Northwick Park is a residential estate and business centre near

Blockley Blockley is a village, Civil parish#United Kingdom, civil parish and Parish, ecclesiastical parish in the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about northwest of Moreton-in-Marsh. Until 1931 Blockley was an Encl ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England. The estate is built in the grounds of the former family seat of the Rushout family, the Barons Northwick. The Northwick Park mansion, now divided into residential accommodation, is a Grade 1

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In medieval times Northwick was a collection of smallholder's cottages surrounding a mansion owned by the Childe family. In 1683 it was bought by Sir James Rushout, Bt, the son of a rich Flemish merchant, who carried out extensive remodelling in 1686. The 4th Baronet continued the work, commissioning the architect Lord Burlington to design a Palladian east front and entrance hall in the 1730s. The 5th Baronet, later Baron Northwick, employed architect John Woolfe to carry out further improvements c.1828 and

William Emes William Emes (1729 or 1730–13 March 1803) was an English landscape gardener. Biography Details of his early life are not known but in 1756 he was appointed head gardener to Sir Nathaniel Curzon at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. He left this post ...

to landscape the parkland. It then passed down in the family to the 3rd Baron Northwick, whose widow in 1912 left the estate to her grandson, Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill (first cousin to

Sir Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

), who moved into the mansion. Because the area was under the authority of the

Bishops of Worcester The Bishop of Worcester is the head of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title can be traced back to the foundation of the diocese in the year 680. From then until the 16th century, the bi ...

, it was actually a small

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

of the county of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

surrounded by

- and is shown that way on all maps prior to 1931, when such enclaves were rationalised. The estate includes the site of the former hamlet of Northwick. During the Second World War, Northwick Park was an American field hospital. It became a camp for Polish displaced persons until the 1960s.

Northwick Park collection

The second Baron was an avid collector of works of art, antiques and coins. Much of his collection was housed at

Thirlestaine House Thirlestaine House is a Grade I listed building in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. History Thirlestaine House was started in 1820 by J.R. Scott (an amateur architect) for his own use. In 1838 the unfinished building was bought by Lord ...

in Cheltenham and in 1848 he published a catalogue of his holdings there. Although he died intestate and therefore his collection was sold after his death, many items were repurchased by the 3rd Baron. This collection passed to the Spencer-Churchill family. After the death of Captain EG Spencer-Churchill, the collection was sold by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in 1965. Items from this collection can be found in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. The

provenance Provenance () is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...

of items from the collection can be investigated using published catalogues of the 1859 sale, the 1864 sale and the 1965 sale. There is also an inventory of the collection produced in 1921 by Tancred Borenius.

References

External links

Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868
{{coord, 52, 1, 41, N, 1, 45, 20, W, scale:100000, display=title Hamlets in Gloucestershire Grade I listed houses in Gloucestershire Cotswold District