Badminton House#Worcester Lodge

In 1612 Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, bought from Nicholas Boteler his manors of Great and Little Badminton, called "Madmintune"{{sic}} in the Domesday Book of 1086, while one century earlier the name "Badimyncgtun" was recorded,{{sfn|Harris|loc=Badminton Guide Book}}{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names |first=A. D. |last=Mills |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-19-852758-6}} held by that family since 1275. Edward Somerset's third son Sir Thomas Somerset modernized the old house in the late 1620s, and had a new T-shaped gabled range built. Evidence suggests he also had the present north and west fronts built up.

The Dukes of Beaufort acquired the property in the late 17th century, when the family moved from Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire, which had been ruined in the Civil War. The third duke adapted Sir Thomas Somerset's house by incorporating his several gabled ranges around the courtyard and extending the old house eastwards to provide a new set of domestic apartments. He had a grand Jonesian centrepiece raised on the north front. The two-bay flanking elevations were five storeys high, reduced to three storeys in 1713.{{sfn|Harris|loc=Badminton Guide Book}} Their domed crowning pavilions are by James Gibbs.

For the fourth duke, who succeeded his brother in 1745, the architect William Kent renovated and extended the house in the Palladian style, but many earlier elements remain.{{cite book| url=https://beta.southglos.gov.uk/static/2dfeb549ba97ba88ee652071883e2e31/Great-Badminton-1.pdf| title=Great Badminton Conservation Area| publisher=South Gloucestershire Council| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927025933/http://www.southglos.gov.uk/NR/exeres/92c02a8b-0fca-4877-a895-2bc14c5821d4| archive-date=27 September 2007| access-date=13 December 2024}} The duke was instrumental in bringing the Venetian artist Canaletto to England: Canaletto's two views of Badminton remain in the house.{{cite book| first1=Hugh| last1=Montgomery-Mass| first2=Christopher Simon| last2=Sykes| title=Great Houses of England & Wales| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-acjBygCDNYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Great+Houses+of+England+%26+Wales&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCpbiXuqaKAxX5w_ACHb1fFFoQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=badminton&f=false| year=1994| publisher=Laurence King Publishing| pages=219-232| isbn=978-1-8566-9053-9}}

Whether or not the sport of badminton was re-introduced from British India or was invented during the hard winter of 1863 by the children of the eighth duke in the Great Hall (where the featherweight shuttlecock would not mar the life-size portraits of horses by John Wootton, as the tradition of the house has it),Montgomery-Mass and Sykes 1994:219. it was popularised at the house, hence the sport's name.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/badminton/4163074.stm| work=BBC News| title=History of badminton| date=21 September 2005}}

Queen Mary stayed at Badminton House for much of World War II. Her staff occupied most of the building, to the inconvenience of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort. Afterward, when the Duchess of Beaufort, who was Queen Mary's niece, was asked in which part of the great house the Queen had resided, she responded "She lived in all of it."Montgomery-Mass and Sykes 1994:228.

In the later 20th century, Badminton House became best known for the annual Badminton Horse Trials held there since 1949. Badminton House has also been strongly associated with fox hunting.{{cite news| last=Vickers| first=Hugo|date=2018-11-15| title=A Life in Focus: Caroline, the Duchess of Beaufort| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/lifeinfocus/caroline-beaufort-dead-duchess-of-beaufort-badminton-queen-elizabeth-a8615216.html| url-status=live| access-date=2021-07-02| newspaper=The Independent| location=London| language=en| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182000/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/lifeinfocus/caroline-beaufort-dead-duchess-of-beaufort-badminton-queen-elizabeth-a8615216.html| archive-date=9 July 2021| df=dmy-all}} Successive Dukes of Beaufort have been masters of the Beaufort Hunt, one of the two most famous hunts in the United Kingdom alongside the Quorn Hunt.

Weddings and parties can be booked at Badminton House. Occasionally, houses and cottage on the estate can be rented. The estate was the location for some scenes of the films The Remains of the Day, 28 Days Later and Pearl Harbor, and of the Netflix series Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story and The Gentlemen.{{cite news| url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a60100345/the-gentleman-duke-of-halstead-true-story-explained/| title=Is There Really a Duke of Halstead?| first=Emily| last=Burack| date=8 March 2024| magazine=Town & Country| access-date=13 December 2024}}

Except for the Grade I listed parish church and Worcester Lodge, all structures named below are Grade II* listed.

