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Woodchester Mansion

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114-508: Woodchester Mansion is an unfinished, Gothic revival mansion house in Nympsfield , Gloucestershire , England. It is on the site of an earlier house known as Spring Park . The mansion is a Grade I listed building . The mansion was abandoned by its builders in the middle of construction, leaving behind a building that appears complete from the outside, but with floors, plaster and whole rooms missing inside. It has remained in this state since

228-617: A 161-meter tower from 1890) and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (1844–1929). In Belgium, a 15th-century church in Ostend burned down in 1896. King Leopold II funded its replacement, the Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Church , a cathedral-scale design which drew inspiration from the neo-Gothic Votive Church in Vienna and Cologne Cathedral. In Mechelen , the largely unfinished building drawn in 1526 as

342-521: A Bank Holiday) with the aid of volunteers. The Trust also operates a programme of training courses in stone conservation and craftsmanship at the mansion. The parkland around the mansion is owned by the National Trust , and is open to the public as part of its Woodchester Park . Woodchester Park includes several buildings including a gatehouse, boathouse, several cottages and an ice house . There are several large lakes with many paths and walks through

456-567: A baronial palace and its adoption as a royal retreat from 1855 to 1858 confirmed the popularity of the style. In the United States, the first "Gothic stile" church (as opposed to churches with Gothic elements) was Trinity Church on the Green , New Haven, Connecticut. It was designed by Ithiel Town between 1812 and 1814, while he was building his Federalist-style Center Church, New Haven next to this radical new "Gothic-style" church. Its cornerstone

570-401: A building which are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety; 2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building". Urging modern craftsmen to seek to emulate the style of medieval workmanship as well as reproduce its methods, Pugin sought to reinstate Gothic as the true Christian architectural style. Pugin's most notable project was

684-455: A classic body". John Ruskin supplemented Pugin's ideas in his two influential theoretical works, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1853). Finding his architectural ideal in Venice , Ruskin proposed that Gothic buildings excelled above all other architecture because of the "sacrifice" of the stone-carvers in intricately decorating every stone. In this, he drew

798-617: A competition was held to design a new façade suitable to Arnolfo di Cambio 's original structure and the fine campanile next to it. This competition was won by Emilio De Fabris , and so work on his polychrome design and panels of mosaic was begun in 1876 and completed by 1887, creating the Neo-Gothic western façade. Eastern Europe also saw much Revival construction; in addition to the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest,

912-493: A contrast between the physical and spiritual satisfaction which a medieval craftsman derived from his work, and the lack of these satisfactions afforded to modern, industrialised labour. By declaring the Doge's Palace to be "the central building of the world", Ruskin argued the case for Gothic government buildings as Pugin had done for churches, though mostly only in theory. When his ideas were put into practice, Ruskin often disliked

1026-482: A famous attack; "We are told we should adopt [Gothic] because it is the Christian style, and this most impudent assertion has been accepted as sound doctrine even by earnest and intelligent Protestants; whereas it ought only to have force with those who believe that Christian truth attained its purest and most spiritual development at the period when this style of architecture constituted its corporeal form". Those rejecting

1140-469: A large outlay) still there would be a closeness and humidity, which would always prove to be detrimental. In the meantime, Bucknall had moved to Algiers where he worked on domestic projects and villas. The reason for his move is unknown, although poor health is one reason put forward, but without doubt he must have been bitterly disappointed that his grand vision and architectural statement had not been realised. Indeed, in 1878 he wrote to Leigh's son: there

1254-459: A monastery and church. He then turned to Charles Francis Hansom , whose brother designed the famous Hansom cab of Victorian London, to take over the architectural planning . In 1857 Leigh dropped Hansom, and unexpectedly hired Benjamin Bucknall , a young man who was an aspiring architect and assistant to Hansom, but very inexperienced. Bucknall set about studying Gothic Revival architecture –

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1368-573: A more appreciative approach to selected medieval arts, beginning with church architecture, the tomb monuments of royal and noble personages, stained glass, and late Gothic illuminated manuscripts. Other Gothic arts, such as tapestries and metalwork, continued to be disregarded as barbaric and crude, however sentimental and nationalist associations with historical figures were as strong in this early revival as purely aesthetic concerns. German Romanticists (including philosopher and writer Goethe and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel ), began to appreciate

1482-437: A new location in the valley. Wilson wrote: I consider the situation far from the best that might have been selected on the estate; it is low, damp, and has much shut-in on the south, west and north, so that a free circulation of air is impeded. Its position is much too close to the high bank on the north, which will always keep the house damp, and if this bank were sloped off and formed into terraces (which must be allowed with

1596-661: A post which was filled in 1833 by Prosper Mérimée , who became the secretary of a new Commission des Monuments Historiques in 1837. This was the Commission that instructed Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to report on the condition of the Abbey of Vézelay in 1840. Following this, Viollet le Duc set out to restore most of the symbolic buildings in France including Notre Dame de Paris, Vézelay, Carcassonne , Roquetaillade castle , Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey on its peaked coastal island, Pierrefonds , and

