Harlaxton Manor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harlaxton Manor is a mansion in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, England. It was built 1837 by Sir Gregory Gregory. The manor is currently the home of the University of Evansville's British campus. The house combines Jacobean and Elizabethan architecture with symmetrical Baroque massing to create a house more exuberant than any surviving Elizabethan or Jacobean mansion. The original architect was Anthony Salvin, who was replaced by architect William Burn, who is responsible for Harlaxton's interior detailing.
University students from schools throughout the United States reside at Harlaxton while spending a semester studying abroad. The manor was also used in all the exterior shots for the 1999 The Haunting, as well as interior and exterior shots in the films The Ruling Class, The Lady and the Highwayman, and The Last Days of Patton. It was also used to film the BBC drama, The Young Visitors. Most recently it was used as the setting for a TV program called Australian Princess.
Contents |
[edit] History
The current manor house is the second Harlaxton Manor. The first was built on a different site during the fourteenth century and was used as a hunting lodge by John of Gaunt. By 1475, the de Ligne family purchased the manor. The original manor house was deserted after 1780 and, after Gregory inherited it, was torn down in 1857.
The current house was built by Gregory from 1837 to 1845 and helped usher in a renaissance of Elizabethan architecture. Upon Gregory's death, the manor passed to his cousin George Gregory and then in 1860 to a distant relative, John Sherwin. Upon the death of Sherwin's wife in 1892, it passed to his godson Thomas Sherwin Pearson, who owned the house but allowed it to fall into disrepair. Abandoned by 1935, the manor was purchased in 1937 by Violet van der Elst, the widow of a painter and a businesswoman, who developed the first brushless shaving cream. She restored the manor and arranged for it to be wired for electricity.
In 1943, the Royal Air Force used the manor to house a company of the 1st Battalion of the British Airborne Division. Five years later, Lady van der Elst was forced to sell the manor and it was purchased by The Society of Jesus who used it as a novitiate. They sold the manor, while retaining rights to some of the lands, to Stanford University in 1965. The University of Evansville acquired the manor in 1971. Immediately after the purchase of the property, the University of Evansville began renovating the entire facility starting with the most critical items first.
[edit] Present Day
Presently, Harlaxton Manor is known as "The British Campus of the University of Evansville." It is an American owned and operated college which is home to a wide array of students and professors seeking a bit of adventure each academic semester. During the summer, the site is often used for various meetings as well as social gatherings such as weddings.
All students and visiting instructors actually get to live in either the manor house or its accompanying carriage house, while teaching classes or studying abroad for a semester. Classes and offices are held in many of the gilded and ornate rooms throughout building. It is not uncommon to hold lectures in the dining room for example, or to have offices in former bedrooms.
The average enrollment is around 150-200 students each semester. A majority of the student body is composed of students from the University of Evansville. From as far back as 1973, the University also welcomed students from William Jewell College [1]. Today, there are also students from several other American colleges, including but not limited to: University of Southern Indiana, Baker University, Converse College, Eastern Illinois University, Western Kentucky University, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Catawba College, Houston Baptist University , Texas Woman's University, and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
During the summer the manor is home to the Harlaxton International Chamber Music Festival which draws music students and faculty from throughout the world.
Since 1984, Harlaxton Manor has also been the site of the annual Harlaxton Symposium, an interdisciplinary symposium on medieval art, literature, and architecture (http://www.harlaxton.dial.pipex.com/index.htm).
Students recently arriving at the college have been known for getting lost; then they begin to explore the campus often finding a number of secret passageways throughout the building. There are occasionally even ghost sightings.[citation needed]
