BROUGHTONHALL TOUR GUIDE

CONTENTS

SALOON 1

DINING ROOM 2

LIBRARY 4

GREEN DRAWING ROOM 6

RED DRAWING ROOM 7

ANTE ROOM/BILLIARDS ROOM 8

BEDROOMS 10 CHAPEL 12

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.

SALOON > Broughton Hall, as it stands, has been the seat of the Tempest family since the 16th Century.

> The Tempests are believed to have come to England from Normandy during William the Conqueror’s 1066 invasion of England and were given land in the aftermath of the invasion.

> Roger Tempest, the current Custodian of the estate, is the 32nd Tempest in a recorded line dating from the 12th century.

> The Broughton estate was initially formed by the marriage of Roger Tempest II to Katherine Gilliot in 1407, which included the watermill and the land at Bracewell. The estate today comprises 2,700 acres.

> The Tempests are one of England’s oldest Catholic landed gentry families and there’s evidence of Mass being read in Broughton back to April 1453. Note the image of James II, the last Catholic monarch of England, hanging on the wall of the Saloon between the entrance to the dining room and the kitchen.

> After the Reformation (1537), when the head of England’s church became the King (Henry VIII) rather than the Pope, life for the Catholic gentry was made very difficult with heavy fines and exclusion from public and military affairs.

> Legend has it that, during the English Civil War, the lawns of Broughton Hall were the scene of bloody battles between Parliamentarians and Royalists.

> Everything was nearly lost at Broughton when Oliver Cromwell and his men made themselves unwelcome guests at the hall in 1648 during the Civil War. They caused much dilapidation on the grounds and cost the estate a lot of money, but the estate survived.

> Today it is a successful business park, which employs 600 people.

> Three generations of Tempests shaped Broughton Hall in the 18th and 19th centuries, but this room is part of the original 1597 manor that was built in a typical Elizabethan style. There are architect’s drawings in the drawers next to the door leading to the library. They show the changes to the house from 1597 to present day.

> The porch at the front of the house was designed to be big enough to allow a coach and horses in, it was designed by a Cumbrian architect called George Webster, who also added the clock tower and refaced the front of the hall in Golden Ashlar stone.

> The central hall was originally much bigger in the Elizabethan fashion but was later divided into a saloon and apses by the pairs of Ionic columns. The design of the saloon was inspired by the entry vestibule at the Assembly Room in York.

> The conservatory was conceived by the landscape gardener William Andrew Nesfield and the far dome was added in 1997 and exhibited in the Chelsea Flower Show.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

BASICS FOCUS1.

1/13

> Why/how did the family get the land originally?

The belief is that the family was given land by William The Conqueror, who bequeathed land to his supporters after the invasion of England by the Normans.

> Why are the columns wooden?

Such faux-marble was a fairly common feature of the period. They were regrained in the 1970s.

DININGROOM

> The monarchy of England was restored in 1660, with Charles II as the Anglican head of State.

> Sir Stephen Tempest IV (portrait on wall opposite the fireplace, bottom left wearing black armour and red sash) was knighted by Charles II that year for the Tempest family’s support for the Royals during the English Civil War.

> As Catholics, the Tempests were part of a persecuted minority in England and were forced to carefully manage the economy of the estate, pay fines for practicing Catholicism and - at certain points in history - send their children abroad to receive a Catholic education.

> This dining room was re-modelled in the 1810s by Stephen Tempest VIII to give the room its Regency-era appearance. It is has remained largely the same since then.

> Portraits on the wall opposite the fireplace, from top-left clockwise:

Arthur Cecil Tempest, born 1847, came second in the Grand National. He always said he would have won if he’d not had a tot of brandy the night before.

Eleanor Blanche Tempest, wife of Arthur Cecil, carved three fireplaces in Broughton Hall despite being blind in one eye. She also decorated a lot of the rooms including the Red Drawing Room.