1710-600: A programme in the BBC wildlife series Naturewatch , starring Julian Pettifer , was filmed in Woodchester Park. The topic was Magnetoreception . In 2002 a team of six sceptics and believers of the paranormal, visited the mansion for an episode of LivingTV's Scream Team . The television programme Most Haunted Live featured the house in 2003, and again in 2005. It has become a regular haunt for ghost hunters. The building has featured on several television programmes, including

1824-480: A reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the picturesque such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin took a critical view of industrial society and portrayed pre-industrial medieval society as a golden age. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation . Gothic Revival also took on political connotations; with

1938-520: A result of the Church Building Act of 1818. It is often said to be the first Gothic Revival church in London, and, as Charles Locke Eastlake put it: "probably the only church of its time in which the main roof was groined throughout in stone". Nonetheless, the parish was firmly low church , and the original arrangement, modified in the 1860s, was as a "preaching church" dominated by the pulpit, with

2052-502: A small altar and wooden galleries over the nave aisle. The development of the private major metropolitan cemeteries was occurring at the same time as the movement; Sir William Tite pioneered the first cemetery in the Gothic style at West Norwood in 1837, with chapels, gates, and decorative features in the Gothic manner, attracting the interest of contemporary architects such as George Edmund Street , Barry, and William Burges . The style

2166-571: Is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century , mostly in England. Increasingly serious and learned admirers sought to revive medieval Gothic architecture , intending to complement or even supersede the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time. Gothic Revival draws upon features of medieval examples, including decorative patterns, finials , lancet windows , and hood moulds . By

2280-473: Is most clearly seen at Culzean Castle , Ayrshire, remodelled by Adam from 1777. The eccentric landscape designer Batty Langley even attempted to "improve" Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions. A younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for John Britton's series Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain , which began appearing in 1807. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an Attempt... to name and define

2394-451: Is nothing more sad to the sight than an unfinished work and it is even more forlorn than a ruin of a building which has served its purpose... In 1894 Cardinal Vaughan paid a visit to the house, and the drawing room was updated, but from that day on the house stood often empty. The next heir, Vincent Leigh, briefly lived in part of the house, and his sisters in the gatehouse. In 1938, William Leigh's granddaughters, Blanche and Beatrice, sold

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2508-520: Is the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph, Ontario . Gothic Revival architecture remained one of the most popular and long-lived of the many revival styles of architecture . Although it began to lose force and popularity after the third quarter of the 19th century in commercial, residential and industrial fields, some buildings such as churches, schools, colleges and universities were still constructed in

2622-547: The Basilica of Our Lady of Hungary in Márianosztra , Hungary, whose choir (adjacent to a Baroque nave) was long considered authentically Gothic, because the 18th-century architect used medieval shapes to emphasize the continuity of the monastic community with its 14th-century founders. During the mid-18th century rise of Romanticism , an increased interest and awareness of the Middle Ages among influential connoisseurs created

2736-634: The Bulgarian National Revival saw the introduction of Gothic Revival elements into its vernacular ecclesiastical and residential architecture. The largest project of the Slavine School is the Lopushna Monastery cathedral (1850–1853), though later churches such as Saint George's Church, Gavril Genovo display more prominent vernacular Gothic Revival features. In Scotland, while a similar Gothic style to that used further south in England

2850-600: The Connaught Building , (1913–1916), all by David Ewart . In the late 1820s, A. W. N. Pugin , still a teenager, was working for two highly visible employers, providing Gothic detailing for luxury goods. For the Royal furniture makers Morel and Seddon he provided designs for redecorations for the elderly George IV at Windsor Castle in a Gothic taste suited to the setting. For the royal silversmiths Rundell Bridge and Co. , Pugin provided designs for silver from 1828, using

2964-480: The Houses of Parliament in London, after its predecessor was largely destroyed in a fire in 1834. His part in the design consisted of two campaigns, 1836–1837 and again in 1844 and 1852, with the classicist Charles Barry as his nominal superior. Pugin provided the external decoration and the interiors, while Barry designed the symmetrical layout of the building, causing Pugin to remark, "All Grecian, Sir; Tudor details on

3078-499: The Palais des Papes in Avignon . When France's first prominent neo-Gothic church was built, the Basilica of Saint-Clotilde , Paris, begun in 1846 and consecrated in 1857, the architect chosen was of German extraction, Franz Christian Gau , (1790–1853); the design was significantly modified by Gau's assistant, Théodore Ballu , in the later stages, to produce the pair of flèches that crown

3192-570: The Roman Catholic faith. This and the Gothic Revival style in architecture were fashionable, and formed the ideology for the new house. He approached Augustus Pugin to draw up the plans. Pugin drew up plans for the house but in 1846 he became ill and the project was allowed to drop. Leigh meanwhile gave land in South Woodchester to a community of Roman Catholic Passionist fathers for

3306-534: The Scottish Borders , rebuilt from 1816 by Sir Walter Scott and paid for by the profits from his hugely successful, historical novels, exemplifies the "Regency Gothic" style. Gothic Revival also includes the reintroduction of medieval clothes and dances in historical re-enactments staged especially in the second part of the 19th century, although one of the first, the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, remains

