Hampton Court Palace Research Articles

A Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey's Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace

Buyldynge royally Theyr Mansions curiously With turrettes and with toures With halles and with boures Stretchynge to the sterres With glasse wyndowes and barres (John Skelton, Collyn Clout, c. 1522, lines 934–39) Of buildings large, I could rehearse a row That by mischance this day have lost my name Where of I do deserve the only fame (Thomas Churchyard [born c. 1520], The Tragedy of Cardinal Wolsey, lines 215–17)

Conservation of Reigate Stone at Hampton Court Palace and HM Tower of London

This paper describes a research project on Reigate stone, undertaken by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) over the last four years.1 Reigate Stone was used extensively at the royal palaces from the medieval period, and is infamously nondurable. Reigate Stone was replaced with more durable stones, such as Bath Stone, in the nineteenth century, but more recently there have been efforts at conservation. To date, the HRP project has concentrated on gaming a more complete understanding of the nature of the stone, which is unique in the British Isles. The project has involved re-entering the abandoned underground quarries in East Surrey to take core samples, which have been analysed by various techniques. Results were incomplete at the time of writing (June 2001), but much useful new information about the stone has been gained. Comparative treatment trials have gone ahead in recent months, in collaboration with US-based researchers. Further discussions with academics and practitioners are planned.

The dendrochronological potential of modern yew (Taxus baccata) with special reference to yew from Hampton Court Palace, UK.

Modern yew (Taxus baccata) is demonstrated to have considerable potential for dendrochronological use. A replicated 303 yr chronology has been formed from Hampton Court Palace yew and cross-matches well with a number of different tree species, including oak. Growth is positively correlated with rainfall but inversely related to late summer temperature. Range limits and present and prehistoric sources of yew are also briefly discussed, highlighting the future potential of yew to become the third major tree species for British dendrochronological study.

The scientific imagination and the Baroque garden

The aim of this essay is to establish connections between the style of gardens and the scientific movement in 17th-century Europe. This raises problems of terminology. What exactly is a Baroque garden? And what is the scientific imagination? The second question is one of method, and it can best be answered in my conclusion, once the method has been seen at work. The first, on the contrary, requires an immediate answer because it sets time limits to the field we are going to explore: the Baroque garden is a type of garden whose origin can be traced to the Renaissance; Italo-French by birth, it began to develop in the early 17th century, giving rise to such creations as Villa Aldobrandini and Villa Garzoni in Italy, Maisons, Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles in France, Het Loo in Holland and the Fountain Garden at Hampton Court Palace in England. Although its supremacy was shaken when Palladianism and the Picturesque emerged in Britain, the Baroque lingered on almost everywhere in Europe, taking on Rococco aspects that enabled it to survive until the last decades of the 18th century.1

The Tudor Chapel and State Apartments at Hampton Court Palace

"The Tudor Chapel and State Apartments at Hampton Court Palace." The Court Historian, 2(sup1), pp. 14–15

The Participants, clerical and lay, in Candlemas 1541

(1997). The Participants, clerical and lay, in Candlemas 1541. The Court Historian: Vol. 2, Extra Series No 1: The Mass of the Purification (known as Candlemas) in the Chapel Royal Hampton Court Palace, pp. 2-4.

The Early Tudor Royal Household Chapel: Function, Organisation and Personnel

(1997). The Early Tudor Royal Household Chapel: Function, Organisation and Personnel. The Court Historian: Vol. 2, Extra Series No 1: The Mass of the Purification (known as Candlemas) in the Chapel Royal Hampton Court Palace, pp. 8-13.

Restoration of the South Wing at Hampton Court Palace

Restoration of the South Wing at Hampton Court Palace

Brick Kilns and Brick and Tile Suppliers to Hampton Court Palace

The vast quantity of bricks needed to build Hampton Court Palace must have required a major brick-building effort. The suppliers are identified from documentary sources and, for Henry VIII's rebuilding, shown to have been both local workers and brickmakers brought in from their own localities—up to forty miles away. Subsequently, in the seventeenth century, bricks for the pre-Wren modifications and the Wren additions came mainly from Hammersmith and Twickenham. On the other hand, roofing tile suppliers were mainly local, notably from Kingston-upon-Thames, and always worked from their own kilns. Finally, the price of bricks supplied to Hampton Court Palace is shown to have increased about seven-times over a period of 150 years.

The conservation of the united tin plate workers’ society banner of 1821

Painted banners and their conservation have always presented problems. Banners are generally painted on both sides, each with its own design, but the paint rarely covers the whole of the fabric. At the Textile Conservation Centre at Hampton Court Palace, techniques have been developed for their treatment that owe more to textile conservation methods than to those used in painting conservation. The treatment of the earliest known Trade Union banner with a design taken from the arms of the Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers is described. The banner measures 209 cm. by 267 cm. The documentation prior to conservation includes analysis of fabrics and paints and their condition. The description of the conservation begins with the removal of old repairs, including sellotape, and continues with surface cleaning, consolidation of paints, humidification with poultice treatments, heat sealing of weak painted areas, and stitched support of unpainted areas. It ends with a description of the measures taken to protect the banner in transport, future displays, or in storage.

