Sledmere House is a Grade I listed Georgian

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhouse (Great Britain), town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the cit ...

, containing Chippendale, Sheraton and French furnishings and many fine pictures, set within a park designed by

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English lan ...

. It is located in the village of

Sledmere Sledmere is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Driffield on the B1253 road. The village lies in a civil parish which is also officially called "Sledmere" by the Office for National Statistics, although th ...

, between

Driffield Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is north-east of Leed ...

and Malton, in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire t ...

, England. The present house was begun in 1751, extended in the 1790s, and rebuilt after a fire in 1911. It was once the home of

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Sir Mark Sykes Colonel Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet (16 March 1879 – 16 February 1919) was an English traveller, Conservative Party politician, and diplomatic advisor, particularly with regard to the Middle East at the time of the First Wo ...

, 6th Baronet, noted English traveller and diplomatic advisor, and is now the home of

Sir Tatton Sykes, 8th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

. The house is built in Nottinghamshire ashlar on three storeys to an H-shaped plan.

History

William Sykes (1500–1577) migrated from Cumberland to the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, where he and his son became wealthy cloth traders. Daniel Sykes (b.1632) was the first member of the family to begin trading in Hull and made a fortune from shipping and finance. Richard Sykes (1678–1726) concentrated on the flourishing Baltic trade in pig iron and the wealth of the family was built on this in the first half of the eighteenth century. His son Sir Richard Sykes (1706–1761) married Mary Kirkby, sister of Mark Kirby, and heiress to the Sledmere estate. In 1751, Sir Richard Sykes demolished the previous

Manor House A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with ...

at Sledmere, which had existed since medieval times, and built a new mansion. He also planted some 20,000 trees on the

Wolds The Wolds is a term used in England to describe a range of hills which consists of open country overlying a base of limestone or chalk. Geography The Wolds comprise a series of low hills and steep valleys that are in the main underlain by calcare ...

about his new home. He left no male heir however and on his death the estate passed to his brother

Mark Sykes Colonel Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet (16 March 1879 – 16 February 1919) was an English traveller, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician, and diplomatic advisor, particularly with regard to the Middle East at ...

(1711–1783). Sir Mark's son,

Sir Christopher Sykes, 2nd Baronet Sir Christopher Sykes, 2nd Baronet (23 May 1749 – 17 September 1801) was an English Tory politician and a Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley from 1784 to 1790. He was the only son of Reverend Sir Mark Sykes, 1st Baronet, minister of Roo ...

(1749–1801), MP for

Beverley Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre and north-west of City of Hull. The town is known for ...

, greatly expanded the estate. He and his wife bought and enclosed huge areas of land for cultivation, built two new wings to the house, and landscaped the grounds, planting of trees. The entire village of Sledmere was moved. Sir Christopher left a vast estate of nearly and a large mansion set in its own of parkland, which survives in the family to the present day. Sir Christopher also employed Joseph Rose, the most celebrated

plasterer A plasterer is a tradesman or tradesperson who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been ...

of his day, to decorate Sledmere. The result has been called among the finest plaster-work in England. A catastrophic fire in 1911 left the building a shell and destroyed the Adam-style 1790s interiors. It is said that

Sir Tatton Sykes, 5th Baronet Sir Tatton Sykes, 5th Baronet (13 March 1826 – 4 May 1913) was an English landowner, racehorse breeder, church-builder and eccentric. ''Includes substantial section on 5th baronet'' He was the elder son of Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet and M ...

, was too busy eating one of the milk puddings - to which he was addicted - to pay much attention, but villagers and estate workers loyally rescued pictures, statues and furniture, china and carpets, and even doors and banisters, including the house's 1780 copy of the ''

Apollo Belvedere The ''Apollo Belvedere'' (also called the ''Belvedere Apollo, Apollo of the Belvedere'', or ''Pythian Apollo'') is a celebrated marble sculpture from Classical Antiquity. The ''Apollo'' is now thought to be an original Roman creation of Hadrianic ...

''. The roof fell in a few moments later. The original designs for the interiors had survived however, and the house was then restored. Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet, inherited the estate after his father. Nowadays, land tied to this manor is used as the festival site for Tribfest, a music festival featuring tribute bands of many famous artists from around the world, alive or dead. This was started in 2007 and has been hosted at the fields surrounding Sledmere House every year since then. The year of 2020 happens to be an exception, where that year's festival was called off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Features

The Long Library at Sledmere, superbly restored, is one of the most beautiful rooms in England. The Drawing Room and Music Room were decorated by Joseph Rose. The Music Room contains a fine organ case designed by Samuel Green for the original house in 1751. However, there is nothing behind the facade pipes and the organ is unplayable. The Turkish Room was designed for Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet, by an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

n artist, David Ohannessian, inspired by one of the sultan's apartments in the Yeni Mosque in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. The tiles were made in Kutahya,

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...

in 1913 in Ohannessian's workshop, the Société Ottomane de Faïence. The attached

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

chapel has a fine ceiling painted by Thomas Errington. It depicts the four winged creatures of the Evangelist in the

Chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

and in the

Nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

, a variety of birds including a

mute swan The mute swan (''Cygnus olor'') is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, ho ...

grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern ...

barn swallow The barn swallow (''Hirundo rustica'') is the most widespread species of swallow in the world. In fact, it appears to have the largest natural distribution of any of the world's passerines, ranging over 251 million square kilometres globally. ...

and

northern lapwing The northern lapwing (''Vanellus vanellus''), also known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tew-it, green plover, or (in Ireland and Britain) pyewipe or just lapwing, is a bird in the lapwing subfamily. It is common through temperate Eurosiberia. ...

. Sledmere House is set within a park of designed in 1777 by

and executed by Sir Christopher Sykes, 2nd Baronet. The plan still survives in the house. Its gardens include a paved sculpture court (1911), an 18th-century walled rose garden and a recently laid out knot garden.

Monument is a stone monument along the

B1252 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A road A roads may be *motorways or freeways, usually where the local word for motorway begins with A (for example, ''Autobahn'' in German; ''Autostrada'' in Italian). * m ...

on Garton Hill, built in memory of

Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet (1772–1863) was an English landowner and stock breeder, known as a patron of horse racing. Life A younger brother of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes, he was educated from 1784 at Westminster School. Matriculating at Bra ...

, by his friends and neighbours in 1865.

References

External links

Official site
Retrieved 27 November 2007. *Karen Thompson (2005)

with information about house interior and current resident Sir Tatton Sykes, 8th Bt. Retrieved 27 November 2007.

village and house. Retrieved 27 November 2007. * {{coord, 54.069535, -0.579000, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Houses completed in 1751 Country houses in the East Riding of Yorkshire Grade I listed buildings in the East Riding of Yorkshire Historic house museums in the East Riding of Yorkshire Gardens in the East Riding of Yorkshire Gardens by Capability Brown Grade I listed houses 1751 establishments in England

History

Features

See also

References

Further reading

External links