3420-593: The picturesque character of ruins—"picturesque" becoming a new aesthetic quality—and those mellowing effects of time that the Japanese call wabi-sabi and that Horace Walpole independently admired, mildly tongue-in-cheek, as "the true rust of the Barons' wars". The "Gothick" details of Walpole's Twickenham villa, Strawberry Hill House begun in 1749, appealed to the rococo tastes of the time, and were fairly quickly followed by James Talbot at Lacock Abbey , Wiltshire. By

3534-644: The scroll saw and mass-produced wood moldings allowed a few of these structures to mimic the florid fenestration of the High Gothic. But, in most cases, Carpenter Gothic buildings were relatively unadorned, retaining only the basic elements of pointed-arch windows and steep gables. A well-known example of Carpenter Gothic is a house in Eldon, Iowa , that Grant Wood used for the background of his painting American Gothic . Australia, in particular in Melbourne and Sydney, saw

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3648-561: The "rational" and "radical" Neoclassical style being seen as associated with republicanism and liberalism (as evidenced by its use in the United States and to a lesser extent in Republican France), the more spiritual and traditional Gothic Revival became associated with monarchism and conservatism , which was reflected by the choice of styles for the rebuilt government centres of the British parliament's Palace of Westminster in London,

3762-472: The 'Gothic florin ' was minted for circulation from 1851 to 1887. French neo-Gothic had its roots in the French medieval Gothic architecture , where it was created in the 12th century. Gothic architecture was sometimes known during the medieval period as the "Opus Francigenum", (the "French Art"). French scholar Alexandre de Laborde wrote in 1816 that "Gothic architecture has beauties of its own", which marked

3876-453: The 14th-century Anglo-French Gothic vocabulary that he would continue to favour later in designs for the new Palace of Westminster. Between 1821 and 1838 Pugin and his father published a series of volumes of architectural drawings , the first two entitled, Specimens of Gothic Architecture , and the following three, Examples of Gothic Architecture , that were to remain both in print and the standard references for Gothic Revivalists for at least

3990-655: The 16th century but instead lingered in on-going cathedral-building projects; at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and in the construction of churches in increasingly isolated rural districts of England, France, Germany, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Spain. St Columb's Cathedral , in Derry , may be considered 'Gothic Survival', as it was completed in 1633 in a Perpendicular Gothic style. Similarly, Gothic architecture survived in some urban settings during

4104-616: The 1770s, thoroughly neoclassical architects such as Robert Adam and James Wyatt were prepared to provide Gothic details in drawing-rooms, libraries and chapels and, for William Beckford at Fonthill in Wiltshire, a complete romantic vision of a Gothic abbey. Some of the earliest architectural examples of the revived are found in Scotland. Inveraray Castle , constructed from 1746 for the Duke of Argyll , with design input from William Adam , displays

4218-650: The 1870s. New architectural movements, sometimes related, as in the Arts and Crafts movement , and sometimes in outright opposition, such as Modernism , gained ground, and by the 1930s the architecture of the Victorian era was generally condemned or ignored. The later 20th century saw a revival of interest, manifested in the United Kingdom by the establishment of the Victorian Society in 1958. The rise of evangelicalism in

4332-577: The 20th century. Back in Oxford, the redecoration of the dining hall at University College between 1766 and 1768 has been described as "the first major example of the Gothic Revival style in Oxford". Throughout France in the 16th and 17th centuries, churches such as St-Eustache (1532–1640, façade 1754) in Paris and Orléans Cathedral (1601–1829) continued to be built following Gothic principles (structure of

4446-601: The Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest. In English literature, the architectural Gothic Revival and classical Romanticism gave rise to the Gothic novel genre, beginning with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole , and inspired a 19th-century genre of medieval poetry that stems from the pseudo- bardic poetry of " Ossian ". Poems such as " Idylls of

4560-815: The English crown. At the same time, the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace , that had been despoiled by the Puritans , was rebuilt in a mixture of Baroque and older Gothic forms, demonstrating the restitution of the Anglican Church. These two buildings can be said to herald the onset of Gothic Revival architecture, several decades before it became mainstream. Sir Christopher Wren 's Tom Tower for Christ Church , University of Oxford , consciously set out to imitate Cardinal Wolsey's architectural style. Writing to Dean Fell in 1681, he noted; "I resolved it ought to be Gothic to agree with

4674-576: The Founder's work", adding that to do otherwise would lead to "an unhandsome medley". Pevsner suggests that he succeeded "to the extent that innocent visitors never notice the difference". It was followed in 1697–1704 by the rebuilding of Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick as a stone-vaulted hall church , whereas the burnt church had been a basilica with timbered roofs. Also in Warwickshire , in 1729/30,

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4788-624: The Gothic context of the structure overrode considerations of the current architectural mode. Similarly, in St. Salvator's Cathedral of Bruges , the timbered medieval vaults of nave and choir were replaced by "Gothic" stone vaults in 1635 resp. 1738/39. Guarino Guarini , a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in Turin , recognized the "Gothic order" as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Even in Central Europe of

4902-468: The Gothic style, often known as "Collegiate Gothic", which remained popular in England, Canada and in the United States until well into the early to mid-20th century. Only when new materials, like steel and glass along with concern for function in everyday working life and saving space in the cities, meaning the need to build up instead of out, began to take hold did the Gothic Revival start to disappear from popular building requests. The revived Gothic style

