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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• GREAT HOUSE (17th century to 19th century - 1601 AD to 1900 AD)
• MOAT (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status:

• Listed Building (I) 1128166: Wimpole Hall

Full description

1. Wimpole Hall is predominantly of the C18, but was begun c 1640 for Thomas Chicheley with additions in the C17, C18 and C19. A map of 1638 shows an older house (TL/335-/510-, sited from map), which had not yet been demolished, standing to the north of the present Hall within a rectangular inner moat.

4. Garden and landscaping remains lying south of Wimpole Hall include, two moat-like ornamental water features, a garden terrace 80m in front of the building and approximately 200m long. These match the early C18 proposal for the park's layout by or after Bridgeman. Further low and fragmentary banks make up no intelligible pattern. The S Avenue, now stripped of its trees by disease is marked by central raised causeway. Early APs show that this rode over ridge and furrow.

5. First built in 1643 and much altered by subsequent owners, Wimpole has developed into the largest country house in Cambridgeshire. Wimpole's owners employed noted architects of their day to make alterations to the Hall: Lord Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford employed James Gibbs; the Earls of Hardwicke during their period of ownership from 1740- 1895 employed Henry Flitcroft, Sir John Soane and Henry Kendall. Evidence of the work of all of these architects can be seen today, but the most notable work is that of Soane. Examples include: the Bathhouse, Book Room and the striking Yellow Drawing Room. Mrs. Elsie Bambridge, the last owner of Wimpole, who bequeathed her estate to the National Trust in 1976. Bought in 1938 Wimpole Hall was devoid of any furniture or paintings and Mrs. Bambridge spent her life trying to return some of them. What you see today at Wimpole is a culmination of development of the earlier owners and the collection assembled by Captain George and Elsie Bambridge.

8, The Hall is still in good condition and has been the country seat of several different members of the nobility. Now (1973) the residence of Mrs. Bambridge, daughter of Rudyard Kipling. No traces of the earlier Manor House or its moat can be seen, its probable site now covered by lawns. The C17 / C18 landscaping is now incorporated in the modern park.

9. House is of red brick, with a centre of seven bays, two five-bay ranges and two far projecting additional wings.

10. Wimpole Hall. Grade I. Mainly C18, but C17 origins and mid C19 alterations. (see list for details).

<1> RCHM, 1968, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire. Volume I. West Cambridgeshire, 214ff(ill) (Bibliographic reference). SCB18049.

<2> 1959, OS 6 inch map (Map). SCB8966.

<3> Elrington, C.R. (ed), 1973, The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 5, 264ff. (Bibliographic reference). SCB14795.

<4> 1941, National Building Record Index, 20695 (Index). SCB60593.

<5> National Trust, http://www.wimpole.org/ (Digital archive). SCB17818.

<6> Various, 1967, The History and Archaeology of the Cambridge Area. Journal of the Royal Archaeological Institute 124, pp. 214-58, p.258/9 (Article in serial). SCB19706.

<7> Wilson, S., 2010, Aerial photographs of Wimpole Hall (Aerial Photograph). SCB21840.

<8> Seaman, B.H., Field Investigator Comments, 09/03/73 (Verbal communication). SCB61886.

<9> Pevsner, N., 1954, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (Bibliographic reference). SCB17744.

<10> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic interest (Scheduling record). SCB19514.

Sources and further reading

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