Today we’ve reached H in the A – Z of Ashdown and I’m
writing about a house built for love of a queen: No, not Ashdown this time, but
the grand mansion of Hamstead Marshall, near Newbury. It was at Hamstead that
William Craven planned a “miniature Heidelberg” for Elizabeth of Bohemia, The
Winter Queen. The intention was to model this mansion on the Palatine palace
lost during the 30 Years War. As with many things to do with Craven and
Elizabeth the term “miniature” was relative. This was a very grand house
indeed. However, after the death of Elizabeth in 1662 its design did not mirror
Heidelberg much at all.
Lady Craven, the widow of Sir William Craven, bought the
estate of Hamstead from Francis Jhones in 1620 as part of her policy of turning the vast Craven fortune into land ownership. As at Ashdown, building work
started some time in 1661 as soon as Lord Craven had returned from exile in Europe. The
grand house at Hamstead Marshall was designed by Sir Balthazar Gerbier with the
assistance of William Winde. When Gerbier died in the early 1660s Winde took
over the design and build. Papers in the Bodleian Library in Oxford give a
detailed description of work on the house, which continued for the rest of the
17th century. They include 40 drawings that show designs for
gateposts, porticoes and stabling and a floor plan with 30 rooms including a
“withdrawing room to repair the records” a “room to repose after bathing” and a
distillery, spicery, confectioner’s room and “Lardery.”
As with Kyp’s view of Ashdown, his engraving of Hamstead
Marshall is stylised but there is no reason to suppose it is inaccurate in
detail. Aerial photographs have shown the outlines of the parterre gardens, and
the remaining gateposts show very fine details.
In 1718, 21 years after the death of the first Earl of
Craven, Hamstead Marshall burned to the ground when a brazier was left untended
on the roof. Very little is left of this magnificent mansion that was
originally intended as a palace for a queen.
In her book Craven Country Penelope Stokes writes
extensively about the fascinating history of Hamstead Marshall. You can find
more information here. http://www.hamsteadmarshall.net/history/cc.pdf