5016-592: The King " by Alfred, Lord Tennyson recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of Arthurian romance. In German literature , the Gothic Revival also had a grounding in literary fashions. Gothic architecture began at the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris, and the Cathedral of Sens in 1140 and ended with a last flourish in the early 16th century with buildings like Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster. However, Gothic architecture did not die out completely in

5130-573: The United States, Collegiate Gothic was a late and literal resurgence of the English Gothic Revival, adapted for American college and university campuses. The term "Collegiate Gothic" originated from American architect Alexander Jackson Davis 's handwritten description of his own "English Collegiate Gothic Mansion" of 1853 for the Harrals of Bridgeport. By the 1890s, the movement was known as "Collegiate Gothic". The firm of Cope & Stewardson

5244-498: The architect Charles Hansom in Clifton, Bristol . Hansom was a Roman Catholic and in 1852 Bucknall converted to Catholicism. Bucknall admired the work of the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , and travelled to visit him in France in 1861 and in Lausanne , Switzerland in 1872. Between 1874 and 1881 Bucknall translated five of Viollet-le-Duc's works into English. Bucknall was

5358-460: The beginning of the Gothic Revival in France. Starting in 1828, Alexandre Brogniart, the director of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory , produced fired enamel paintings on large panes of plate glass, for King Louis-Philippe 's Chapelle royale de Dreux , an important early French commission in Gothic taste, preceded mainly by some Gothic features in a few jardins paysagers . The French Gothic Revival

5472-559: The best example anywhere of Victorian Gothic collegiate architecture". The movement continued into the 20th century, with Cope & Stewardson's campus for Washington University in St. Louis (1900–1909), Charles Donagh Maginnis 's buildings at Boston College (1910s) (including Gasson Hall ), Ralph Adams Cram 's design for the Princeton University Graduate College (1913), and James Gamble Rogers ' reconstruction of

5586-519: The buildings, application of tracery) with some little changes like the use of round arches instead of pointed arches and the application of some Classical details, until the arrival of Baroque architecture. In Bologna , in 1646, the Baroque architect Carlo Rainaldi constructed Gothic vaults (completed 1658) for the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, which had been under construction since 1390; there,

5700-667: The campus of Yale University (1920s). Charles Klauder 's Gothic Revival skyscraper on the University of Pittsburgh 's campus, the Cathedral of Learning (1926) exhibited Gothic stylings both inside and out, while using modern technologies to make the building taller. Carpenter Gothic houses and small churches became common in North America and other places in the late 19th century. These structures adapted Gothic elements such as pointed arches, steep gables, and towers to traditional American light-frame construction . The invention of

5814-570: The children in Gloucestershire. The 1881 Census recorded Henrietta and Mary living at Bisley, Gloucestershire . Some of their children visited Bucknall in Algiers, and Edgar died there in a boating accident in 1889. In Algiers Bucknall changed his architectural style to neo-Moorish architecture, in which he built villas, notably in the El Biar district of Algiers. His works include a restoration of

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5928-818: The command of his clients; Government House, Melbourne is Italianate . His banking house for the English, Scottish and Australian Bank in Melbourne has been described as "the Australian masterpiece of neo-Gothic". This claim has also been made for Edmund Blacket 's MacLaurin Hall at the University of Sydney , which sits in the quadrangle complex described as "arguably the most important group of Gothic and Tudor Revival style architecture in Australia". Benjamin Bucknall Benjamin Bucknall (1833 – 16 November 1895)

6042-746: The construction of a new Foreign Office in Whitehall saw the decision to award first place to a Gothic design by George Gilbert Scott overturned by the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston , who successfully demanded a building in the Italianate style. In England, the Church of England was undergoing a revival of Anglo-Catholic and ritualist ideology in the form of the Oxford Movement , and it became desirable to build large numbers of new churches to cater for

6156-421: The construction of large numbers of Gothic Revival buildings. William Wardell (1823–1899) was among the country's most prolific architects; born and trained in England, after emigrating his most notable Australian designs include St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne and St John's College and St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. In common with many other 19th century architects, Wardell could deploy different styles at

6270-402: The cost of completing a new mansion was too great for any of them to afford. (Indeed, it raises the question of how they ever thought they could both demolish and build a completely new building, but clearly it underlines that they did not share their father's passion for living in monastic conditions.) Wilson had his own opinion of the site and wanted the family to build, if they were going to, in

6384-406: The domestic Gothic style architecture which preceded it seem primitive and old-fashioned". There are many examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Canada . The first major structure was Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec , which was designed in 1824. The capital, Ottawa, Ontario , was predominantly a 19th-century creation in the Gothic Revival style. The Parliament Hill buildings were

6498-475: The earliest days of the revival. In some cases, cast iron enabled something like a perfection of medieval design. It was only with Ruskin and the archaeological Gothic's demand for historical truth that iron, whether it was visible or not, was deemed improper for a Gothic building. Ultimately, the utility of iron won out: "substituting a cast iron shaft for a granite, marble or stone column is not bad, but one must agree that it cannot be considered as an innovation, as

