Reference
L33
Title
Maps, Plans, Watercolours etc.
Admin/biog history
Extensive alterations were planned for Wrest Park house in 1715-1716. For this rebuilding the Duke of Kent commissioned the Italian architect Giacomo Leoni to draw up plans. Leoni, a Venetian by birth, before coming to England held the post of architect to the Elector Palatine. At this time the Duke's son, Anthony, Earl of Harrold, was on the grand tour of Europe and writing to his father from Geneva, says he is 'pleased to find your Grace had sent me the drafts of Signor Leoni and that Mr Ackres is doing one of the gardens' and intends to 'show them to the best architects and judges I shall meet with in my travels'. The Earl's tutor and companion on the tour, J. Gerard, also writing from Geneva comments that the plan of the garden which is to be sent 'will be of good use to the architect who is to draw the design for the house' and goes on to give some idea of the type of building envisaged - 'Your Grace says the materials of the house will be brick ... If so, they must choose the plainest mouldings and the most solid; I think Signor Leoni's plan is of the Doric order, and if there is anything in his plan which your Grace would not have altered .... it would be proper to let the architect know it.' A few weeks later Gerard writes of a meeting with the King of Sicily who 'told him (the Earl of Harrold) he heard he had been enquiring after his architect and that your Grace designed to build a new house, then he gave orders that the architect should .... wait upon his lordship to give his opinion upon the plans … or make a new design, which he did accordingly; he thinks the first draft (by Leoni) … too much crowded … the second plan he liked much better, though he found fault with several things …. He is now making a new plan but upon the design of the second …. He says he will find ways to help the inconvenience as to the chapel and the kitchen, which last he would have underground as is the custom in Italy …. We have left the plans with the King’s architect …. When we have the new plan I will send your Grace a copy of it, and have the opinion of other architects upon this last as well as upon the first’. Reporting in a later letter that the King’s architect, Signor Juvara, had delivered his plan to the King which was being posted on, Gerard says ‘he hath taken all the pains he could to make the house commodious and magnificent so that I suppose he hath not spared columns and pilasters ….. the garden side he says he hath adorned much more than the other, and particularly the summer house which I described to be at the end of the garden….’ In a further letter ‘… the so-long expected plans from Turin are come to my Lord Harrold’s hands … the general disposition is in the manner of Signor Leoni’s last plan, a half H …… it is adorned with pillars and columns almost between every window on each front … the two floors are contained in the Corinthian order of pilasters; the capitals of which are a very ingenious invention and may carry your Grace’s arms, there are statues and vases in the proper places, the hall hath a duomo which rises in the handsomest way above the roof, and without doubt it would make a very fine palace. It is true it would cost a great deal to build it in the manner it is drawn’.
Two of Leoni’s signed plans for the alterations at Wrest at this date are amongst the plans deposited by Lady Lucas. These proposals are however, never proceeded with due to events at the time; the South Sea Bubble of 1720 in which so many families lost money and, in the case of the Duke, the untimely death of his only surviving son, Anthony, Earl of Harrold in 1723. There is another unsigned plan which appears to be Leoni’s work but does not agree with the house at Wrest Park which existed at that time; a plan and elevation endorsed ‘Keeper’s Lodge per Leoni’ which has a very stolid appearance and a rectangular design for a two storey unidentified building.
Among the other early plans are a number by Thomas Archer, including his elegant pavilion designed in 1711 which still stands at the end of the long canal at Wrest. Other examples of his work are designs for an early bowling green house, which apparently was not built, and other plans for a two storey building, perhaps alternatives for the pavilion or his Cain Hill House.
Other 18th century plans of garden buildings and monuments have been attributed to Nicholas Hawksmoor (for many years Christopher Wren’s assistant) and James Gibbs, one of the most successful English architects of his time. A design for a ‘theatre or colonnade’ dated 1769 by Edward Stevens, a pupil of Sir William Chambers, who described him as ‘a very ingenious young architect’, has also survived.
Sketches of the park during the same period include some excellent panoramic views by Peter Tillemans. He was born in Holland and came to England in 1708 and began his artistic life by copying the paintings of the old masters and in this way ‘becoming known to amateurs and persons of quality he was constantly employed to paint views of county seats with figures and buildings, or landscapes’. Looking at some of his views of Wrest it would appear that he could have been employed by the Duke of Kent, in some instances, to give impressions of the finished gardens with monuments and canals which were in fact never acted on. Especially is this so with views which show an obelisk close to and connected by a canal and walks to the pavilion. Incidentally the obelisk is very similar in appearance to the one which used to stand near the main entrance gates until 1933 and which is shown in that position on Rocques plan of 1735.
