Charlton Park is a

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 peop ...

and estate in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England, northeast of the town of

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...

. Charlton Park House is a Grade I listed building and a leading example of the

prodigy house Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the period ...

. Malmesbury Abbey held Charlton manor from before 1086 until the Dissolution. The house was begun in the 1560s by

Henry Knyvet Sir Henry Knyvet (1537–1598) of Charlton Park, Wiltshire, was an English Member of Parliament. He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Knyvet, by his wife Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington, Cumbria, and widow of ...

, whose wife Elizabeth Stumpe had inherited the manor. In 1598 the manor passed to their daughter

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

, wife of Thomas Howard, who was created

Earl of Suffolk Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfe ...

in 1603, and the estate continues to be the seat of the earls. Enlargement and alteration of the house, including the addition of the second floor and stair turrets, was completed in 1607.

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...

wrote ''

Annus Mirabilis ''Annus mirabilis'' (pl. ''anni mirabiles'') is a Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", "miraculous year", or "amazing year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are re ...

'' while staying at the house in 1667. Major alterations were made in the 1770s by Matthew Brettingham the Younger for

Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk, 5th Earl of Berkshire, KG, PC (16 May 1739 – 7 March 1779), was a British politician, styled Viscount Andover from 1756 to 1757. Educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, he succeeded his grandfathe ...

, with the rebuilding of the south front, additional stair turrets, and the roofing-over of the central courtyard to make a large domed hall; the interior was unfinished on Henry's death in 1779 and was not completed until the early 20th century. Brettingham probably also built Andover House, some 150 metres north of the main house, with its estate offices and stables. The house was converted into apartments in 1975. The park hosts corporate events and, since 2007, the annual WOMAD Charlton Park music festival. There is a small airfield at the estate with two grass runways 02/20 and 07/25. Parts of "Piece of Cake", a 1988 British six-part television serial depicting the fictional life of a Royal Air Force fighter squadron during the first year of World War II, were filmed here. The squadron's officers' mess was set in the house, and Spitfire fighter aircraft were operated from the airfield. The small village of Charlton is immediately to the east of the estate. The civil parish of Charlton encompasses the village and the estate. Hendrik Frans de Cort - Charlton House from the West

Hendrik Frans de Cort - Charlton House from the West

References

External links

Charlton Park Estate
{{coord, 51.6014, -2.0699, dim:2000_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Wiltshire Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire Grade I listed houses + Tudor England Malmesbury

References

Further reading

External links