Upton House

UK Heritage

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Upton House - Edgehill (NT)

There are surprisingly few documentary records concerning Upton House but the land appears in documents dating from the late twelfth century. In 1315, John de Upton is recorded as lord of the manor, but the contemporary building is long disappeared. By 1695, the land had passed into the hands of the Cullen family and Sir Rushout Cullen had built the present Classical house. The following owner made minor alterations to the North Front but during the nineteenth century it was seldom lived in and its fortunes only revived when it was bought in 1927 by Lord Bearsted, who bequeathed it together with his extensive collections of paintings and porcelain to the National Trust in 1948.

Lord Bearsted's father, Marcus Samuel, was the founder of the Shell company and it was his fortune which enabled the second Lord Bearsted, his son Walter, to establish the huge collections with his wife Dorothy. When they bought Upton, they employed the architect Percy Morley Horder to virtually remodel the seventeenth century house, raising the wings on the garden front to the full height of the main house and making the entrance front symmetrical. He also added what is now the Picture Gallery, but was originally a squash court. The gardens were also remodelled, with terraces cut into the bank, a rose garden and a bog garden established.

Among the wonderful paintings at Upton are some by El Greco, Hogarth Breugal and Stubbs.