Burghley House: Inside England’s Grandest Stately Home

what is britain's most extravagant country home well with a suite of 18 dramatic staterooms unlike anything else in the country and extravagant elizabethan architecture largely unchanged for 400 years burley house might just be it stay tuned to find out more about england's largest elizabethan home if you've seen my video on england's top 10 country homes you'll know that burley house features highly on the list number five in fact i use the word best quite loosely in fact because the video focuses largely on extravagance size opulence architecture that kind of thing and of course these kind of lists are very much subjective and in all honesty ask me on a different day what my favorite country homes are and i might tell you something different and what does best actually mean ask me what i think the most beautiful country home in england is and i might say burton agnes hall i am in fact a big fan i might also say hadden hall because it's absolutely magical but where does burley house fit into all of this only number five in my list you might be saying well burley house is truly truly a magnificent country home and is likely representative of the largest most extravagant and best preserved prodigy house in existence today just to clarify a prodigy house is an ostentatious mega mansion built by the richest and most influential courtiers largely in the elizabethan period and largely with the intention of enticing mnemonic and her retinue to visit good value for money then other excellent examples include hardwick hall longleat house and wallaton hall in my opinion at the minute at least burley is the best of them all and with perhaps the exception of hardwick likely the most recognizable of course i don't say this lightly burly house is absolutely striking inside and out the 16th century architecture whilst typically symmetrical in design has an almost gothic feel about it and the beautiful decorative chimneys have dominated the skyline for nearly 500 years you'd be forgiven for thinking that such a grand residence has been built for a duke or perhaps the monarch herself but in actual fact burley was one of three grand houses commissioned by william cecil lord burley queen elizabeth the first chief advisor and lord high treasurer born in the parish of born in lincolnshire in 1520 william cecil came from a minor noble family of welsh ancestry his grandfather david had been a favorite of henry vii and his father richard had been a minor courtier to both henry viii and edward vi both had been lawyers and william was destined to follow in their footsteps educated locally at grantham and stanford william showed promise from a young age and later attended saint john's college cambridge prior to actually obtaining his degree however he was pulled out by his father and thrust into the legal profession having spent much of his early career working for the lord protector somerset following the protector's spectacular fall from grace cecil hit the first bump in his career and even spent a short period of time in the tower but these things happened to the best of us and undeterred cecil dusted himself off and fell in with the power of the time john dudley earl of warwick later duke of northumberland and like a fresh face tony blair things could only get better for william cecil who by this point was making a name for himself and proved to be a very effective bureaucrat he was later appointed as second secretary to edward vi and even received a knighthood a protestant cecil seemingly withdrew from court under the oppressive rule of mary tudor and became involved with the young princess elizabeth as elizabeth surveyor of estate cecil was someone the future queen could look to for advice and the two developed a close bond when elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558 cecil was an obvious choice for secretary of state and dedicated 40 years of his life as queen elizabeth's most trusted advisor just four years short of her entire reign he was created the first baron of burleigh became knight of the garter and even served as lord high treasurer now that's quite an achievement now we have a slightly better understanding of the man responsible for burley house we can start to understand how it came to be when construction started in 1555 william cecil was already a very rich and influential man unlike many of his peers however he lacked a significant lineage but cecil was wealthy enough to found his own dynasty and possessed of estates at burley what better way was there to elevate his social standing and project his perceived importance than by constructing the finest palace the country had ever seen cecil was certainly his own architect and although keen to see progress in burlesque construction work on the east and south ranges stalled in around 1564 when he became distracted by the purchase of theobold manor in hertfordshire the building period of burley house consequently took 32 years with the north front finally being completed in 1587. this clearly gave cecil and his mason henrik opportunity to make some changes along the way the west fronts with its great gatehouse had initially intended to serve as the main entrance but was substituted for the north front so huge was the gatehouse in fact that a large obelisk clock tower was added to the east front in a courtyard porch to act as a sort of counterbalance it also seems likely that the great hall was rebuilt on a much larger scale i find this quite interesting as by this point such communal spaces were already falling out of fashion also interesting as this could have been even larger whilst most of the exterior architecture is original some alterations were made by subsequent owners in the late 17th century alterations were made to the south front which largely resulted in the ground floor open gallery being enclosed and under the supervision of the ninth earl in the 18th century lancelot capability brown made further alterations as you might expect brown worked his magic on the gardens and the park and also advised the earl on interior alterations speaking of the interiors then as they may have already hinted these are absolutely world class the interiors however would be unrecognizable to a time traveling william cecil and can largely be attributed to the fifth and ninth earls it was during the 17th century that the fifth earl and his countess absolutely transformed burley's interiors beyond recognition following a number of grand tours to europe they adopted the baroque style filled the house with paintings tapestries and sculptures and hired the