Exploring Stoneleigh Abbey Stately Home

okay so today we're in uh Warwickshire we're going to a place called Stoneleigh Abbey and uh the new part of that house was built between 1714 and 1726. and now it's another one of those uh sort of Hidden Gem places that you don't see mention much and uh it looks um quite a nice place so yeah it should be a should be interesting okay so we should be uh coming up to it shortly [Music] a couple of large buildings here okay [Music] nice drive yeah apparently this drive is lined with the lime trees thank you on this Stone Bridge here I believe was built to in the early 1800s by someone called John Renner it's built in sort of a classical Style yeah this is a nice approach [Music] it's like nice Parklands surrounding it so like so I believe these are uh lime trees [Music] a lot of sheep grazing off to my roads where we have to park [Music] [Music] [Music] okay now this building in front of us here is um the one I've just come through to buy more tickets and stuff and um this is actually a 14th century Gatehouse okay so uh this is the new part of the house which was built in the early part of the 1700s um actually between 1714 and 1726. and this is in a baroque style or baroque however uh you pronounce it wherever you are now I've got a house tour booked for uh 11 o'clock and it's about half past ten now so you won't be long and I'll uh we'll be having a bit of a look inside see what it's like so as you'll be able to see uh the new house which was built in the early 1700s um consists of four stories and 15 Bays and this was actually designed by the architect Francis Smith of Warwick now uh Stoneleigh he's actually a former seat of the baronsley which is spelled l-e-i-g-h as in the end of Stoneleigh um and there was actually a fire here in 1960 which um left parts of the house in a rundown state and it could no longer be cared for by the Lee family and so at that point it was actually sold to a charitable Trust but that trust failed but it was then saved by a new charitable trust um and that one was set up by a local businessman called Tony bird and then Stoney was uh sort of brought back to life see the Ducks relaxing here going through the morning routine nice setting for it another interesting thing to note is the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited there in 1858 the lovely Stone balustrade just down from the house and uh this actually looks onto the river Avon um in the early 1800s this part of the River Haven just outside the house was actually widened to give it the appearance of a lake we'll be having a bit more of an in-depth look at the gardens and grounds um after we've had our house tour another interesting thing to note is that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited in 1858 there's also a Jane Austen connection to Stone layers um she visited in 1806 and later used some of the places in the house and grounds it was inspiration for settings in some of her novels for example the description of the chapel in a book Mansfield Park matches exactly with the chapel at Stoneleigh there was actually an Abbey here in the 12th century but little remains are the original buildings now nice monkey puzzle tree there one of the few trees I actually do now you can see when looking down towards the River from next to the house it's a lovely looking place halfway along this Stone balustrade outside the house and next to the river you can see that the steps leading down to the river all the lake is as they might call it you can imagine people setting off in boats from here just going for a bit of a paddle on the lake outside the house so this is the orange Ray which is not far off the side of the house and I believe this was built in the early 1800s this is now used as a cafe okay just about to go into the house tour in a few minutes so welcome to the first room of the house which is technically the last room finished in 1726 and in a way you can see that it was because down here there's not a lot going on okay just not much so it's almost as if Edward the third was almost like running out of money by this point the scene itself was finished after reading Edward III because this is 20 years later in the 1740s but it is the original plaster work to the house finished by a mountain of John Wright servant's own men on site ladies here the family themselves because information I should find out what was lost but if you look at that where it's almost as if you're looking from the gate house you can see a six foot boundary wall now the other thing is when you turn that page okay Let's test for me and I'll meet you at the topic that by the uh oh just around the corners just reject them through I think okay okay so this is the uh the longest stories in this room okay so settling okay that's very good glue nevertheless it was 1726. Bruce forsythm look at my um of course if not this is Sir Thomas Lee who built the house in 1561. he died in 1571 is a very powerful man look at all this land here it's all these people of minor respect him as do we he is a good man from a good family he's just on the wrong side and besides if if we execute him within the walls of our city the access to his wife Anne they said Anne give us the money for your husband's release she hands over 4 895 pounds in 1643 that's 7 billion in today's amount this sets Thomas through he now needs to start selling some of his land to acquaint his money back this is what he sells I think it's where you live there little with Hinckley done Church daventry broken and eat in bed with South and bulkington Kings noon gate and shut up and Helena Ulster Celio surely Noel Hampton polls with impossible the equation thank you okay so welcome to the saloon from 1774 Edward V wanted to Showcase anybody that walked through the door and if there were of a religion this beautiful religious aspect of vodka soon he walked through the door that's the first thing you see this wonderful three-dimensional effect of heavenly going to the Mount Olympus and come to the Heavens to meet the gods and then make them a demigod that's what he wanted to Showcase almost as if they could fall under the ceiling under our own plane with that wonderful three-dimensional effect what we're looking at here is his biggest passion and that was the story of Hercules and he's hand-picked his favorite parts of the story and added it into his main wall quite astonishing piece I think you'd agree the five names attributed to this are a bit of guesswork because they were in the area at the time but if you remember you know we destroyed everything so you have to look at who's in the area doing something at the time who would do this style of scene so The Franciscan will be all in Giuseppe are