Longleat

This article is about the country house. For the safari park, see Longleat Safari Park.
Longleat

The façade of Longleat House
Location within Wiltshire
General information
Architectural style Elizabethan
Location Wiltshire, England
Coordinates 51°11′11″N 2°16′31″W / 51.186472°N 2.275308°W / 51.186472; -2.275308
Client John Thynne
Design and construction
Architect Robert Smythson

Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. It is a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. It is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set in 1,000 acres (400 ha) of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown, with 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of let farmland and 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of woodland, which includes a Center Parcs holiday village.[1] It was the first stately home to open to the public, and the Longleat estate includes the first safari park outside Africa.[2][3]

The house was built by Sir John Thynne and was designed mainly by Robert Smythson, after the original priory was destroyed by fire in 1567. It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. Longleat is occupied by Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, a direct descendant of the builder; however, the peer passed the management of the business to his son Viscount Weymouth early in 2010.

Longleat House and the Thynnes

A View of Longleat, Jan Siberechts, 1675

Longleat was previously an Augustinian priory. The name comes from "leat", an artificial waterway or channel such as that which supplies a watermill.

Drawing of Longleat from the early 18th century by Leonard Knyff
View towards Longleat

Sir Charles Appleton (1515–1580) purchased Longleat for Sir John Thynn in 1541 for £53. Appleton was a builder with experience gained from working on The Old School Baltonsborough, Bedwyn Broil and Somerset House. In April 1567 the original house caught fire and burnt down. A replacement house was effectively completed by 1580. Adrian Gaunt, Alan Maynard, Robert Smythson, the Earl of Hertford and Humpfrey Lovell all contributed to the new building but most of the design was Sir John's work. He was the first of the Thynne 'dynasty' – the family name was Thynn or Thynne in the 16th century, later consistently Thynne, but the present head of the family reverted to the spelling Thynn in the 1980s. Sir John Thynne's descendants were:

The house is still used as the private residence of the Thynn family.

Longleat maze

Longleat House tour

The tour of the house comprises:

Events and filming

Longleat Woods

Longleat Woods (grid reference ST795435) is a 249.9 ha (618 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset, notified in 1972.

Longleat Forest is also home to Center Parcs Longleat Forest, a holiday resort.

Additional information

Longleat Safari Park opened in 1966 as the first drive-through safari park outside Africa, and is home to over 500 animals, including giraffe, monkeys, rhino, lion, tigers and wolves.[9][10] Cheetahs are the most recent additions to the safari park with six having arrived in August 2011.[11] Four lion cubs were born in September 2011, making a total of 10 cubs born that year, and Disney named two of them Simba and Nala as part of a co-promotion agreement for the upcoming Lion King 3D film.[12]

Longleat House was built in the sixteenth century by Sir John Thynn on the site of a dissolved priory, and in 1949 became the first stately home in Britain to be opened to the public on a commercial basis.[13][14][15] The house, park and attractions are open from mid-February to the start of November each year.[16] The 9,800-acre estate, of which the park occupies 900 acres, has long been one of the top British tourist attractions, and has motivated other large landowners to generate income from their heritage in response to rising maintenance costs.[17][18] Longleat leases 400 acres of land to Center Parcs for the operation of the Longleat Forest holiday village.[19]

Longleat Hotels offers accommodation at the Bishopstrow Hotel & Spa and the Homewood Park Hotel & Spa. Located in Warminster, Wiltshire, the Bishopstrow Hotel & Spa is set within Bishopstrow House and surrounded by 18th-century gardens alongside the River Wylye.[20][21] The Homewood Park Hotel & Spa is located in Homewood Park, Bath; Homewood Park is an award-winning, two AA-rosette Georgian country house hotel.[22][23][24]

In June 2016 it was announced that the Glastonbury Festival is intended to move to Longleat from summer 2019.[25]

References

  1. "Spend a day at Longleat". BBC. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  2. "The lions and loins of Longleat". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  3. New Scientist, 2 December 1982, p. 554, at Google Books. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  4. The Green Lady of Fyvie Castle
  5. John Coles, TV Fallen Madonna found. The Sun, 9 December 2005. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  6. Say ‘Allo’ to new Longleat feature, Wiltshire Times, 16 December 2005. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  7. How to Improve Your Memory, shown 9 August 2006, BBC One. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  8. "Dr Who Exhibition, Longleat". THE DOCTOR WHO EXHIBITIONS ARCHIVE. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  9. Tourist Information UK
  10. Picture The UK
  11. Warminster Web
  12. Heart FM
  13. Longleat website
  14. Stately-Homes.com
  15. UKTV
  16. Longleat website
  17. Visit Bath
  18. The Daily Telegraph
  19. Warminster People
  20. Daily Mail
  21. This is Wiltshire
  22. [http://www.timesplus.co.uk/sto/?login=false&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesundaytimes.co.uk%2Fsto%2Fbusiness%2FRetail_and_leisure%2Farticle671276.ece>]
  23. This is Bath
  24. Wiltshire Times
  25. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/we-hope-to-move-glastonbury-to-longleat-by-2019-says-michael-eav/
  26. Burke, Sir Bernard, (1938 ed) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Shaw, London. p.243
  27. 1 2 3 Woodfall, H. (1768). The Peerage of England; Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the Peers of that Kingdom Etc. Fourth Edition, Carefully Corrected, and Continued to the Present Time, Volume 6. p. 258.
  28. 1 2  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Thynne, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  29. Girouard, Mark, Thynne, Sir John (1515–1580), estate manager and builder of Longleat in Oxford Dictionary of Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004)
  30. Booth, Muriel. "THYNNE, John (?1550-1604), of Longleat, Wilts.". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  31. Lancaster, Henry; Thrush, Andrew. "THYNNE, Charles (c.1568-1652), of Cheddar, Som.". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  32. Rugh, R. B.; Critall, Elizabeth. "'Parliamentary history : 1529-1629', in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 5". British History Online. Victoria County History. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  33. Ferris, John P. "THYNNE, Sir James (c.1605-70), of Longbridge Deverill, Wilts.". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  34. Helms, M. W.; Ferris, John P. "THYNNE, Sir Thomas (c.1610-c.69), of Richmond, Surr.". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  35. Marshall, Alan. "Thynne, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2 January 2016. (subscription required (help)).
  36. Heath-Caldwell, J. J. "Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath, 3rd Viscount Weymouth". JJ Heath-Caldwell. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  37. Hayton, D. W. "THYNNE, Hon. Henry (1675-1708).". The History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  38. Dunaway, Stewart (2013). Lord John Carteret, Earl Granville - His Life History and the Granville Grants. Lulu. p. 33. ISBN 9781300878070.
  39. "Bath, Thomas Thynne". Encyclopedia Britannica 1911. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  40. Thorne, Roland. "Carteret [formerly Thynne], Henry Frederick". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  41. "Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837)". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  42. Escott, Margaret. "THYNNE, Lord Henry Frederick (1797-1837), of 6 Grovesnor Square, Mdx.". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  43. "John Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath (1831-1896), Diplomat and landowner". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
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Coordinates: 51°11′11″N 2°16′31″W / 51.186472°N 2.275308°W / 51.186472; -2.275308

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