Burghley House, Stamford, England

This important landscaped park created around 1555, surrounds a house built between 1555 and 1587 for Sir William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley and Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I, and lies to the south-east of Stamford.

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

 HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Burghley House was built by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth I, who was created Baron Burghley in 1571. Building began in 1555 and continued for a long period, into the 1580s. Today it represents one of the most impressive 16th century buildings surviving in England and has remained in the hands of the Cecil family throughout its history. William Cecil enclosed a park of about 132 acres (55 hectares) around his new house. He died in 1598 having completed his great work, which passed to his son Thomas, who was created first Earl of Exeter in 1605. Thomas died in 1622 and was succeeded by his eldest son William, the second Earl, during whose time the estate was surveyed by Thomas Thorpe, the survey noting that the park had increased in size to 448 acres (about 186 hectares).

Little work is recorded on the landscape until John, the fifth Earl succeeded in 1678. He made several journeys through Europe, commissioning fine works of art, statuary and furniture for Burghley. In 1683 he turned his attention to the landscape, employing George London (d 1714) and Moses Cook to lay out elaborate formal gardens, including a west court, pond garden and terrace. The main garden areas lay to the south of the House where canals, terraces, ponds, a maze and a vineyard were being constructed in 1700 when the fifth Earl died. George London's work was completed by the planting of the mile-long double bank of limes known as Queen Anne's Avenue under the sixth Earl in 1702.

Over the next fifty-two years the estate saw the succession and death of the seventh and eighth Earls, the ninth Earl, Brownlow Cecil, taking his place at the head of the family in 1754. The surveyor John Haynes was immediately employed to record the ninth Earl's seat. His map was produced in 1755, the year after Lancelot Brown (1716-1783) was first commissioned to remodel the landscape. Over the next twenty-three years Brown and the ninth Earl made sweeping changes, removing the George London gardens and creating shrubberies, a park and a small lake.

The tenth Earl, Henry, succeeded in 1793 and was elevated to Marquess in 1802. Between these two dates, following the Enclosure Acts for the adjoining parishes, Henry greatly increased the size of the park to 1400 acres (about 583 hectares) and spent £4000 walling it. He also commissioned W Legg of Stamford to design the Bottle Lodges at the main entrance. Brownlow, the second Marquess, held Burghley from 1804 to 1867, during which time he entertained and spent lavishly, made changes to the gardens and planted avenues in the park. He was succeeded by his son William, the third Marquess, who made further alterations to both park and gardens and more than doubled the size of the lake before his death in 1895. His son Brownlow held the title of fourth Marquess for only three years. William, the fifth Marquess succeeded in 1898 and recreated some areas of formal garden around the House, most notably an Edwardian rose garden in front of Brown'sorangery. His son David became the sixth Marquess in 1956, having achieved national and international recognition as an Olympic hurdler. David's brother Martin left England for Canada as a young man but succeeded to the title of seventh Marquess on David's death in 1981 and from him it passed to his only son Michael, the eighth and present Marquess. The site remains (1999) in private ownership.