Risks from artificial stone cladding on existing houses

This note comes from the Building Conservation Trust and is based on a statement issued by the Trust's Technical Committee. The Trust operates the permanent exhibition which is open daily at Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 9BS.

The East Window of the Chapel at Hampton Court Palace

The appearance in 1982 of volume iv part II, marks the completion of that epic task, The History of the King’s Works, which would surely never have been achieved but for the devoted editorship and authorship of Howard Colvin over a period of twenty-five years. In this last volume the section dealing with Hampton Court opens by stating that ‘although more survives of Hampton Court than any other Tudor palace, the architectural history of that great complex of buildings . . . presents many problems that neither archaeological investigation nor documentary research can fully resolve’.

New Light on William Kent at Hampton Court Palace

The Georgian gothick remodelling of the east range of Clock Court at Hampton Court is well known, and its attribution to William Kent, although based only on an oblique comment by Horace Walpole, 1 has never been questioned. 2 What seems to have escaped the notice of modern architectural historians is that the building is no longer in its original form, a number of its most distinctive features having been destroyed in the nineteenth century, greatly to the detriment of the design (PI. ia).

Historic textile conservation at the textile conservation centre, Hampton Court Palace

Historic textile conservation at the textile conservation centre, Hampton Court Palace

Historic textile conservation at the textile conservation centre, Hampton court palace

Historic textile conservation at the textile conservation centre, Hampton court palace

Hampton Court Re-visited James I and the Puritans

The conference between James i, some of the bishops and representatives of the puritans at Hampton Court palace in January 1604 was one of the most significant events in the political and religious history of England. But at the present time its significance is not clearly understood. The king's puritan policy did not begin or end there, but even in 1604 the conference was understood as a chance for the puritans to gain a measure of toleration or to begin a further reformation of the Church of England. As things turned out neither was the case. The classic accounts of Gardiner and Usher assumed that the conference was a failure for the puritan cause, but in 1961 Mark Curtis, in a widely accepted article, claimed that the king was more sympathetic to the puritans than Gardiner and Usher had allowed. Professor Curtis analysed the creation of the proclamation of October 1603 which announced the conference and claimed that its genesis showed a measure of serious criticism of the Established Church which has never been acknowledged by historians. He pointed out the episcopal bias of the official account of the conference, William Barlow's The Summe and Substance of the Conference… at Hampton Court, and noted the importance of what he felt was a neglected source, an ‘Anonymous Account’, which he believed showed marked differences between the king and the bishops, and emphasised the common ground between the king and the puritans. By considering the decisions made at the conference - whether they were put into effect or not - Professor Curtis was convinced that the conference itself was a puritan success in which the king made important concessions to them.

Excavations at Hampton Court Palace

Excavations in Hampton Court Palace in May 1977 revealed part of the foundations of the Queen’s Gallery built by Henry VIII. A trial excavation in Clock Court provided inconclusive evidence of part of the western facade of the east range.

Bernard van Orley and Malines: The Dido and Aeneas Tapestries at Hampton Court

SummaryThe designs of the early sixteenth-century series of five tapestries on the story of Dido and Aeneas at Hampton Court Palace {Collection of H.M. the Queen) were tentatively ascribed by A. E. Popham in 1926, and following him by K. T. Parker, to ‘Aert Ortkens’. But the drawings attributed to Ortkens by successive writers since Friedländer (1921) can now be shown to represent the production of the Malines school of designers for glass and tapestry during the first third of the sixteenth century, and to include a number of early sketches by Bernard van Orley. The article suggests how the design of the second tapestry of the Dido and Aeneas seriesfitsinto van Orley's œuvre, and refers the others to minor masters of the Malines—Brussels circle round van Orley and the brothers Adrian and Peter van den Houte of Malines.

A New Age of Newspapers in Africa?

The 1965 Assembly was a top level affair, with some 250 editors or editorial managers from 32 different countries. Among the speakers were Walter Lipmann, probably the most honoured of living journalists; the biggest newspaper tycoon, Lord Thomson; Cecil King, head of the huge Daily Mirror empire; Lord Shawcross, who spoke on the press and the law; and a Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent just back from Vietnam. At a dinner in Hampton Court Palace, the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, spoke to the members for half-an-hour.

A New Age of Newspapers in Africa?

The 1965 Assembly was a top level affair, with some 250 editors or editorial managers from 32 different countries. Among the speakers were Walter Lipmann, probably the most honoured of living journalists; the biggest newspaper tycoon, Lord Thomson; Cecil King, head of the huge Daily Mirror empire; Lord Shawcross, who spoke on the press and the law; and a Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent just back from Vietnam. At a dinner in Hampton Court Palace, the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, spoke to the members for half-an-hour.