Trentham Estate
[citation needed] Around 1730, John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, erected a hall based on Buckingham House.
[citation needed] The country house, of which parts remain dating from 1833 to 1842, was designed by Charles Barry,[4] while he was working on the rebuild of the Palace of Westminster.
[1][citation needed][5] The original approach to the hall was from the west, and an Italianate grand entrance was part of the western front.
It was made of plastered brick and ashlar, and had unfluted Ionic columns on each side of its bays, as well as a balustrade above the cornice.
Barry spent over ten years improving the house and added a new block including state bedrooms and dressing rooms, as well as servant's quarters, a sculpture gallery, and a clock tower.
[citation needed] This interesting complex, with its clock tower, is generally known as the Riding School, designed in 1840 and built between 1841 and 1850.
It stands on the perimeter of a large cobbled stableyard and represents the last major addition to, and almost sole survivor of, the once-exciting and impressive Trentham Hall.
[7] The house served as the Staffordshire seat of the Dukes of Sutherland,[citation needed][4] whose traditional burial place was Trentham Mausoleum nearby.
[8] This colossal statue, designed by Winks and sculptured by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, surmounts a plain column of stone on a tiered pedestal.
Sewage and effluent from nearby potteries polluted it in the early 20th century, making life at the hall unpleasant.
[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] The county council, being unwilling to open a higher education institution, proposed using the hall for a teacher training college, but the Duke of Sutherland was unhappy with this suggestion.
[26][25][24][27][22][15] The Duke of Sutherland then decided to offer the estate to the six Potteries towns[a] in 1907, in the event that they went ahead with plans to merge into a single county borough.
During the 20th century, the estate was used for an amusement park and even for hosting the Lombard RAC Rally, which cut through the Italianate gardens.
[10] St. Modwen set out a plan to recreate the house according to the original designs at the cost of £35 million[4] as a five-star hotel[34] with 150 rooms,[4] a luxury spa,[34] and a conference centre.
[37] The overall aim is to avoid noisy theme park-like attractions, and instead to offer "authentic experiences" to older people and younger children.
[38] In December 2008 a transportable Ferris wheel was opened on site for tourists to get an overhead view of the gardens, the estate, and out over the city.
In December 2022, the estate announced it had gained a licence from Natural England to host four Eurasian beavers from Spring 2023.
They were managed by Martin Earley who also rode in the team along with Jamie Norfolk, Robin Seymour and Robert Miller.
In the 1960s and 1970s many dance, rock and pop bands performed at Trentham Ballroom, including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who, Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin.
[citation needed] Before World War I, the Staffordshire Yeomanry used Trentham as a summer military training camp between 1909 and 1914.
The French soldiers were a mix of the Foreign Legion, the Chasseurs Alpins (the light mountain division) and a tank company.
[42] The 1,619 men of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion had been in Norway, but had been pulled out to defend a line in Brittany from where they then fled to Britain.
[48] As part of the regeneration, Trentham Monkey Forest, the first wildlife park of its kind in England, was opened in July 2005.
