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Mentmore Towers is a large Neo-Renaissance English country house in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. It takes its from its numerous towers and pinnacles. Historically it was always known as just Mentmore, and by locals and estate staff as the Mansion, as is the case at nearby Tring Park. However, the name Mentmore Towers has stuck and is the accepted one today. One of the house's former owners, Lord Rosebery, once said: "Mentmore Towers sounded like a second-rate boarding house". It is a Grade 1 listed building.
Architecture
[edit]
The house was built between 1852 and 1854 for Baron Mayer de Rothschild, who needed a house close to London. Later other Rothschild family homes were built at Tring in Hertfordshire, Ascott, Aston Clinton, Waddesdon and Halton.[1] Since 1846 Baron Mayer had been slowly buying land in the area.[2] However, it was not until 1850 that he bought the manor and advowson of Mentmore for £12,400 from the trustees of the Harcourt family.
The plans for the new mansion, which was begun in 1852, imitated Wollaton Hall in Nottingham; they were drawn by the architect Joseph Paxton, famous for the Crystal Palace (see plans and interiors of Mentmore).
The old manor house, with its later Georgian façade, which had been built by the Wigg family in the 16th century, became known as the 'Garden House', the home of the Rothschild's head gardener; later it became the Estate Office. As of 2004, it is once again the village Manor House.
The Rosebery era
[edit]The Baron and his wife did not live long after the Towers' completion. After the Baroness's death it was inherited by her daughter Hannah, later Countess of Rosebery.[3] Following her death in 1890 aged 39 from Bright's Disease, it became the home of her widower Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, later Prime Minister for two years from 1894.[3] In the late 1920s the fifth earl gave the estate to his son Harry, Lord Dalmeny, who in 1929 on the death of his father became the sixth Earl.[3]
Both earls bred numerous winners of classic horse races at the two stud farms on the estate, including five Epsom Derby winners. These were Ladas, Sir Visto, and Cicero from the Crafton Stud; plus Ocean Swell and Blue Peter from the Mentmore Stud. Both stud farms were within a kilometre of the mansion and together with the stable yard designed by the architect George Devey, who also designed many cottages in the estate's villages of Mentmore, Crafton and Ledburn.[2]
During the Second World War, the Gold State Coach was transferred to Mentmore to protect it from German bombing.
Following the death of the sixth earl in 1973, the Labour government of James Callaghan refused to accept the contents in lieu of inheritance taxes, which would have turned the house into one of England's finest museums of European furniture, objets d'art and Victorian era architecture. The government was offered the house and contents for £2,000,000 but declined, and after three years of fruitless discussion, the executors of the estate sold the contents by public auction for over £6,000,000. Among the paintings sold were works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Boucher, Drouais, Moroni and other well known artists, and cabinet makers, including Jean Henri Riesener and Chippendale. Also represented were the finest German and Russian silver- and goldsmiths, and makers of Limoges enamel. This Rothschild/Mentmore collection is said to have been one of the finest ever to be assembled in private hands, other than the collections of the Russian and British royal families.[4]
Owners
[edit]Rothshild family
[edit]Primrose family
[edit]Maharishi foundation
[edit]Buckingham Securities Holdings
[edit]In 1997, Mentmore Towers was purchased fromn the Maharishi Foundation by Buckingham Securities Holdings Plc, a company owned by entrepreneur Simon Halabi; plans were drwn to transfrom and enlarge the mansion into a six star hotel, howver, building work was delayed due to the complexities of the UK's planning regulations. In 2007, Buckingham Securities went into administration and plans for development went into obeyance; this left the house in a precarious state and essential maintenance work left undone as the project architects sued Halabi for unpaid fees. During the summer of 2008, English Heritage r#declared the building to be a "Buildings at Risk." [5]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Cowles, Virginia (1975). The Rothschilds, a family of fortune. London: First Futura Publications. ISBN 08600 7206 1.
- ^ a b Binney, Marcus. John Robinson. William Allan (1977). SAVE Mentmore for the Nation. London: SAVE Britain's Heritage.
- ^ a b c McKinstry, Leo (2005). Rosebery, a statesman in turmoil. London: John Murray (publishers). ISBN 0 7195 6586 3.
- ^ Sotheby's (1977). Mentmore Volume I -V. London: Sotheby, Parke, Bernet & Co.
- ^ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23601659-details/The%20crumbling%20empire%20of%20a%202%20billion%20property%20tycoon/article.do
File:Mentmore overhead south.jpg