Anne Gascoigne, wife of Stephen Tempest IV. Sir Stephen Tempest IV

> On either side of the fireplace are portraits of (left) Brigadier -General Roger Stephen Tempest, who fought in the Boer War in South Africa and in the trenches of the First World War. The portrait to the right of the fireplace is his wife Valerie Arthur.

> The furniture makers Gillows of Lancaster have been a cornerstone of the interiors of Broughton Hall. The Gillows dining table was designed so that diners can sit anywhere around it and not have a leg in the way.

> Gillows were a noted Catholic family in Lancaster, and are still in business today. The first significant purchase was a wine cooler, similar to the one under the side board in the dining room, and 12 Hall chairs that are placed though out the hall and decorated with the family seal. Originally Stephen Tempest didn’t like these chairs and pushed to get a discount, which he eventually got.

> Broughton Hall has the largest collection of Gillows furniture with accompanying documentation in England. Gillows used mahogany from the West Indies and were one of the first importers of the material in England, during the brief period when Lancaster was a major port town.

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BASICS P O S T R E S TO R ATIO N FOCUS2.

2/13

DININGROOM

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

2.

3/13

> Is the dining room still in use, do people ever eat in here? Yes, occasionally. Until recently it was largely used by the

current Custodian’s parents, Henry and Janet Tempest.

FOCUS

> Sideboard and small half moon tables on either side of the fireplace include a little ‘bottle screen’ curtain that was to protect the walls from splash back while drinks were being served.

> The sideboard was made in 1813 and includes the heads of the Roman god Ceres and Greek God Silenus in the corners (representing food and drink respectively). Their heads also appear on the corners of the doors.

LIBRARY > After two centuries of keeping a low profile due to the persecution of Catholics, the relaxation of penal laws in the 18th century allowed the Tempests to flourish, beginning a golden age of literature, art collecting and architecture for the family.

> That period began with Stephen Tempest VI’s move to Broughton in 1732. Stephen was a friend of the poet Alexander Pope and a literary man.

> He also believed that architecture was a key part of a gentleman’s education and initiated a lot of the changes that turned Broughton from an Elizabethan manor into the Palladian- inspired, neo Classical pile that it is today. He originally designed this library as a drawing room.

> Stephen Tempest VI penned and the published the ‘Religio Laici’, or ‘Religion for the Layman’, in 1759. It is a guide both to life and running a successful estate.

> Many of the 5,000 books were collected in his lifetime. All of the books have been catalogued and were individually cleaned, page by page, over three years in the early 2000s.

> The library contains the hand written Pedigree of the Tempests, written by Eleanor Blanche Tempest in the 19th Century, who also carved the fireplaces upstairs [mentioned earlier in the tour]. This traces the family’s genealogy back to the earliest known Tempest.

> The ceiling was designed by John Foss in 1786, and contains four different types of gold leaf. Foss also designed the chimneypiece at the end of the room with its inlaid Sicilian jasper.

> Portrait of Pope Alexander VII [at the far end of the room above the fireplace] dates from the 17th century, and was commissioned when the Tempests wanted to state their continued allegiance to the Pope rather than the Anglican king. It is possibly a copy of another painting because the Pope lacks the papal ring on his right hand in this image.

> The glass and ormolu chandelier was supplied by Perry & Parker in 1819 for £52. The company had made chandeliers for George IV.

> The two small columns on the table in front of the door are ormolu reproductions of Trajan’s Column in Rome. The original is over 38 metres tall and commemorates a victory of the Roman Emperor Trajan. These two columns are intricately engraved and there is an accompanying hand -coloured folio in the library that explains each of the details on the body. The two columns were purchased in Italy in the 19th Century.

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BASICS R E L IG IO L A IC I FOCUS3.

4/13

LIBRARY

FOCUS3.

5/13

> The fireplace was designed by Charles Sylvester, a notable inventor and chemist from Sheffield. The cast -iron panels on the floor of the fireplace can be raised so as to let the heat circulate better around the room. It is an excellent example of industrial age design, likely installed in the 1830s. It’s thought that these fireplaces are the last of these fireplace designs by Sylvester remaining in England.

