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Whiteknights Park, or the Whiteknights Campus of the University of Reading, is the principal campus of that university. The park covers the area of the manor of Earley Whiteknights, also known as Earley St Nicholas and Earley Regis. Whiteknights Park is some two miles south of the centre of the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. The campus is in size〔(【引用サイトリンク】Campus life for students )〕 and includes lakes, conservation meadows and woodlands as well as being home to most of the university's academic departments and several halls of residence.〔Ordnance Survey (2006). ''OS Explorer Map 159 – Reading''. ISBN 0-319-23730-3.〕 == History == The site was the home of John De Erleigh II, the famous foster-son of the Regent of England, William Marshal, but takes its name from the nickname of his great grandson, the 13th-century knight, John De Erleigh IV, the 'White Knight'. The De Erleigh (or D'Earley) family were owners of this manor for some two hundred years before 1365. St. Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford and advisor to King Edward I, was allowed to live there briefly during the 1270s. In 1606 the estate was purchased by the nephew of Sir Francis Englefield, following the confiscation of Englefield House and its estates in 1585. The Englefield family in turn sold the estate to George Spencer-Churchill, the Marquis of Blandford, in 1798.〔David Nash Ford (2001). (Royal Berkshire History – Whiteknights Park ). Retrieved 1 July 2005.〕 Between 1798 and 1819, the estate was the scene of vast extravagance and wild entertainments, all at the Marquis' expense. Splendid gardens were laid out, complete with the rarest of plants. In 1819, George Spencer, by now the Duke of Marlborough, became bankrupt and moved to his family home at Blenheim Palace at Woodstock in Oxfordshire. The gardens of the Whiteknights estate have been described in a book by Barbara Hofland with engraved pictures of the gardens and its multitude of bridges, fountains, seats and grotto's by her husband Thomas Christopher Hofland. The book was ordered by the then Marquess of Blandford, but like many other items that he ordered or purchased, it was never paid for. The gardens boasted a "chantilly garden" in the French style, a vineyard, a wilderness, a cottage, a gothic chapel, botanical gardens full of the rarest plants, many of them new from the America's, an iron bridge, a stone bridge, an extensive sheep walk, an elm grove, an oak grove, a cedar seat, wychelms and cedars, an ice house, several conservatories, greenhouses and heated basins. In the grounds, cast-iron or wooden baskets filled with scarlet sage or the then exotic begonias were scattered throughout the lawns. There were many, some garden-critics commented "too many" seats, covered seats, treillages and pavilions. Mary Soames, who wrote a book about the 5th Duke of Marlborough and his gardens in Whiteknights and Blenheim remarked that the 280 acres were "too small a canvas" for the marquesses' "broad brush".〔The profligate Duke〕 The estate was sold off and the house was demolished in 1840, supposedly by a mob of the Duke's angry creditors.〔 The land was broken up into six leasehold units in 1867 and a number of the new houses were designed by Alfred Waterhouse, including his own residence at Foxhill House and the smaller Whiteknights House (now called Old Whiteknights House) for his father.〔 During the Second World War, part of the park closest to the Earley Gate entrance was used for 'temporary' government offices, and several ranges of these single story, brick built, corridor and spur buildings still stand. After the war, this area became home to the Region 6 War Room responsible for civil defence in south-central England. The resulting nuclear bunker constructed in the 1950s still stands in a little visited corner of the campus,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/r/reading/reading.html )〕 although demolition had been proposed in the 2007 campus development plan.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://www.rdg.ac.uk/about/about-local.asp )〕 However, in March 2009 the threatened building was given Grade II listed status, so demolition seems unlikely.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1393194 )〕 In the years after the second World War some traces of the gardens of the Marquess of Blandford have been discovered. There were a few old exotic trees and part of a fountain was found on a skip.〔The profligate Duke〕 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「Whiteknights Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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