Everything about Holdenby House totally explained
Holdenby House is a historic
country house in
Northamptonshire, traditionally pronounced and sometimes spelt
Holmby. The house is situated in the parish of
Holdenby, six miles northwest of
Northampton and close to
Althorp.
The house is a private residence, though the gardens are open to the public and include a
falconry centre. The interior of the mansion is opened to the public for a few days of the year.
History
The house was completed
1583 by the
Elizabethan Lord chancellor, Sir
Christopher Hatton. Following the great house's completion Hatton refused to sleep a night in the mansion until
Queen Elizabeth I had slept there. Hatton's new house was in fact one of the largest
palaces of the
Tudor period, rivalling in size both
Audley End and
Theobalds and was reputed to be approximately 78,750 square feet (7,300 m²), although this probably included the two great courtyards around which it was built. The
facades were symmetrical, with mullioned windows and open
Doric arcades thus reflecting the arrival of the new
renaissance style of architecture gradually spreading from
Italy. The cost of building Holdenby financially ruined Hatton who died shortly after.
In 1607 the
mansion was bought by Elizabeth's successor
James I, as a replacement for
Theobalds, the country palace he'd sold earlier that year. In February
1647 James I's son
Charles I was brought to Holdenby by the Scots and handed over to
Parliament. He remained a prisoner there until removed by the army in June 1647. Parliament sold the property to Captain
Adam Baynes who demolished the house almost entirely except for a small domestic wing.
Holdenby later in
1709 was bought by the
Marlborough family, who in turn sold it to their kinsmen the
Clifden Family whose descendants in the female line, the Lowthers, still own the property. The Clifdens in two stages between 1873 - 5 and 188 - 8 built a new house incorporating the remains of the older mansion. The new house in the style of the older is approximately one eighth the size of its predecessor and was designed by the architect
Richard Carpenter.
Today all that remains of Hatton's great house are two archways and the kitchen wing incorporated into the Victorian rebuild, now standing on a
lawn, which once gave access to the courtyards; a near identical third arch bears the date
1659 so was thus erected by Baynes the
Cromwellian owner.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Holdenby House'.
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