> The son of Stephen Tempest VIII was a poet who travelled extensively through southern and central Europe. His handwritten poetry is held here in the library. He died in Rome in 1822 of consumption. There is a memorial to him at the foot of the Altar of St. Francis Xavier in the Church of the Gesu in Rome.

GREEN DRAWINGROOM

> This room was restored from top to bottom in 2005/2006, intended to restore the room as close as possible to its original look in the early 1800s Georgian period, although the green flock wallpaper is more mid -19th Century in its style.

> The two biggest influences on the current architecture and art collection of Broughton Hall was Stephen Tempest VIII and his wife Elizabeth Blundell. Their portraits hang on either side of the dividing doors to the Red Drawing Room.

> Elizabeth’s father Henry Blundell (his bust is underneath Elizabeth’s portrait, left of the dividing doors) was a wealthy art and antiquities collector of the Georgian era from Lancashire. He gifted several pieces to the couple as well as taking an interest in both their collecting and architectural changes to Broughton Hall.

> Elizabeth’s dowry in her marriage to Stephen Tempest funded both the couple’s collecting streak and the substantial additions to the hall, including the adding of the East and West wings of the house. Stephen worked with the architect William Atkinson, famous for his work on Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford cottage, to design and implement these changes.

> Stephen and Elizabeth embarked on the Grand Tour in 1816, with three of their children. This was a common pursuit for the upper classes from the 17th to mid -19th Century, usually taking in travels around France and Italy, looking at the work of the Old Masters, commissioning or acquiring paintings and rubbing shoulders with the Continent’s elite.

> The couple returned from Italy in 1818, although their two sons stayed on in Rome to oversee the shipping of purchases back to England. Attitudes towards Catholicism were changing, but many of the more ‘Popish’ items related to Catholic worship still had to be shipped by canal boat once it reached England so as to keep a low profile.

> The couple’s portraits (either side of the dividing doors) were painted by Xavier -François Fabre, who was a student of David, a member of the Florentine academy and a noted neo classical portraitist.

> Henry Blundell, Elizabeth’s father, gifted the painting on copper to the newlywed Tempests. It is believed to be by the Dutch master Willem van Nieulandt.

> Another Charles Sylvester fireplace here [see Library description].

> The table underneath the portrait of Elizabeth Blundell is a Gillows table but the top of it was purchased during Stephen and Elizabeth’s Grand Tour and added later. It is decorated with samples of all the marble grains available to the Italian craftsman at that time.

> Note the claw feet furniture, fashionable in Georgian England. All of the furniture is by Gillows of Lancaster. The re gilding of the chairs, ceiling and chandelier has been recently done by an Hungarian restorer.

> The Green Drawing Room was featured in the film ‘Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights’ starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes. They played ping-pong in this room.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

BASICS S T E P H E N T E M P E S T VI I I & E L I z A B E T H B LU N D E L L FOCUS4.

6/13

> What does the writing on the Tempest crest mean?

Seen above the front lawn facing window in this room, the Tempest motto, ‘Loyouf As Thow Fynds’ translates to ‘Love as you find’. It suggests a Christian ethic of forgiveness, to accept others for who they are and to not try to change others to suit your ideas.

RED DRAWINGROOM

> The Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 allowed Catholics to once again take part in military service, hold seats in parliament and practice their religion without penalties.

> The Tempests could again play a role on the national stage, and Sir Charles Robert, son of Stephen Tempest VIII and Elizabeth Blundell, was made the High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1838.

> Sir Charles Robert was one of the founding members of the Travellers Club in London, a meeting point for well-heeled wanderers and diplomats, including the noted Orientalist Gore Ouseley

> The Tempest estate at this time was at its widest extent, comprising Broughton and Burnsall, Coleby and Rauceby in Lincolnshire, and numerous properties in Lancashire.