two people his reality is another typically a lighter and the bastard Brothers handle in 1740s and Ed with the fifth sign would have only been about five but he was brought up with his music to the point that Edward became a musician himself of a circle and they said you sound famous like Amber so yeah you can see where God is invoice not long ago and while I was in Chatsworth they've got a room full of these bursts and there is exactly the same verses the only difference being is he went there two two or three years before he came here and the bus were done at the same time but the best the bus in Chatsworth has his eyes his pupils this one doesn't when Hannibal came here he was battling cataracts that would lead into his eventual blindness so I'm just wondering is this like an artistic license otherwise the company explained this is the same person uh 47 unicorns in this room I could have a ladies drinking if you look up before you get to the ceiling in the free way no no I'll tell you what it is sometimes I do forget but where are those clouds like there's three swirling clouds by the figure they used to be Cupids and Harry came in here and destroyed the look of the middle of the building or putting a hole in the seat just for those times off and that allowed water and everything to take pressure off the soup so it wouldn't fall through if I don't know he technically said enough foreign to remember in 1710 to 1713 you always have a room like this um normally just one room and a house but ahead with the third ego he wanted to put as many in as he possibly could so he can fall um it's Oaks and mahogany so you can go to court cabin Nottinghamshire to see exactly the same room as this the furniture well a few of us would find it difficult because the furniture is Georgian of course it is but if you sat down your white top but why sat down in my white chocolate we're not going to get up in anything white okay we'll get up in a nice Rouge color it's so welcome to the gentleman's room and uh this is was always a gentleman's room as late as World War one so if they you know ladies were allowed in here at all we read bedtime stories the emblem on the top that's a bed with the third and his wife Mary hold Beach these are either their wedding gift or a congratulations for the buildable West Wing and they are of embroidery Greek mythological stories and of course they are all born so welcome to the library is something Jane Austen never said because it wasn't a library in 1806. yeah someone said if you're watering if you can you know just kill it so yeah remember wood continues doing his job until it drops so you can give him some real covers at home before um famous people who've been here a little Byron and uh and yeah then most of the people have been in this room doing writings and some sorts one person who didn't enter this room because the house didn't exist then and that was William Shakespeare who was found poaching in the in the woods and you'll see a slight change as we go through the summer house um okay Queen Victoria came here for three days and two nights to open up Aston Hall in Birmingham to the public as a museum she stayed here with uh her husband Albert who was quite sickly at the time so she looks a bit more something a bit more secluded otherwise they would have stayed at Warrior Castle now she only gave William Henry Lee the owner of the house six months notice to get everything ready now he expected two years with a room known as the Tangerine room that Albert Joker who had a little smell of tangerines and the reason for this is the queen did not like the dark wood colors also this is the old dining room and William thought the Queen Wellington here was too small so that's why he knocks four pillars out of the center of the saloon so he can put a banqueting table down the center for the queen and Albert could aloe dinner and underneath the best ceiling in the house which she learned about saying you should be gilded six thousand pounds three thousand pounds each before the food even touches the plate the food itself the menu was acquaintances per day to 600 pounds that's 3 600 pounds per dinner on on China at San Diego how you doing Wendy example One Direction part of a house so in the library you may see my lady with tulips that means that she owned houses you know that one children so we're saying that's yeah I want to this price of a house you know she can just get tulips instead of buying a house just wear glass over being rather Bridge uh the last room of the house Queen Victoria's bedroom ish this is the bed that Queen Victoria slept in these are the chairs Queen Victoria satin these are the mirrors Queen Victoria looked in these are the curtains you saw openly closed morning thankfully they pull the oldest Cricket grounded Warwickshire there instead now but she never mentioned the river able never mentioned why because in 1806 it wasn't there in 1806 it was the other side of the field where you can just develop see a line of dark green grass which they haven't cut and the album cuts it because it'd probably be quite personal through the middle of the river pretty much you can pretty much see there's a line that Clips through the field and that then would lead on to where the river is to this day so who moved it well he brought his big red pocket in Gates so it's controlled molecular length than a river the other comes and it's a very strong weather correct if you jumped in it will take you very quickly the top half of that River though yesterday for instance yeah that's a deceiving bit of water and anyway yeah right so I've just come out of the tour um I've got to say that tour is really good and uh the tour guide is one of the best tour guides I've come across at any country house to be honest so yeah I thoroughly recommend uh the tour of this place okay so uh now we're going to have a look at the gardens and grounds and uh firstly we're just gonna pop over it just opposite the house and this is actually the cricket grounds um and these were apparently established in 1839 and these Cricket grounds are home to Stoneleigh Cricket Club we're just off to the left end there there's a little uh sort of clubish type thing just past the tree okay so we're just gonna go off this path or down this path just past the Cricket Club and uh see what's down here so literally about 15 seconds down that path and we've got what I think is known as the pump house apparently this pump house has been restored in recent times including uh having the roof taken off and then replaced evidence of some older doorways on this side let's go around the other side and have a look can't actually see inside very well actually just about in there you can see there's a new doorway