Trentham Gardens

The Trentham Estate, in the village of Trentham, is a visitor attraction located on the southern fringe of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, United Kingdom.

History

The estate was first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. At the time it was a royal manor, with a value of 115 shillings. An Augustinian priory originally occupied the site, followed by a convent. Trentham Priory occupied land on the Trentham estate from the 11th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Trentham Hall

The property was sold in 1540 to James Leveson, a Wolverhampton wool merchant. The Leveson family occupied the property and Sir Richard Leveson built a new house in 1634. The Leveson heiress Frances married Sir Thomas Gower Bt leading to the creation of the Leveson Gower family. It was a large Elizabethan house, which was probably demolished to make way for a later Georgian house. Their son, Sir William Leveson-Gower, 4th Baronet, built a new house on the site in 1690.

Around 1730, John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, erected a hall based on Buckingham House. It was substantially altered by his son, 1st Marquess of Stafford, from designs by Henry Holland, in 1775–78.

The country house, of which parts remain dating from 1833–42, was designed by Charles Barry, while he was working on the rebuild of the Palace of Westminster. He was commissioned by the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. The focal point of the building was a campanile clock tower.

The original approach to the hall was from the west, and an Italianate grand entrance was part of the western front. The one-storey arcade range is semicircular with side wings. It was made of plastered brick and ashlar, and had unfluted Ionic columns on each side of its bays, as well as a balustrade above the cornice. The centre has a three-arched entrance with ''porte-cochère'' projects, and a coat of arms is carved above. The right wing incorporates an orangery that was originally built in 1808 by Heathcote Tatham.

Barry spent over ten years improving the house and added a new block including state bedrooms and dressing rooms, as well as servant's quarters, a sculpture gallery, and a clock tower. This interesting complex, with its clock tower, is generally known as the Riding School, designed in 1840 and built between 1841 and 1850. It stands on the perimeter of a large cobbled stableyard and represents the last major addition to, and almost sole survivor of, the once-exciting and impressive Trentham Hall.

In 1851, it was described as being an "elegant mansion". It had been completely rebuilt in the previous 14 years, and had a stone front. It housed an extensive collection of paintings.

It is surrounded by an 18th- and 19th-century park designed by Lancelot Brown. The house served as the Staffordshire seat of the Dukes of Sutherland, whose traditional burial place was Trentham Mausoleum nearby.

In the southern area of the Trentham Estate stands the monument to the 1st Duke of Sutherland. This colossal statue, designed by Winks and sculptured by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, surmounts a plain column of stone on a tiered pedestal. The monument was raised in 1834 at the instigation of the second Duke, a year after the first Duke's death. A wide range of possible monuments was put forward, but Chantrey, with whom Loch, the duke's chief agent, had been in touch, recommended Sir Charles Barry for the design of the monument.

Demolition

The hall was one of many to be demolished in the 20th century, and was one of the greatest losses of the era. The River Trent no longer fed the lake in front of the hall, but it still passed the edge of the estate. Sewage and effluent from nearby potteries polluted it in the early 20th century, making life at the hall unpleasant.

The hall was abandoned as a residence in 1905, and was shortly thereafter offered to Staffordshire County Council on condition that it be used as a institute of higher education, to house a potential North Staffordshire College.

The county council, being unwilling to open a higher education institution, proposed using the hall for a teacher training college, but the Duke of Sutherland was unhappy with this suggestion. As the requirement to open a higher educational establishment remained, and with the council concerned that pollution from the Trent would render a residential institution at the hall undesirable, the county council declined the offer in 1906.

The Duke of Sutherland then decided to offer the estate to the six Potteries towns in 1907, in the event that they went ahead with plans to merge into a single county borough. but after their 1910 federation, the new Stoke on Trent Corporation also declined the offer in 1911, citing the high maintenance costs.

The hall was demolished in 1912-13 by its owner, the 4th Duke of Sutherland.

During the 20th century, the estate was used for an amusement park and even for hosting the Lombard RAC Rally, which cut through the Italianate gardens.

The sculpture gallery, clock tower, and parish church, as well as other buildings, were not demolished.

Current status

The remains of Trentham Hall, namely the Grand Entrance and Orangery, were listed on 24 January 1967. Their listing was amended on 25 April 1980. They are currently Grade II* listed. Emergency repairs to stabilise the building were carried out. It is listed on the Heritage at Risk Register. The sculpture gallery (now covered in wisteria) and clock tower also remain.

The property was purchased by St. Modwen Properties in 1996, at which point the buildings and gardens were derelict and vandalised, and contracted the Land Use Consultants company to restore the historic landscape. The surrounding Trentham Gardens were restored in 2003-04, and in 2013 they were visited by over 3 million people. The Trentham Estate contains a shopping village, as well as gardens.

St. Modwen set out a plan to recreate the house according to the original designs at the cost of £35 million as a five-star hotel with 150 rooms, a luxury spa, and a conference centre. Planning permission was granted, and initial plans aimed for a 2008 completion date, which was later revised to 2011. However, in 2013 they stated that despite having planning permission to restore the hall, it was not economically viable to do so, given that the £30-35 million cost of restoring and rebuilding the hall would be greater than the hall's value as a hotel due to the then-recent economic recession, although they stated that they were committed to restoring the hall when they could "make the numbers work". , the buildings stand derelict.

Trentham Gardens

Trentham Gardens are formal Italianate gardens, part of an English landscape park. The gardens are set within a large area of woodland. Together these currently together cover some .
The estate is a Grade II* registered park and garden.

History

The gardens were designed as a serpentine park by Capability Brown from 1758 onwards, overlying an earlier formal design attributed to Charles Bridgeman. Trentham Gardens are now principally known for the surviving formal gardens laid out in the 1840s by Sir Charles Barry, which have recently been restored. In 2012 the Trentham Estate was selected as the site of a Royal Diamond Jubilee wood, and a new woodland of 200,000 native oak trees will be planted on the estate. Successful garden designers Tom Stuart-Smith

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