> Sir Charles Robert set about modernising the estate, a process that began with the gardens, repairing some of the newly acquired properties and increasing the output of the Home Farm at Broughton. He also funded the building of St. Stephen’s Catholic church in Skipton, where future Tempests have since been buried.

> He was given a baronetcy by Queen Victoria for his services to agriculture.

> The oxblood red walls were suggested by Elizabeth Blundell and have remained the same colour since. This was originally used as a breakfast room but is now regarded as a music room.

> The restoration to this room in the mid 2000s was a pure conservation job, and this room remains largely as it was in the mid 19th century. The curtains are original.

> The large painting by Salvator Rosa [next to the door leading to the Ante Room] is titled ‘Crates Throwing His Money Into The Sea’ and was Sir Charles Robert Tempest’s last picture purchase.

> The work depicts the Greek Cynic philosopher Crates, the inheritor of a large fortune who threw his money into the sea and embraced a life of poverty and simplicity. The work is one of a pair of similar canvases, with the other canvas depicting Crates’s teacher Diogenes, which is held in the Pitti Palace in Florence.

> Salvator Rosa was a Baroque -era Italian painter known for his extravagant and rebellious personality. The Crates image was acquired from the Gerini Collection in Italy.

> The painting of Pope Clement IX [to the left of the dividing doors] is by Carlo Maratta. It is one of a pair, with the other version purchased by Catherine The Great, Empress of Imperial Russia, and now held in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The other half of the pair was originally owned by Sir Robert Walpole, the first prime minister of Great Britain who sold his collection to Catherine the Great in the 18th century.

> This room was featured extensively in the film ‘Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights’ starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. All of the carpets were removed for the scenes in here and the chandelier was changed to be candle lit. In one scene, Binoche played the rosewood boudoir grand piano (made by Chappell of London) in the corner of the room.

BASICS SIR CHARLES ROBERT TEMPEST & VICTORIAN HEYDAY FOCUS5.

7/13

ANTEROOM / BILLIARDSROOM

> Arthur Cecil Tempest ran Broughton Hall from 1894 in a style that was typically Victorian. There was a clear hierarchy among the servants and house staff that had not existed before, and this carried on through to the early 20th century.

> Arthur Cecil Tempest rode his own horse in the Grand National at Hall Court in 1865. He came second, and always said he would have won if he hadn’t had a tot of brandy the night before. A keen huntsman, he was made Field Master of the Blankney Hounds (a notable hunt in Lincolnshire) from 1885 to 1895.

> His wife Eleanor Blanche Tempest was an important figure in the preservation of the hall’s history. She compiled a handwritten pedigree of the Tempest family, which still exists in the library and took her 20 years to produce, and also carved a number of fireplaces around the hall (her portrait is in the dining room). She achieved this despite being blind in one eye.

> Eleanor Blanche also came up with a lot of the colour schemes that still feature throughout the hall and made a number of acquisitions including the panelling in Oak Bedroom and the two marble busts of Pope Pius VIII and Cardinal Consalvi in the ante room.

> Arthur Cecil Tempest’s son Roger Stephen (the current Custodian of the hall’s grandfather) had an illustrious military career, attaining the rank of Brigadier-General, before retiring to take over the running of the hall in 1921. He fought in both the Boer War in South Africa and World War I.

ANTE ROOM

> The wax silhouettes on the wall are of Stephen Tempest VIII, Elizabeth Blundell and their three children who accompanied them on the Grand Tour. They had this made while in Italy.

> The Ushak rug on the floor is Turkish and was commissioned in the 19th century. Entirely hand knotted, the carpet runner was designed to run the length of the upper floor, down the staircase and through to the ante room.

> These Chinese cabinets were bought by Arthur Cecil Tempest and Eleanor Blanche. They are either late 18th century or very early 19th century, and are George III Chinese-lacquered cabinets inlaid with gilt Chinoiserie. They were likely purchased during the Victorian era’s vogue for Oriental furniture.

