Ickworth, A Country House inspired by the Grande Tour of Europe and the symmetry of Italian Design.

Ickworth Estate -

1700 John Hervey inherited the title and started work on the Walled Garden and Summer house.

1779 Frederick, Earl Bishop, inherited by default as his 2 elder brothers had no issue.

1795 Commissioned Francis Sandys & Mario Asprucci to construct an 'italian palace' with a distinctive Rotunda to house his extensive art and treasure collection from Europe.

1798 Collection confiscated by Napoleonic troops.

1803 Ickworth was just a shell when Frederick died having lost his fortune attempting to recover his collection.

1821/1829 His son, 5th Earl took over the project, changing the original concept. The East wing becoming the family home and the Rotunda a gallery and entertaining space to impress visitors. The West wing, built only for symmetry remained a storage area.

1910 The kitchen was moved from the West wing to the Rotunda to enable hot food to be served hot!

Successive family members continued to add to the collection. 

1956 The Estate was presented to the Treasury in lieu of death duties - the family being 'asset rich but income poor'. It was then acquired  to the NT. The family continued to live on the Estate leasing the East wing.

1998 After a turbulent relationship with the NT the 7th Marquess relinquished the lease. He was well known for greeting visitors with his loaded shotgun!

Today, the collection ranks amongst the top 10 within the NT including important works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hogarth,Titian and Pousin along with outstanding Royal and European furniture, silver, china and manuscripts.

The grounds include a Walled Italianate Garden, currently decimated by box blight and a quirky Victorian-esque Stumpery constructed of tree stumps removed during WW II to enable food production. 

The interior of the Rotunda