Uppark House
One of my little excursions whilst in the UK was to Uppark House.
Uppark is a very pleasant house with beautiful views and a lovely garden. It was built in 1690 for Lord Grey of Werke (a major protagonist in the Monmouth rebellion) and later was the scene of a classic love story between the 70 year old 'lord of the manor' and a 20 year old 'milkmaid'.....
However, the reason that the house is so worth while to visit is not only its beautiful location, situated high up on the South Downs with views down to the sea, but the fact that in 1989 it was devastated by a fire and has been completely rebuilt...the rebuilt house reopened in 1995. Amazingly most of the art and antique furniture (about 95% of the house's contents) was saved from the fire in a heroic team effort from the local fire brigade, National Trust staff and any visitors that were there at the time.
The fire started as a restoration project for the house came to an end....the restoration was due to damage from the great storm in 1987.
As you walk through the house, each room has photographs of the fire damage to the house...it really is quite incredible....even the ground floor rooms show piles of charred beams with most of them wide open to the sky through three floors of rooms. As I mentioned almost everything was saved although a Canaletto was lost.
As a direct result of the fire the National Trust updated their contractors contracts to forbid the use of oxyacetylene burners......and each National Trust property had to compile a list of the most valuable art and artefacts in the event that they had to be rescued; using the wise logic that the average fireman was not an antiques expert and as such would not recognise a genuine Old Master compared to a fake Ming vase used to fill a space on a shelf.....
Here you can see some of the fire coming through the roof.
NTPL/Ian West
Looking towards the stables from the dairy
You can just see the English Channel in the far distance
And just to be infantile...this picture was taken on the way out of the house....it kept me amused for the better part of the trip home!!!
Uppark is a very pleasant house with beautiful views and a lovely garden. It was built in 1690 for Lord Grey of Werke (a major protagonist in the Monmouth rebellion) and later was the scene of a classic love story between the 70 year old 'lord of the manor' and a 20 year old 'milkmaid'.....
However, the reason that the house is so worth while to visit is not only its beautiful location, situated high up on the South Downs with views down to the sea, but the fact that in 1989 it was devastated by a fire and has been completely rebuilt...the rebuilt house reopened in 1995. Amazingly most of the art and antique furniture (about 95% of the house's contents) was saved from the fire in a heroic team effort from the local fire brigade, National Trust staff and any visitors that were there at the time.
The fire started as a restoration project for the house came to an end....the restoration was due to damage from the great storm in 1987.
As you walk through the house, each room has photographs of the fire damage to the house...it really is quite incredible....even the ground floor rooms show piles of charred beams with most of them wide open to the sky through three floors of rooms. As I mentioned almost everything was saved although a Canaletto was lost.
As a direct result of the fire the National Trust updated their contractors contracts to forbid the use of oxyacetylene burners......and each National Trust property had to compile a list of the most valuable art and artefacts in the event that they had to be rescued; using the wise logic that the average fireman was not an antiques expert and as such would not recognise a genuine Old Master compared to a fake Ming vase used to fill a space on a shelf.....
Here you can see some of the fire coming through the roof.
Looking towards the stables from the dairy
You can just see the English Channel in the far distance
And just to be infantile...this picture was taken on the way out of the house....it kept me amused for the better part of the trip home!!!
posted by Madame Chiang at 11:04 pm
1 Comments:
This won't actually have effect, I suppose like this.
play pc games | console games | find easy games to play | direct to drives | play new games
Post a Comment
<< Home