Althorp
House
The county of Spires and
Squires conjures up images of churches and country
gentlemen in their magnificent country mansions that are
so quintessentially English. Few English country
gentleman have more world wide fame than Earl Spencer and
his seat in the tranquility of the Northamptonshire
countryside, Althorp house.
Brother of Princess Diana, Diana now rests on a small
island in the centre of a lake within the grounds of the
estate. Althorp House has been home to the Spencer family
for 500 years. In 1508 Sir John Spencer, a wealthy
Warwickshire grazier who made his wealth in the wool
trade, acquired the 300-acre estate, which was then
called Oldthorpe, on which he built the Spencer family
home. His grandson (Also Sir John) had made it the
principal Spencer family home by the time he died in
1586.
In 1655, the 1st earl of Sunderland's widow added the grand staircase which is now the focal point of the house and between the years 1666-69, the 2nd Earl of Sunderland completely remodelled Althorp. He refaced the existing brick house and decorated it with classical pilasters on both floors. But by 1783 the house had fallen into neglect. It was the 2nd Earl Spencer who rescued the house with the help of architect Henry Holland. According to the Blue Guide of Country Houses of England, "Althorp is the best planned and best arrayed county seat in the kingdom." It houses an impressive collection of masterpieces by many of the worlds finest artists including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Reynolds and Gains-borough, to name just a few.
Daniel Defoe:
The Earl of Sunderland's house at Althorp, on the other hand, has within these few years changed its face to the other extreme, and had the late earl liv'd to make some new apartments, which, as we were told, were design'd as two large wings to the buildings, it would have been one of the most magnificent palaces in Europe. The gardens are exquisitely fine, and add, if it be possible, to the natural beauty of the situation.
Prince Henry and Anne of Denmark stayed at Althorp in 1603 while traveling to James I's coronation. In 1695, William III slept at Althorp in what is now called "The King William Room." The house has also been graced by the presence of Queen Mary and George V.
Twenty generations of Spencers have lived and died at Althorp. Charles is the current and 9th earl of Althorp. The Estate now covers 14,000 acres of beautiful countryside in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Norfolk and encompasses cottages, farms, woodlands and villages.