> The Doll’s House next to the staircase was made by Roger Stephen Tempest, built entirely of cigar boxes and so delicate that his children were not allowed to play with it. Queen Mary visited Broughton Hall in 1935 and was particularly impressed with the doll’s house.

> The stained glass window on the staircase was installed in the 1890s by Burlison & Grylls in Lancaster. It is a combination of stained and painted glass, and features a genealogy of the Tempests.

B ILL IARD ROOM

> The paintings of the short horned cows in the billiard room were painted by Henry Strafford and were produced when Charles Robert Tempest was made a baronet for his services to agriculture. These cows were part of his livestock and were individually named.

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BASICS ARTHUR CECIL TEMPEST UP TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY FOCUS6.

8/13

ANTEROOM / BILLIARDSROOM

FOCUS6.

9/13

> The painting on the far left shows a horse stood next to a bear. The horse belonged to Monica Tempest, the sister of Charles Robert, and the bear was called Nel. It arrived at Broughton with a groom from Canada, became very tame and was a companion of the grey horse, often sleeping in a wooden barrel close to the stables.

> The Billiard table’s frame is by Gillows of Lancaster. The room originally had raised seating under the window so that people sitting in the room could see the game.

BEDROOMS

7.

10/13

CORRIDOR

> The drawings of the estate on the walls here were done by Jan Kip and Leonard Knyff, two Dutch engravers famous in the 18th century for their bird’s-eye view, minutely- detailed images of England’s country homes.

> The walls feature several pencil and ink works by Carl Ludwig Hackert, dated from the 1790s, as well as a series of works by the portraitist and miniaturist J.M Nettier that draw on Rubens’s work.

OAK BEDROOM

> The oak bed is Jacobean (likely 17th century) with intricately carved inlay typical of that period. Note the openable bed steps on the left side of the bed.

> The bell pull next to the bed/door was used for calling servants and would still work if connected. The fabric along the pull is embroidered with the crests of the Tempests and their associated families. On the back, it features the signature of Eleanor Blanche Tempest who made this pull.

> The original oak panelling was installed in 1654 by Stephen Tempest IV, but has since been embellished with panels purchased from other stately homes and manors that were being dismantled in the 19th century.

> The recent restoration of this room turned the old dressing room (originally accessible from the corridor) into an en suite bathroom.

SMITH’S ROOM

> Ms. Smith was personal assistant of the current custodian’s grandmother in the 1900s. The children were also cared for in the adjoining nursery.

PORTICO ROOM

> The block printed wallpaper is early 19th century. The embroidered pole screen close to the fireplace was used to shield a lady’s face from the fire.

SOUTH ROOM

> The hand carved cupboard is likely to have been worked on by Eleanor Blanche Tempest and was made in the 19th century despite the inscribed date of 1616. There is evidence of a staircase in the cupboard, today sealed off, which likely led to the original, now defunct chapel

at Broughton.

NORTH ROOM

> The bed is made by Gillows, dates from the 19th century and, due to its size, is limited to which rooms it can fit in. But it suits well in North Room with its largely 19th century collection of furnishings.

> Before the recent restoration of the bathroom, this was two very narrow bathrooms created by a partition that ran to the window.

BOW BEDROOM

> This has been the Master Bedroom since the 19th century. Many of the fans on the wall belonged to Violet Tempest, others were owned by Eleanor Blanche

Tempest and were purchased in Paris. The oldest one here is in the top- right corner.

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1ST FLOOR

BEDROOMS

7.

11/13

CAPTAIN ’S ROOM (AND GARDEN)

> This room was divided by a partition for a dressing room before its recent restoration. The very old chest at the foot of the bed is a recent addition to the room and features a crown on the lid, suggesting a royal connection. Combined with the studded cross under the lid, it is possibly pre- Reformation.

