Great Estates - Back To Shugborough Hall

  

Although we've visited Shugborough on many occasions over the last few years, today was the first time we'd actually set foot inside the house.The estate was leased by the National Trust to Staffordshire County Council in 1966 but, in a bid to save money, the council handed Shugborough back in 2016 with 49 years still remaining on the lease. During this time, the hall had fallen into disrepair and had been undergoing renovation but, with the small matter of a worldwide pandemic, it had remained closed to the public until earlier this year.

Shugborough was the family seat of Lord Lichfield aka Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield (25th April, 1939 - 11 November, 2005), the celebrated fashion and society photographer, cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II and all-round cool dude. 

Patrick inherited his title when his grandfather died in 1960, his father having died two years previously. The Shugborough Estate was passed to the National Trust in lieu of death duties so Patrick leased an apartment within the hall until his untimely death from a stroke in 2005. He also had homes in London and the glamorous Caribbean island of Mustique but it was said that Shugborough was where he felt most at home.

The apartment is filled with Patrick's candid photographs of the Royal family and his many friends including Mick Jagger, Britt Ekland, Olivia Newton-John, Jean Shrimpton and Joan Collins and, as the images are owned by Getty, photography isn't permitted - although I did take a couple of sneaky photos of the hallway and his rather well-stocked below stairs bar...don't tell the National Trust! The psychedelic 1960s-era wallpaper is incredible, said to have been designed by Patrick and featuring seahorses, one of which was tattooed on his arm.

This amazing velvet and zardozi jacket by Mr Fish, the avant-garde designer label once beloved by Mick Jagger and David Bowie, was on display in his bedroom.

On leaving the apartment, we climbed the stairs below the Corinthian columns at the front of the house and had a look around the main part of Shugborough Hall.

The story of Shugborough is essentially that of two brothers: Thomas Anson (1695-1773) and his younger brother George (1697-1762). Thomas was a founder member of the Society of Dilettanti in 1732, established for the appreciation of classical Greek art.  He travelled extensively around the major Mediterranean cities in 1740, and became Member of Parliament for Lichfield in 1747.  The Shugborough estate had originally been purchased in 1624 by William Anson of Dunston, Staffordshire, and a modest two-storeyed house constructed in 1695.  Thomas Anson inherited the estate on the death of his father William in 1720, and from the late 1730s onwards, began slowly to acquire the surrounding properties but in 1744 the return of his brother from abroad allowed improvements to the estate to begin in earnest.

Commodore George, soon to become Admiral Lord Anson, had just completed a triumphant and extremely lucrative circumnavigation of the globe.  The expedition to harass Spanish possessions in the South Seas had not gone well, until in 1743 he managed to capture the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Covadonga, loaded with American silver. The Commodore’s personal share in the prize amounted to a vast fortune, which financed much of the early work on Shugborough during the 1740s and 1750s.  Probably the most famous naval officer of his day, George lived at Moor Park, Hertfordshire, from 1754 until his death in 1762, which led to a further round of improvements at Shugborough, Thomas having inherited the bulk of his brother’s wealth.

How cool is Jon's moleskin overcoat by The Great British Sewing Bee's Patrick Grant? It was new with the tags still attached in a charity shop yesterday.

We, and the charming National Trust volunteer on duty, loved the library. We all said how we could imagine lighting the fire, pulling up a chair and spending the day reading with a never-ending mug of tea and a plate of buttered crumpets...bliss!

Meanwhile in the garden.....

Attempting to emulate Patrick Lichfield's iconic photo of a young Britt Ekland seated on the lawn in front of Shugborough Hall (HERE).

The obligatory Vix on a bench photo!

I'm wearing a couple of old favourites, a vintage Phool quilted Indian block print jacket and a 1970s wool dressing gown worn as a dress. The woven luggage strap on my charity-shopped tooled leather bag was a Rodos buy (much better than the pitifully thin strap which was originally attached).

We were lucky with the weather, the rain held off until lunchtime.

Oh Autumn, you may not be my favourite season but you are beautiful.

After reacquainting ourselves with the glorious Capability Brown designed grounds and all of our favourite monuments we wandered back to the house for a look around the servants' quarters.

We stopped and chatted to our mates, the teddy bear sheep (I'm sure they're starting to recognise us) on our way back to Patrice (our elderly Citroen) where we tuned into BBC 6Music and demolished our car picnic. 

It's Wednesday and you know what that means....rum night! 

Cheers, thanks for reading & see you soon.