Love Basildon Park

hello and welcome to basildom park set in the heart of the thames valley and just a couple of miles down the road from my hometown of reading some of you will recognize the building behind me some of you might find it relatively familiar if you've seen the latest movie version of pride and prejudice with kieran knightley or maybe you've seen the duchess or maybe even you've seen it in one or two television commercials however there's an awful lot of history with basildon park and some interesting stories behind that history lord and lady iliff were the last main residents of this property but there's been a number of occupants over the years and we'll find out more about those later but for now i really want to get a sense of the history of this property and find out more about the rooms inside luckily i do have a man in the know who can help me out about this he's from the national trust one of the volunteers nick risdell smith he knows an awful lot about this property and hopefully he'll come down and tell us a little bit more about it i wonder where he is i've seen him around actually i think he's coming now so hello hello andrew welcome to basilton park good to see you good to see you now the thing about this property is it's huge i don't even know where to begin which room do you recommend where do we start well why don't we going through the main entrance which means climbing the stairs and go behind these columns here okay well lead on i can't help noticing that we're actually going a floor above ground is there a reason for why the main entrance is here well this is where the main the guests were welcomed the important guests but in italy these italianate style houses are so designed that when in july and august when it's very hot as the door opens as a nice cooling breeze that goes around the main rooms that are used for entertaining so let's go in and have a look absolutely wow a beautiful ceiling absolutely wonderful [Music] right the plasterwork in this hallway is particularly fine but it hasn't always been like this during the war when the house was requisitioned by the military as a an officer's mess this room was actually divided into two with a dividing corridor and when the isles came to view the property in 1952 although the plasterwork itself had not suffered too much there's a lot of graffiti on the walls and it needed painting but the only damage to the actual plaster work was done actually in the corner of the ceiling just up there um one of the panels there had to be a re-molded when the eyelets were restoring the property and you see it's very difficult to see where it was because it's such a fine bit of repair work it's seamless isn't it so the eyeless painted this uh the walls to reflect what we they believe the ceiling would have been like in francis sykes's day i see one of the first things that strikes me as soon as i came in was the the image of the two griffins here it is that symbolically well it is very symbolic because you'll see in the plastic there are other examples of the griffins this is a link between this house and india francis sykes who built the property between 1776 and 1783 made his money in india in the east india company and this is uh in the indian mythology griffins is supposed to guard the country's treasure so it's as a nice way of linking his uh his past with india the flash work itself was by john carr who was the architect uh after the style of the adam brothers but let's go and look at another room where at another artist associated with the house wow it's a beautifully intricate door here as well isn't it we have some lovely doors on particularly on this floor this is solid spanish mahogany with the original furniture dated 1783 but when the eyelids came here the place was empty there were no doors hanging at all all the doors on this floor which were found in the heap in the boiler room which i think is rather sacrilegious when you consider what beautiful doors they are but it is a most beautiful door isn't it so let's go into the graham sutherland room right wow impressive yeah these drawings are by graham southern hence the reason why i call it the graham southern room they are working drawings which weavers used to create a large tapestry designed by graham sutherland which hangs in coventry cathedral it's behind the high altar it's the largest tapestry in europe measuring some 74 feet by 34 feet entitled christ in glory the late lord islip who was a great friend of graham's sutherlands bought the entire collection from him and donated him to the herbert gallery in coventry who've loaned us these 45 i hope on a permanent basis they've been here for a number of years so i guess it probably is [Music] so here we are in the green drawing room wow this is magnificent look at that ceiling it is a very fine ceiling it is original in every particular nothing has been done to it by way of cleaning or renovation since the house was finished in 1783 but it did acquire a stain just above us here lady isle of told us that when she was here in 1952 badly plumbed in washing machine in the room above caused the stain wonderful and again another room with magnificent paintings but but this one in particular nick this is by sebastiano galliotti painted we think about 1709 the painting actually tells us the biblical story of rebecca at the well underneath it we have a sofa known as a confident sofa it is one of a pair the other one we believe is at clarence house belonging of course to prince charles and the lovely walls in this room nick but