Shugborough Hall is a stately home near

Great Haywood Great Haywood is a village in central Staffordshire, England, just off the A51 and about northwest of Rugeley and southeast of the county town of Stafford. Population details taken at the 2011 census can be found under Colwich. Haywood ...

, Staffordshire,

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 ...

. The hall is situated on the edge of

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry E ...

, about east of Stafford and from

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

. The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the dissolution of the monasteries, upon which it passed through several hands before being purchased in 1624 by William Anson, a local lawyer and ancestor of the Earls of Lichfield. The estate remained in the

Anson family The Anson family is a British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Anson family were made knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Anson family include the earldom of Lichfield (since 1831) and the Anson baronet ...

for three centuries. Following the death of the 4th Earl of Lichfield in 1960, the estate was allocated to 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 ...

in lieu of

death duties An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an es ...

, and then immediately leased to

Staffordshire County Council Staffordshire County Council is the top-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire, England. 62 councillors sit on Staffordshire County Council. Staffordshire operates a cabinet-style council In England, local auth ...

. Management of the estate was returned to the National Trust in 2016. It is open to the public and comprises the hall, museum, kitchen garden and a model farm.

History

upAdmiral George Anson, 1st Baron Anson The Shugborough estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the dissolution of the monasteries around 1540, and thereafter passed through several hands, until it was purchased in 1624 by William Anson (c.1580–1644), a lawyer, of

Dunston, Staffordshire Dunston is a small village in England lying on the west side of the A449 trunk road about south of Stafford, close to Junction 13 of the M6 motorway. The population of the village at the 2011 census was 281. It lies at roughly 300 feet (98 ...

for £1,000.Jackson-Stops, p. 7 In 1693, William Anson's grandson, also called William (1656–1720), demolished the existing manor house and constructed a three-story building which still forms the central part of the hall.''A Brief History of Shugborough'' William's elder son, Thomas Anson MP (1695-1773), would further extend the house in the 1740s, adding two pavilions flanking either side of the central block. It was Thomas's younger brother, however, who would fund these changes; Admiral George Anson, created Lord Anson in 1747 and

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

in 1751, amassed a great fortune during his naval career, and when he died without issue he left the majority to his elder brother. Thomas also died childless and the estate passed to his sister's son, George Adams, who adopted the surname Anson by royal licence. In 1806, George's son Thomas (1767–1818) was created 1st Viscount Anson. His son, the 2nd viscount, would be created 1st Earl of Lichfield in the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

honours of

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. The Earl led an extravagant lifestyle and amassed several large debts, which, in 1842, forced him to sell the entire contents of the house in a two-week-long sale. While the 2nd earl did much to restore the house and contents to its former glory, by the time his son inherited the estate it was heavily

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

d. In 1831, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, the future

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, then 13, visited Shugborough with her mother, the

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom ...

, as part of an extensive tour of the country. The young princess stayed with many local landowners at the time, including the

Earl of Shrewsbury Earl of Shrewsbury () is a hereditary title of nobility created twice in the Peerage of England. The second earldom dates to 1442. The holder of the Earldom of Shrewsbury also holds the title of Earl of Waterford (1446) in the Peerage of Ireland ...

.McGilchrist, p. 48 Shugborough Tunnel Postcard

Passing from east to west through the southern part of the park is the

Trent Valley Line The Trent Valley line is a railway line between Rugby and Stafford in England, forming part of the West Coast Main Line. It is named after the River Trent which it follows. The line was built to provide a direct route from London to North West E ...

, planned in 1845. The railway is carried under the landscaped grounds in the

Shugborough Tunnel The Shugborough Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Trent Valley line running under part of the Shugborough Hall, Shugborough Estate in Colwich, Staffordshire, England. It was constructed in 1846 by the Trent Valley Railway (later the London and No ...

and is thus largely invisible. The tunnel entrances, which are listed grade II, are notably ornamental, particularly the 1847 western entrance. An elegant stone bridge, also from 1847 and also listed grade II, about north-west of the Lichfield Lodge, carries the drive to the Hall over the railway. The double-track line is part of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, running north-west between Colwich Junction and Stafford.

Late 20th century and today

Following the death of the 4th earl in 1960, an agreement was reached whereby the estate would pass to the

in lieu of death duties. The deal was finalised and the house opened to the public in 1966. The estate was immediately leased to Staffordshire County Council, who managed and maintained it on behalf of the National Trust, with

Lord Lichfield Earl of Lichfield is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England (1645 and 1674) and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (1831). The third creation is extant and is held by a member of the Anson family. Hi ...

retaining an apartment in the hall until his death in 2005, paying a nominal rent to the new owners. His successor, the 6th Earl, decided to relinquish the lease of the apartments, thus severing the family's direct links with the estate. In 2016 Staffordshire County Council handed the estate back to the National Trust, with 49 years remaining on its lease. The move is expect to save the council £35 million, with the Trust intending to renew investment in the property. Lichfield exhibition, Shugborough

The grounds and mansion house are open to the public. The attraction is marketed as "The Complete Working Historic Estate", which includes a working model farm museum dating from 1805 complete with a working

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...

s, a dairy, a tea room, and rare breeds of farm animals. Originally restored in 1990, the estate's brewery is England's only log-fired brewery that still produces beer commercially. Previously used only on special occasions, the brewhouse has been a working exhibit since 2007, operated by

Titanic Brewery The Titanic Brewery is an independent producer of bottle conditioned and cask ales in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England. Titanic's beers are generally notable for their light colour, low malt, and high hop content, giving a very dry bitter ta ...

. Since 2011 the private apartments have housed an exhibition of the work of Patrick Lichfield. His cameras and lighting gear have been set up in a recreation of his studio, and there is a gallery of some of his most famous photographic subjects.