There are also prints for the period, including one of the ‘Bowling Green Canal’ by a member of the family, Lady Amabel Polwarth.
The later, 19th century plans include a design for a new house to replace the old Wrest Park House in 1818. This form the elevations which have been deposited was to be in the Jacobean style and may have been the work of John Shaw. Many of the plans for the present house, built between 1834-39 have survived. It was built by the owner of the estate Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, who was the first president of the Society of British Architects (1834-1839). In his own account of the building of the house he states ‘I was as you know strictly and in every sense of the word my own architect’ but he engaged James Clephan who had previously worked on a similar basis with Lord Barrington, at an agreed salary as his ‘Superintendent’ or Clerk of Works. There is a plan dated 1841 signed by ‘James Clephan, architect’.
The proposed former abortive scheme for rebuilding was influenced by family travels in Italy. The successful attempt was influenced in a similar way - Lord Grantham's visits fo France. A friend produced a list of French architectural works and in 1825, Lord Grantham, as he was them, on a visit to Paris tells how 'with my list in my hand and a pencil and drawing book in my pocket, I started to the Bibliotheque Royale. I was very civilly treated - every book I named was produced; and I was allowed to copy what I pleased. Here were formed the embryo plans of the present place.'
The working drawings for two other Bedfordshire projects survive. These were made by Thomas Smith of Hertford who acted as County Surveyor of Bedfordshire from 1847-1854. He was engaged by Lord Grantham before he assumed the title of Earl de Grey, and made proposals for the replacing of Cain Hill House with a sandstone column in 1828 and was responsible for the rebuilding of Silsoe church 1828-1830.
Earl de Grey was on friendly terms with the Prince Consort who sought his advice on architectural matters. At a conversazione which the Earl held for the Institute of Architects in 1846 he tells how ‘Prince Albert told me that the Queen wished I would form one of a committee to superintend various additions and improvements … for Buckingham Palace’, which he agreed to. Blore was the architect and the Earl ‘thought him a very inefficient man’; the builder Thomas Cubitt he describes as a ‘very superior, intelligent person’ and the Clerk of Works was his former clerk at Wrest, James Clephan. His appointment to the committee may explain the elevations and plans relating to the place which were also in the collection.
There are again excellent drawings, watercolours, etc., for this period. John Buckler, a topographical artist who up to 1826 had practised in London as an architect when he went over completely to perspective drawing, painted some fine views of the remains of the old Wrest Park house and exterior and interior views of the reconstructed Silsoe church. His son, John Chessall Buckler, shared his father’s enthusiasm for sketching and there are two watercolours of the interior of the old house by him as well as one of the interior of the pavilion. There are also excellent interior views of the present house by Thomas Scandrett, an architectural draughtsman who was born a Worcester; these include the drawing room, the grand staircase, the library, etc. There are other competent pen and ink wash drawings by Earl de Grey himself.
A good set of photographs continue the pictorial record of Wrest Park into the years of the 20th century.
Made by office staff
10th December 1971
Scope and Content
ESTATE MAPS
L33/1 Gravenhurst 1821
L33/2a-2b Harrold 1798-1848
L33/3 Henlow 1848
L33/4 Carlton and Chellington 1806
L33/5 Blunham 1848
L33/6 Gravenhurst c.1820
L33/7 Silsoe
L33/8 Hertfordshire
L33/9 Silsoe 1828
L33/10-10a Clophill 1716
L33/11 Flitton
L33/12a Harrold Woods
L33/12b Silsoe 1856
L33/12c Pulloxhill
L33/12d Gravenhurst
L33/13/1-4 and 6 Shillington 1777-1814
L33/15 Flitton 1794
L33/16 Sawley [Yorkshire] 1757
L33/17 Clophill
L33/18a Meppershall
L33/18b Pulloxhill
L33/19a-19b Harrold 1836
L33/20 Blunham
L33/21 Silsoe 1814
L33/22 Yorkshire
L33/23 Silsoe 1774
L33/24 Carlton and Harrold 1790
L33/25a-24b Pavenham
L33/26 Harrold 1700
L33/27 Upper Stondon
L33/28-31 Crudwell [Wiltshire]
L33/32 Pulloxhill 1768
L33/33-34 Pulloxhill C19
L33/35-38 Pulloxhill C19
L33/39-40 Pulloxhill C19
L33/41-45 Crudwell 1696-1841
WREST PARK ESTATE
Wrest Park House
L33/46-48 Proposed alterations, not carried out 1715-1716
L33/49 Minor alterations to part of house early C18
L33/50-54 Chimney pieces 1763?
