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The Wodehouse (formerly also Woodhouse) is a grade II * listed country house near Wombourne, Staffordshire, notable as the seat of the Georgian landscape designer and musicologist Sir Samuel Hellier and, a century later, Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier, director of the Royal Military School of Music. For almost 200 years the family owned the Hellier Stradivarius. It is claimed that the Wodehouse has not been sold for over 900 years,〔("Friends of Broadfield House". From the ''Stourbridge News'', 18 May 2007 )〕 though more than once the family has died out. ==House, garden, and estate== The Wodehouse is situated on the Wom Brook, to the east of the village, and the estate has existed since medieval times. The manor house itself was listed by English Heritage in 1953 as II *,〔(English Heritage list entry )〕 as were the stable block and coach house in 1963.〔(English Heritage list entry )〕 The early eighteenth century Wodehouse farmhouse and mill, across the road from the main house, were grade II * listed in 1973.〔(English Heritage list entry )〕 In 1987, the barn,〔(English Heritage list entry )〕 the dam over the mill pool,〔(English Heritage list entry )〕 and the causeway over its other end〔(English Heritage list entry )〕 all received grade II status. In the middle of the 18th century, the Wodehouse was turned into a centre of culture. The of grounds were laid out in fashionable style:
Some of this, such as Handel's temple, was the first commission of James Gandon after leaving the studios of Sir William Chambers. A series of drawings of the garden features are all that survive.〔(Hayden in ''Garden History'', Vol. 13, No. 1 (Spring, 1985) )〕 The Shaw Helliers and some of their properties are mentioned in the 1820 ''Survey of Staffordshire'', but, curiously, not the Wodehouse itself.〔''A survey of Staffordshire: containing the antiquities of that county'' by Sampson Erdeswicke, Thomas Harwood〕 Samuel Lewis in the 1848 edition of ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' describes the property as "a noble mansion in the Elizabethan style, situated in a beautiful vale".〔(''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848) )〕 The house has a fourteenth century core, with seventeenth century additions and eighteenth century internal refittings. It was restored by George Frederick Bodley, the Gothic revival architect, in the 1870s. A generation later, in the late 1890s, Charles Robert Ashbee, a leader in the English Arts and Crafts Movement, made additions such as a billiard room and a chapel,〔(Victoria County History, vol. XX,(1984) pp.205-6, quoted in the English Heritage list entry )〕 as well as many decorative external features.〔(Staffordshire Places: Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service )〕 In 1912, just after the estate changed hands, the Wolverhampton architect J.K.H.E. Lavender was engaged.〔 The gardens continued to be opened to the public on certain occasions; for example, in 1936 the Wodehouse joined the National Gardens Scheme, and as recently as in 2011 hosted the AGM of the Staffordshire Gardens and Parks Trust.〔(Summer 2011, Issue 44 of the newsletter of the Staffordshire Gardens and Parks Trust. "Of these, only one is open under the Scheme in 2011 – The Wombourne Wodehouse, which first opened in 1936, – though the total number of gardens open in Staffordshire this year is sixty-seven..." )〕 In 1984, the ''Victoria County History'' volume for south-west Staffordshire called the Wodehouse one of the "three great houses" of the area, along with Enville Hall and Patshull Hall.〔(Vol. XX Staffordshire, VCH )〕 At the turn of the 21st century, Michael Raven describes the Wodehouse as "unspoilt", with the house having "a certain serene and mysterious charm" and the property overall "the classic configuration of an early medieval settlement".〔''Guide to Staffordshire and the Black Country, The Potteries and the Peak'' By Michael Raven, p372. 2004〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Wodehouse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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