this side probably locked I would expect never mind that's a nice old feature incidentally this pump house these uh Tudor Gothic in style and attributed to a CS Smith is the good old English weather a bit of rain not far from the pump house we come to a bridge called The Mill Bridge and we're going to be heading over in uh this general direction bit further out uh there's this early 1800s Iron Bridge we could take this bridge further out into sort of the Parkland but um there's another route which crosses um opposite the house across the field so I think they'll take that so we'll retrace our steps a little bit so we'll take this more modern industrial looking Bridge just to um lead us towards the river Bangkok on the opposite side to the house so here you should see the house come and interview from the opposite side of the lake or river so the grounds at Stoneleigh um were designed by Humphrey Repton it was sort of the successor to capability Brown and what happened was he came here in around 1808. um and sort of survived the land and in 1809 he produced one of his uh famous red books with uh the designs for what he thought the place should look like and um he gave this to the owners who uh carried out a lot of the designs not all of them but uh the general layout for uh for the grounds here at Stoneleigh and there's uh actually sort of an ongoing program now to um restore the grounds to how it originally would have been after the Repton put forward his plans so that should be interesting going forward so we've mentioned the new part of the house which is what we've looked at so far um but there was a there's also an old part of the house which was built on the site of the old monastic buildings and the Lee family lived there from around 1560 to 1990. and the lay family uh continue to live there even after the ownership had passed to the charitable trust but they now reside at adelstrup Park in gloucestershire it's a shame about the rain today but you can still see how beautiful the place is oh look at this bridge over here but I uh I assume we'll be going over that soon eventually we come to another uh modern looking Bridge which should take us over to the uh same side as the house and remember there's an ongoing program to restore the grounds to how they were in the 1800s so chances are bridges like this might get replaced at some point path symmetry Monarch favorite Setter who was shot by accident apparently uh this Setter was shot by accident during a hunt by lordly so he erected this monument in his memory and here we have some more Graves of the leaves uh much-loved pets they were just below the pet cemetery there's a little area here called The Summer Grove and apparently uh the rocks that are used here might have come from the demolished Mill oh it's like a nice little uh summer shelter here that would have been a table a stone on a tree clump and this little thing here um was apparently a fountain and it's just the base that remains now that you can see if we carry on a little further she'll come to this bridge which is known as the Cordelia Bridge which is named after Lord Lee's daughter and apparently uh Stoneleigh didn't even know that this bridge had existed at one point but it was found on a photo from 1886. um so luckily enough due to this um program of restoration they've been able to reinstate this bridge not far down that path we should come to that structure that we saw from the other side of the river earlier this is called the river gazebo oh yes you can relax here and uh look out onto the river over there's even a nice bench here to sit on so that's somewhere nice to relax foreign house and this dates to the early 1800s look at how the Twigs are intricately lattice on the roof it's quite a nice effect though and again this is somewhere where you can uh have a sit down and relax oh look there's a door on the back and there's the thatched roof then we come to the next feature this Fountain over here so this area used to be a Rose Garden and this Fountain would have been the central feature of that Rose Garden Miss again dates to the early 1800s and uh this is made out of code Stone new code Stone was quite popular in that period because it was easier to mold into uh complex shapes in Switzerland oh look there's a looks like a dog or something there if you actually look on the fountain itself it looks to be sort of entouring twigs and things like that if we go back down I think we've got a cat here on the side and a horse Maybe some kind of face looking at us and as you can see here there's a high wall and uh obviously that looks like it would have been a Walled Garden or something there foreign something interesting to note is uh you see the top two floors of the new house you can't actually go up there on the tours because they're actually uh leased out privately and people live in those top two floors and also with the parts of the house as well so that's quite interesting so that must be nice to wake up and have a look at the view in the morning if one of your top floor windows so if you look from this side of the house you can actually see the older parts of the house behind it just there and according to the tour guide this area in the middle here that would have been where the original Abbey was in the 12th century just up the drive from the car park there's this tuna Gothic stables and ride in school this is from the early 1800s and again by the architect C.S Smith have a little look in it apparently the uh the old roiding school part he's now a banqueting hall used for uh functions and stuff like that now this tree here not far away from the car park it's called Shakespeare's Oak and apparently it's over 1 000 years old and if you look at how thick the trunk is I could probably believe it well that's quite impressive so that was uh Stanley Abbey in Warwickshire I enjoyed that there's a lot of features and stuff to see there and the the house too is absolutely brilliant um so yeah I just want to say thanks for watching again I really appreciate it I know while I'm saying that I also want to say thanks to everyone for uh watching and subscribing because last week I hit over a thousand subscribers so so grateful I am to everyone for uh sticking with me and watching my videos because you know it really sort of makes me want to make more when I know people appreciate them and watch them so thanks a lot foreign

Channel: Adam Explores Britain

Views: 25,398

Keywords: Stoneleigh, abbey, stoneleigh abbey, country house, stately home, country, house, stately, home, gardens, mansion, warwickshire, humphrey repton, repton, baroque, architecture

Id: TtFQUov8VuU

Length: 42min 45sec (2565 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023