Welbeck Abbey And Attached Picture Gallery, Chapel And Library

Welbeck Abbey and attached Picture Gallery, Chapel and Library

Large country house of exceptional historical complexity. The building originated in the mid-12th century with substantial mid-13th-century work. Early 17th-century alterations include work by Robert Smythson. John Smythson built a riding school and stables around 1623; the stables were demolished in the 18th century, while the riding school survives in much remodelled form as the present chapel and library.

Mid-18th-century Gothick alterations were possibly carried out by John James or Thomas Carter. Mid-18th-century garden improvements were undertaken by Francis Richards. Between 1775 and 1777, the east front was remodelled by Carr. From 1790 to 1792, Humphry Repton carried out improvements including earthworks to the west front and conversion of the ground floor into a basement. A major building programme for the fifth Duke between 1860 and 1879 included underground rooms and tunnels. In the early 1890s, the riding school was converted to library and chapel, largely to designs by Henry Wilson. From 1900 to 1902, Ernest George of George and Yates carried out extensive work including remodelling of the Gothick Hall, additions to the east front, and reconstruction of the fire-damaged west front.

The building is constructed of ashlar with some rendered sections, with moulded copper tile roofs and numerous ashlar chimney stacks.

The main house forms an L-plan, extending via a curved picture gallery wing to a further rectangular chapel and library wing. The south front presents fourteen bays across two storeys plus attic over basement, with a central pedimented three-bay slightly projecting section and single-bay three-storey pavilions topped by parapets at either end. Two-storey ranges have modillion cornices. The central doorway features an ornate Baroque-style porte-cochere with bold rustication by George. Most windows are glazing bar sashes; however, the five bays to the right of the central section have wooden mullions and leaded casements. The north front, at right angles, is two storeys with thirteen bays of glazing bar sashes, some blind openings, and a balustrade top. A single three-storey tower projects from the third bay from the west, with a domed lantern over the seventh bay from the west. The south front extends to seventeen bays across three storeys. The central slightly projecting bay has rusticated pilaster strips topped with a segmental pediment, flanked by two outer bays and single slightly projecting four-storey towers. Beyond these project two-bay three-storey pavilions with pediments and rusticated pilasters, followed by three further bays, all surmounted by a balustrade. Most windows are glazing bar sashes. A doorway bears plaques dated 1743 and 1902.

The east front comprises a main two-storey plus attic and basement front of fourteen bays with an off-centre three-bay slightly projecting three-storey pedimented central pavilion. The pavilion's ground floor contains three semi-circular rusticated openings. Six bays lie to the left of the pavilion and five to the right, all topped with a parapet. A Baroque-style rusticated Venetian doorway occupies the second bay from the north. To the left extends a four-bay three-storey pavilion topped with a balustrade, featuring a projecting columned entrance loggia over a rusticated base with barrel-vaulted roof. Glazing bar windows appear throughout.

The north front is highly irregular, with a single-storey extension topped by a Gothick gable with pinnacles. From this projects a two-storey rendered and ashlar picture gallery wing with small three-light wooden casements, linking the main house to the former riding school block. This block is two storeys with fifteen bays, a parapet, and coped gables with kneelers topped by a pair of ornate clock cupolas. Glazing bar sashes extend throughout. To the rear of the block, single coped walls on each side feature single recessed arches with keystones, terminating in vermiculated rusticated and decorated piers, each topped with four orbs supporting an obelisk. Many glazed skylights to the south illuminate the sunken ballroom.

Interior features include mid-13th-century vaulting and a doorway in the basement. A fireplace by Robert Smythson is decorated with strapwork, ornamental urns, brackets, and Delft tiles. The Bursar's study contains a sexpartite stone rib-vault with Cavendish and Ogle crests, a pendant boss, a stone tablet with a Cavendish stag, and panelling similar to that at Bolsover. A set of 18th-century state rooms, mostly remodelled in the 19th century, includes the Great Hall, which retains an 18th-century pendant plaster vault. A Mannerist revival archway dated 1749 and a small Gothick room dated 1749 with decorative plasterwork are notable. The library features bookshelves and an inglenook alabaster fireplace by Pomeroy with decorative plasterwork and wooden panel surround. The chapel is extraordinarily elaborate and sumptuous, with a marble colonnaded Arts and Crafts interior featuring a decorative barrel-vaulted roof. Its fittings include a bronze lectern, decoratively carved benches, a Sheffield plate altar front, a 17th-century altar piece by Honthorst, a marble, brass, and enamel font, and a marble pulpit. Elaborate bronze entrance doors dated 1909 by P. Wilson complete this exceptional interior.