- Shugborough Hall
Shugborough is a country estate in
Great Haywood , nearStafford ,England , on the north-eastern edge ofCannock Chase . It comprises acountry house , kitchen garden and model farm.Shugborough is the ancestral home of the Earls of Lichfield. It is situated near
Stafford and about four miles from the market town ofRugeley and which is also about 15 miles from the city ofLichfield . The house was enlarged around 1750 under the architect James Stuart. He also created follies and monuments in the grounds, including 'The Tower of Winds' — based on that in Greece — the Chinese House (a Chinese-style pagoda), an imitation of thearch of Hadrian , 'The Doric Temple', the Cat's Monument and the Shepherd's Monument.On the Shepherd's Monument is the
Shugborough House inscription , which is thought by some to be an uncrackedciphertext containing a clue to the location of theHoly Grail , a theory fueled by the ancestral ties of the Anson family to theKnights Templar . In recent years, codebreakers from the National Codes Center at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire were dispatched to try to unravel the elusive inscriptions. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/3703191.stm New Puzzle for Code Breakers, BBC News, bbc.co.uk] ] Even such a scholarly figure asCharles Darwin is said to have examined the inscriptions at Shugborough and to have been stumped by their meaning.The entire estate was remodelled again at the turn of the 19th century. While the entire estate is owned by the National Trust, it has been maintained and operated by Staffordshire County Council since the 1960s on a 99-year lease.
Anne Margaret Coke, daughter of
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (seventh creation) married Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson, on Sept. 15, 1794, atHolkham Hall , Norfolk, where she was born. Her married name became Anson and she was styled Viscountess Anson on Feb. 17, 1806. Anne Margaret Coke Anson died in London in 1843 at age 64. She is buried at Shugborough. [ [http://www.holkham.co.uk/index.html Holkham Hall, Norfolk, home of the Earls Leicester, holkham.co.uk] ]The grounds are connected to the nearby village of
Great Haywood by theEssex Bridge , built in the Middle Ages, and also contain many sculptures as well as Stuart's follies."The Lord of the Rings" author
J. R. R. Tolkien stayed inGreat Haywood during the winter of 1916/17 and in his story 'The Tale of the Sun and the Moon' ("The Book of Lost Tales 1") he writes about a gnome called Gilfanon who owned an ancient house "...the House of a Hundred Chimneys, that stands nigh the bridge of Tavrobel". Tavrobel being a village near the confluence of two rivers - if you stand on theEssex Bridge you can see where the river Sow meets the river Trent. Shugborough Hall has about eighty chimneys.Another fantasy author,
Mark Chadbourn , features Shugborough and the mysterious bas-relief in the gardens in his novel The Hounds of Avalon, part ofThe Dark Age sequence. In the novel, the gardens provide a point of access to the magical Otherworld of Celtic mythology.The house contains a collection of photographs by the house's most illustrious resident, the royal photographer, the late Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, who died in 2005. Earl Lichfield was the first cousin, once removed, of Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom , his mother AnneBowes-Lyon (1917 - 1980) having been a niece ofElizabeth Bowes-Lyon , the lateQueen Mother . Anne Anson subsequently divorced, and upon remarriage becamePrincess Anne of Denmark .Her son, Patrick Anson, was divorced from
Leonora Anson, Countess of Lichfield , daughter ofRobert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster . The Countess has retained her title despite the divorce and she has not remarried.The grounds and mansion house are open to the public and include a working model farm museum dating from 1805 complete with a working
watermill ,kitchen s anddairy , and rare breeds of farm animals and a tea room. Thewalled garden , also dating from 1805, was restored in 2006 and is also open to the public.The house incorporates the historical servants' quarters. Within these the brewhouse is to be found, which was restored in 1990. It is the only log-fired brewery in the country that still produces beer commercially. This opened to the public certain weekends from 2007 onwards.
Nearby is
Milford Hall , the estate of theLevett Haszard family, who are related to the Ansons and who sit on the board of Shugborough. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=JC0BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA331&lpg=PA331&dq=levett+shugborough+anson&source=web&ots=ZOLWygcdN2&sig=H6afRwg4juMZzPzHftYmjCEzRM8&hl=en The Genealogy of the Existing British Peerage and Baronetage: Containing the Family Histories of the Nobility, Edmund Lodge, Norroy King of Arms, London, 1859] ]The Anson family purchased the Shugborough estate in the 17th century from
Thomas Whitby ofGreat Haywood , Staffordshire. The Anson family of Shugbourgh produced some remarkable men, among themGeorge Anson, 1st Baron Anson ,George Anson (British soldier) , GeneralGeorge Anson (1769-1849) ,Thomas Anson (MP) , Dean of Chester Frederick Anson and his sonsGeorge Edward Anson andFrederick Anson , Canon ofSt George's Chapel at Windsor Castle . There have been seven ships in the Royal Navy christenedHMS Anson through the years honoring the first Baron Anson's circumnavigation of the earth.References
External links
* [http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-shugboroughestate/ Shugborough information at the National Trust]
* [http://www.gardenvisit.com/g/shug.htm Shugborough Garden - information on garden history and design]
* [http://www.shugborough.org.uk/ Official website of Shugborough]
* Stafford Tourism Bureau http://www.visitstafford.org
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,61-2078356,00.html Memorial service for Patrick Anson]
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