Levens Hall
| Levens Hall | |
| Westmorland | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Location: | 54°15’32"N, 2°46’35"W |
| History | |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Bagot family |
| Website: | levenshall.co.uk |
Levens Hall is a manor house in the Kent valley, near Kendal in Westmorland.
History
The first house on the site was a pele tower built by the Redman family in around 1350.
Much of the present building dates from the Elizabethan era, when the Bellingham family extended the house. The Bellinghams, who were responsible for the fine panelling and plasterwork in the main rooms, sold the house and estate in 1689 to Colonel James Grahme, or Graham, Keeper of the Privy Purse to King James II & VII, who made a number of additions to the house in the late 17th century. His son, Henry Graham, was a knight of the shire, a member of Parliament, for Westmorland.
Further additions were made in the early 19th century.
Levens is now owned by the Bagot family and is open to the public. The small collection of steam road vehicles includes several traction engines which are usually steamed on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
Gardens
Levens has a celebrated topiary garden, which was started by a French gardener, Guillaume Beaumont. Beaumont also planned the tree planting in the deer park, now inhabited by black fallow deer and Bagot goats.
The park and gardens laid out by Beaumont between 1689 and 1712 have survived remarkably intact: they have been described as retaining "almost all of the essential elements of the completed scheme as shown on maps of the park and gardens of 1730".[1]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Levens Hall) |