i can't help noticing they're a little bit different to the other room why is that well they're actually silk it's edwardian damask silk we believe that in time francis sykes built this property this was his morning room breakfast room that they would have been hung with silk drapes on the walls so these were obtained from englefield park about 1979 by the national trust they're originally curtains curiously and one can see on the walls how the stripes have have been have been created by the light when they were curtains and the foals of the curtains you can imagine so it suits the room which is why we call it of course the green drawing room [Music] so [Music] remarkable so nick where next well let's go to the octagon drawing room okay okay now i am impressed now if i were an estate agent i'd probably call this the selling point of the house it's a remarkable room isn't it well it was one of the selling points which influenced the honourable james morrison when he bought the property from the sykes family in 1838 [Music] he employed an architect by the name of jb papworth to complete the decorations and this ceiling which is victorian is of his creation it's uh the room itself was uh particularly favored by morrison because he won if you like the rich and branson of his age and he had a great fine collection of paintings and he felt this room would be an ideal gallery to show them off his paintings included works by turner by constable by hogarth by leonardo a very comprehensive collection beautiful pictures hanging up in the moment especially this rather epic looking piece here which is this one this is one ju by giovanni petoni again late 17th century it is of mars and venus if we look to that wall there we have for two of the paintings by batoni the painting on the right is of god the father the one the other side of the door is of saint paul if we look towards this side here the far painting there is saint peter with the key wonderful paintings here and also i kind of losing a pretty magnificent looking piano as well very interesting piano it's an errard piano make much favored by chopin and list believe it or not lady islif bought this for the princely sum of ten pounds in the 1950s of course it's worth very much more now who's the chap in the photo nick he's a nephew of lady alif another nephew of lady olives he's herbert duplessi a concert pianist he lives in france and he concentrated very much on playing chopin this was his speciality the wall hangings which this red crimson hangings were actually hung by lady iliff she was a very hands-on lady and if she was going to do something she tended to like to do it herself so the story is that she would climb the ladder while her bottle held the ladder steady for her and so she was one who hang these this dark red felt they were chosen this color because it's a very fine background to show off paintings and incidentally she was very hands-on as i said the carpet she actually scrubbed herself when it had been obtained in auction should we go into the dining room oh definitely yeah so here we are andy in the dining room ah lovely they've set the places for us already excellent hang on a minute nick this room seems a little bit familiar to me is there any reason why that might be well it if you saw the film pride and prejudice starring kieran knightley this was the ballroom where mr darcy had his first dance with elizabeth bennett it looked quite large in the film but now as you'll see it's been restored to its normal size indeed it's been laid up for dinner the dinner service is chinese export armorial and dates from about 1765. it bears the arms of francis sykes before he was created a baronet in 1781 and was probably ordered before he left india the crest bears the woman of bengal holding a rose it was acquired by the national trust in 1987 thanks to generous donations from all idif the national art collections fund and national trust associations so much history in this room have you got any other little golden nuggets of facts for me well yes if i put my gloves on because i'd like to show you this pair of mahogany urns which came from ham house in richmond they're made in 1775 the fifth earl of dysart if we look inside you will see that the butler would store his wines in this drawer down here and above it curiously for the convenience of the guests would be a chamber pot the ceiling was designed by john carr of york who was the architect of this property or that has been restored by alec cobb to reflect lord iliff's interest in the arts he was a member of the shakespeare memorial theater trust the far painting is of thalia representing comedy in the middle we have melp mean or tragedy and you'll see that she has a sword pointing to a building in the on the horizon which happens to be basildon house and nearest here by the window is errato or poetry [Music] this lovely chimney piece came from panton hall in lincolnshire another of carr's properties the original one is to be found in the waldorf astoria hotel in new york where it is in a ballroom which the hotel have nicely titled the basildon room wonderful absolutely wonderful well let's go and see the library oh yes i suppose after a meal here the ladies would retire to the withdrawing room and the gentleman to the library so it's fitting that we should go in this direction okay so this is the library lovely my favorite room in the house this way it is one of mine as well i must say uh painted this dark color read by lady iliff for two principal reasons the first being that she thought this was very