From the 17th century to the mid-20th century, France was the world leader in art and craftsmanship, as well as in many other areas. Its influence was so great that it set the tone for fashions and styles throughout this period, and it is therefore easy to find the French style and its influences all over the world. Waddesdon Manor was built just across the Channel in England, but this has more significance than if it had been built on a distant continent, as the British, for political and national reasons, tried with all their might to repel the French style, but without much success. One family was so identified with the style that it was named after it.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild was the head of the Jewish financial dynasty originating in the city of Frankfurt and is the father of the five Rothschilds who dispersed to strategic areas of Europe to expand their businesses: James to Paris, Karl to Naples, Salomon to Vienna, Nathan to London and Amschel to Frankfurt. Ferdinand de Rothschild, grandson of Salomon and Nathan (his parents were cousins), was born in Paris and after the death of his mother who lived in England he decided to settle there and married her niece Evelina. While he was looking for a place to build his house, he had the opportunity to buy from the Duke of Marlborough (who was in financial difficulties) the Woodsdon estate in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, about 85 km west of London.
Ferdinand was an avid art collector and, like the rest of his family, loved the French style (so much so that they found themselves competing with each other at auctions). It was only natural that he would build his house in the French style. To this end, he hired the French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur. The style he was asked to design was the Renaissance style of castles. Loire valley With Chateau de Mouchy serving as a role model.
As Woodsdon was a farmland with no buildings or gardens, the architect had the freedom to design the house without interference. Construction began in 1877 after Ferdinand scaled back the architect's original plan, ignoring his warnings that the house was too small, and after about 3 years of dealing with difficult terrain conditions, the house was nearing completion while a large team was still toiling to create some of the most beautiful French gardens in England, surrounded by a vast English park.
The house, intended to be used as a summer home for a few months a year, was used for entertaining and entertainment and was furnished with the finest 18th-century French art that Ferdinand had collected over the years; decorative wood panels from the Parisian home of financier Pierre Dudan, a large and impressive collection of Sèvres porcelain, Beauvais tapestries, Savonnier tapestries, furniture by artists such as Jean Henri Riesener, Charles Cressent and André Charles Boulle, paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret, Jean-Baptiste Greuze as well as collections of clocks, drawings, books, fans and various decorative arts.
The proof that the French style is the most beautiful and noble is reflected in the number of visitors who visit the place. Woodsdon Castle is currently owned and operated by the National Trust and is considered one of the most visited castles in England in general and the Trust in particular, and therefore access to it is via organized transportation. After boarding the shuttle that leaves the visitor center, you travel through the woods that surround the castle until it is revealed in all its glory. A short walk along the main path towards the door takes the guest into the foyer and from there to a series of rooms, each more magnificent than the previous one. Unlike castles built until the end of the 18th century, the rooms are not arranged as infields (moving from room to room without a corridor or foyer), which gives the place a more homely feel.
A video showing Woodsdon Castle and its gardens
We begin in the eastern gallery, where the automaton stands out above the other works, a kind of elaborate oriental-style elephant-shaped music box. From there we continue to the breakfast room covered with dark panels by architect Jean Baptiste Bullet, and from there into the marble foyer to the formal dining room, which is a Baroque masterpiece covered with marble walls on which tapestries by Francois Boucher hang. We continue to the red drawing room, so named after its red wallpaper. We continue to the gray drawing room furnished with furniture by the best 18th-century artists and porcelain by Sevres. The gray drawing room leads us to the western gallery, in the center of which stands a clock by André Charles Bullet, and next to it is the small library. This is where the original house ended, but Ferdinand quickly realized that the architect was right and the house was too small, so in 1889 he built an addition that constitutes the private wing on the ground floor of which is a room The Baron's conversion, the room served as Ferdinand's private retreat to which he invited his close friends.
The house has many more rooms, all of which are furnished from head to toe with one of the largest and most important collections of French art in the world, which, back in Ferdinand's time, gave it such a distinguished status that Queen Victoria invited herself to the place to be impressed by it and to update herself on the electrical technology that Woodsdon was one of the first to adopt. Of course, the room where the queen refreshed herself, who did not stay overnight, was named after her.
Ferdinand was a sickly man and while he served his guests delicacies, he had to make do with meager food. After his wife died during the birth of their son, his sister Alice moved in with him. After his death in 1898, since he had no children, she inherited the house. The next in line to inherit the place was her nephew James de Rothschild from the French branch of the family. James is the son of the well-known philanthropist Edmond de Rothschild and he was also an ardent supporter of the Zionist movement. His wife Dorothy was one of the architects of the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Since they also had no children, James and Dorothy decided to donate the house to the National Trust to prevent the house from suffering a similar fate to many estates in England at the time, which were demolished and their collections sold to anyone who wanted them. After James's death, the process of transferring the estate and its contents to the Trust began under the supervision of Dorothy, who remained involved in the place until her death. The estate, which also includes a hotel, restaurant, souvenir shop and hosts various events, is open all week except Monday and from January to March it is only open on weekends (check the website for updates: www.waddesdon.org.ukYou can get there by car via the M40 from London or by train from London Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway and from there take a taxi to Woodsdon.
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