Displaying items by tag: historic houses association

St Giles House in Dorset, the family seat of the Earls of Shaftesbury since the 17th century, is the winner of the 2015 Historic Houses Association (HHA) & Sotheby’s Restoration Award. The house was begun under the first Earl of Shaftesbury—a founding member of the Whig party—in 1651, built with elements from a 14th-century manor house that already existed on the site

The prize-winning restoration project was led by the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, who was only 25 years old when he inherited the 5,000-acre estate in 2005, and the Countess of Shaftesbury.

The Historic Houses Association and Sotheby’s announced that the 2014 Restoration Award has been given to Norton Conyers, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, home of Sir James and Lady Graham. The late medieval house, extensively rebuilt in the 17th century, has been the home of the Graham family since 1624. It is perhaps most famous for being an inspiration for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Brontë’s celebrated novel Jane Eyre. The novelist is believed to have visited Norton Conyers in 1839 and the family legend of a “madwoman” secretly confined to an attic room might have given her the idea for the crazed Mrs Rochester.

Sir James and Lady Graham, a former museum curator, began the restoration of Norton Conyers in 2006. Their assiduous work over the past eight years revealed fascinating layers of history, which visitors will be able to discover in July 2015, when this Graded II-listed house reopens to the public.