Browsholme Hall

Browsholme
Browsholme Hall from the front
Location	Ribble Valley, Lancashire
Coordinates	53°54′09″N 2°28′55″W / 53.9024°N 2.4819°W / 53.9024; -2.4819Coordinates: 53°54′09″N 2°28′55″W / 53.9024°N 2.4819°W / 53.9024; -2.4819
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated	16 November 1954
Reference no.	1072272
Location of Browsholme in the Borough of Ribble Valley

Browsholme Hall /ˈbruːzəm/ is a privately owned Elizabethan house in the parish of Bowland Forest Low in the borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire (historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire), England. It is claimed to be the oldest surviving family home in Lancashire. Since 1954, it has been designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage.

In the fourteenth century, Edmund Parker was park-keeper of Radholme Laund, west of Browsholme, one of the two great deer parks in the Forest of Bowland. In 1393, his sons Richard and John were deputy parkers of Radholme, but from 1380, they had a lease of the vaccary (mediaeval cattle farm) of Browsholme. Richard probably built the original house on the present site around that time.

When in 1507, King Henry VII disafforested Bowland, Edmund Parker obtained a copyhold of Nether Browsholme and began the present house. Thomas Parker, purchased the freehold of Browsholme from the Crown in 1603 and further improved the house, which had been enlarged by his father. His grandson, also called Thomas, is believed to have added a formal garden in 1674.

On the death of his father, John Parker in 1797, Thomas Lister Parker succeeded to the Browsholme estate. In 1804 and 1805, he made alterations to the Hall, rebuilding the west wing, and afterwards he made additions under the superintendence of Sir Jeffry Wyatville. He had a taste for landscape gardening, and between 1797 and 1810, spent large sums in laying the grounds. In the house, he displayed a collection of antiquities and pictures, partly formed by himself. He had a large series of drawings and prints bought during a tour on the continent in 1800 and 1801, at Moscow, Venice, and Paris; a large collection of drawings of castles and manor-houses by John Chessell Buckler, and portfolios of his own drawings. He also possessed pictures of the Flemish school and works of James Northcote and Thomas Gainsborough. Thomas Lister Parker ultimately bankrupted himself and was forced to pass the estate to a cousin.