Sizergh Castle and Garden is a stately home and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

at Helsington in the English county of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

, about south of Kendal. Located in historic Westmorland, the castle 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 ...

. While remaining the home of the Hornyold-Strickland family, the castle with its garden and estate is in the care of the National Trust. In 2016 the Sizergh estate was included in the newly extended Lake District National Park.

Details

Sizergh Castle against a blue sky, July 2016

The earliest part of the building is a tower of fourteenth or fifteenth century date.

Woodwork

Some of the early furnishings date from the time of Walter Strickland (1516–1569) who married Alice Tempest in 1560. She made inventories of the house after her husband's death. These mention three oak armchairs and three chests still in the house. There are oak-panelled interiors, including the Inlaid Chamber, where the panelling is inlaid with floral and geometric patterns in pale poplar and dark bog-oak. The contents of the Inlaid Chamber were sold to 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 ...

in the 1890s and it was displayed as a reconstructed period room. The return of the panelling to its original location at Sizergh was advocated by among others Mark Girouard, an authority on England's country houses. The panelling returned in 1999 under a long-term loan. In 2017 it was reported that transfer of ownership to the National Trust had been made formal. The

bargeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

s probably date from the seventeenth century.

Paintings

The Castle contains a variety of paintings, including the following: * a collection of portraits of the Catholic Royal Stuart family reflects the Strickland family's links to the Jacobite court in exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. There are portraits by Alexis Simon Belle, painter in ordinary to James VII & II and the Old Pretender, of Queen Mary of Modena and her daughter Princess Louisa Maria. * Strickland family portraits, including **works by local artist George Romney, **a portrait of Mrs Anne Strickland (the artist's mother) by Harriet Strickland (1816–1903), and a portrait of Lady Edeline Sackville.

Portraits gallery

Image: Mary Matthews (1823-1890), Madame de La Chère (05).jpg, Mary Matthews (1823–1890), Mrs Julien-Francois-Bertrand de La Chère Image: Alice de La Chere.jpg, Marie Louise Geneviève Alice de La Chère (1856–1943), wife of Alfred Joseph Gandolfi-Hornyold (1850–1922) Image: Lord Thomas Strickland Standish (1763-1813).jpg, Lord Thomas Strickland Standish (1763–1813) Image: Henriette Rose Peronne de Sercey (05).jpg, Henriette Rose Peronne de Sercey (1770–1849) by François Gérard Image: Thomas Strickland Standish of Sizergh (1792-1835).jpg, Thomas Strickland Standish of Sizergh (1792–1835) Image: Gasparine Ursule Ida de Finguerlin de Bischingen (05).jpg, Ursule Ida de Finguerlin de Bischingen (1805–1846), Mrs Thomas Strickland Standish of Sizergh

History

The Deincourt family owned this land from the 1170s. On the marriage of Elizabeth Deincourt to Sir William de Stirkeland in 1239, the estate passed into the hands of what became the Strickland family, who owned it until it was gifted to the National Trust in 1950 by

Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland Gerald Paul Joseph Cajetan Carmel Antony Martin Strickland, 6th Count della Catena, 1st Baron Strickland, (24 May 1861 – 22 August 1940) was a Maltese and British politician and peer, who served as Prime Minister of Malta, Governor of the ...

's grandson Lt. Cdr. Thomas Hornyold-Strickland, 7th Count della Catena. Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII and a relative of the Stricklands, is thought to have lived here after her first husband died in 1533. Catherine's second husband, Lord Latymer, was kin to the

dowager A dowager is a widow or widower who holds a title or property—a " dower"—derived from her or his deceased spouse. As an adjective, ''dowager'' usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles. In popular usage, the noun ...

Lady Strickland. It was extended in Elizabethan times. Sir Thomas Strickland went into exile with James II. Around 1770, the great hall was again expanded in the Georgian style.

Gardens

The gardens are registered Grade II. There is a lake, a kitchen garden and a rock garden. The rock garden, constructed in the 1920s, is the largest

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

rock garden belonging to the National Trust. Sizergh houses part of the National Collection of

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s, which are to be seen in the rock garden, the stumpery and the orchard.

Estate

In 1336 a grant from Edward III allowed Sir Walter Strickland to enclose the land around Sizergh as his exclusive park. The estate covers .

Biodiversity

There are various types of habitat on the estate. For example, in 2014 it was reported that 35 ha of wetland habitat was being created in the

Lyth Valley The Lyth Valley is on the edge of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It gives its name to an electoral ward (one of 45 in South Lakeland). The valley is sheltered by limestone hills and enjoys a relatively mild micro-climate ...

on the western edge of the estate. The project received funding from

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, ...

as part of a higher level stewardship scheme. It is hoped to attract

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' in Old English; the word "bittern ...

and other wildlife. Sizergh has received support from the Morecambe Bay Nature Improvement Area which was launched in 2012. It received three years of government grant funding (2012–15). Projects continue under the auspices of the Morecambe Bay Partnership, a registered charity.

Birds

The Sizergh estate is a good place to see birds. For example, hawfinches are attracted to the area because of its

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam ...

trees, and these birds sometimes come close to the main car park.

Butterflies

Fritillary butterflies (including pearl-bordered and

high brown fritillary ''Fabriciana adippe'', the high brown fritillary, is a large and brightly colored butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, native to Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. It is known for being Great Britain's most threatened butterfly and is li ...

) live on the estate.

Literary and media interest

The castle was featured in the ITV documentary ''Inside the National Trust''. The room known as the Inlaid Chamber is the subject of

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

's poetical illustration ''The Queen’s Room, Sizergh Hall, Westmorland'' to an engraving of a painting by Thomas Allom, published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836.

References

* * * * *"Helsington: Sizergh Castle, Sizergh" (2007
7
Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archeological Society (Third Series) 257 * * *

External links

Sizergh Castle & Garden information at the National TrustPaintings at Sizergh
Art UK
wikidata List of paintings at Sizergh CastleThe Cumbria Directory – Sizergh Castle Garden
{{Authority control Houses completed in the 14th century Birdwatching sites in England Towers completed in the 14th century Castles in Cumbria Peel towers in Cumbria Grade II listed parks and gardens in Cumbria Country houses in Cumbria National Trust properties in Cumbria Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum Historic house museums in Cumbria Grade I listed buildings in Cumbria