#shugborough

[tim-dennis]

Buttercup meadow at Shugborough Hall

[ukdamo]

Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: a slice of fine dining. The dining room of Shugborough Hall - former homes of the Earls of Lichfield (of photography fame). They were a naval family (Ansons) and built the house with profits accrued from prize ships in the 18th Century. There's some evidence that at least some of the family's wealth was linked to slavery and the slave trade, even if indirectly.

[randlebagnall]

[myfairynuffstuff]

David Paul Gleeson (b.1956) - Three Swans at Shugborough. Acrylic on board.

[brownhillsbob]

June 24th - This week, I passed through Tixall, which is something I tend not to do much now Shugborough’s gates are open more. Tixall really is an odd little place with a lost village feel to it: From the gazebo overlooking the river and canal valley, to the lost avenue, ridiculous but gorgeous gatehouse and the bottle lodge.

You can’t fail to adore this place really.

[dry-valleys]

“ My much-respected friend, the late Thomas Anson, Esquire, preferred the still paths of private life, and was the best qualified for its enjoyment of any man I ever knew; for with the most humane and the most sedate disposition, he possessed a mind most uncommonly cultivated. He was the example of true taste in this country; and at the time that he made his own place a paradise, made every neighbor partaker of its elegancies. He was happy in his life, and happy in his end” Thomas Pennant.

In the gardens of Shugborough, largely sculpted according to the design of Thomas Anson, MP for Lichfield and owner of the hall, which we’re going to in later posts.

Thomas was buoyed by a fortune earned by his brother George, who built a successful career as an admiral and- despite their differences in style- the two got on famously and if you go to the hall you can find out about how they both shaped Shugborough as it is now. 

If you start by weaving through the garden you can find a great number of 18th century features installed by the men Thomas commissioned, notably James “Athenian” Stuart, whose European travels in 1748-55 inspired his vision and put him in the best place to work with Thomas.

He designed features such as (1) the Dark Lantern, a Grade I listed building of 1765, (based on the Monument of Lysicrates, built in Athens in 335-334 BC) (3) Hadrian’s Arch- (2) is Stuart’s drawing of the Arch in Athens, which he made in 1748 and took as his inspiration for the work at Shugborough which he begun in 1761 and which evolved into a memorial for George, who died in 1762, the work being completed in 1763.

Through the parkland to (5) the Tower of the Winds, another Stuart design built in 1765, the gardens, which I also visited in (6,9) December 2017, and to the River Sow (9,10) as it prepares to flow into the Trent near Essex Bridge.

Then inside the hall where Pennant was proven very right: “ it is more difficult to enumerate the works of art dispersed over this Elysium; they epitomize those of so many places “

[madoldbaggage]

Saturday 25 March 2017

Shugborough reopened this week. Hooray! Last November Staffordshire County Council handed back the lease to the National Trust and since then the NT have been starting what will be a 10 year renovation programme. As such it has a half empty feel to it all at present. The house, servants quarters and farm are all open but alas all the old farm machinery has gone from the farm, all the old Staffs CC information displays and exhibitions have gone and the walled garden looks very neglected. Also many rooms in the house are empty pending displays. There's a lot to do and being honest, charging full price for what is available is a bit cheeky in my opinion. At £33 for a family ticket it isn't cheap! Despite all of this we had a pleasant afternoon following our picnic from a proper hamper I hope you know (!) near to the Triumphal Arch and we shall return in a few months to see how it's all going and to see the Lichfield apartments that are not open at present.

[tim-dennis]

Bridge over the river Sow, Shugborough