Adjacent to Badminton House is the Grade I listed parish church of St Michael and All Angels, built in 1785. It serves as the principal burial place of the Somerset family; nearly all Dukes and Duchesses of Beaufort are interred here.{{cite web |title=St. Michael & All Angels, Great Badminton |url=https://www.badmintonchurch.org.uk/churches/great-badminton/ |website=The Badminton Benefice |access-date=11 July 2021}}

• The 11-bay orangery of 1711 by Thomas Bateman{{National Heritage List for England|num=1129313|desc=Orangery|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• An early 18th century laundry in Queen Anne style, now a house{{National Heritage List for England|num=1129315|desc=Laundry and dairy house|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• A similar brewery, also now a house{{National Heritage List for England|num=1129316|desc=Pond Cottage|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• The servants' wing southwest of the house, three ranges, late 17th century, altered and extended in the 19th{{National Heritage List for England|num=1129318|desc=Badminton House Servants Wing|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• Stables, barns and blacksmith's shop forming the four sides of the stable court, 1878, possibly by T. H. Wyatt{{National Heritage List for England|num=1320860|desc=Single storey ranges, barn and covered way enclosing four sides of Court Yard at Stable Court to Badminton Rouse|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}

File:Worcester Lodge, Badminton (geograph 2489135).jpg

At the north entrance to the park, near the Tetbury road and reached from the house by the Three Mile Ride, the Grade I listed Worcester Lodge was designed in 1746 by William Kent. The part-rusticated main block has four storeys. Over the high central archway is a dining room with generous windows and balustraded balconies; a pediment bears the Beaufort arms and the roof is partly domed. The room has a plaster ceiling by Kent, depicting fruit and flowers of the four seasons, described as very fine by Historic England. Kent also designed the convex mirror with a sunburst pattern. Outside, the ornamental flanking quadrant walls on both sides finish at small pavilions.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1153252|desc=Worcester Lodge to Badminton Park, with flanking quadrant walls and terminal pavilions|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}

Several buildings and follies were designed by Thomas Wright of Durham, around 1750.

• West of the house, Castle Barn is a castellated range of buildings including a barn and two flanking dovecote towers{{National Heritage List for England|num=1129344|desc=Castle Barn, flanking dovecotes and screen walls|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• In the deer park, the park-keeper's house is styled as a rustic cottage, one storey with attics{{National Heritage List for England|num=1155297|desc=Park Keeper's House, and workshop wing to east|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• Nearby, the Hermit's Cell or Root House is a small square wooden building with a thatched roof{{National Heritage List for England|num=1320851|desc=Hermit's Cell or The Root House|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• Lower Slait Lodge, at the northwest entrance, has two storeys in Gothic style with four hexagonal corner turrets{{National Heritage List for England|num=1129323|desc=Lower Slait Lodge|access-date=11 July 2021|fewer-links=yes}}
• Set on a motte at the end of a main drive from Badminton House is the folly known as Ragged Castle, now roofless and a building at risk{{cite web|date=2010|title=Ragged Castle|url=http://risk.english-heritage.org.uk/2010.aspx?id=1497|url-status=dead|website=Heritage At Risk Register|publisher=English Heritage|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826064230/http://risk.english-heritage.org.uk/2010.aspx?id=1497|archivedate=2011-08-26}}{{NHLE|num=1156209|desc=Ragged Castle or Keeper's Lodge|accessdate=28 September 2015}}

Canaletto - Badminton House, Gloucestershire.jpg|Badminton House in the 19th century

10th Duke of Beaufort outside Badminton Hall Allan Warren.jpg|The 10th Duke (d. 1984) in front of the house

Badminton House - geograph.org.uk - 5158474.jpg|East façade

• Badminton Library
• Badminton cabinet

{{Reflist}}

• {{Citation|last=Harris |first=John |title=Badminton Guide Book; The Duke of Beaufort His House |publisher=Bas Printers}}

• [http://www.badmintonestate.com Official website of the Badminton Estate]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101121163832/http://dicamillocompanion.com/houses_detail.asp?ID=121 Badminton House entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses]
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Badminton (village)|display=Badminton|volume=3|page=189}} About half of this article is devoted to a discussion of Badminton House.

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Category:Badminton in England

Category:Country houses in Gloucestershire

Category:English gardens in English Landscape Garden style

Category:Folly castles in England

Category:Gardens in Gloucestershire

Category:Grade I listed houses in Gloucestershire

Category:Grade I listed parks and gardens in Gloucestershire

Category:Gardens by Capability Brown

Category:Palladian architecture in England

Category:William Kent buildings