Ashburnham Place
Encyclopedia
Ashburnham Place is an English
country house, now used as a Christian conference and prayer centre. It can be found five miles west of Battle
in East Sussex
. It was one of the finest houses in the southeast of England in its heyday, but much of the structure was demolished in 1959, and only a drastically reduced part of the building now remains standing.
was the home of the Ashburnham family from the 12th century. The family became wealthy through their land holdings in Sussex and around Pembrey
in Carmarthenshire
, and later from their participation in the Wealden iron industry
. Only the cellar
s remain from the earliest known house on the site, dating from the 15th century. This house was abandoned in the 16th century and confiscated by Queen Elizabeth I. The Ashburnham family recovered their estate under Charles I
, and John Ashburnham was a loyal servant of the King. He was forced to sell the estate to the Relf family in the English Commonwealth, to pay fines levied for supporting the King. John Ashburnham recovered the estate again after the English Restoration
. His grandson and namesake, John Ashburnham
, was created first Baron Ashburnham in 1689. The house was largely rebuilt to designs of the neo-Palladian
architect Stephen Wright
and the local direction of the builder John Morris of Lewes, ca 1757-61.
in the mid-18th century. Brown's orangery
, c. 1767, houses the oldest camellia
in England. Brick external additions were made to the house in Gothic Revival style in 1813-17, by a third John Ashburnham
, the second earl of Ashburnham
, to designs by George Dance the Younger
. Robert Adam
designed entrance lodges for the second Earl in 1785. George Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham
, commissioned architectural drawing
s from John Soane
, but it is not known if the suggested additions, including a porte-cochere
, were built. The house was refaced in stone in the early 19th century, and then, when fashions changed, a second, red brick outer skin was added in 1853.
Internally, the house had a mix of styles, with a fine staircase by Charles Dance
rising three floors in the central entrance hall. The drawing room
was decorated with painted wall panels attributed to Athenian Stuart. The house held the family's fine collection of paintings and the extensive library, collected by the 3rd Earl and his son, Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham.
s, to the nation in the 1890s for £160,000. The deal did not go ahead, and the books were sold piecemeal for a total of £228,000 over the next few years. Many were acquired by the British Library
, but, for example, the sixth-to-seventh-century Ashburnham Pentateuch
is in the Bibliothèque National, Paris. The Earldom became extinct on the death of Thomas Ashburnham, 6th Earl of Ashburnham, in 1924, and the house was inherited by his niece, Lady Catherine Ashburnham. The house was damaged when a fully loaded Marauder bomber crashed nearby during the Second World War, and dry rot
set in.
Lady Catherine was the last of this line of the Ashburnham family, and the estate was inherited by Rev. John Bickersteth on her death in 1953. In addition to the prospect of huge repair bills, he was also saddled with crippling death duties of £427,000. The contents of the house were sold at auction at Sotheby's
in June and July 1953, and half of the estate was sold in the next few years. The house was mostly demolished in 1959, reducing the central section to two floors and the wings to a single story.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
country house, now used as a Christian conference and prayer centre. It can be found five miles west of Battle
Battle, East Sussex
Battle is a small town and civil parish in the local government district of Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south southeast of London, east of Brighton and east of the county town of Lewes...
in East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
. It was one of the finest houses in the southeast of England in its heyday, but much of the structure was demolished in 1959, and only a drastically reduced part of the building now remains standing.
Early history
The village of AshburnhamAshburnham and Penhurst
Ashburnham and Penhurst are civil parishes in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, situated to the west of Battle. The two parishes share a joint parish council which also covers the settlements of Brownbread Street, Ponts Green and Ashburnham Forge...
was the home of the Ashburnham family from the 12th century. The family became wealthy through their land holdings in Sussex and around Pembrey
Pembrey
Pembrey is a village in Carmarthenshire Wales, situated between Burry Port and Kidwelly, overlooking Carmarthen Bay.-History:The name Pembrey is an Anglicisation of the Welsh, Pen-bre...
in Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. It is the 3rd largest in Wales. Its three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford...
, and later from their participation in the Wealden iron industry
Wealden iron industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay...
