HANBURY HALL
Hanbury Hall is listed as a Grade I building, built in the Queen Anne style around the turn of the 18th Century, and although there is no firm account of its construction it is believed to be around 1706.
The Hall was built by the wealthy lawyer Thomas Vernon. Thomas was the great-grandson of the Rev Richard Vernon, the first of the Vernons to come to Hanbury. Rev Richard and his descendants slowly accumulated land in Hanbury, including the manor bought by Edward Vernon in 1630, but it was Thomas, through his successful legal practice, who added most to the 8000 acre estate.
The halls original plan included a large undivided central hall with the main staircase leading off it, with many much smaller rooms in the corner pavilions and north range with the South ranges consisting mainly of service rooms, all of which were typical of the time.
After his marriage to Emma Vernon (1754-1818), Henry Cecil, 1st Marquess of Exeter and with the exception of the great hall, remodelled the interior in 1776, creating larger rooms and enlarging the north east pavilion. On the south façade, having removed a doorway he repositioned all the windows to lie under their first floor equivalent. On the south side there had been large formal gardens, clearly shown in the estate maps of the 1730s, but Cecil had these all cleared to create an open landscaped park in the style of Capability Brown after spending time with him whilst being brought up by his uncle, the 9th Earl of Exeter at Burghley House.
The painting of the staircase, hall ceiling, and other rooms were carried out by the English painter Sir James Thornhill. The theme of the wall paintings that wrap around the stairwell derive from the classics featuring the Greek hero Achilles, and above is a large representation of the Olympian gods on the ceiling.
George London designed the original formal gardens in 1705, heavily influenced by the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. At the end of the 18th century they were removed, to be replaced by open spaces, however the formal gardens were recreated in the 1990s, using the original plans from 1705 and they were officially reopened in 1995.
After a number of changes in succession Sir George Hamilton Vernon became the 2nd Baronet of Hanbury in 1920. Sir George led an unhappy life, separating from his wife Doris, and spending his last 10 years living with his secretary and companion Ruth Powick, who later changed her name by deed poll to Vernon. During this time the agricultural depression led to a reduction in rental income, and Hanbury Hall suffered a lack of care.
In poor health, Sir George Vernon took his own life in 1940. There were no further heirs to the Baronetcy which became extinct. Sir George's estranged wife was able to move back in after his death, dying there in 1962.
Negotiations led to the National Trust having the reversion, and after making essential repairs on Lady Vernon's death, the hall was let to tenants and opened to the public on a restricted basis. In recent years the hall has been managed more commercially and is now open daily with the site receiving over 230,000 visitors a year.
MAKING THE FILM
I am a UK CAA and EU EASA registered UAV pilot with valid Op and Flyer ID's and my drone is a DJI mini 3 Pro, which weighs less than 250g, therefore I can fly within VLOS up to an altitude of 120m (400ft) AGL in the Open A1Category. I am allowed to fly over uninvolved people but am not allowed to fly over a congregation/crowd that cannot dispurse in the unlikely event that the drone falls out-of-control! The flight was not in a FRZ and the local council does not have a bylaw to prevent TOAL. It was very quiet, when we visited, so I was easily able to launch the DJI mini 3 Pro close from a public path just outside the National Trust property boundary and maintained VLOS with the assistance of a spotter (my wife).
SOUNDTRACK
Within Our Nature by Scott Buckley released under CC-BY 4.0.
(If you follow my channel you may notice I use Scott Buckley's music a lot. He's a great composer for cinematic video accompaniment and his music is available for free from the following link:
www.scottbuckley.com.au/
/ @doccolvideo
Narration: Source material from Wikipedia, created using SZC-500-USB Condensor microphone and Audacity and edited in Filmora 12.
Ground level video's were taken using DJI Osmo 6 gimbal and a Samsung S10e mobile phone.