much a male preserve and this dark red had a masculine effect upon it the other reason for a more practical one is that it shows off paintings particularly well and you see in this room lord i live had a nice collection of paintings two of the big paintings that really caught my eye actually as we came in were these two big ones on the wall here any particular history with these well these two these two big ones are by charles de la foss painted in the late 1700s they were given to the nation in lieu of tax this one is entitled ronaldo and almeida and the other one on the opposite side is of the rape of europa yeah what i really like about this room is it's got a very lived in homely sort of feel [Music] and that's a lovely portrait of lord islip isn't it [Music] you [Music] so [Music] unlike other ceilings in the house this one is plain but originally it would have been a very elaborately plastered ceiling in 1946 there was a fire in the room above which caused the original ceiling to collapse onto the floor beneath the eyelets had it restored just to this very plain ceiling but if one looks at the freeze one will get some idea of how elaborate the plaster work was when the ceiling collapsed it caused burn marks on the floor which these are just a few examples in the room [Music] so here we are in the crimson bedroom the bed and the drapes all crimson that came from ashburn and place in sussex it was in 1954 when they're having a sale of the contents that lord lady alif bought this suite for as little as a hundred and fifty pounds mark it was in 1954 the bed itself was made in 1829 by a royal bed maker george marant for a visit we believe by the prince regent to ashburn and place where they actually slept in it were not too certain but it does suit this room particularly well because the staircase we've just come up was put in in 1813 because of a visit by the prince regent who stayed here some four days where he stayed in this room again we're not too certain but it certainly is appropriate on this side of the house now this wardrobe or more accurately tall boy is the only piece of furniture that the isles did not acquire it came from hunt and manor near high wickham in 1979 where benjamin israeli lived when he was prime minister before he became a politician benjamin israeli was noted as a writer of romantic novels and he had another claim to fame not so widely known he was considered a connoisseur of the fairer sex he loved women particularly the wife of his great friend sir francis sykes the third baronet her name was henrietta and they embarked upon an affair here with the knowledge of her husband who didn't seem to mind possibly because he was having an affair himself with a mrs bolton at the time and anyway provided with the right social class and had the lady had had her children and one was discreet one could get away with all sorts of wickedness so the affair between benjamin israelian lady henrietta went on for some two years between 1833 and 1836 while he was writing a novel entitled henrietta temple it was a romance between ferdinando and henrietta but in truth it was a chronicle of his affair with lady henrietta sykes here in this house which came to an end as i say in 1836 because lady henrietta took rather a fantasy to a portrait painter whose name was daniel mclease who'd been engaged to paint her husband's portrait now in those days painters were considered very working class and it was not the done thing to have an affair outside your social class but didn't this didn't stop them as lady henrietta was clearly of a very passionate nature and they engaged on a very steamy affair here in the house which came to an abrupt end when they were discovered by sir francis in flagrante electo and he was not best pleased in fact he was very angry and he felt the world should know about his indiscretion so in hindsight he did a very silly thing he bought some advertising space in the national press in which he denounced his wife's adultery and disclaimed any responsibility for the bet debt she might have incurred the result of this was that lady henrietta became a social pariah and she was very sad because it was a very um nasty divorce involving children as well but he didn't come off too well either because he was labeled a cad on the basis that gentlemen just don't do that sort of thing no matter what the provocation but daniel mccleese was a bit peeved as well as he was sued by francis sykes for playing around with his wife lady henrietta but he was rather more successful in getting his revenge he was an illustrator to stories of a friend of his who at the time was writing a piece called oliver twist it's charles dickens oh wow and if you remember the story one of fagin's gang with the unsavory character who was unkind to his girlfriend nancy who was modeled after sir francis sykes and he was called bill sykes and the clever thing is that the charles dickens changed the spelling from s y k e s to s i k e s in order to avoid any possible litigation by means of libel that might have come his way but you see it was worked very well because everybody read their stories and knew about the scandal and pointed the accusing finger at francis and said now we know how you treated your lady wife lady henrietta and that's the reason why this wardrobe was here in this house because of that connection i see i see [Music] ah and this is the bamboo bedroom it gets its name from the bed which appears to be made from bamboo actually it isn't it's uh mahogany but it's been shaped to look like bamboo and lovely