Kingston Lacy, Dorset, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.  

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

During the medieval period, Kingston Lacy formed part of an extensive royal estate within the manor of Wimborne. The manor house stood to the north of the present mansion, with a deer park to the north-west. The estate was frequently let to supporters of the Crown, including the de Lacy family, earls of Lincoln, while in the mid 15th century it was occupied by John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (d 1444). His daughter, Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was brought up at Kingston Lacy. By the early 16th century, the medieval manor house had fallen into disrepair and much of the open hunting land on the estate was enclosed. In 1603 James I gave the manor to Sir Charles Blount, whose son sold the Kingston Lacy estate to Sir John Bankes in 1636. Bankes, who was appointed Attorney General to Charles I in 1634, was a successful lawyer who originated in Cumberland and had acquired the royal castle of Corfe in the Isle of Purbeck in 1635, which became his principal seat. Sir John died at the fugitive royal court at Oxford in 1644, while his wife, known as 'Brave Dame Mary', defended Corfe Castle through two Parliamentary sieges. When the Castle fell through treachery in 1646 it was slighted and rendered uninhabitable.

In 1663, Sir John's second son, Ralph (knighted 1660), who had inherited the estate in 1656, commissioned Sir Roger Pratt (d 1685) to design a new house to be erected at Kingston Lacy. This building, known as Kingston Hall, was completed by 1667. The new house was provided with formal gardens, some of which were enclosed by walls, while a series of formal avenues radiated through the park. This layout survived to be recorded on a plan by William Woodward in 1774-1775.

Sir Ralph Bankes died in 1677, leaving the estate to his son John, who was a minor. Between 1686 and 1688, Kingston was let to the Duke of Ormonde, the family only returning to the house in 1693. John Bankes and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Parker of Honington Hall, Warwickshire, sought to consolidate the family's finances, and made improvements to the house and gardens, possibly realising incomplete elements of Sir Ralph's original scheme (National Trust 1994). John Bankes died in 1714, and the estate remained in his widow's management until 1719 when it passed to his son, John Bankes the Younger. This John Bankes, who remained unmarried, undertook major structural repairs to the house, which included reconstructing the roof in 1736-1738. At his death in 1772, the estate passed to his brother Henry, who despite a tenure of only four years, initiated significant changes, including the enclosure of agricultural land outside the 17th century park, the remodelling of the house, and the construction of new service blocks. In 1776 Henry Bankes was succeeded by his son, also Henry, who continued his father's programme of improvements, implementing the enclosure and expanding the park. Further major changes were made to both the house and its setting by Henry Bankes' son William, who inherited in 1834. A connoisseur who travelled widely in Europe and Egypt buying works of art and antiquities, William Bankes commissioned Charles Barry in 1835 to remodel Kingston Hall, which was now to be known as Kingston Lacy. The programme of improvements was completed in about 1841 and included schemes, some of which remained unimplemented, for new formal gardens. In September 1841, Bankes left England for voluntary exile on the continent after he was accused of `indecently exposing himself with a soldier of the Foot Guards in Green Park [London]'. Work on the house and gardens continued in Bankes' absence under the supervision of his sister Anne, Lady Falmouth (d 1864), while the estate was managed by his brother George, who inherited at William Bankes' death in 1855. George Bankes survived only a year and was succeeded in quick succession by his son and elder grandson. In 1869 Kingston Lacy was inherited by George Bankes' younger grandson, Walter Ralph. Marrying late in life, at his death in 1902 W R Bankes left a two-year-old son, Ralph, and until 1923 the estate was controlled by his widow, Henrietta (d 1949), who was responsible for many improvements including the construction of the church (1907), new entrance lodges (1912-1913), and numerous estate cottages.

In 1923 control passed to Ralph Bankes, who at his death in 1982 bequeathed the Corfe and Kingston Lacy estates to the National Trust. The site remains (2004) the property of the National Trust.