Proposed Keeper's Lodge
L33/55 Plans by Leoni early C18
Stables
L33/56 Plan early C18
Garden Buildings
L33/57-63 Pavilion by Thomas Archer 1711
L33/64-69 alternative designs to Pavilion early C18
L33/70-80 Bowling Green House early designs early C18
L33/81-82 Bowling Green House alternative designs by Thoms Archer
L33/83-86 Alcove Seat 1726 and early C18
L33/87-89 Garden seat or Shelter early C18
L33/90-105 Ornamental summerhouses, shelters etc. early C18
L33/106 Theatre or Colonnade by Edward Stevens 1769
Garden Monuments
L33/107-112 Obelisk early C18
L33/113-114 Monument early C18
Garden Wall and Arches
L33/115-121 Arches by Leoni early C18
L33/122-123 Arches attributed to Nicholas Hawksmoor early C18
L33/124 Elaborate wall or hedge early C18
Canal Pleasure Boat
L33/125-126 design and reference list 1765
Watercolours, sketches, prints etc.
L33/127-128 views by Peter Tillemans early C18
L33/139-145 other sketches and prints 1705 and C18
Wrest Park House Plans
L33/146-147 New house design, not carried out 1818
L33/148-149 Reconstructions of earlier stages of old house c.1824-1827
L33/150 Relative positions of old and new houses 1834
L33/151-162 Plans for new house built 1834-1839 c.1834-1841
L33/163-166 Chimney pieces c.1818-1834
L33/167-170 Interior ornamental embellishments c.1818-1840
L33/171-172 Minor alterations 1851?
Plans of Garden and Grounds
L33/173-180 Cain Hill House, demolition and proposed replacement column 1828-1829
L33/181-182 proposed Shefford Lodge 1829
L33/183 Silsoe Gates c.1830
L33/184-185 Bridge 1830-1831
L33/186-188 Garden Entrance c.1836
L33/189-190 Orangery c.1851
L33/191-207 Exterior ornamentation c.1830s
L33/208-209 General garden plans and flower beds c.1830s
Miscellaneous Plans
L33/210 Cupola c.1830s
L33/211 Bridleway alteration near new house 1836
Watercolours, drawings etc.
L33/212-218 Drawings and watercolours by J. and J.C.Buckler 1831-1838
L33/219-224 Interior watercolours by Thomas Scandrett 1840s?
L33/225-228 Other interior drawings, mainly Earl de Grey c.1830-1840
L33/229-232 Other exterior drawings c.1830-1840
20TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHS OF WREST PARK
L33/233-243 Photographs used to illustrate 1917 sale catalogue 1904-1916
SILSOE CHURCH
L33/244 Report of dilapidations and estimates for reconstruction 1828
L33/245-254 Plans for reconstruction 1828-1830
L33/255-256 Exterior and interior views of new church by J.Buckler 1831
MISCELLANEOUS BEDFORDSHIRE PRINTS
L33/257-259 Prints: Flitton, Harrold and Pertenhall 1792-1836
L33/260 John Cary's map of Bedfordshire 1801
PLANS OF PROPERTIES OUTSIDE BEDFORDSHIRE
L33/261-265 Lady Polwarth's house at Putney Heath 1791-1793
L33/266-267 House at corner of St.James' Square and Charles Street, London 1817
L33/268-272 4 St.James' Square, London; alterations by W.J.Browne 1833-1834
L33/273-274 Buckingham Palace? 1847
L33/275-276 Newby Park, Yorkshire [now Baldersby Park or Skellfield School, Topcliffe near Thirsk] plans and sketches C18 and 1784
L33/277-281 Rokeby House, Yorkshire by Sir Thomas Robinson 1735-1741
MISCELLANEOUS
L33/282 Printed map of Tunbridge Wells [Kent] 1828
LATER DEPOSITS
L33/283-285 Buckingham Palace 1844-1845
L33/286 Wrest Park Estate Atlas containing maps and terriers for Flitton, Silsoe, Gravenhurst, Ion, Meppershall, Henlow, Harrold, Blunham, Clophill, Pulloxhill, Pavenham, Higham Gobion, Upper Stondon 1712-1769
Archival history
In September 1970 Lady Lucas of Wonston, Hants, deposited nearly 250 plans, drawings and watercolours, etc. mainly relating to the family's former home, Wrest Park, Silsoe. Many of these are by well-known architects and artists and have already been examined by Professor H.C. Colvin, author of 'A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 1660-1840' and other serious architectural students.
Reference
Level of description
sub-fonds