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The House at Shuttleworth
The House at Shuttleworth
	The House at Shuttleworth, Old Warden Park
General information
Architectural style	Jacobean style
Location	Old Warden, Bedfordshire, England
Opened	1876
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Henry Clutton
Website
	www.shuttleworth.org/shuttleworth-house/
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name	Old Warden Park
Designated	6 March 1985
Reference no.	1222169

The Mansion House, Old Warden Park is a 19th-century country house in Old Warden, Bedfordshire, England. Designed by Henry Clutton for Joseph Shuttleworth, it is a Grade II* listed building.^[1]

History

The Old Warden estate was bought in the late 17th century by London merchant Sir Samuel Ongley. It passed down in the Ongley family until 1872, when Robert Henley-Ongley, 3rd Baron Ongley, in financial difficulties, sold it to Joseph Shuttleworth of the Lincoln engineering firm of Clayton & Shuttleworth. It thereafter became better known as the Shuttleworth estate.^[2]

The current house was commissioned by Joseph Shuttleworth to replace an existing house on the site, and was intended to rival the 17th-century Shuttleworth mansion at Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire. It was designed by the prominent Victorian architect, Henry Clutton, in the Jacobean style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1876. It is laid out as a three-storey rectangular block. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of five bays facing south across the park. The central bay featured a round headed opening with a moulded surround. The first, third and fifth bays were projected forward and were fenestrated by canted bay windows. All windows were mullioned and transomed. There was a four stage clock tower, which was 100 ft high, to the right and behind the main block. At roof level, there was a balustraded parapet and there were high chimneys.^[1]

Clutton designed many of the interior features such as the carved doors, balustrades, and chimneypieces. Gillows of Lancaster made many of the interior furnishings and there are several examples of 19th-century paintings by prominent artists such as Sir Frank Dicksee, William Leader, George Vicat Cole and Frank Holl.^[3]

During the Second World War, the house was a Red Cross convalescent home and auxiliary hospital for airmen.^[4]^[5] It then opened as an agricultural college, appropriately known as Shuttleworth College, in 1946.^[6]^[7]

In November 2012, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £2.8 million to restore structures in the grounds including a Swiss Garden which was created by Robert Henley-Ongley, 3rd Baron Ongley, in the early 19th century, to exhibit Alpine scenery.^[8]^[9]

Today

The house is a venue for weddings, corporate events, product launches, conferences, afternoon tea, and as a filming location for period dramas.^[3] It is open to the public on selected event dates, including six Sunday airshows and Flying Proms.^[10] The house is managed by The Shuttleworth Trust, established in 1944 by Dorothy Clotilda Shuttleworth in memory of her son Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth (1909–1940).^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b Historic England. "Old Warden Park (1222169)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
^ "The Ongley Family". Bedfordshire County Council. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
^ ^a ^b "The House". Shuttleworth – home of the Shuttleworth Collection and the Swiss Garden. Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
^ "Pioneers: Richard Shuttleworth". Key Aero. 13 August 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ Burdon, Douglas. "Fire Orders". BBC. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ "Future farming education secured". FE News. 19 December 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ "Convalescent Hospital Old Warden Park House". Wartime Memories Project. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ "Old Warden Park Regency garden gets £2.8m lottery grant". BBC News. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ "Hidden 200 year-old Swiss Garden reveals its rare regency treasures". Heritage Lottery Fund. 30 July 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ "2019 Airshows at Shuttleworth". Shuttleworth – home of the Shuttleworth Collection and the Swiss Garden. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
^ "Shuttleworth Trust". Archived from the original on 22 April 2001. Retrieved 9 April 2008.