From the Chicheleys to the Bambridges the National Trust aim to provide time capsules of ownership around the Wimpole Estate. How successfully do you think they achieve this?

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From the Chicheleys to the Bambridges the National Trust aim to provide time capsules of ownership around the Wimpole Estate. How successfully do you think they achieve this?

The National Trust aims to provide time capsules of ownership in and around the Wimpole Estate. Wimpole Hall had many owners over a period of about 400 years, each owner leaving their own legacy. The National Trust has the job of untangling the layers of history to recreate snapshots of different points in time. By examining each owner and their stamp on Wimpole, it is possible to see whether the National Trust is successful in creating their stated aim.

The first visual record of Wimpole is in 1638, when Benjamin Hare drew his detailed map of Wimpole. At this time it stood as a moated manor house. In 1640 Thomas Chicheley inherited Wimpole. He completely destroyed the previous manor house at Wimpole and designed and built a new hall. This is the central block of Wimpole as it exists today. Thomas Chicheley also expanded the park to the west of the house and established formal rectangular gardens and an avenue of trees to the south. Very little of the original Wimpole remains from the time of Thomas Chicheley, as so many owners after him changed and modified his original park and gardens. The main hall still exists as a time capsule of Chicheley, although changes have been added to his original building.

Lord Radnor bought the estate in 1686. He extended the formal gardens, but made very little other changes.  Lord Radnor is hardly represented at all as an owner of Wimpole as very little exists of his influence.

In 1711 Wimpole passed to the Harley family. Lord Harley employed English architects and painters. James Gibbs, an architect of the time was commissioned to design three cabinet rooms to hold Lord Harley’s extensive collection of coins and a library for his 50,000 books. The library is almost an exact time capsule of Lord Harley except for two windows, which were added at a later date. Gibbs also designed the chapel. The chapel remains unchanged from the time of Harley, and is an exact time capsule. The National Trust has attempted to recreate the main drive in the period of Harley. This has only been partially successful, due to Dutch elm disease killing the avenue of lime trees, and the recent building of the A603 which bisects the main drive.

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In 1740 Lord Hardwicke Philip Yorke purchased Wimpole. The architect Henry Flitcroft was employed to convert Harley’s cabinet rooms into the long gallery. The Long Gallery exists today, although it is not an exact time capsule of Lord Hardwicke, as there are columns that have been added by a later owner. The church, built during the time of Hardwicke is not part of the National Trust, but stands as a time capsule of that period. His professional landscape designer Robert Greening created a large green lawn bordered by clumps of trees and shrubs. The 1st Earl of Hardwicke also created ...

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