Stratfield Saye House
| Stratfield Saye House | |
| Hampshire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU70026159 |
| Location: | 51°20’56"N, -0°59’45"W |
| Village: | Stratfield Saye |
| History | |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | The Duke of Wellington |
Stratfield Saye House is a large stately home at Stratfield Saye in the north-east of Hampshire. It has been the home of the Dukes of Wellington since 1817.
The house is a Grade I listed building.[1]
The estate is in the northernmost parts of Hampshire, with the Berkshire border running along the estate's northern boundary. Close by, beside Silchester is the wall of a Roman town, Calleva Atrebatum, and the line of the Roman Road from there known as the Devil's Highway passes east to west just within the northern boundary of the grounds of Stratfield Saye House.[2]
Early history
The Manor of Stratfield Saye was created by the joining of two older manors. In the 12th century Stratfield was owned by the Stoteville family, and then early in the 13th century this passed by marriage to the Saye family.
Before 1370 the manor passed on again by marriage to the Dabridgecourts,[3] and in 1629 they sold the property to the Pitt family, cousins of the famed father-and-son Prime Ministers, William Pitt the Elder and the Younger.
The main part of the house was extensively enlarged around 1630 by Sir William Pitt, Comptroller of the Household to King James I. Sir William's eldest son, Edward Pitt (1592-1643), Member of Parliament, of Steepleton Iwerne in Dorset, and later of Stratfield Saye, bought the estate for £4,800 in 1629.[4] Further extensive alterations were carried out to the house and park in the 18th century by George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers.
Purchase by the state
The estate was purchased by the state in 1817, in order that it could be given by a grateful nation to the victorious Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The government gave £600,000 for the construction of a proposed "Waterloo Palace" to rival Blenheim Palace, home of the Dukes of Marlborough. The site Wellington chose was the 5,000-acre estate of Stratfield Saye, home of the Pitt family. He was advised on the purchase by the architect Benjamin Dean Wyatt who had once been his private secretary.[5] He originally planned to demolish the existing house, and replace it with a more prestigious home, to be known as Waterloo Palace. The Duke abandoned these plans in 1821 when they proved to be too expensive, and subsequently made numerous additions and improvements to the existing building. All but the 1st and 6th Dukes are buried at Stratfield Saye House.
Wellington's war horse, Copenhagen, is buried on the estate.
The Wellington Exhibition
The stables are grade II listed buildings.[6][7] They now contain the Wellington Exhibition, which depicts the life and times of the 1st Duke. It houses a large collection of military mementoes. The Duke's cast bronze funeral carriage, made from melted-down French cannons captured at the Battle of Waterloo, was moved to Stratfield Saye in the 1980s.[8]
Duke of Wellington Commemorative Column
The Duke of Wellington Commemorative Column built in 1863 stands at the entrance to Stratfield Saye on the eastern Heckfield side, and can be seen from the A33. It is a Corinthian column topped by a bronze statue of the Duke by Baron Carlo Marochetti.[9]
On film
- War Horse: the cavalry scenes were filmed at Stratfield Saye House in 2010[10]
See also
- Apsley House – the London home of the Dukes of Wellington
- Walmer Castle - the residence of the 1st Duke as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Saye House Stratfield Saye House) |
- Stratfield Saye House: Wellington Estates
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1092773: Stratfield Saye House (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Hampshire Field Club and Archeological Society, Papers and Proceedings. Vol.VII, Part I. Printed 1914. H.M. Gilbert and Son, 24 Above Bar, Southampton and at Winchester. Sketch Map opposite page 24
- ↑ John Gough Nichols, The Topographer and genealogist, Volume 1 (1846), pp. 198-208 read here on Google Books
- ↑ The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, edited by Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
- ↑ Hibbert, Christopher (2010). Wellington: A Personal History. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-740694-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZnnnUQu6cAC&pg=PT220. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1339624: Stable block, north side of Stratfield Saye House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1296773: 1296773 (Grade II listing)
- ↑ Funeral carriage
- ↑ Duke of Wellington Commemorative Column: Art & Architecture (The Courtauld Institute)
- ↑ "Jockeys jump at the chance to help Spielberg". The Daily Telegraph. 6 September 2010. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/horseracing/7985292/John-Francome-returns-the-saddle-in-legends-charity-race.html.