History of Berrington Hall

The west front at Berrington Hall | © National Trust Images/Rupert Truman

The house and the park at Berrington Hall, Herefordshire, were created in the late 1770s for the merchant, banker and politician Thomas Harley (1730–1804). At that time, the neoclassical house and the English landscape garden represented the height of contemporary fashion. Over the next 250-odd years Berrington was owned by several different families, but today it still projects a strong sense of Georgian elegance.

The product of Georgian wealth

Thomas Harley (1730–1804), builder of Berrington Hall, was the fourth son of Edward Harley, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Lord Mortimer. He would not inherit his father’s title or seat and, as such, he needed to find a trade. Thomas began his career as a wine merchant in London, then branched out to provide the British Army with uniforms. He also began a political career as an MP, eventually serving as Lord Mayor of London. The court mantua (c.1760) that his wife, Ann Bangham, wore to court for formal occasions is on display in the mansion.

Harley used his increasing influence to gain a favourable contract to remit money to British troops in North America, which became highly lucrative during the American War of Independence. He also became chairman of the secret committee on the East India Company though does not appear to have been personally involved with the company.

Harley’s daughter Ann made an advantageous match with George, 2nd Lord Rodney, the son of Admiral Rodney (1718–1792) whose immense fame and wealth was made through his naval exploits, edging into piracy, during the 1780s. Partly in celebration of the marriage, and partly to create a magnificent setting to host The Gang, a dining and sporting society group of which he was a member, Harley bought land at Eye in Herefordshire from the ancient Cornewall family. There appears to have been an older house on the site that was demolished in order to create a neo-Classical mansion designed by Henry Holland (1745–1806), surrounded by a Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) landscape, flower garden and walled garden with a large and unusual curved wall, still extant. Holland’s plans for Berrington were both aesthetically pleasing and highly pragmatic. Necessary services were woven into the core structure of what is a small but perfectly formed country seat. Though the exterior is militarily austere, once inside the rooms are a symphony of marble, delicate plasterwork and painted surfaces.

The interior of the Marble Hall at Berrington Hall, Herefordshire, with its decorative marble floor, wooden doors and ornate plasterwork. — The Marble Hall at Berrington Hall | © National Trust Images / Andreas von Einsiedel

A naval connection

Ann Rodney (1758–1840) inherited the house on her father’s death in 1804 and lived there until her own death in 1840. After that, due to a number of early deaths, it passed in swift succession to two of her sons, then to a nephew and finally to an infant son,

George Brydges Harley Dennet Rodney (1857-1909), 7th Baron. During his youth, the hall was largely rented out, with one attempt at a sale. Rodney began a military career and, in 1891, married Corisande Evelyn Vere Guest, the daughter of 1st Baron Wimbourne and Lady Cornelia Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill. This union prompted a great deal of modernisation to Berrington’s facilities.

A new lease of life

Rodney appears to have been in debt throughout his life and parts of the estate and the collection, such as the Gainsborough portraits of the Harley family, were sold off throughout the late 19th century. The marriage was an unhappy one and, just a year before their divorce, the hall and estate were sold in 1901 to Frederick Cawley (1850–1947), 1st Baron Cawley.

A painting of THE SITUATION OF THE SANDWICH WHEN ATTACKED BY THE FRENCH ADMIRAL AND HIS SECONDS, 17TH APRIL 1780 by Thomas Luny — A painting The Situation of The Sandwich by Thomas Luny | © National Trust Images/John Hammond

Recent refurbishments and acquisitions

Cawley had made a fortune from a dyeing business that profited from the increase in sales of black dye through Queen Victoria’s long period of mourning. He became a Liberal MP in the North of England, then moved to Herefordshire with his wife and four sons. Carefully, he restored the hall’s décor, collection and garden to an Edwardian proximation of its original Georgian appearance. Tragedy struck during the First World War when the Cawleys lost three of their four sons. Their photographs, portraits and military uniforms are regularly on display at the hall. Although the Cawleys at Berrington also played their part in WWII, by 1957 the hall was offered to the National Trust.

Berrington has always been recognised for the strength of its Georgian architecture and its landscape, though it had been obscured somewhat by later Victorian/Edwardian overlays. The Victorian water closet tower that blighted Holland’s formal courtyard was removed as soon as the National Trust took ownership. More recently, the Edwardian changes to the approach to the house and its surrounding flower garden have been lifted and the area landscaped and planted to evoke its Georgian origins.