Architecture

Interior

The state rooms

The state rooms at Shugborough Hall include The State Dining Room, The Red Drawing Room, The Library, The Saloon, The Verandah Room, The Anson Room and The State Bedroom. These contain some of the most opulent and highly decorated interiors in the hall.''The Mansion House'' The Verandah Room contains a 208-piece

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

dinner service commissioned to commemorate Admiral Anson's circumnavigation of the globe in HMS Centurion. The dinner service was offered to Admiral Anson in gratitude for assisting in fighting the huge fires that were destroying the merchant district in Canton. (Story narrated by Shugborough guide October 2015). The State Bedroom overlooks the terrace and was occupied by Queen Victoria during her childhood visit. File:Shugborough interior 1 (4824600016).jpg, The State Dining Room File:Shugborough interior 2 (4824607792).jpg, The Red Drawing Room File:Shugborough Hall library.JPG, The Library

Private apartments

The private apartments were the living quarters of 5th Earl and his family until 2010. The Boudoir, with its silver gilt

wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so ...

, is the only room in the hall with hand-painted ceilings with gold detailing. Other rooms include The Lilac and

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

Bedrooms, The Sitting Room and the completely circular Breakfast Room.''Shugborough Revisited'' File:Shugborough interior ceiling 2 (4824614020).jpg, The hand-painted ceiling of The Boudoir File:Shugborough guests' bathroom.JPG, Guests' bathroom File:Shugborough green sitting room.JPG, Green sitting room, detail File:Shugborough bedroom.JPG, Bedroom

Exterior

In about 1693, William Anson (1656–1720) demolished the old house and created a new mansion. The entrance front, then facing to the west, comprised a balustraded, three-storey, seven-bayed central block. In about 1748 his great-grandson Thomas Anson (1767–1818) commissioned architect Thomas Wright to remodel the house, which was extended with flanking two-storey, three-bayed pavilions linked to the central block by pedimented passages. At the turn of the 19th century, the house was further altered and extended by architect

Samuel Wyatt Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an England, English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was prima ...

. The pavilions and passages were incorporated into the main building, and a new porticoed entrance front with ten Ionic pillars was created at the east. These pillars resemble carved stone but are hollow timber structures. This was done for Thomas Anson, the 1st Viscount Anson and his wife Anne Margaret Coke, daughter of Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester, whom he married in 1794. The hall, as it is seen today, is built in a neo-classical style and encased in slate, sanded to resemble stone. File:Shugborough Hall Jones' Views 1829.jpg, Shugborough Hall in the 1820s File:Shugborough Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1350373.jpg, The 18th century Ionic portico File:Shugborough rear 1.JPG, The rear façade of the hall File:Shugborough garden view.JPG, The garden from the house File:Stable block, Shugborough Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1350369.jpg, The stable block in 2009 File:Shugborough Hall 01.jpg, The hall seen from a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries ...

File:River Sow at Shugborough Hall,.JPG,

River Sow The River Sow is a tributary of the River Trent in Staffordshire, England, and is the river that flows through Stafford. Course The river rises to the south of Loggerheads, near Broughton and flows south-east beside the villages of Fairoak ...

at the rear of the Hall File:Shugborough Hall farmhouse.JPG, The farmhouse

The park and follies

Like many landowners of his time, Thomas Anson (1695–1773) took a keen interest in the landscaping of his parkland. The land around Shugborough was largely flat, which ensured that trees, follies and water would play an important role in shaping the landscape.Black, p. 68 The grounds contain a number of

follies ''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...

, many of which, such as The Chinese House and two Chinese-style bridges, have a Chinese theme, in honour of Admiral George Anson. Admiral Anson, who had visited Canton, left a considerable sum of money to his brother Thomas Anson when he died, which was used to develop the hall and estate. The Chinese House and the red iron footbridge are both grade I listed. In 1760, Classical architect James Stuart was employed to design a number of monuments. Stuart had visited Athens in the early 1750s, and Ancient Greek influences are obvious at Shugborough. Staurt designed for Anson a copy of the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyramb contest of the City Dio ...

and a grade I listed triumphal arch based on the Arch of Hadrian in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

.Black, p. 69

The Shepherd's Monument

The Shepherd's Monument is a stone and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

folly within the grounds of Shugborough hall, engraved with the inscriptions ''"O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V"'' and ''"D.M."''. The monument has been internationally well-known since 1982, when the book ''

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (published as ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' in the United States) is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The book was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in London as an unoffic ...

'' drew attention to the mysterious

Shugborough inscription The Shugborough Inscription is a sequence of letters – O U O S V A V V, between the letters D M on a lower plane – carved on the 18th-century Shepherd's Monument in the grounds of Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, below a mirror im ...

. Carved by

Peter Scheemakers Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influenc ...

, theories have abounded, including some which suggest it may indicate the whereabouts of the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...

.Belfield, p. 112 file:Red Bridge and the Chinese House, Shugborough (geograph 3081592).jpg, The Chinese House file:Doric Temple, Shugborough Hall.jpg, The Doric Temple file:Shugborough shepherds monument.JPG, The Shepherd's Monument file:Tower of the Winds (4824631378).jpg, The Tower of the Winds file:Triumphal Arch at Shugborough (geograph 3625020).jpg, Arch of Hadrian

References and sources

References

Sources

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External links

{{commons category, Shugborough Hall
Shugborough Estate
- official site * List of paintings on show Agricultural museums in England Anson family Country houses in Staffordshire Farm museums in England Grade I listed parks and gardens in Staffordshire Grade I listed buildings in Staffordshire Grade I listed houses Historic house museums in Staffordshire Living museums in England National Trust properties in Staffordshire Open-air museums in England Borough of Stafford Cannock Chase