- Chateau Impney
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Chateau Impney.
Chateau Impney is an imposing 19th century house built in the style of an elaborate French château near Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire, England. Of the large mansions in Worcestershire supported by industrial fortunes, Sir Nicolas Pevsner judged Impney to be "the showiest of them all in the county".[1]
It was designed from 1869 onwards and built in 1873-75[2] for local industrialist the saltworks magnate John Corbett in the style of a Louis XIII château, for Corbett's wife, Hannah Eliza O'Meara, was of mixed French/Irish descent and had been raised in Paris, where her father was secretary to the Displomatic Corps.[3] Corbett applied for designs to the Parisian architect Auguste Tronquois[4] and employed the Beaux-Arts trained English architect Richard Phené Spiers as executive architect on site;[5] the house cost GBP £247,000 (equivalent to £16,685,895.00 in 2007) [1], to satisfy her nostalgia for Paris. Sadly, the marriage was not a happy one, and she later took up residence in one of Corbett's properties in Tywyn, North Wales.
In 1945, the house was purchased by Ralph Edwards who restored it and developed it as a hotel. As of 2007[update], it remains an upmarket hotel [2] and presents an eye-catching sight from the road [3].
Notes
- ^ Pevsner, Worcestershire, Introduction, p. 38.
- ^ Pevsner Worcestershire p. 255.
- ^ ""More relevant may have been his desire to cock a snook at his political rival, Sir John Pakington of Westwood House", observes Pevsner.
- ^ Pevsner, Worcestershire p. 255.
- ^ "The contribution of the executive architect, Richard Phené Spiers, should not be underestimated; he was one of the very few London architects with Beaux Arts training", Pevsner cautioned (Worcestershire p. 255).
External links
Coordinates: 52°16′26″N 2°07′57″W / 52.273823°N 2.132517°W
Categories:- Country houses in Worcestershire
- Hotels in Worcestershire
- Châteauesque architecture
- 1870s architecture
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