 Beningbrough Hall
At one time the site of a modest Elizabethan manor house, built by Sir
Ralph Bourchier on his inheritance to the estate in 1556, the present
house a few miles outside of York was created for John Bourchier during
the early part of the 18th century. This young man had a
keen interest in Italian architecture, and Beningbrough Hall certainly
suggests that the expertise of Thomas Archer was sought for the Italiante
touches. The Baroque architecture bears all the influence of Vanbrugh
and the craftsmanship of William Thornton, a local joiner and architect
responsible for work on many of the great buildings in Yorkshire.
The Bourchiers occupied Beningbrough Hall
until 1827, when their distant relatives, the Dawnays, came into ownership
until 1916. At the sale of the estate, it was feared that Beningbrough Hall would
be demolished but, after months of uncertainty, the beautiful red brick
house found a new owner in Lady Chesterfield. A wealthy heiress, Lady
Chesterfield wasted no time in renovating the neglected house, and soon
filled it with furnishings and pictures taken from her ancestral home,
Holme Lacy, until it once again resembled a comfortable family house.
During the Second World War, Beningbrough Hall was taken over by the RAF, and Lady Chesterfield
reluctantly moved into a smaller property on her estate. As soon as
the military departed, Beningbrough Hall was suitably restored and Lady Chesterfield
was able to return in 1947, where she remained until her
death ten years' later. Few alterations or improvements were made at
Beningbrough Hall throughout the Bourchier's occupation, and a beautifully
crafted marquetry panel from the first Elizabethen house still survives
in the Great Staircase panelling of the present Hall. Delightful displays
of delicate Chinese and Japanese porcelain appear on corner china closets
throughout the house, and a few family portraits from both the Chesterfield
and Bourchier collections. Beningbrough Hall, however, is most noted for
its collection of 120 important English portraits from the 17th
and 18th centuries, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery.
For a taste of over-indulgent luxury, the superbly crafted state bed heavily draped with crimson damask,
and decorated with all the ostentatious trimmings very much in vogue
at the beginning of the 18th century, surely takes pride of place.
With little known of the building history, when the National Trust acquired Beningbrough Hall
in 1958, they were only able to re-create 'the spirit of the house'
rather than restore the house to a virtually unknown arrangement
of rooms and décor. With the Trust's careful attention to detail, the
exceptional interiors, and the impressive art collection, the overall
results work extremely well. |
