Ickworth House

Ickworth House stands in a Suffolk park of more than 1,800 acres. The building is a neoclassical rotunda built between 1795 and 1829 for Frederick Hervey, the Earl-Bishop, who wanted an Italian-style villa in the English countryside. Italian architect Mario Asprucci drew the first designs, later adapted by the Sandys brothers from Ireland. The house was meant to be an art gallery, but the Earl’s collection was taken by Napoleon, and he died before it was finished. The central rotunda rises 32 metres under a domed roof, flanked by single-storey wings that lead to large terminating pavilions. The East Wing served as the family’s daily home until 1998, while the West Wing remained empty for two centuries. The house holds paintings by Velázquez, Titian, Gainsborough, Reynolds and others, alongside Georgian silver and Regency furniture. The Hervey family portraits include works by Angelica Kauffman, Batoni and Hogarth, and Geraldine Hervey collected decorated fans and silver fish. The church in the park contains a 15th-century wall painting of the Angel of the Annunciation and roundels of 14th-century Flemish glass. The park itself shelters ancient oaks, including one at least 800 years old with a trunk over nine metres wide. The National Trust now cares for the house and grounds, which also include a hotel in the East Wing and apartments in the Dower House. Visitors walk from the house to the church through the landscaped park, where giant oaks frame wide lawns and wooded areas. Inside the rotunda, the ground and first floors display family portraits and fine art, while the upper rooms hold silver and porcelain. The Pompeian Room and Smoking Room, added in the 19th century, open off the narrow linking wings. The recently restored West Wing hosts conferences and events, and the first wedding in the house’s history took place there in 2006. The park’s paths lead past the Tea Party Oak and through Albana Wood to quiet clearings.