6612-515: The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw in England a reaction in the high church movement which sought to emphasise the continuity between the established church and the pre- Reformation Catholic church. Architecture, in the form of the Gothic Revival, became one of the main weapons in the high church's armoury. The Gothic Revival was also paralleled and supported by " medievalism ", which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals and curiosities. As " industrialisation " progressed,

6726-423: The estimated cost, at just under one million dollars, together with the sheer scale of the plans, thoroughly alarmed the College Trustees and only one-sixth of the plan was executed, the present Long Walk , with Francis H. Kimball acting as local, supervising, architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted laying out the grounds. Hitchcock considers the result, "perhaps the most satisfactory of all of [Burges's] works and

6840-433: The fabric of the church. St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Troy, New York, was constructed in 1827–1828 as an exact copy of Town's design for Trinity Church, New Haven, but using local stone; due to changes in the original, St. Paul's is closer to Town's original design than Trinity itself. In the 1830s, architects began to copy specific English Gothic and Gothic Revival Churches, and these "'mature Gothic Revival' buildings made

6954-495: The fictional name of Inchfield Park the valley is occupied by a commune made up of Animists and Wiccans and becomes the scene of a suspected murder. The mansion is shown (with some temporary adjustments) as Gordonstoun in the second series of The Crown . More recently, opening scenes for HBO's His Dark Materials were filmed with the mansion acting as Jordan College, Oxford . Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic )

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7068-406: The fields and woods. Much of Woodchester village was owned by Woodchester Park. Entrance to the park is free with a National Trust pay-and-display car park near the entrance, situated at the western end of the park, off the B4066 road. Toilets for Mansion visitors are provided near the mansion, these are only open when the Mansion is open to the public. The mansion itself has an entrance fee. In 1982

7182-456: The fifth of seven sons born to Edwin and Mary Bucknall of Rodborough , Gloucs. In 1862 Bucknall was married to Henrietta King. After 1864 they moved to Swansea and by 1869 were living in Oystermouth . The Bucknalls had four children: Mary, Charles (born 1864), Edgar (born 1868) and Beatrice (born 1870). Bucknall's health deteriorated and he spent the winter of 1876–77 in Algiers . In 1878 he settled there permanently, leaving Henrietta and

7296-443: The ghost hunting show Hauntings and Scariest Places On Earth . The mansion is also featured on an episode of Ghost Hunters International . In November 2003, several scenes from an episode of ITV 's Magick Eve , starring Emma-Jane Portch and concerning the Gothic subculture , were filmed within the house along with a performance by the UK Goth band Cauda Pavonis . In the 2006 BBC production of Dracula , Woodchester Mansion

7410-409: The grounds from plans drawn-up by John Speyers, working with Capability Brown . This plan removed the more formal aspect of the garden to create a naturalistic park. Part of the plan also turned a group of small fishponds into a series of lakes – and this was done in the late 18th or early 19th century. Not only was the park remodelled but the house too – several times in the 1770s and 1830s (including

7524-402: The growing population, and cemeteries for their hygienic burials. This found ready exponents in the universities, where the ecclesiological movement was forming. Its proponents believed that Gothic was the only style appropriate for a parish church, and favoured a particular era of Gothic architecture – the " decorated ". The Cambridge Camden Society , through its journal The Ecclesiologist ,

7638-483: The house – and what was left of the estate – to a mental health charity, the Barnwood House Trust . They intended to convert the mansion into a mental hospital, but subsequently this plan was shelved. During the Second World War, the grounds were used as a billet for Canadian and American troops, and the mansion itself used by St Paul's Teacher Training College. It was then abandoned to the elements. Fortunately, its isolated position meant it did not suffer from vandalism; it

7752-416: The hunting lodge and lay out a formal garden, and although a precise start date is not known, the house – called Spring Park – was constructed during the 1740s. Certainly by 1750 it was finished, as Frederick, Prince of Wales stayed – and in 1788, George III visited. Before the visit of George III – and only 30 years after the formal gardens were established – a start was made on extensively re-landscaping

7866-526: The incorporation of turrets. The architectural historian John Gifford writes that the castellations were the "symbolic assertion of the still quasi-feudal power [the duke] exercised over the inhabitants within his heritable jurisdictions". Most buildings were still largely in the established Palladian style, but some houses incorporated external features of the Scots baronial style. Robert Adam's houses in this style include Mellerstain and Wedderburn in Berwickshire and Seton Castle in East Lothian, but it

7980-447: The introduction of a new principle. Replacing a stone or wooden lintel by an iron breastsummer is very good". He strongly opposed illusion, however: reacting against the casing of a cast iron pillar in stone, he wrote; "il faut que la pierre paraisse bien être de la pierre; le fer, du fer; le bois, du bois" (stone must appear to be stone; iron, iron; wood, wood). The arguments against modern construction materials began to collapse in

8094-399: The late 17th and 18th centuries, where Baroque dominated, some architects used elements of the Gothic style. The most important example is Jan Santini Aichel , whose Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk in Žďár nad Sázavou , Czech Republic, represents a peculiar and creative synthesis of Baroque and Gothic. An example of another and less striking use of the Gothic style in the time is

8208-534: The later 17th century, as shown in Oxford and Cambridge , where some additions and repairs to Gothic buildings were considered to be more in keeping with the style of the original structures than contemporary Baroque . In contrast, Dromore Cathedral , built in 1660/1661, immediately after the end of the Protectorate , revived Early English forms, demonstrating the restitution of the monarchy and claiming Ireland for