italian painter verio who is responsible for the mind-boggling painted ceilings we see throughout the house the ninth girl brownlow although an advocate of the contemporary neoclassical style thankfully retained much of the design details incorporated by his grandfather visitors to the house today are in for a real treat as much of the house is open to the general public as usual i won't show you every single space within the house as i absolutely encourage you to visit yourself but let me show you what to expect entering the house via the entrance lobby visitors will first experience the old kitchen this is actually one of just a few rooms at burley that would have looked the same in tudor times my dad was fascinated with this kitchen when we visited reminiscing with the tour guide about cooking proper yorkshire puddings and something my grandma had called a range i need to remind him that he wasn't alive in the 16th century at least i don't think he was anyway onwards and upwards the first floor is where the magic really happens prior to entering the spectacular staterooms we have the anti-chapel chapel and billiard room these rooms are all quite lovely but nothing quite prepares you for what comes next the bow room is the first jaw-dropping moment in my opinion this large open space was originally intended as the state's dining room by the fifth earl and features painted walls and ceilings inspired by greek mythology the bow room was later used by the ninth earl as a music room and to host performances the staterooms that follow are honestly some of the finest interior spaces britain has to offer the brown drawing room is one i am particularly drawn to and whilst quite restrained compared to the rest i love the fact that queen victoria slept in a small bed that still occupies the room when she visited the house as a young girl in 1835. some other favorites of mine include the chinese themed blue silk dressing room the second george room with its incredibles state bed and curtain hangings the stunning third george room its walls adorned with magnificent italian paintings and the lovely oak paneled fourth george room the wood gets it colour from strong dark ale the george rooms were used by queen victoria and prince albert on their most royal visit in 1844. if you were wondering who george was then this was the fifth earl's dog george georgie or king george the first i forget which probably the latter or was it no it was the heaven room ostentatious incredible beautiful mind-boggling all of the above perhaps either way you cannot help but to be utterly utterly blown away by this absolute spectacle considered antonio verio's greatest masterpiece the ceilings and walls are essentially a single vast painting depicting scenes from ancient mythology it's absolutely extraordinary at the center of the room sits a giant solid silver wine cooler believed to be the largest of its kind in existence from heaven we descend into hell or at least the hell's staircase and by descend i mean we go next door this was actually verio's last commission at burley very much in debt relieved of his assistance and working alone it took verio 11 months to complete his magnificent ceiling but boy was it worth his efforts this work of art shows the entrance to hell depicted as the enormous gaping mouth of a cat with tormented devoured souls within i think this is actually a depiction of my mind after coming home from a 15-hour shift the walls were actually painted in the early 19th century not that you would know and the stunning stone cantilevered staircase was installed in 1786 and leads visitors down to the final major room of the house at 68 feet in length and 60 feet in height the great hall is quite a vast space you can imagine the grand banquets that would have been held here back in the 16th century and this continued to be the hall's main function right the way through to queen victoria's visit in 1844 in fact this grand hall is still largely used for entertainment today and serves as a venue for concerts and other social functions as you've seen the house's interiors are absolutely spectacular and combined with the largely original elizabethan architecture the burley estate serves as a ready-made film set surprisingly though the house is probably featured in less film and tv productions than you might think those scenes from the da vinci code will always stick in my mind here the heaven room and the hell staircase service some of the backdrops to gandolfo's house but most people of course will recognize burley from the 2005 movie adaptation of pride and prejudice here the house stands in as rosing's park the fictional ostentatious home of mr darcy's aunt lady catherine burleigh house features in some of the exterior shots with the heaven room featuring as lady catherine's extravagant drawing room billy house is certainly one of the most extravagant country homes in britain and probably one of the most significant beauty though is in the eye of the beholder and i know the ostentatious interiors will not be for everyone whatever our opinions however i'm sure we can all agree that the succession of architects and designers who have been involved in the evolution of burley house absolutely achieved their overarching objectives to utterly wow and overwhelm visitors for years to come burley is truly a national treasure and one of britain's finest country homes hi guys thank you so much for watching this video and making it through to the end if you've enjoyed the video or you've learned something or you've just enjoyed the pretty pictures then we'd really appreciate it if you could give the video a thumbs up hit that subscribe button and also if you hit that bell icon then i'll give you a notification every time i release a new video which fortunately isn't very often so uh don't panic you're not going to be getting notifications all the time and one more thing i'm also on instagram at eheritage.uk so if you could check me out on there that would be absolutely awesome thanks again thanks for watching and stay safe you

Channel: Explore Heritage

Views: 49,584

Keywords: English country house, Manor house, English manor house, Stately home, Burghley House, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Tudor, 16th century, Prodigy House, Country House, Country Home, Tour, Inside Burghley House, home tour, country home tour, stately homes of england, english stately homes, english country house tour, english country houses and stately homes, Netflix, The Crown, The Crown Season 5, The Crown Filming Locations

Id: QaULsUm689w

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 21 2022