Witley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the architect John Nash for Thomas Foley, 3rd Baron Foley.
As you walk through the ruins of Witley Court in Worcestershire, you can feel the ghosts of its past life as one of England’s great country houses. At the end of the 19th century, it was a real-life Downton Abbey, hosting royalty at shooting parties and glamorous society balls, with a fleet of staff below stairs keeping things running smoothly. But after a fire ravaged the house in 1937, it was left as an empty shell until being taken over by English Heritage, who opened Witley Court for visitors to explore the ruins - and get a glimpse back in time to its glamorous heyday.
THE HISTORY OF WITLEY COURT
Witley Court started life less grandly as a Jacobean manor house. But in 1655 it was sold to the Foley family, who’d made their money in ironmongery, first producing nails and then cannons for the Civil War. Over the next 182 years, eight generations of Foleys (who were confusingly all named Thomas) reinvented themselves from industrialists to aristocrats and politicians, lavishing money on Witley Court along the way so it matched their new status.
Thomas #3 added an extra floor and two new wings. Thomas #4 built a new church with lavish Baroque interiors and created a lake at the front of the house. Thomas #7 commissioned Regency architect John Nash - designer of Buckingham Palace - to add grand porticoes. But the black sheep of the Foleys, Thomas #6 (aka ‘Lord Balloon’) had eaten, drunk and gambled their fortune away, so in 1833, Thomas #8 had to sell Witley Court to pay his debts.
Witley Court’s new owners were the Wards - Earls of Dudley. They’d gained a huge fortune from oil and coal mines in the Black Country and plantations in Jamaica. But heir Lord Ward didn’t come into his inheritance until he was 28. So Witley Court was let to Queen Adelaide, widow of King William IV, until 1846 when Lord Ward took over and set about transforming it again.
Ornate Italianate style was the peak of fashion, so the whole house was remodelled to match over the next six years. The exteriors were clad in Bath stone, a huge glass orangery was built, the gardens were landscaped, elaborate fountains were added and all hundred rooms were renovated with marble fireplaces and French-inspired white and gold mouldings.
The original simple manor house had become a palace. But it was Lord Ward’s son, second Earl of Dudley, who ushered in Witley Court’s heyday as the ultimate 19th-century party house. He inherited the house on his 21st birthday in 1888 - and celebrated with a three-day party including a ball for 214 guests, lunch for 900 local men and afternoon tea for 850 women and children, a fairground, bands, boating on the lake and a giant firework display.
After Dudley married Norfolk banking heiress Rachel Gurney, Witley Court hosted a string of shooting parties, with famous attendees including the Prince of Wales. It took a staff of over 100 butlers, footmen, housemaids, cooks, gardeners and stablehands to keep the place running. But Dudley was burning through his fortune at a rate, foreign competition was hitting his businesses and when his wife drowned in an accident in Ireland, he decided to sell up.
In 1920, Witley Court’s final owner was another rich industrialist, Kidderminster carpet manufacturer Herbert Smith. But the house’s glory days were over. Smith installed electricity and cut staff levels, and it lay almost empty much of the time. Then in 1937 a fire broke out in the house’s bakery while Smith and his family were away. Witley Court’s fire hydrants hadn’t been maintained so the fire spread unchecked, destroying the central and eastern sections.
Herbert Smith’s insurers wouldn’t cover the cost of rebuilding, so Witley Court’s grounds were sold for farming, the house’s contents were auctioned off and the building stripped of anything of value over the next 20 years. Witley Court was derelict and overgrown by 1972 when it was issued with a compulsory guardianship order and English Heritage took over.
17 окт 2024