8322-447: The later 20th century rehabilitation of Victorian architecture and the objects with which they decorated their buildings. In 1847, eight thousand British crown coins were minted in proof condition with the design using an ornate reverse in keeping with the revived style. Considered by collectors to be particularly beautiful, they are known as 'Gothic crowns'. The design was repeated in 1853, again in proof. A similar two shilling coin,

8436-402: The link between Gothic and Catholicism looked to adopt it solely for its aesthetic romantic qualities, to combine it with other styles, or look to northern European Brick Gothic for a more plain appearance; or in some instances all three of these, as at the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in east London, designed by William Hosking FSA in 1840. France had lagged slightly in entering

8550-509: The mid-1870s. The mansion's creator William Leigh bought the Woodchester Park estate for £100,000 in 1854, demolishing the existing house, which had been home to the Ducie family . A colony of approximately 200 greater horseshoe bats reside within the attic of the mansion, and have been studied continuously since the mid-1950s. The original manor house for Woodchester was in the heart of

8664-659: The mid-19th and early 20th centuries. The importance of the Cologne completion project in German-speaking lands has been explored by Michael J. Lewis, "The Politics of the German Gothic Revival: August Reichensperger" . Reichensperger was himself in no doubt as to the cathedral's central position in Germanic culture; "Cologne Cathedral is German to the core, it is a national monument in the fullest sense of

8778-706: The mid-19th century as great prefabricated structures such as the glass and iron Crystal Palace and the glazed courtyard of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History were erected, which appeared to embody Gothic principles. Between 1863 and 1872 Viollet-le-Duc published his Entretiens sur l'architecture , a set of daring designs for buildings that combined iron and masonry. Though these projects were never realised, they influenced several generations of designers and architects, notably Antoni Gaudí in Spain and, in England, Benjamin Bucknall , Viollet's foremost English follower and translator, whose masterpiece

8892-563: The middle of the 19th century, Gothic Revival had become the pre-eminent architectural style in the Western world , only to begin to fall out of fashion in the 1880s and early 1890s. The Gothic Revival movement's roots are intertwined with philosophical movements associated with Catholicism and a re-awakening of high church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism. The "Anglo-Catholic" tradition of religious belief and style became known for its intrinsic appeal in

9006-605: The most famous. During the Bourbon Restoration in France (1814–1830) and the Louis-Philippe period (1830–1848), Gothic Revival motifs start to appear, together with revivals of the Renaissance and of Rococo . During these two periods, the vogue for medieval things led craftsmen to adopt Gothic decorative motifs in their work, such as bell turrets , lancet arches, trefoils , Gothic tracery and rose windows . This style

9120-450: The nation, if it is possible, love for the national architecture", implying that "Gothic" is France's national heritage. In Germany, with the completion of Cologne Cathedral in the 1880s, at the time its summit was the world's tallest building, the cathedral was seen as the height of Gothic architecture. Other major completions of Gothic cathedrals were of Regensburger Dom (with twin spires completed from 1869 to 1872), Ulm Münster (with

9234-457: The nave and aisles of the church of St Nicholas at Alcester were rebuilt by Edward and Thomas Woodward, the exterior in Gothic forms but with a Neoclassical interior. At the same time, 1722–1746, Nicholas Hawksmoor added the west towers to Westminster Abbey , which made him a pioneer of Gothic Revival completions of medieval buildings, which from the late 19th century were increasingly disapproved of, although work in this style continued into

9348-617: The neo-Gothic scene, but produced a major figure in the revival in Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . As well as a powerful and influential theorist, Viollet-le-Duc was a leading architect whose genius lay in restoration. He believed in restoring buildings to a state of completion that they would not have known even when they were first built, theories he applied to his restorations of the walled city of Carcassonne , and to Notre-Dame and Sainte Chapelle in Paris. In this respect he differed from his English counterpart Ruskin, as he often replaced

9462-632: The next century. In Contrasts: or, a Parallel between the Noble Edifices of the Middle Ages, and similar Buildings of the Present Day (1836), Pugin expressed his admiration not only for medieval art but for the whole medieval ethos, suggesting that Gothic architecture was the product of a purer society. In The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841), he set out his "two great rules of design: 1st, that there should be no features about

9576-583: The preeminent example, of which the original library survives today (after the rest was destroyed by fire in 1916). Their example was followed elsewhere in the city and outlying areas, showing how popular the Gothic Revival movement had become. Other examples of Canadian Gothic Revival architecture in Ottawa are the Victoria Memorial Museum , (1905–1908), the Royal Canadian Mint , (1905–1908), and

9690-541: The principles of sound construction can be so well carried out". The illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery. Nikolaus Pevsner's volume on the exhibits at the Great Exhibition, High Victorian Design published in 1951, was an important contribution to the academic study of Victorian taste and an early indicator of

9804-551: The reintroduction of a more formal garden area by Humphry Repton ) but in 1840 when the 2nd Earl Ducie wanted further alterations and repairs, the estimate was thought to be too great and the estate was sold to William Leigh, a wealthy merchant. William Leigh was born in Liverpool , and educated at Oxford and Eton . At the time of the purchase he was living at Little Aston Hall in Staffordshire , where he had recently converted to

