HOLKHAM HALL, Norfolk, England - (Dix Trips - Vol.44)

there are no majestic mountains in Norfolk no deep canyons or raging rivers and yet it is still a spectacularly beautiful place what this corner of East Anglia lacks in drama it compensates with subtlety take for instance hocum Beach a favorite of dog walkers horse riders and filmmakers hokum Beach possesses acres of hard-packed sand that tilt gently towards the North Sea Dick's trips has traveled all over the world and yet hokum Beach remains one of our favorite places to visit but today we're going to turn our backs to the sea across the coastal road and explore a man-made wonder hidden just a mile away behind the long lines of sheltering Pines hokum halt alcohol was built in the 18th century and is the vision of one man Sir Thomas cook the Thomas Cook was the builder of the hall and fortunately his parents died when he was a very young man oh he's only aged 10 when they both died of the ague and so when he was 15 like many rich young men of his day Thomas Cook was sent to Europe on the Grand Tour so he could learn about art history culture and architecture he goes away for six years from 17 12 to 17 18 but the young cook didn't come back home with some cheap souvenirs he came back with a bold plan and the beginnings of a great art collection the plan was to build a great house in hocum Park played in a style of architecture that was brought back to England really from the English my Lords have gone round on their grand tour the forefront or the personal forefront of that movement was Lord Burlington and his protege William Kent unfortunately the Builder of this house met both of those people in Europe and toured Italy for quite some time with Kent himself that's probably why we have a plate in star mansion in Norfolk it took 30 years to build in total first thing that we see is that the park starts to be worked on in around 1726 the obelisk which is a I care to see it as an exclamation mark on the skyline in around 17 28 and when they started to build the house in 1734 they started to dig the footings he wanted to occupy a part of it as soon as he possibly could so that was the reason they built the residential in family ring first which he eventually occupied in 1741 he then goes on to build this fantastic South facade and we think the reason he did that was so that if he died before the work was complete it was very difficult then after that point to change the style of the house and so we see this a great shot from the library all the way down to one end the house itself measures just under a hundred meters in length so the house itself runs on this great north/south axis so on one side at the southern side you have the obelisk and on the north side you now have a monument to one of the family members cooking Hoka mall is one of England's ten great treasure houses and the origins of Holcomb's extraordinary art collection can be traced back to when Thomas Cook met Kent in Rome they form quite a good friendship and that they tour around Italy together and I think we can see Kent's influence on a lot of the art purchases that Thomas goes on to make some of the really great key works of art were bought just towards the end of that gradual period when Thomas himself was a probably only eighteen nineteen years old I think it's incredible a young man of that age is able to pick out something really fantastic works about and bring them back here to North but of course to have a great art collection you also need to have some of the old masters they have a great painting ban like a great question painting by him picture of the Holy Family by Rubens that came from a Jesuit Church in Antwerp and these are all pictures that Thomas himself sees he's going on those grand tour while in Italy Sir Thomas Cook commissioned a painting of the afterlife and with the hubris of the age inserted himself into the narrative we're now looking at a picture painted by Sebastiano conquer for Thomas Cook and this is the first picture that Thomas himself Commission's and we can see that he's chosen a very topical theme the Elysian field which is the Roman version of heaven and you can see Thomas himself there dressed in a grey cloak playing the lyre on the left-hand edge of that picture conducting what's going on the rest of the painting and you can see all these people enjoying themselves and cavorting around in the painting enjoying life as they would hope to do after they passed on to the other side not satisfied with collecting paintings cook also accumulated a comprehensive collection of statues during his time in Europe in the statue gallery itself I think we see for the first time in an English country house an indoor space given over to the admiration of statues Cook was able to obtain several key pieces the most important one is the one at Diana which he purchased from a cardinal whilst he was on his tour and so we see that statue of Diana now here in pride of place in the collection in the statute Kennedy paintings and statues aren't your thing there's still a lot to see inside holcomb starting with the Magnificent entrance of the marble hall the outside of the house cannot quite austere because of the classical architecture and then you walk into the marble hall and it is absolutely still just stop me in my tracks on and open that door and look into that space that he created in the marble Hall it has got the biggest wow factor I think of any entrance hall in England there's all very much about opulence display and power and wealth the libraries of Holcomb have a staggering 10,000 books and manuscripts on their shelves but we've got two parts to it one are the law books overhead would cook who founded the family fortunes second half of the library consists largely of volumes purchased by cook on his grand tour having a great library again was one those great displays of power and wealth because books at that point were very expensive indeed Holcombe Hall both exudes power and luxury and as a result has attracted an impressive guest list over the years many of whom have stayed in the green state bedroom in the green state bedroom itself which is the most opulent bedroom in the house built specifically whoo how's your your best guest so to speak so Princess Victoria stayed here at the age of 16 also Queen Mary stayed here and v all was equity to the King King George and so they had very strong links with the royal family down the sand again so King George estate here in King Edward so quite a few members of the royal family stayed in that room but of course it wasn't just for royalty was also for your high status guests as well would have stayed in that part of the house you don't have to be a high-status guest or a member of the royal family to visit Holcomb Hall the hall and its other attractions are open from Easter to the end of October with other out of season events as listed access to the park and the beach is all year-round Holcomb Hall is on the North Norfolk coast one hour from Norwich and three hours from London and when the house closes we suggest you take a walk on that beach before you go home thank you for joining us we'll see you on another Dick's trip soon

Channel: nigeldick

Views: 79,602

Rating: 4.8938055 out of 5

Keywords: Holkham Hall (House), Holkham Beach, Norfolk (English Non-metropolitan County), Dix Trips, Dix, Trips, Anthony Van Dyck (Visual Artist), Peter Paul Rubens (Visual Artist), Nigel Dick (Music Video Director), England (Country), Palladian Villas Of Veneto (Structure), Architecture (Industry), Holkham

Id: a_F2G_NgPUo

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 29 2015