A is for Althorp

In our new archive series, our volunteer archivist Cluny Wells presents an A-Z of Chiswick House connections launching with A… for Althorp.

A stately home in Northamptonshire, and the country seat of the Spencer family for 300 years. Althorp was one of the five houses belonging to the aristocratic family who are probably best known for Diana, Princess of Wales.

A winter abode for Georgiana

Althorp is connected to Chiswick House through Georgiana Cavendish, neé Spencer, who became the Duchess of Devonshire. Georgiana’s earliest memories as a child were of moving between the five Spencer houses, and Althorp was where the family spent the winter months. Georgiana learnt to associate the change in seasons with a move to a different location.

The Spencer family

Althorp is mentioned as a small hamlet in the Domesday Book as ‘Olletorp’, and by 1377 it was a village with a population of more than fifty people. But by 1505 there were no longer any tenants living there, and in 1508, John Spencer purchased the Althorp Estate with the funds generated from his family’s sheep-rearing business. Althorp became one of the prominent stately homes in England. The current building dates back to 1688, replacing an earlier house that was once visited by Charles I.

John Spencer, the fabulously wealthy First Earl of Spencer celebrated his 21st birthday with a ball at the house on 20 December 1755, during which he secretly married 18-year-old Margaret Georgiana Poyntz. This young couple were to be the parents of Georgiana Spencer, who in turn would be the future wife of the Fifth Duke of Devonshire.

A ‘noble pile’

John Evelyn, the diarist, visited Althorp in the seventeenth century and described it as almost palatial, ‘a noble pile…’. He admired the great saloon, which had been the courtyard of the house before one of the family forbears covered it with a glass roof. Georgiana’s parents used the saloon as their ballroom, whilst the Spencer children used it as an indoor playground, particularly on rainy days when they would enjoy running around playing tag, or sliding down the ten-foot wide staircase. It seems that Georgiana’s early childhood at Althorp was a happy, carefree time.

The house at Althorp was a ‘classically beautiful’ red brick Tudor building, but its appearance was radically altered from 1788 when the architect Henry Holland was commissioned to make extensive changes and four Corinthian pilasters were added to the front.

Becoming a cultural hub

During the 18th century, the house became a major cultural hub in England, and parties were regularly held, attracting many prominent members of Great Britain’s ruling class. George John, the Second Earl Spencer, who owned Althorp between 1783 and his death in 1834, developed one of the largest private libraries in Europe at the palace, which grew to over 100,000 books by the 1830s.

After falling on hard times in 1892, John Spencer, the Fifth Earl Spencer, known as the Red Earl, sold much of the collection to Enriqueta Rylands, who was building the University of Manchester Library. Many of Althorp’s furnishings were sold off during the twentieth century, and between 1975 and 1992 approximately 20% of the contents were auctioned.

Althorp today

The 13,000-acre Althorp estate now has 28 listed buildings and structures. Charles, the Ninth Earl Spencer, and the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, has been in charge for 29 of the House’s 500-year history. Find out more about visiting Althorp at https://althorpestate.com/