Shugborough Hall

Following the death of the 4th earl in 1960, an agreement was reached whereby the estate would pass to the National Trust in lieu of death duties. The deal was finalised and the house opened to the public in 1966. The estate was immediately leased to Staffordshire County Council, who managed and maintained it on behalf of the National Trust, with Lord Lichfield retaining an apartment in the hall until his death in 2005, paying a nominal rent to the new owners.[3] His successor, the 6th Earl, decided to relinquish the lease of the apartments, thus severing the family's direct links with the estate.

In 2016 Staffordshire County Council handed the estate back to the National Trust, with 49 years remaining on its lease. The move is expect to save the council £35 million, with the Trust intending to renew investment in the property.[1]

Part of the exhibition of the work of Lord Lichfield

The grounds and mansion house are open to the public. The attraction is marketed as "The Complete Working Historic Estate", which includes a working model farm museum dating from 1805 complete with a working watermill, kitchens, a dairy, a tea room, and rare breeds of farm animals. Originally restored in 1990, the estate's brewery is England's only log-fired brewery that still produces beer commercially. Previously used only on special occasions, the brewhouse has been a working exhibit since 2007, operated by Titanic Brewery.[7]

Since 2011 the private apartments have housed an exhibition of the work of Patrick Lichfield. His cameras and lighting gear have been set up in a recreation of his studio, and there is a gallery of some of his most famous photographic subjects.[8]

The state rooms at Shugborough Hall include The State Dining Room, The Red Drawing Room, The Library, The Saloon, The Verandah Room, The Anson Room and The State Bedroom. These contain some of the most opulent and highly decorated interiors in the hall.[9]

The Verandah Room contains a 208-piece porcelain dinner service commissioned to commemorate Admiral Anson's circumnavigation of the globe in HMS Centurion. The dinner service was offered to Admiral Anson in gratitude for assisting in fighting the huge fires that were destroying the merchant district in Canton. (Story narrated by Shugborough guide October 2015). The State Bedroom overlooks the terrace and was occupied by Queen Victoria during her childhood visit.[9]

• 
  The State Dining Room
• 
  The Red Drawing Room
• 
  The Library

The private apartments were the living quarters of 5th Earl and his family until 2010. The Boudoir, with its silver gilt wallpaper, is the only room in the hall with hand-painted ceilings with gold detailing. Other rooms include The Lilac and Yellow Bedrooms, The Sitting Room and the completely circular Breakfast Room.[10]

• 
  The hand-painted ceiling of The Boudoir
• 
  Guests' bathroom
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  Green sitting room, detail
• 
  Bedroom

In about 1693, William Anson (1656–1720) demolished the old house and created a new mansion.[2] The entrance front, then facing to the west, comprised a balustraded, three-storey, seven-bayed central block. In about 1748 his great-grandson Thomas Anson (1767–1818) commissioned architect Thomas Wright to remodel the house, which was extended with flanking two-storey, three-bayed pavilions linked to the central block by pedimented passages.[2]

At the turn of the 19th century, the house was further altered and extended by architect Samuel Wyatt. The pavilions and passages were incorporated into the main building, and a new porticoed entrance front with ten Ionic pillars was created at the east. These pillars resemble carved stone but are hollow timber structures.[2] This was done for Thomas Anson, the 1st Viscount Anson and his wife Anne Margaret Coke, daughter of Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester, whom he married in 1794. The hall, as it is seen today, is built in a neo-classical style and encased in slate, sanded to resemble stone.[3]

• 
  Shugborough Hall in the 1820s
• 
  The 18th century Ionic portico
• 
  The rear façade of the hall
• 
  The garden from the house
• 
  The stable block in 2009
• 
  The hall seen from a hot air balloon
• 
  River Sow at the rear of the Hall
• 
  The farmhouse

Like many landowners of his time, Thomas Anson (1695–1773) took a keen interest in the landscaping of his parkland. The land around Shugborough was largely flat, which ensured that trees, follies and water would play an important role in shaping the landscape.[11] The grounds contain a number of follies, many of which, such as The Chinese House and two Chinese-style bridges, have a Chinese theme, in honour of Admiral George Anson. Admiral Anson, who had visited Canton, left a considerable sum of money to his brother Thomas Anson when he died, which was used to develop the hall and estate.[11] The Chinese House and the red iron footbridge are both grade I listed.

In 1760, Classical architect James Stuart was employed to design a number of monuments. Stuart had visited Athens in the early 1750s, and Ancient Greek influences are obvious at Shugborough. Stuart designed for Anson a copy of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates and a grade I listed triumphal arch based on the Arch of Hadrian in Athens.[12]

The Shugborough inscription

The Shepherd's Monument is a stone and marble folly within the grounds of Shugborough hall, engraved with the inscriptions "O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V" and "D.M.". The monument has been internationally well-known since 1982, when the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail drew attention to the mysterious Shugborough inscription. Carved by Peter Scheemakers, theories have abounded, including some which suggest it may indicate the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.[13]

• 
  The Chinese House
• 
  The Doric Temple
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  The Shepherd's Monument
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  The Tower of the Winds
• 
  Arch of Hadrian

• "A Brief History of Shugborough". The National Trust. n.d. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
• Belfield, Richard (2007). The Six Unsolved Ciphers: Inside the Mysterious Codes That Have Confounded the World's Greatest Cryptographers. CA, USA: Ulysses Press. ISBN 9781569756287.
• Black, Jeremy (2007). Culture in Eighteenth-Century England: A Subject for Taste. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 9781852855345.
• Jackson-Stops, Gervase (1981). National Trust Studies 1981. Sotheby Parke Bernet. ISBN 9780856671104.
• McGilchrist, John (1868). The public life of queen Victoria. London: Casser, Petter and Galpin.
• "Museums". The National Trust. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
• "Shugborough: A complete working historic estate". The National Trust. n.d. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
• "The Mansion House". The National Trust. n.d. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
• Robinson, John Martin (1986). The Architecture of Northern England. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780333373965.
• "Shugborough Revisited". The National Trust. n.d. Retrieved 28 August 2014.