Wimpole Estate

Sited close to the great Roman road, Ermine Street, Wimpole was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. At that time there was a moated manor house set in a small 81 ha deer park. beginning in 1428 with Henry Chichele who was Archbishop of Canterbury. The last of this family to hold the house was the politician Thomas Chicheley, who was responsible for the "new" house that was completed in 1650. Chicheley established the "formal gardens and architectural landscape". In 1689, Sir John gave it as a marriage settlement to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Charles Robartes, 2nd Earl of Radnor. Upon Henrietta's marriage, in 1713, it became the possession of her husband Edward Harley, 2nd Earl…

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px"> File:Cmglee Wimpole Hall Yellow Drawing Room.jpg|The Yellow Drawing Room 1793 by Sir John Soane File:Cmglee Wimpole Hall chapel.jpg|The chapel by James Gibbs with murals by Sir James Thornhill completed 1724 File:Cmglee Wimpole Hall bath.jpg|The Plunge Bath c.1792 by Sir John Soane </gallery> Notable architects who worked at the hall included James Gibbs (between 1713 and 1730), Henry Flitcroft (around 1749), John Soane (1790s), and H. E. Kendall (1840s). There are decorative schemes by the painter James Thornhill (1721). Carved marble busts of the Roman emperors Trajan and Galba were returned to Wimpole in 2014 and placed on the original wooden…