Westonbirt House
Westonbirt House is a country house in Gloucestershire, England. It belonged to the Holford family from 1665 until 1926. The first house on the site was an Elizabethan manor house. The Holfords replaced it first with a Georgian house, and then Robert Stayner Holford, who inherited Westonbirt in 1839, replaced that house between 1863 and 1870 with the present mansion which was designed by Lewis Vulliamy. He also remodelled the gardens, diverted the main road and relocated the villagers. The house is constructed of high quality ashlar masonry on a grand scale. The exterior is in an Elizabethan style, with a symmetrical main block and asymmetric wings, one of them containing a conservatory. The interiors are in a sumptuous classical style. The house was fitted with the latest technology such as gas lighting, central heating, fireproof construction and iron roofs. It is now a Grade I listed building.
Extensive formal terrace gardens were created around the house and 25 acres (100,000 m2) of ornamental woodlands were planted in the 19th century. Since 1928, the house has been occupied by the girls' boarding school Westonbirt School. Westonbirt House is open to the public on certain days, and the gardens are open more frequently. The house is also licensed to hold civil ceremonies and is used as a wedding venue.
Robert was born in 1808 to George Peter Holford and Anne Holford who was the daughter of Reverend Averell Daniell of Lifford, County Donegal, Ireland. He was the only male born to this couple but he had three sisters. George Peter Holford was a lawyer and a member of parliament. He also wrote books which usually related to religion and Christianity. He inherited a mansion at Westonbirt from his father. This house was the original manor which had been erected in the reign of Elizabeth or the early part of the time of James I. This house was demolished by George in 1818 and a new house built in 1823.
In 1829 at the age of 21, Robert graduated from Oriel College at Oxford University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. In the same year the Arboretum on the Westonbirt Estate commenced and Robert played a significant role in this project. In 1838 he inherited his uncle's fortune of over one million pounds. In the following year his father died and he became the owner of Westonbirt House. He was a keen lover of art and literature and his enormous wealth now allowed him to indulge this interest. He began collecting paintings and books for what was to become the famous "Holdford Collection". To accommodate this collection he built Dorchester House in Park Lane, London between 1851 and 1853 and employed Lewis Vulliamy as the architect.
...
Wikipedia