Harewood House is a country house located in
HarewoodHarewood is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. The A61 runs through the village, from Leeds city centre in the south to Harrogate in the north...
(the village name being pronounced as if written
Hairwood), near
LeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
,
West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is a member of
Treasure Houses of EnglandThe Treasure Houses of England is a heritage consortium founded in the early 1970s by ten of the foremost stately homes in England still in private ownership, with the aim of marketing and promoting themselves as tourist venues....
, a marketing consortium for nine of the foremost stately homes in England. The house itself is a Grade I
listed building, there are a number of features in the grounds and courtyard that have been listed as Grade I, II and II*.
History
The house was built from 1759 to 1771 for
Edwin LascellesEdwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood was a West Indian plantation owner of English ancestry.-Life:He was the son of Henry Lascelles and Mary Carter. His father split the family fortune leaving Edwin's elder brother Daniel as head of the business whilst raising Edwin as a lord of the manor over...
, whose family had bought the estate after making its fortune in the West Indies through Customs positions,
slave tradingSlavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and lending money to planters. The house was designed by the architects John Carr and
Robert AdamRobert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
.
Much of the furniture is by the eighteenth century English furniture designer
Thomas ChippendaleThomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...
, who came from nearby
Otley-Transport:The main roads through the town are the A660 to the south east, which connects Otley to Bramhope, Adel and Leeds city centre, and the A65 to the west, which goes to Ilkley and Skipton. The A6038 heads to Guiseley, Shipley and Bradford, connecting with the A65...
.
Lancelot "Capability" BrownLancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
designed the grounds to which Sir
Charles BarrySir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.- Background and training :Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster...
added a grand terrace, in 1844.
Artist
Thomas GirtinThomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form.-Biography:...
stayed at the house many times, painting the house itself and also the surrounding countryside and landmarks, such as the nearby Plumpton Rocks which at the time was owned by the Harewood Estate.
Harewood house has a long history of taking visitors interested in its imposing architecture, and collections of paintings. The first guidebook to Harewood House was published early in the nineteenth century.
The house served as a convalescent hospital during both
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The archives of the Lascelles family and the Harewood estate are held at West Yorkshire Archive Service. in Leeds.
Since 1996, part of the house's grounds have been used as the Beckindale village in the
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
soap opera
EmmerdaleEmmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
, which had been based in two different Yorkshire villages since its inception 24 years earlier.
State rooms
- Ante Room
- Below Stairs
- China Room
- Cinnamon Drawing Room
- Dining Room
- East Bedroom
- Gallery
- HRH
Royal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
Princess MaryThe Princess Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood was a member of the British Royal Family; she was the third child and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sixth holder of the title of Princess Royal...
Display Room
- Princess Mary's Dressing Room
- Lord Harewood's Sitting Room
- Music Room
- Old Kitchen
- Old Library
|
Pastry Room
Servants Database
Servants' Hall
Spanish Library
State Bedroom
Steward's Room
Still Room
Terrace Gallery
The Library
Vegetable Scullery
Watercolour Rooms
Yellow Drawing Room |
Today
The house is still the family home of the Lascelles family. David Lascelles is the eighth
EarlEarl of Harewood, in the County of York, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1812 for Edward Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy sugar plantation owner and former Member of Parliament for Northallerton...
. His grandmother was
Mary, Princess RoyalThe Princess Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood was a member of the British Royal Family; she was the third child and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sixth holder of the title of Princess Royal...
, daughter of
King George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and
Queen MaryMary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. She also lived at the house and died there in 1965.
The estate has been transferred into a trust ownership structure, and as a result is managed by Harewood House Trust and is open to the public most of the year. Harewood won a
Large Visitor Attraction of the Year award in the 2003 national
Excellence in England awards and remains a popular
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
tourist attraction. As well as tours of the house and grounds, visitors can enjoy the
HimalayanThe Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
Garden and its
stupaA stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
, an educational bird garden, an extensive adventure playground and catering facilities. From May 2007 to October 2008 the grounds also contained Yorkshire's first planetarium, the
Yorkshire PlanetariumThe Yorkshire Planetarium was a planetarium in the grounds of Harewood House, near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, from May 2007 until October 2008...
.
The
Leeds Country WayThe Leeds Country Way is a circular long-distance footpath of 62 miles around Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is never more than 7 miles from Leeds City Square, but is mainly rural with extensive views in the outlying areas of the Leeds metropolitan district...
passes through the Harewood Estate, to the south of the house and lake.
Harewood Bird Garden
The Bird Garden at Harewood House has a collection of over 90 species of birds, of which more than 30 are listed as vulnerable or endangered in the IUCN listings. Harewood Bird Garden is a full member of both The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Some of the birds that can be seen in the garden are
Humboldt PenguinThe Humboldt Penguin is a South American penguin, that breeds in coastal Peru and Chile. Its nearest relatives are the African Penguin, the Magellanic Penguin and the Galápagos Penguin...
s,
Chilean FlamingoThe Chilean Flamingo is a large species closely related to Caribbean Flamingo and Greater Flamingo, with which it was sometimes considered conspecific...
,
Java SparrowThe Java Sparrow, Padda oryzivora also known as Java Finch, Java Rice Sparrow or Java Rice Bird is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Java, Bali and Bawean in Indonesia. It is a popular cagebird, and has been introduced in a large number of other...
,
MacawMacaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...
s, Waldrapp Ibis and
Snow GooseThe Snow Goose , also known as the Blue Goose, is a North American species of goose. Its name derives from the typically white plumage. The genus of this bird is disputed...
.
Pronunciation of 'Harewood'
There is often debate as to the exact pronunciation of the word 'Harewood'. In the eighteenth century, the customary pronunciation (and spelling) was
Harwood and this pronunciation for both house and title is still used by Harewood House and the
Earl of HarewoodGeorge Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, KBE AM , styled The Hon. George Lascelles before 1929 and Viscount Lascelles between 1929 and 1947, was the elder son of the 6th Earl of Harewood , and Princess Mary, Princess Royal, the only daughter of King George V of the United Kingdom and...
. The pronunciation
Hairwood is generally used for the village, and also sometimes used for the house and title.
External links