Clandon Park is an 18th century Palladian mansion in West Clandon

West Clandon

West Clandon is a village in Surrey, England. It is within 4 miles of the M25 and the A3. Nearby villages include Send, Ripley, Ockham, East and West Horsley. Local towns are Woking and Guildford....

 just outside Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It has been a National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

 property since 1956.

The house was built, or perhaps thoroughly rebuilt, around 1730–33 (the latter date is on rainwater leads), designed by the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni

Giacomo Leoni

Giacomo Leoni , also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in English...

, replacing an Elizabethan property. The estate had been bought in 1641, together with Temple Court Farm at Merrow, by Sir Richard Onslow, MP for Surrey in the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

, from Sir Richard III Weston(1591–1652), canal builder & pioneering agriculturalist, of nearby Sutton Place

Sutton Place, Surrey

Sutton Place, 3 miles NE of Guildford in Surrey is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house built c.1525 by Sir Richard Weston, courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history in showing some of the earliest traces of Italianate renaissance design elements in English architecture. In...

. The new building was commissioned by his great-grandson Thomas, 2nd Baron Onslow

Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow

Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow commissioned the building of Clandon Park in the 1730s.He became 2nd Baron Onslow on the death of his father, Richard Onslow, in 1717...

. Many members of the Onslow family followed political careers—three of them, including Arthur Onslow

Arthur Onslow

Arthur Onslow was an English politician. He set a record for length of service when repeatedly elected to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, where he was known for his integrity.-Early life and education:...

, were Speakers

Speaker of the British House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 of the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

.

Clandon Park's interiors, which were finished into the 1740s, feature a two-storey Marble Hall, containing marble chimney pieces by English sculptor Michael Rysbrack. Since being presented to the National Trust, the house has been extensively restored and redecorated under the direction of John Fowler

John Beresford Fowler

John Beresford Fowler was an English interior decorator. He was educated at Felsted School.-References:*Stephen Long, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography...

. The building now houses the fine collection of 18th century furniture and porcelain formed by Hannah, Mrs David Gubbay, and the Ivo Forde Meissen

Meissen

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...

 collection of Italian comedy figures and Mortlake

Mortlake

Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...

 tapestries and other textiles and carpets. The building also houses the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment

The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment

-History:As a consequence of defence cuts in the late 1950s, the Queen's Royal Regiment and the East Surrey Regiment were amalgamated on 14 October 1959 to form the 1st Battalion, Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment....

 Museum.

To the landscape gardens designed by Lancelot Brown in 1781 have been added a parterre

Parterre

A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...

 (illustration), grotto

Grotto

A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...

, the sunken Dutch garden

Dutch garden

The Dutch garden is distinguished by its dense atmosphere and efficient use of space. On an international level, a garden with tulips is also easily labelled as a Dutch Garden....

 created by Frances, Countess of Onslow in the late 19th century, and a Māori meeting house

Wharenui

A wharenui is a communal house of the Māori people of New Zealand, generally situated as the focal point of a marae. Wharenui are usually called 'meeting houses' in New Zealand English.-Wharenui:...

 named Hinemihi. This was originally situated near Lake Tarawera

Lake Tarawera

Lake Tarawera is the largest of a series of lakes which surround the volcano Mount Tarawera in the North Island of New Zealand. Like the mountain, it lies within the Okataina caldera. It is located 18 kilometres to the east of Rotorua, and five kilometres to the west of the mountain...

 in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and provided shelter to the people of Te Wairoa village during the eruption of Mount Tarawera

Mount Tarawera

Mount Tarawera is the volcano responsible for New Zealand's largest historic eruption. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua in the North Island, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886, which killed over...

 in 1886. The building was covered in ash and surrounded by volcanic debris, but its occupants survived. It remained half buried until 1892 when Lord Onslow

William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow

William Hillier Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow GCMG, PC was a British Conservative politician. He held several governmental positions between 1880 and 1905 and was also Governor of New Zealand between 1889 and 1892....

, then Governor General of New Zealand, had it removed and shipped to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. In 1956, Onslow's daughter Gwendolen, Countess Iveagh

Gwendolen Guinness, Countess of Iveagh

Gwendolen Florence Mary Guinness, Countess of Iveagh , was a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom, and, by marriage, a member of the Anglo-Irish Guinness brewing dynasty....

, gifted Clandon Park—including Hinemihi—to the National Trust.

Source

• Harrison, Frederic
  Frederick Harrison
  Lieutenant Colonel Sir Frederick Harrison was a British army officer, and railway manager. Engineer and Railway Volunteer Staff Corps. He was made a knight bachelor in 1902....
  
  . Annals of an Old Manor House: Sutton Place, Guildford. London, 1899.archive.org on-line text

Further reading

• Howard Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects

External links

• Clandon Park information at the National Trust