9918-439: The result, Woodchester Mansion, is Bucknall's masterpiece. Woodchester Mansion was constructed from 1858 to 1870, and finally in 1873, when William Leigh died, all work stopped. It may be surmised that Leigh's surviving family were less keen on the design for shortly after Leigh's death they asked another architect, James Wilson of Bath , Somerset , to propose a new design. This he did in his flamboyant Italianate style, but

10032-480: The result, although he supported many architects, such as Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward , and was reputed to have designed some of the corbel decorations for that pair's Oxford University Museum of Natural History . A major clash between the Gothic and Classical styles in relation to governmental offices occurred less than a decade after the publication of The Stones of Venice . A public competition for

10146-642: The seat of the Great Council of The Netherlands , was not actually built until the early 20th century, although it closely followed Rombout II Keldermans 's Brabantine Gothic design, and became the 'new' north wing of the City Hall. In Florence , the Duomo 's temporary façade erected for the Medici-House of Lorraine nuptials in 1588–1589, was dismantled, and the west end of the cathedral stood bare again until 1864, when

10260-640: The sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, "a text-book for the architectural student". Its long antique title is descriptive: Attempt to discriminate the styles of English architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation; preceded by a sketch of the Grecian and Roman orders, with notices of nearly five hundred English buildings . The categories he used were Norman , Early English , Decorated , and Perpendicular . It went through numerous editions,

10374-458: The settlement of Woodchester, next to the old church. After a succession of owners, the manor was granted to George Huntley in 1564. Subsequently, he decided to create a deer park , a little distance from the manor house, by both purchase and through the enclosure of common agricultural land in the Inchbrook Valley. A seven-mile long boundary wall surrounded the park and by 1610 a hunting lodge

10488-430: The third quarter of the 19th century. Gothic Revival architecture varied considerably in its faithfulness to both the ornamental styles and construction principles of its medieval ideal, sometimes amounting to little more than pointed window frames and touches of neo-Gothic decoration on buildings otherwise created on wholly 19th-century plans, using contemporary materials and construction methods; most notably, this involved

10602-465: The use of iron and, after the 1880s, steel in ways never seen in medieval exemplars. In parallel with the ascendancy of neo-Gothic styles in 19th century England, interest spread to the rest of Europe, Australia, Africa and the Americas; the 19th and early 20th centuries saw the construction of very large numbers of Gothic Revival structures worldwide. The influence of Revivalism had nevertheless peaked by

10716-478: The valley mean that for much of the year the sun is obscured. The house being positioned halfway down the length of the valley reduces the dramatic views that would have surely been seen if it had been built on a higher spot. The site is neither convenient nor easy for transport. As it was not the Ducie's principal residence, they may have looked at it more as an isolated retreat. In any case, they decided to extend and adapt

10830-459: The west end. In Germany, there was a renewal of interest in the completion of Cologne Cathedral . Begun in 1248, it was still unfinished at the time of the revival. The 1820s "Romantic" movement brought a new appreciation of the building, and construction work began once more in 1842, marking a German return for Gothic architecture. St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague , begun in 1344, was also completed in

10944-464: The whimsical Gothic detailing in English furniture is traceable as far back as Lady Pomfret 's house in Arlington Street, London (1740s), and Gothic fretwork in chairbacks and glazing patterns of bookcases is a familiar feature of Chippendale 's Director (1754, 1762), where, for example, the three-part bookcase employs Gothic details with Rococo profusion, on a symmetrical form. Abbotsford in

11058-560: The word, and probably the most splendid monument to be handed down to us from the past". Because of Romantic nationalism in the early 19th century, the Germans, French and English all claimed the original Gothic architecture of the 12th century era as originating in their own country. The English boldly coined the term "Early English" for "Gothic", a term that implied Gothic architecture was an English creation. In his 1832 edition of Notre Dame de Paris , author Victor Hugo said "Let us inspire in

11172-436: The work of mediaeval stonemasons. His rational approach to Gothic stood in stark contrast to the revival's romanticist origins. Throughout his career he remained in a quandary as to whether iron and masonry should be combined in a building. Iron, in the form of iron anchors, had been used in the most ambitious buildings of medieval Gothic, especially but not only for tracery. It had in fact been used in "Gothic" buildings since

11286-551: Was Woodchester Mansion . The flexibility and strength of cast-iron freed neo-Gothic designers to create new structural Gothic forms impossible in stone, as in Calvert Vaux 's cast-iron Gothic bridge in Central Park , New York dating from the 1860. Vaux enlisted openwork forms derived from Gothic blind-arcading and window tracery to express the spring and support of the arching bridge, in flexing forms that presage Art Nouveau . In

11400-528: Was adopted by figures including Frederick Thomas Pilkington (1832–1898) in secular architecture it was marked by the re-adoption of the Scots baronial style. Important for the adoption of the style in the early 19th century was Abbotsford, which became a model for the modern revival of the baronial style. Common features borrowed from 16th- and 17th-century houses included battlemented gateways, crow-stepped gables , pointed turrets and machicolations . The style