drapes and everything around terra who made these well this is lady olive's handiwork she was a very clever needlewoman she made the bed spread she made the drapes around the bed here oh also she made the pelmets and the curtains for this room uh lovely and i'm noticing these interesting characters on the bedside tables as well these are rather fun characters these are 18th century medicine dolls right lady isla found them in london in the 1950s the story is that they'll be used by the aristocracy when they went to visit their doctor they would never undress in front of their doctor they'd either take a servant to do that for them or they'd use a medicine doll in which case they'd point at the part of the anatomy where they were hurting all right and i'm assured they are correct in every anatomical particular but i'm not going to show you now rather you didn't thank you lovely looking things though great fun before we leave andy i really must show this lovely wardrobe it is solid oak it is french from brittany we believe around 18th century but the story behind it is that a tradition in well-to-do families when their daughter was born into the family they would hew down an oak tree let it season over the next 21 years and eventually fashion it into a piece of furniture which would then be presented to the daughter either on her coming of age or her wedding whichever happened to be happened first [Music] well andy that was the bamboo bedroom but now i want to show you something quite extraordinary extraordinary well lead on oh wow this was certainly not what i was expecting the shell room yes the collection of shells by the first lady islip whose portrait hangs on the wall over there a somewhat retiring lady i'm told she accompanied her husband when he was doing business overseas and rather than socializing she went along collecting shells and this is the result impressive collection [Music] [Music] i've certainly never seen a collection like this before [Music] well you weren't kidding that really was quite an extraordinary room this is a wonderful collection isn't it where to next well why don't we go into the greenshin's bedroom oh okay so here we are andy in the green chin's bedroom ah and another room with lots of very large portraits i can't help noticing we could well actually call this from the dylan room because everything in here has come from ditchley park which is the home of the dylan side of the family for example that gentleman there that very portly gentleman is the 12th fly count dylan if he really was that size well here's his bed that was made for him in 1790 and as i say if he really was that size that'd probably be a single bed in his okay very interesting design this bed doesn't look like an english design does it well it's an english make made about 1790 but actually the design is polish the reason for that is at the end of the 18th century when louis the 14th of france married princess lejinsky of poland there's a much craze in europe for things polished in fashion in clothing and of course in furniture and so that reflects that particular craze not my choice of bed i have to be honest but some people like it so let me show you this picture this is a rather unusual one for this house i'm sure it's her face that's familiar to you face is certainly familiar perhaps the lascivious look in the eye well it's charles ii and he's here because we believe that one of his mistresses barbara duchess of cleveland a granddaughter marida dillon it's a very tenuous link but i think it suits for this room so over here we have another portrait this time it's of course augustus the 13th why count dylan i see and uh interesting porcelain on the table just underneath him oh that's minton that's late 19th century it's lovely so let's go and have a look at lady island okay so this is lady ali's bedroom a great favorite for the ladies who visit us here because perhaps it's the pink color it is a very light attractive room lovely lovely and especially like the alcove where the bed is in there a unique feature this room i think makes a change from a four poster bed yes absolutely lovely did it always used to be a bedroom well in the early days of course it was but during the last war it was an office administering the prisoner of war camp that was in the park in 1952 when the artists came to look at the properties i said it was empty but this is where the fire started they couldn't actually get into the room there was no floor it was just charred rafters dear so they've been a lovely job of it absolutely and those are some very nice drapes again in this room another example of lady isla's skill with the needle she made the drapes and the pelmets that hang above and she also made the bed spread which matches the curtains rather well oh yes look at that now this chair is interesting oh yes its regency was made by royal upholsterers moreland sudden for princess emilia who was the daughter of george iii oh right they're in fact one of a pair with the matching footstools ah now i recognize that signature well that is the queen mother she paid us a visit here on june the 21st in 1982 and that's the second link this room has with royalty well andy i think you've seen everything now so why don't we go downstairs and have a nice cup of coffee oh good idea lead the way [Music] you

Channel: Geoff Addis

Views: 121,098

Keywords: Basildon Park, Sir Francis Sykes, James Morrison, 101st US Airborne Division, Lord and Lady Iliffe, National Trust

Id: ovA1lQeRx5E

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 06 2013