Stratfield Saye House is a large

stately home 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 ...

at Stratfield Saye in the north-east of the English county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. It has been the home of the Dukes of Wellington since 1817.

Early history

The line of the

Roman Road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

the

Devil's Highway (Roman Britain) The Devil's Highway was a Roman road in Britain connecting Londinium (London) to Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester) via Pontes ( Staines). The road was the principal route to the west of Britain during the Roman period but whilst maintained for ...

passes East to West just within the Northern boundary of the grounds of Stratfield Saye House The Manor of Stratfield Saye was created by the joining of two older manors. In the 12th century Stratfield was owned by the Stoteville family, and then early in the 13th century this passed by marriage to the Saye family. Before 1370 the manor passed on again by marriage to the Dabridgecourts, and in 1629 they sold the property to the Pitt family, cousins of the great father-and-son Prime Ministers. The main part of the house was extensively enlarged around 1630 by Sir William Pitt,

Comptroller of the Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of ...

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

. Sir William's eldest son,

Edward Pitt Edward Pitt (died 1643) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1624. Pitt was the son of Sir William Pitt and his wife Edith Cadbury, daughter of Nicholas Cadbury of Arne, Dorset. He was a teller in the Exch ...

(1592-1643), MP, of Steepleton Iwerne, Dorset, and later of Stratfield Saye, bought the estate for £4,800 in 1629. Further extensive alterations were carried out to the house and park in the 18th century by

George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers (1 May 1721 – 7 May 1803) was an English diplomat and politician. Background and education He was born in Geneva, the eldest son of George Pitt of Stratfieldsaye (today rendered Stratfield Saye), Hampshire, an ...

Purchase by the state

The estate was purchased by the state in 1817, in order that it could be given by a grateful nation to the victorious

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

. The government gave £600,000 for the construction of a proposed "Waterloo Palace" to rival

Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non- royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, ...

, home of the

Dukes of Marlborough Duke of Marlborough (pronounced ) is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by Queen Anne in 1702 for John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough (1650–1722), the noted military leader. In historical texts, unqualified use of the ti ...

. The Hampshire site Wellington chose was the estate of Stratfield Saye, home of the Pitt family. He was advised on the purchase by the architect

Benjamin Dean Wyatt Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775–1852) was an English architect, part of the Wyatt family. Early life He was the son and pupil of the architect James Wyatt, and the brother of Matthew Cotes Wyatt. Before setting up as an architect in 1809, he joine ...

who had once been his private secretary. He originally planned to demolish the existing house, and replace it with a more prestigious home, to be known as Waterloo Palace. The Duke abandoned these plans in 1821 when they proved to be too expensive, and subsequently made numerous additions and improvements to the existing building. All but the 1st and 6th Dukes are buried at Stratfield Saye House.

The Wellington Exhibition

The stables are 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 I ...

s. They now contain the Wellington Exhibition, which depicts the life and times of the 1st Duke. It houses a large collection of military mementoes. The Duke's

cast bronze Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) ...

funeral carriage, made from melted-down French cannons captured at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Sevent ...

, was moved to Stratfield Saye in the 1980s.

Duke of Wellington Commemorative Column

The Duke of Wellington Commemorative Column stands at the entrance to Stratfield Saye on the eastern Heckfield side. The Corinthian column, which can be viewed from the A33, is topped by a bronze statue by Baron Carlo Marochetti. The column was erected in 1863.

Places named after Stratfield Saye House

Strathfieldsaye, now a suburb of

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban populat ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, was named after Strathfield Saye House. Between 1861 and 1994, there was also a

Shire of Strathfieldsaye The Shire of Strathfieldsaye was a local government area immediately to the east and southeast of the regional city of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, and included the eastern suburbs of Bendigo's metropolitan area. The shire covered an area of , ...

. The name of Strathfield, now a suburb of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, also comes ultimately from Strathfield Saye House. The names of the suburbs of North Strathfield and

Strathfield South Strathfield South is a suburb, in the Inner West of Sydney, Australia in the state of New South Wales, 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Strathfield local government area. The area was historically pa ...

, and the

Municipality of Strathfield The Municipality of Strathfield, also known as Strathfield Council, is a local government area in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Strathfield Council was incorporated on 2 June 1885. The Council area was m ...

have the same origin.

In popular culture

Filming of the

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

film '' War Horse'' began in August 2010 with the cavalry scenes being filmed at Stratfield Saye House, where Wellington's war horse,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

, is buried.

References

External links

*
Victoria Hinshaw

an

{{Wellesley Country houses in Hampshire Museums in Hampshire Historic house museums in Hampshire Biographical museums in Hampshire Military and war museums in England Grade I listed buildings in Hampshire Gardens in Hampshire Prime ministerial homes in the United Kingdom Grade I listed houses