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Stourhead House and Park

(vero;2025-April-18)

Stourhead is a National Trust property located near Mere in Wiltshire. The entrance fee to the house and the gardens was 22£ for non-members when we visited in 2025, the car park was 4.50£ (free for members). Click here for up-to-date visitor information and follow this link to browse the art collection of the house. Only the ground floor of the house was open to the public. Inside, there is a mixture of neo-classical decoration and Edwardian plaster work. The library with its impressive shelves full of leather-bound books is a real highlight as well as some Chippendale furniture and the extravagant Pope's cabinet. However, we must admit that we were disappointed by the art collection on display which we found a bit gloomy and enjoyed the visit of the garden and the park much more than the house.

In all its history until 1946, Stourhead has been in the ownership of the Hoare family, affluent City bankers who founded Hoare's Bank in 1672 and are still trading today.

Stourton manor was purchased in 1717 by Henry Hoare I (1677-1725) who replaced the existing house by the Palladian house we see today. His son, Henry Hoare II (1705-85), furnished the house with paintings and sculpture; he also created the famous landscape garden, with its lake, grotto, temples and monuments. In 1785, Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838), grand-son of Henry II, inherited Stourhead: he enlarged the house with the library and the picture gallery and made significant changes in the garden. However, due to family debts and an agricultural depression, the Hoares were forced to sell some of their possessions and part of the art collection (among others works by Turner, Poussin and Nicholson) in 1883. In 1902, a fire destroyed the central part of the house, resulting in all the contents of the upper floors being lost. The house's reconstruction was completed remarkably quickly by 1907 by Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare (1865-1947). However, his son and only heir Harry having been killed in the First World War, Sir Henry who was determined to keep the estate intact donated Stourhead to the National Trust in 1946.

The east portico was added to the front of the house by Sir Henry Hugh Hoare (1762-1841) in the last three years of his life. It is made of Chilmark and Portland stone. The statues on top are made of lead and feature Minerva, Ceres and Mars.

Fireplace in the library representing Tobit lending money to Gabael by Pierre Legros II (1666-1719).

For book lovers like us, this library is a gem. The clock and the cabinet on the picture are by Thomas Chippendale II (1749-1822).

The arresting lunette window in the library brings light into the room and was made by glass painter Francis Eginton. The image was created by painting two panes of very thin glass on both sides with glass paint and transparent enamel. The two panes were then glued together with putty along the frame. It represents scenes from the school of Athens (after Raphael).

Portrait of Julia Lucy Lane, Mrs Henry Arthur Hoare (1868) by Henry Richard Graves.

The dining room with a portrait of Alda Weston, Lady Hoare on the wall (painted in 1909-10).

View into the park from the house with a lead statue of Apollino by John Cheere.

Detail of an Italian table cabinet (1670-90). Material used are: ebony, satinwood, jasper, lapis lazuli, marble, brass and oak.

Detail of a commode (possibly by Haig & Chippendale). Materials used: satinwood, harewood, purpleheart, tulipwood and partridge wood. The frame is a oak and mahogany construction.

The Pope Cabinet was made in Rome around 1585 for the pope Sixtus V. It is an incredible feat of workmanship, containing secret drawers on multiple levels with an exterior decorated with pietra-dura.

Portrait of Alda Weston, Lady Hoare by St George Hare (painted in 1909).

A wall full of assorted portraits of the Hoare family.

The Temple of Apollo overlooking the gardens, based on a circular temple at Baalbec (Lebanon).

The obelisk in the park (erected in 1839).

The lake is fed by the waters of the river Stour whose source lies within the grounds of the estate (it reaches the sea in Christchurch near Bournemouth after 98km / 61 miles).

In the grotto: view of the Palladian bridge at the end of the lake.

Inscription in the grotto, created around 1748. It is among the earliest-known examples of the revival of a sans-serif typeface; the National Trust asked typographer Paul Barnes to design a corporate font based on it for its solely use. The inscription comes from Alexander Pope's translation of a pseudo-classical poem and reads: "Nymph of the grot these sacred springs I keep; And to the murmur of these water sleep; Ah spare my slumbers, gently tread the cave; And drink in silence or in silence lave".

Lead sculpture of a sleeping nymph of the River Stour in the grotto by John Cheere.

Lead sculpture of a River God in the grotto by John Cheere (1751).

Inside the Pantheon (built after the Pantheon in Rome) with marble statues of Livia Augusta as Ceres on the right and Hercules on the left.

Top of the ceiling inside the temple of Apollo.

The picturesque Palladian bridge in the park.

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