Sandon Park, Stafford, England

The Hall was rebuilt in 1850 by William Burn, after the earlier house (bought in 1776 by 1st Baron Harrowby) was damaged by fire. A conservatory was built in 1864, and has recently been restored. The 400-acre landscape park contains monuments commemorating Spencer Percival (1812, a gothic alcove) and William Pitt (1806, a Doric column with urn), and a pavilion known as Lord Harrowby's Folly. This consists of the top section of Belvedere Tower, designed by Charles Barry, from nearby Trentham. Lord Harrowby purchased it for £100 when Trentham Hall was demolished in 1912, and had it erected in the park at Sandon.

The park was landscaped about 1778 by William Emes, who also designed a circular flower garden to the east of the house (dated to 1781). This garden lay in front of the house's drawing room windows, and represents an early example of the return to formality adopted by later designers.

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The Sandon estate passed to the Dukes of Hamilton in the 18th century, and around 1770 Sandon Hall was rebuilt on a new, hilltop, site for Lord Archibald Hamilton, later ninth Duke of Hamilton. In 1776 he sold the estate to Nathaniel, first Baron Harrowby, in whose family the estate remained in the late 20th century.