Charlecote Park - Warwick, Warwicksire (NT)
Although the Lucy family has been at Charlecote since the late twelfth century, the present house's earliest parts date from the time of the first Sir Thomas Lucy. In 1546, he married the young heiress Joyce Acton and set about using her money to modernise his estate. As well as replacing the old medieval house with one of the first great Elizabethan houses, he changed the surrounding landscape, cutting down trees and establishing a deer park, where William Shakespeare is said to have been caught poaching. In 1565, Thomas Lucy was knighted by the Queen's favourite, Robert Dudley, in the Great Hall and the Queen herself visited Charlecote in 1572. The present Drawing Room occupies the site of the bedchamber where Queen Elizabeth slept.
Much of the house has been radically altered by successive generations of the Lucy family, as fashion and fortune changed. The Gatehouse, seen above, is the most original feature and it was from the upper room here that, as at other contemporary houses like Lanhydrock, the hunt could be watched and banquets held.
In the late seventeenth century, formal water gardens were laid out to the north of the house and later on the landscape changed again, under the guidance of 'Capability' Brown.
During the eighteenth century, money came again to the Lucy's by marriage and the old mullioned windows were replaced by sash windows. New panelling was put in and the Staircase Hall was fitted out and carved by Joel Lobb. The succession underwent numerous sideways moves as brother followed brother in death without heirs, but new furniture and fittings were brought back from the Grand Tour to embellish the now old fashioned house.
In 1823, George Lucy inherited Charlecote and with his wife, Mary Elizabeth, set about restoring the house to its original appearance. Although building new wings and outbuildings and interpreting Elizabethan decoration with a freedom which today's restorers would not, the early Victorian work undertaken by George and Mary has left a Charlecote gentle on the eye and mellow in appearance. The new plate glass windows added greatly to the comfort of the house and the neo-Elizabethan plasterwork ceilings and heraldic glass blend easily with the remaining original features. Although deplored in later years, the work has more recently been reappraised for the decorative scheme it is and has itself now been restored.
The present baronet, Edmund Fairfax-Lucy, now lives with his family in the south wing, continuing the ancient family connection with the estate. Now owned by the National Trust, the rooms that are open to the public reflect the many years of family occupation and adaptation to the changing modes of living through nearly five hundred years at Charlecote.