Bulstrode Park

Bulstrode is a large park and mansion to the southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Gerrard's Cross in the English Home Counties. The estate predates the Norman conquest and the name may originate from the Anglo-Saxon words burh (marsh) and stród meaning (fort).

The previous house was built in 1686 for the infamous Judge Jeffreys. It was sold to Hans William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, who made it one of his principal residences and died there in 1709. In the 1740s, the architect and builder Stiff Leadbetter altered the house significantly for the 2nd Duke of Portland. Between 1806-1809, there were further re-modellings and additions, including the castellated West Wing, to the designs of James Wyatt for the 3rd Duke.

Bulstrode was used by Margaret Bentinck, the wife of the 2nd Duke to house her natural history and antiquities collection, with the south-west side of the park used for live specimens (called Menagerie Wood today). The botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander donated to the Dowager many exotic plants to develop the gardens at Bulstrode, which became the inspiration for Mrs Mary Delany's floral “paper mosaicks” now held in the British Museum Library which were greatly admired by Queen Charlotte. The grounds today are grade 1 listed.

Their son, the 3rd Duke was a collector of marble and glass, and was influential in loaning the Roman Portland Vase to Josiah Wedgwood. When the 4th Duke of Portland inherited the title in 1809, he disposed of Bulstrode. The title then passed into the hands of the Dukes of Somerset.

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