. Only the cellar
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
s remain from the earliest known house on the site, dating from the 15th century. This house was abandoned in the 16th century and confiscated by Queen Elizabeth I. The Ashburnham family recovered their estate under Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, and John Ashburnham was a loyal servant of the King. He was forced to sell the estate to the Relf family in the English Commonwealth, to pay fines levied for supporting the King. John Ashburnham recovered the estate again after the English Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
. His grandson and namesake, John Ashburnham
John Ashburnham, 1st Baron Ashburnham
John Ashburnham, 1st Baron Ashburnham was an English landowner and politician.Ashburnham was the son of William Ashburnham and the grandson of John Ashburnham. His mother was the Honourable Elizabeth, daughter of John Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett. He sat as Member of Parliament for Hastings from...
, was created first Baron Ashburnham in 1689. The house was largely rebuilt to designs of the neo-Palladian
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
architect Stephen Wright
Stephen Wright
Stephen Wright is an English football defender who currently plays for Hartlepool.-Liverpool:Wright joined Liverpool on a youth contract in June 1996, choosing to join Liverpool over rivals Everton, the club he supported as a boy...
and the local direction of the builder John Morris of Lewes, ca 1757-61.
Design
The park, covering some 200 acre (0.809372 km²) and including three large lakes around the house, was laid out by Capability BrownCapability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
in the mid-18th century. Brown's orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...
, c. 1767, houses the oldest camellia
Camellia
Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...
in England. Brick external additions were made to the house in Gothic Revival style in 1813-17, by a third John Ashburnham
John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham
John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham, PC , styled Viscount St Asaph from 1730 to 1737, was a British peer and courtier....
, the second earl of Ashburnham
Earl of Ashburnham
The title Baron Ashburnham , of Ashburnham in the County of Sussex, was created in the Peerage of England in 1689 for John Ashburnham, grandson of the John Ashburnham who assisted King Charles I to escape from Oxford and Hampton Court Palace...
, to designs by George Dance the Younger
George Dance the Younger
George Dance the Younger was an English architect and surveyor. The fifth and youngest son of George Dance the Elder, he came from a distinguished family of architects, artists and dramatists...
. Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
designed entrance lodges for the second Earl in 1785. George Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham
George Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham
George Ashburnham, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, KG, GCH, FSA was a British peer.He was the son of the 2nd Earl of Ashburnham and the former Elizabeth Crowley, being styled Viscount St Asaph from birth, and was baptised on 29 January 1761 at St George's, Hanover Square, London, with King George III, the...
, commissioned architectural drawing
Architectural drawing
An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building that falls within the definition of architecture...
s from John Soane
John Soane
Sir John Soane, RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources...
, but it is not known if the suggested additions, including a porte-cochere
Porte-cochere
A porte-cochère is the architectural term for a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th...
, were built. The house was refaced in stone in the early 19th century, and then, when fashions changed, a second, red brick outer skin was added in 1853.
Internally, the house had a mix of styles, with a fine staircase by Charles Dance
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
rising three floors in the central entrance hall. The drawing room
Drawing room
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from the sixteenth-century terms "withdrawing room" and "withdrawing chamber", which remained in use through the seventeenth century, and made its first written appearance in 1642...
was decorated with painted wall panels attributed to Athenian Stuart. The house held the family's fine collection of paintings and the extensive library, collected by the 3rd Earl and his son, Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham.
Later history
By the late 19th century, the family was under financial pressure, and offered to sell the library, including its collection of illuminated manuscriptIlluminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s, to the nation in the 1890s for £160,000. The deal did not go ahead, and the books were sold piecemeal for a total of £228,000 over the next few years. Many were acquired by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, but, for example, the sixth-to-seventh-century Ashburnham Pentateuch
Ashburnham Pentateuch
The Ashburnham Pentateuch is a late 6th or early 7th century Latin illuminated manuscript of the Pentateuch...
is in the Bibliothèque National, Paris. The Earldom became extinct on the death of Thomas Ashburnham, 6th Earl of Ashburnham, in 1924, and the house was inherited by his niece, Lady Catherine Ashburnham. The house was damaged when a fully loaded Marauder bomber crashed nearby during the Second World War, and dry rot
Dry rot
Dry rot refers to a type of wood decay caused by certain types of fungi, also known as True Dry Rot, that digests parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness...
set in.
Lady Catherine was the last of this line of the Ashburnham family, and the estate was inherited by Rev. John Bickersteth on her death in 1953. In addition to the prospect of huge repair bills, he was also saddled with crippling death duties of £427,000. The contents of the house were sold at auction at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
in June and July 1953, and half of the estate was sold in the next few years. The house was mostly demolished in 1959, reducing the central section to two floors and the wings to a single story.