorial mount completed in 1791 for Sir George Shuckburgh (1751–1804) in Warwickshire, England, and built by British instrument ...

, was installed in his observatory at the hall and was moved after his death to the

Royal Observatory, Greenwich The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...

in London by 1811. It was used there for over a century before being moved to the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

, London, in 1927.. He also ordered a clock from John Arnold & Son to use with the telescope at this observatory.

References

External links

{{commons category, Shuckburgh Park
Shuckburgh Estate official websitePhotos of Shuckburgh Hall and surrounding area on geographShuckburgh Hall, 1947
Britain from Above Grade II* listed buildings in Warwickshire Country houses in Warwickshire Italianate architecture in England Grade II* listed houses