> The Captain’s Room bathroom is called the Print Room and is decorated with the designs drawn up for Broughton Hall’s garden and pavilion by Bradford firm Andrews & Delauney from an idea conceived by William Andrews Nesfield. There is a good view of the garden and pavilion from here.

> Nesfield was hired by Sir Charles Robert Tempest and was one of the most influential garden designers of the 19th century. A friend of several notable artists including JMW Turner, Nesfield designed three vistas on Kew Gardens and remodelled the lake at Castle Howard.

> Nesfield described the job of improving the gently sloping

ground in front of the Green Drawing Room as the most difficult he had ever done. Nonetheless, the ‘box parterre’ pattern is made all the more visible by this gentle slope and works brilliantly. Nesfield’s small pavilion at the end of the garden provides a good visual balance to the clock tower on the West Wing of the hall. He also designed the dolphin fountain (visible from the Bow Bedroom), and advised on the design of the conservatory.

1ST FLOOR

CHAPEL > Henry Tempest, the father of the current Custodian and a keen show jumper, returned from Rhodesia in 1961 with his wife Janet and began administering the estate. Extensive reparations needed to be done, including the dry rot in the chapel, all at a time of heavy inflation and hostility towards traditional landowners under Denis Healey’s government.

> Henry Tempest began the process of transforming Broughton into the successful, modern estate that it is today by selling the remaining property in Coleby, including the Tempest Arms pub, and some of the principal treasures at Broughton. This was used to rewire the house, redecorate and turn several of the buildings on the estate into commercial re use properties. Two furnished flats were made in the west wing of the house, and the stables were turned into offices for let.

> Roger Tempest, Henry’s eldest son and the current Custodian of Broughton Hall, took over the running of the estate in 1988. He has continued a process of innovative re use of buildings on the property. Broughton Hall Business Park now has over 50 companies operating on site and, in total, Broughton is the place of work for 600 people.

> This chapel remains the heart of Broughton Hall after 500 years of Catholic worship on the estate. It is still a fully functioning Chapel – although recently it has started to share a priest with the local parish. It is possible to be married, christened and host a funeral here. Mass is held on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and all Holy Festivals are celebrated.

BASICS HENRY TEMPEST TO THE PRESENT8 .

12/13

CHAPEL

8.

13/13

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

> Is there a family crypt here? No, the Tempests were buried at Broughton Church

nearby. In the mid -19th Century Sir Charles Robert Tempest built St. Stephens in Skipton. Subsequent Tempests have been buried at St. Stephens.

> The chapel was first built in the mid -18th century by Stephen Tempest VI. From the outside, the chapel is indistinguishable from the rest of the hall so as to keep its Catholic worship low profile at a time of persecution and heavy fines for Catholics in England. Any Catholic priests found celebrating Mass were liable to perpetual imprisonment and a reward of £100 was offered for information leading to the arrest of such priests.

> In 1780 the Chapel was redecorated in a Georgian Gothick style with a rib-vaulted ceiling. The chimneypiece is thought to have been designed by John Foss, who also designed the chimneypiece and ceiling in the Library.

> In 1801, the laws persecuting Catholics started to relax and a cross was placed on the chapel roof, announcing its status as a house of worship.

> The interior of the chapel was painted by a Belgian called Anton Wybo who had also worked on the Jesuit church in Bruges. In 1953, in celebration of 500 years of Catholic worship at Broughton Hall, Stephen Tempest restored the chapel and added the gold and blue decorations.

> The centrepiece of the altar is a painting of Jesus Christ crucified, sent from London’s Lime Street Chapel in London, which had been attacked and destroyed the night James II fled England in 1688. The painter is Godfried Mais of Antwerp, and the work dates to 1680. The silver sanctuary lamp also came from Lime Street Chapel.

> The two paintings of St. Stephen and St. Cecelia incorporate the faces of Roger Stephen Tempest (born 1876) and his sister Blanche Cecil Tempest.

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FOCUS

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