Ruskin Lane Consulting Autumn 2013 | Page 15

EVENTS

REPORTS
theatrical set or a cathedral interior
with stone and Scagliola finishes, and
with a number of rooms having
painted decoration by Giovanni
Antonio Pellegrini. Possibly some of
the reservations about the chilly
scale of the house echoed the
comments of Sarah Churchill,
Duchess of Marlborough, about one
of Vanburgh's other great buildings,
Bleheim Palace, to the effect that
the rooms were not suited to the
human scale.
Rievaulx Abbey provided a
soothing counterpoint to all this
magnificence, and on a warm
summer's evening the simple style
of the Abbey ruins, albeit still grand
and impressive, recalled the daily
routine of prayer and meditation of
the Cistercian monks.
The Brontës at home
In contrast to the splendours of the
great houses, the Brontë Parsonage
is intimate and poignant. Here, we
stood in the dining room where
Charlotte, Emily and Anne did the
majority of their writing, in
Charlotte's room where she died in
1855, and in the Rev. Patrick
Brontë's bedroom where he, and
his troubled son Branwell, died. Behind the Parsonage the moors
stretch out, and below the house the village of Haworth still evokes
the 19th century. An excellent lecture on the family and the writings
was supported by the quality of the museum.
Remaining with the 19th century, we had an entertaining few
hours in Saltaire Village, a conservation area which was designated a
World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001. Founded in 1851 by Sir
Titus Salt, a leading industrialist in the Yorkshire woollen industry, the
village had neat stone houses, a hospital and an institute for
recreation and education, with a library, reading room, concert hall,
billiard room, science laboratory and gymnasium. The Grade I listed
Congregational Church, since 1972 known as the United Reformed
Church, is a particularly fine building. Salt's Mill, which closed in 1986,
now houses a mixture of business, commerce, leisure and residential
use, and the 1853 gallery has several large rooms given over to the
works of David Hockney.
We had a pleasant lunch in the irreverently named pub, "Don't Tell
Titus", in a nod to Sir Titus Salt, who didn't allow alcohol in the
village.
Moving on to another of the great Yorkshire houses, we had a
private tour of Harewood House, described by Simon Jenkins as “a
place of dazzlement, a St Petersburg palace on a Yorkshire ridge. It
affirms 18th century taste, 19th century wealth and 20th century
ingenuity, privately owned and superbly presented." David Lascelles,
Earl of Harewood, notes that this has always been a living, changing
place, "an 18th century English gentleman's country house. Victorian
home. Royal household. Wartime convalescent hospital. Major tourist
destination." This is a house, and family, of rich heritage.
Built on the proceeds of the slave trade, which the family
sensitively acknowledges, and which legacy they seek to address
through modern educational efforts, Harewood House was built in

the 18th century to a design largely
by John Carr of York. In 1765, the 33
year old Robert Adam was
commissioned for the interiors, and
seems to have had a pretty free
hand in the State Rooms, "His hand
can be seen everywhere : in ceilings
and carpets; in elaborate decoration
on almost any flat surface... and in
the choice of Thomas Chippendale
to supply the furniture." The
landscaping is by Capability Brown.
In 1843 Sir Charles Barry added
new attics, and tampered with “at
least three of Adam's glorious
rooms".
Harrogate Pump Room
From landscapes, to townscapes.
We had a lively conducted tour of
Harrogate by local resident and
Blue Badge guide Claire Bostel,
partly by coach and partly on foot.
Via many roundabouts (some of
which we circled quite a few
times!), we took in the elegant
Montpelier Quarter up to the edge
of The Stray, an apron of 200 acres
of protected parkland fringing High
and Low Harrogate. We viewed the
Royal Hall, Mercer Art Gallery and
Royal Pump Room. We did not take
the waters... Lunch, and pleasurable
strolling, took place in The Royal
Horticultural Society's Harlow Carr Garden, on the edge of
Harrogate.
Harewood House

The finest house...?
Celia Fiennes recorded in her diary, after visiting Newby Hall in
1697, "This was the finest house I saw in Yorkshire." It must certainly
rank up there with the best this great county has to offer. Sir Edward
Blackett built the main block of the present house during the 1690s,
designed with the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren. Recent
research has shown that John Carr probably added the two wings to
the east of the house, and remodelled much of the main block,
turning the house around and rebuilding the three central bays of
the east elevation. Robert Adam was commissioned in 1767 to
complete the galleries, and to decorate the Tapestry Room and
some of the interior of the house. The Adam rooms, many with
Chippendale furniture, are exquisitely beautiful, and the Grand Tour
Statue Gallery is a tour de force.
This jewel of a house is set in magnificent gardens, created by the
current owner's grandfather. First he planted the great double
herbaceous borders, flanked by hedges of yew, as a magnificent vista
to link the south front with the river below. Then, off the main axis,
he planned a series of formal gardens, each to show plants at their
best for every season of the year. The gardens cover 25 acres.
Our tour completed, the coach rolled us northwards, all culturedout but content!
Anyone interested in taking part in the spring 2014 study tour should
contact the national office.
Hamish McPherson, Joint organiser of the National Tour, with
Hamish Macbeth. All images © Hamish Macbeth
AUTUMN 2013

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THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND

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