Petworth House
Encyclopedia
Petworth
Petworth is a small town and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 east-west road from Heathfield to Winchester and the A283 Milford to Shoreham-by-Sea road. Some twelve miles to the south west of Petworth along the A285 road...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, 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...
, is a late 17th-century mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset , sometimes referred to as the "Proud Duke". The son of Charles Seymour, 2nd Baron Seymour of Trowbridge, and Elizabeth Alington , he succeeded his brother Francis Seymour, 5th Duke of Somerset, to the dukedom when the latter was shot in 1678...
, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations...
. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy
Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy
Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick was the son of Henry de Percy and Eleanor de Warenne, daughter of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey and Alice de Lusignan, Countess of Surrey, half sister of Henry III....
, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft
Undercroft
An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground area which is relatively open to the sides, but covered by the building above.- History :While some...
of which still survive.
Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
(some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons was an English sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including St Paul's Cathedral, Blenheim Palace and Hampton Court Palace. He was born and educated in Holland where his father was a merchant...
and Ben Harms
Ben Harms
Ben Harms is a German born traditional woodcarver working in England and current President of The Master Carvers Association. Some of his work can be seen at The Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court and alongside the work of Grinling Gibbons at Petworth House.-Life...
, classical and neoclassical sculpture
Neoclassical sculpture
Neoclassical sculpture was a sculptural style of the 18th and 19th centuries. The neoclassical period was one of the great ages of public sculpture, though its "classical" prototypes were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. The neoclassical sculptors paid homage to an idea of...
s (including ones by John Flaxman
John Flaxman
John Flaxman was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire...
and John Edward Carew
John Edward Carew
John Edward Carew was a notable Irish sculptor during the 19th century. His most prominent work is the Death of Nelson - one of the four bronze panels on the pedestal of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.-Life:...
), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre
Louis Laguerre
Louis Laguerre , was a French decorative painter mainly working in England.Born in Versailles in 1663 and trained at the Paris Academy under Charles Le Brun, he came to England in 1683, where he first worked with Antonio Verrio, and then on his own...
. There is also a terrestrial globe
Globe
A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
by Emery Molyneux
Emery Molyneux
Emery Molyneux was an English Elizabethan maker of globes, mathematical instruments and ordnance. His terrestrial and celestial globes, first published in 1592, were the first to be made in England and the first to be made by an Englishman....
, believed to the only one in the world in its original 1592 state.
It stands in a 700 acre (2.8 km²) landscaped park, known as Petworth Park, which was designed by 'Capability' Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
. The park is one of the more famous in England, largely on account of a number of pictures of it which were painted by Turner. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
in 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...
. There is also a 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.
For the past 250 years, the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family — currently John Max Henry Scawen Wyndham, 2nd Baron Egremont & 7th Baron Leconfield
Max Wyndham, 2nd Baron Egremont
John Max Henry Scawen Wyndham, 7th Baron Leconfield, 2nd Baron Egremont , generally known simply as Max Egremont, is a British biographer and novelist....
, a direct descendant of Sir John Wyndham
John Wyndham (1558-1645)
Sir John Wyndham JP was an aristocratic English landowner who played an important role in the establishment of defence organisation in the West Country against the threat of Spanish invasion....
. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.
The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the 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...
under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum
Petworth Cottage Museum
right|thumbright|thumbPetworth Cottage Museum, at 346 High Street, Petworth, West Sussex is a Leconfield Estate worker's cottage. It has been restored and furnished as it might have been in about 1910 when the occupier was a Mrs. Mary Cummings...
has been established in High Street , Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.
Petworth House is home to the Petworth House Real Tennis Club (many such private estates held real tennis
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...
courts).