InfoBritain

 

Wilton House, Wiltshire

Wilton has been linked to royalty since early Anglo Saxon times. A nunnery was founded here, which figures quite frequently in Anglo Saxon royal history. For example, Wilton was an important setting for dynastic manoeuoverings during Edward the Confessor's reign. The Confessor was struggling to control his great rival Earl Godwine, and made a political marriage to Godwine's daughter Edith. Unfortunately Edith could not have children, and Edward was unable to divorce her without upsetting Godwine. In 1051 Edward managed to have Godwine exiled, and sent Edith to Wilton nunnery while he looked for a new wife. Godwine, however, returned with an army, forcing Edward to release Edith from her exile at Wilton.

After the Norman invasion of 1066 Wilton continued to be important. In 1100 when William the Conqueror's son Henry I came to the throne, he wished to marry another Edith, daughter of the King of Scotland. Edith had been sent to Wilton and forced to wear a veil. The Church claimed this made her a nun, which of course made her ineligible to marry. Archbishop Anselm looked into the matter. He decided that as Edith took the veil off and stamped on it whenever the mother superior wasn't looking, she wasn't really a nun. In this way Edith was freed to marry Henry. These two royal stories actually reflect a wider truth about nunneries. A nunnery was a place for rich families to place women who did not fit into the narrow roles set down for them in Medieval England. If a rich woman did not marry, then she did not have the option of working in agriculture or industry open to women of poor families. The single rich woman was in effect married off to a nunnery, with a "dowry" being paid for her upkeep. Since a nunnery was a place for women who did not fit in normal social roles, they made sense as a destination for awkward royal women. .

The twelfth century saw the nunnery at Wilton being replaced by a Benedictine abbey, which was disbanded during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1542 Henry VIII granted the abbey and its lands to William Herbert. A year after acquiring his new property William Herbert began creating a Tudor house, incorporating parts of the old abbey. This house was famous during Tudor times as the residence of Mary Sidney, sister of Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney. When Philip Sidney was not labouring in boring and low paid work which came with being Queen Elizabeth's Cup Bearer, he would escape to Wilton and enjoy the company of Mary and her friends. Sidney did not write for Queen Elizabeth as Spenser did. He wrote The Arcadia for Mary and her lively group of friends at Wilton, and included in his poetry veiled jokes about the Queen, no doubt designed to make Mary and her friends giggle like naughty schoolgirls behind the headmistress's back.

In the 1630s the 4th Earl of Pembroke commissioned Inigo Jones to re-model Wilton House in a Palladian style. Rooms open to the public at Wilton include a number by Jones, all built to impress visiting monarchs. The King's bedroom by Inigo Jones was last used by George III. Further extensive alterations were made in the nineteenth century when the 11th Earl employed James Wyatt to build the Cloisters, and create a new entrance hall. Today the central entrance tower, shown in the picture above, is all that survives of the old Tudor House.

Descendents of William Herbert, the Earls of Pembroke, continue as the present day owners of Wilton.

 

 

 

An educational programme is available at Wilton, for details telephone 01722 746716.

The gardens are laid out in a naturalistic Capability Brown style. The Palladian Bridge was designed by the 9th Earl in 1736.

 

Many films have used Wilton House as a location including The Young Victoria, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, The Madness of King George, Mrs Brown, and The Bounty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Address: Wilton House, Wilton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP2 0BJ

Opening Times: The house is open from 22nd April to 1st September Sunday to Thursday 11.30am - 4.30pm. Also open September 4th, April 22nd, 23rd and 30th, May 28th and August 27th.

The grounds are open daily from 10th April to 4th September 11am - 5pm.

The grounds are also open on weekends in September.

Directions: Wilton is just off the A30, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Click here for an interactive map centred on Wilton House.

Access: There is good access in the house and restaurant. The grounds are level and have good paths.

 

 

 

 

Contact:

telephone: 01722 746700

infoline: 01722 746729

fax: 01722 744447

e-mail: admin@wiltonhouse.com

web site: http://www.wiltonhouse.co.uk/

 Share