11514-499: Was also known as "Cathedral style" ("À la catédrale"). By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper , and Gothic blind arcading could decorate a ceramic pitcher. Writing in 1857, J. G. Crace , an influential decorator from a family of influential interior designers, expressed his preference for the Gothic style: "In my opinion there is no quality of lightness, elegance, richness or beauty possessed by any other style... [or] in which

11628-578: Was an English architect of the Gothic Revival in South West England and South Wales , and then of neo- Moorish architecture in Algeria. His most noted works include the uncompleted Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire, England and his restoration of the Villa Montfeld in El Biar , Algiers. In 1851 Bucknall began work as a millwright , but in 1852 William Leigh helped him to start work for

11742-543: Was an early and important exponent, transforming the campuses of Bryn Mawr College , Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania in the 1890s. In 1872, Abner Jackson , the President of Trinity College, Connecticut , visited Britain, seeking models and an architect for a planned new campus for the college. William Burges was chosen and he drew up a four-quadrangled masterplan, in his Early French style. Lavish illustrations were produced by Axel Haig . However,

11856-553: Was at once a setting and a protagonist in a hugely popular work of fiction. Hugo intended his book to awaken a concern for the surviving Gothic architecture left in Europe, however, rather than to initiate a craze for neo-Gothic in contemporary life. In the same year that Notre-Dame de Paris appeared, the new restored Bourbon monarchy established an office in the Royal French Government of Inspector-General of Ancient Monuments,

11970-469: Was built at the western end. The expense of creating the park is thought to have nearly bankrupted the Huntleys and the manor and park were sold to Sir Robert Ducie in 1631. Later generations of the Ducie family decided to build a grand country house and, at the same time, create a magnificent landscaped park out of the deer park. Quite why this site was chosen will forever remain an enigma. The steep sides of

12084-491: Was immediately hailed a success and universally replaced the previous preference for classical design. Not every architect or client was swept away by this tide. Although Gothic Revival succeeded in becoming an increasingly familiar style of architecture, the attempt to associate it with the notion of high church superiority, as advocated by Pugin and the ecclesiological movement, was anathema to those with ecumenical or nonconformist principles. Alexander "Greek" Thomson launched

12198-826: Was laid in 1814, and it was consecrated in 1816. It predates St Luke's Church, Chelsea , often said to be the first Gothic-revival church in London. Though built of trap rock stone with arched windows and doors, parts of its tower and its battlements were wood. Gothic buildings were subsequently erected by Episcopal congregations in Connecticut at St John's in Salisbury (1823), St John's in Kent (1823–1826) and St Andrew's in Marble Dale (1821–1823). These were followed by Town's design for Christ Church Cathedral (Hartford, Connecticut) (1827), which incorporated Gothic elements such as buttresses into

12312-478: Was not limited to architecture. Classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace and lattice work were applied to a wide range of Gothic Revival objects. Some examples of Gothic Revival influence can be found in heraldic motifs in coats of arms, furniture with elaborate painted scenes like

12426-513: Was not redeveloped. Local people ensured it never fell into total disrepair and the mansion and a small area of surrounding land was eventually purchased by Stroud District Council , who leased it to a building restoration trust, the Woodchester Mansion Trust, in 1992. A board of Trustees manage the mansion and open it to the public from April 1 to October 31 on Fridays to Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays (i.e. closed every Monday unless

12540-599: Was popular across Scotland and was applied to many relatively modest dwellings by architects such as William Burn (1789–1870), David Bryce (1803–1876), Edward Blore (1787–1879), Edward Calvert ( c.  1847–1914 ) and Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929) and in urban contexts, including the building of Cockburn Street in Edinburgh (from the 1850s) as well as the National Wallace Monument at Stirling (1859–1869). The reconstruction of Balmoral Castle as

12654-535: Was set on more sound intellectual footings by a pioneer, Arcisse de Caumont , who founded the Societé des Antiquaires de Normandie at a time when antiquaire still meant a connoisseur of antiquities, and who published his great work on architecture in French Normandy in 1830. The following year Victor Hugo 's historical romance novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame appeared, in which the great Gothic cathedral of Paris

12768-526: Was so savagely critical of new church buildings that were below its exacting standards and its pronouncements were followed so avidly that it became the epicentre of the flood of Victorian restoration that affected most of the Anglican cathedrals and parish churches in England and Wales. St Luke's Church, Chelsea , was a new-built Commissioner's Church of 1820–1824, partly built using a grant of £8,333 towards its construction with money voted by Parliament as

12882-677: Was still being republished by 1881, and has been reissued in the 21st century. The most common use for Gothic Revival architecture was in the building of churches. Major examples of Gothic cathedrals in the U.S. include the cathedrals of St. John the Divine and St. Patrick in New York City and the Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington, D.C. One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada

12996-485: Was used as Dracula's (played by Marc Warren ) dilapidated castle. The library on the ground floor (one of only a few rooms completed within the house) was used as the guest bedroom in which Jonathan Harker ( Rafe Spall ) was murdered and Abraham Van Helsing ( David Suchet ) attacked by Dracula. Woodchester Park, including the mansion, was the setting for much of the action in the 2012 novel Caballito by Robin Baker . Under

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