Sizergh Castle and Garden

Sizergh Castle and Garden is a stately home and garden at Helsington in the English county of Cumbria, about 4 miles (6 km) south of Kendal. The castle, a grade I listed building,[1] is in the care of the National Trust along with its garden and estate. It is the home of the Hornyold-Strickland family.

Sizergh Castle, pele tower and Tudor house

In 2016 the Sizergh estate was included in the newly extended Lake District National Park.[2]

Details
The tower at Sizergh Castle, as viewed from the South

The earliest part of the building is a tower of fourteenth or fifteenth century date.[1]

Woodwork

There are oak-panelled interiors, including the Inlaid Chamber, where the panelling is inlaid with floral and geometric patterns in pale poplar and dark bog-oak. The contents of the Inlaid Chamber were sold to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in the 1890s and it was displayed as a reconstructed period room. The return of the panelling to its original location at Sizergh was advocated by among others Mark Girouard, an authority on England's country houses. The panelling returned in 1999 under a long-term loan.[3] In 2017 it was reported that transfer of ownership to the National Trust had been made formal.[4]

The bargeboards probably date from the seventeenth century.

Paintings

The Castle contains a variety of paintings, including the following:

  • Mary Matthews (1823-1890), Mrs Julien-Francois-Bertrand de La Chère.
  • Marie Louise Geneviève Alice de La Chère (1856-1943), wife of Alfred Joseph Gandolfi-Hornyold (1850-1922).
  • Lord Thomas Strickland Standish (1763-1813).
  • Henriette Rose Peronne de Sercey (1770-1849) by François Gérard.
  • Thomas Strickland Standish of Sizergh (1792-1835).
  • Ursule Ida de Finguerlin de Bischingen (1805-1846), Mrs Thomas Strickland Standish of Sizergh.

History

The Deincourt family owned this land from the 1170s. On the marriage of Elizabeth Deincourt to Sir William de Stirkeland in 1239, the estate passed into the hands of what became the Strickland family, who owned it until it was gifted to the National Trust in 1950 by Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland's grandson Lt. Cdr. Thomas Hornyold-Strickland, 7th Count della Catena.[10]

Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII and a relative of the Stricklands, is thought to have lived here after her first husband died in 1533. Catherine's second husband, Lord Latymer, was kin to the dowager Lady Strickland.[11][12]

It was extended in Elizabethan times. Sir Thomas Strickland went into exile with James II.

Around 1770, the great hall was again expanded in the Georgian style.

Literary and Media interest

The Castle was featured in the ITV documentary Inside the National Trust.[13]

A room, now restored and known as the Inlaid Chamber, is the subject of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem The Queen’s Room, Sizergh Hall, Westmorland published in 1835.

Garden
Sizergh Castle and part of the garden

The garden has a lake and a kitchen garden as well as an award-winning rock garden. The rock garden, which was constructed in the 1920s, is the largest limestone rock garden belonging to the National Trust.

Sizergh houses part of the National Collection of ferns which are to be seen in the rock garden, the stumpery and the orchard.

Estate

In 1336 a grant from Edward III allowed Sir Walter Strickland to enclose the land around Sizergh as his exclusive park.

The estate covers 647 hectares (1,600 acres).[14]

Biodiversity

There are various types of habitat on the estate. For example, in 2014 it was reported that 35 ha of wetland habitat was being created in the Lyth Valley on the western edge of the estate. The project received funding from Natural England as part of a higher level stewardship scheme. It is hoped to attract bittern and other wildlife.[15]

Sizergh has received support from the Morecambe Bay Nature Improvement Area which was launched in 2012. It received three years of government grant funding (2012–15). Projects continue under the auspices of the Morecambe Bay Partnership, a registered charity.[16]

Birds

The Sizergh estate is a good place to see birds. For example, hawfinches are attracted to the area because of its hornbeam trees, and these birds sometimes come close to the main car park.[17][16]

Butterflies

Fritillary butterflies live on the estate.[18]

See also

References
  • Michael Waistell Taylor. "Sizergh Castle". The Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland & Cumberland. (Publications of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Extra Series, volume 8). Kendal: T Wilson. Carlisle: Charles Thurnam and Sons. 1892. Pages 182 to 198.
  • Michael Waistell Taylor, "Sizergh, No. 1" (1889)  10 Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 48
  • John F Curwen, "Sizergh, No. 2" (1889)  10 Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 66
  • Ian Goodall, "Privacy, Display and Over Extension: Walter Strickland's Rebuilding of Sizergh" (2002) 82 The Antiquaries Journal 197
  • "Helsington: Sizergh Castle, Sizergh" (2007) 7 Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archeological Society (Third Series) 257
  • Anthony Emery. "Sizergh Castle". Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500. Cambridge University Press. 1996. Volume 1 (Northern England). Pages 248 to 250. Google.
  • Plantagenet Somerset Fry. "Sizergh". Castles of Britain and Ireland. BCA by arrangement with David & Charles. 1996. Page 181.
  • Edeline Sackville Strickland. Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, and Notes on Twenty-five Generations of the Strickland Family. T Wilson. 1898. Google Books
  1. Historic England. "Sizergh Castle (1318962)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  2. "Yorkshire Dales and Lake District national parks to be extended". October 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  3. "Inlaid Room at Sizergh Castle". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  4. Kennedy (2017). "V&A returns Tudor bedroom..." www.theguardian.com.
  5. Corp, Edward, Belle, Alexis-Simon (1674–1734) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, September 2004 (subscription or UK public library membership required for online access)
  6. Walter Strickland (1729 - 1761). National Trust Collections
  7. Fletcher (March 2020) 18th century Romney painting returns to Sizergh Castle Westmorland Gazette.
  8. Anne Cholmeley (1796–1829), Mrs Jarrard Edward Strickland
  9. Lady Edeline Sackville (1870–1918), Lady Strickland. Your Paintings
  10. "Meet Henry Hornyold-Strickland, Sizergh". National Trust. Archived from the original on 2014-02-05.
  11. Susan E. James. Catherine Parr: Henry VIII's Last Love. The History Press, 2008, 2009. pg 56.
  12. Linda Porter, Katherine the Queen. Macmillan, 2010. pg 58.
  13. "Video: 'Inside the National Trust': preview". The Daily Telegraph. 12 October 2013.
  14. "Sizergh - Visitor information". National Trust. Archived from the original on 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  15. Dickinson, Katie. "Park End Moss aims to bring wildlife flooding in". Westmorland Gazette. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  16. "Hawfinch recovery project". Morecambe Bay Local Nature Partnership. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  17. Our elusive hawfinch
  18. The Best Places to Photograph Wildlife in the UK

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