Bramham Park is a country house

English country house

The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

 between Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and Wetherby

Wetherby

Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England

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...

. The Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 mansion was built in 1698 by Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley

Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley

Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley, PC was an English politician of the 18th century.-Life:Robert Benson was born in Wakefield. He went to school in London before studying at Christ's College, Cambridge...

. It has remained in the ownership of Benson's descendents since its completion in 1710. The house is surrounded by a landscaped park ornamented by a series of follies

Folly

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...

 and avenues laid out in the 18th century landscape tradition. Following a fire in 1828 the house was derelict for 80 years until restored under the supervision of the architect Detmar Blow

Detmar Blow

Detmar Jellings Blow was a British architect of the early 20th century, who designed principally in the arts and crafts style. His clients belonged chiefly to the British aristocracy, and later he became estates manager to the Duke of Westminster...

 circa 1908. The house is named after the nearby village of Bramham

Bramham cum Oglethorpe

Bramham cum Oglethorpe, more well known as just "Bramham", is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England.- Overview :According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,715...

.

Today it remains a private residence, while the park is the setting for the annual Bramham Horse Trials

Bramham Horse Trials

Bramham Horse Trials is one of the UK's premier three day events, taking place every June on the Lane Fox's Bramham Park Estate, near Leeds in Yorkshire...

 and Leeds Festival

Reading and Leeds Festivals

The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...

.

Architecture

Like many 18th century mansions and parks Bramham is a product of a grand tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

, its creator Robert Benson, later Lord Bingley, completed his formal education with a grand tour in 1697, and it was in Italy that he began to envisage his new mansion in the Palladian manner complemented in a landscaped park in the fashion made popular by Le Nôtre in France in the late 17th century.

The architect of Bramham is unknown, it's speculated that Giacomo Leoni

Giacomo Leoni

Giacomo Leoni , also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in English...

 was involved (Leoni was responsible for the rebuilding of Lyme Park

Lyme Park

Lyme Park is a large estate located south of Disley, Cheshire, England. It consists of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens, in a deer park in the Peak District National Park...

 in an Italianate style in the neighbouring county of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

 some years later). However, the Italian, Leoni did not arrive in England until several years after the completion of Bramham. Other names suggested include James Gibbs

James Gibbs

James Gibbs was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Scotland, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England...

, Thomas Archer

Thomas Archer

Thomas Archer was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Archer was born at Umberslade Hall in Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire, the youngest son of Thomas Archer, a country gentleman, Parliamentary...

 and James Paine. Gibbs is not a serious possibility as he would have been only 15 years old when the house was begun. While it is known that Paine designed the stables which flank the corps de logis

Corps de logis

Corps de logis is the architectural term which refers to the principal block of a large, usually classical, mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry. The grandest and finest rooms are often on the first floor above the ground level: this floor is the...

, he couldn't have been responsible for the main part of the house as he was born in 1717, another contender John Wood

John Wood, the Elder

John Wood, the Elder, , was an English architect. Born in Twerton England, a village near Bath, now a suburb, he went to school in Bath. He came back to Bath after working in Yorkshire, and it is believed, in London, in his early 20s...

 is also too young. The only chronological possibility is Thomas Archer (1668–1743). However, the most likely scenario is that Bramham is the work Robert Benson himself, probably working with a local draughtsman. While it is also quite possible that Benson was inspired by drawings taken from Palladio's books, the design of the house suggest Benson was more inspired by the restrained Baroque style then populat in France. The style in which Mansart's

Mansart

Mansart may refer to:*François Mansart , French architect*Jules Hardouin Mansart , French architect, his grandnephew...

 Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

 has been constructed between 1678 and 1684, indeed it has been speculated that Versaille's landscape architect André le Nôtre

André Le Nôtre

André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France...

 had a hand in the design of Bramham's landscaped park.

The architect William Talman

William Talman (architect)

William Talman was an English architect and landscape designer. A pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, in 1678 he and Thomas Apprice gained the office of King's Waiter in the Port of London...

 has also been suggested as a possible architect, he was indeed working on Chatsworth House

Chatsworth House

Chatsworth House is a stately home in North Derbyshire, England, northeast of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield . It is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and has been home to his family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.Standing on the east bank of the...

 some thirty miles away from Bramham at this time. Chatsworth is considered to be England's first truly Baroque house. However unlike Chatsworth (which is far larger) Bramham is given flanking wings more in the Palladian style, linked to the house by short colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....

s. The flanking wings contained the kitchen in the south wing, and the chapel in the north, thus as at the baroque Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace  is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...

 balancing both spiritual and bodily needs equally. However, while Campbell's drawing of Bramham show the never executed statuary on the roof and near perfect proportions, the reality of the executed design suggests a less professional hand then Talman's. Two low projecting wings from the corps de logis complicate the design, while the two colonnades are not quite long enough to give the flanking wings the independence from the main house to allow their design to be fully appreciated.

Interior

The interior of Bramham Park was completely restored in the early part of the 20th century, having mostly been abandoned after the fire of 1828. The central Great Hall, double storey in height and severe in its Baroque design still bears the smoke staining on its stone walls.

Bramham in the 21st century

Its grounds (over 400 acres (1.6 km²) in total) are used for various events, including the Leeds Festival

Reading and Leeds Festivals

The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...

, and the Bramham Horse Trials

Bramham Horse Trials

Bramham Horse Trials is one of the UK's premier three day events, taking place every June on the Lane Fox's Bramham Park Estate, near Leeds in Yorkshire...

. A more restricted area of the grounds are kept as gardens and run as a tourist attraction

Tourist attraction

A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....

 — visitors can also tour the house but only in pre-arranged parties. The present owners of the house are The Lane-Foxes.

Legacy

Bramham Island

Bramham Island

Bramham Island is an island in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, located on the north side of the entrance to that strait...

 on the north side of Queen Charlotte Strait

Queen Charlotte Strait

Queen Charlotte Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It connects Queen Charlotte Sound with Johnstone Strait, Discovery Passage and then to the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound...

 in the Central Coast region

British Columbia Coast

The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....

 of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, was named for Bramham Park. Named in association with it were Slingsby Channel

Slingsby Channel

Slingsby Channel is a strait on the north side of Bramham Island in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia. It is one of only two entrances to Seymour Inlet and the associated maze of waterways inland, which lie to the northeast of Bramham. The other entrance...

, on its north side, and the Fox Islands

Fox Islands (British Columbia)

The Fox Islands are a small group of islands in the entrance to Slingsby Channel in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada...

., which lie in the entrance to that channel at its opening into Queen Charlotte Strait

Queen Charlotte Strait

Queen Charlotte Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It connects Queen Charlotte Sound with Johnstone Strait, Discovery Passage and then to the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound...

.