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Lot Essay
Executed in 1797, Nattes’ views depict Wynyard Hall before the remodelling in 1822 by Philip Wyatt based on his brother’s unexecuted plans for the Waterloo Palace. The connection to Wynyard begins in 1742 when John Tempest purchased the house from Thomas Rudd for the sum of £8,000. John Tempest died in 1776, he was succeeded by his son John Tempest, whose only son and heir, John Wharton Tempest, died tragically young in 1793. In order to maintain the family name, John Tempest bequeathed Wynyard to his nephew Sir Henry Vane on the condition that he adopted the name of Tempest. Sir Henry moved to Wynyard from the nearby estate at Long Newton in 1794.
There had been a house on the site since the Middle Ages, but it was the Tempest family in the 18th Century who transformed Wynyard Hall into an elegant Queen Anne style mansion with rows of long sash windows as depicted by Nattes. The house was similar in shape to the present house but on three floors instead of two. Archibald Alison, writing the history of Lord Castlereagh and Lord Stewart, described the house as in the ‘Flemish style architecture’. The historian Robert Surtees in 1823 described it as ‘one of the most handsome and convenient mansions in the district’ (The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 3).
However, the Tempest mansion had a relatively short-lived existence. The popular Sir Henry Vane-Tempest died in 1813 and the house subsequently fell into disrepair. In 1819 the late Sir Henry’s newly-married daughter Frances Anne, Lady Stewart and her husband Charles William Stewart, later the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry took up residence. Initially they planned to just redecorate the house but the destructive effect of dry rot led to the demolition of most of the house and the rebuilding on a grander scale. Parts of the 18th-century house are thought to have been incorporated but essentially the house appears to have been rebuilt. In two of Nattes’ watercolours the high arch of the ‘Lion Bridge’ can be seen, it is the only recognizable structure remaining from the Tempest’s 18th-century improvements and still forms the main approach to Wynyard today.
Nattes is renowned for his extensive topographical work throughout England, in 1786 his first views were published by W. Watts in Seats of the Nobility and Gentry and in 1789 he was commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks to record the buildings of Lincolnshire, which resulted in more than 700 drawings and watercolours. His views of Wynyard serve as a rare and important record of the 18th Century appearance of Wynyard before the subsequent 19th Century remodelling.
There had been a house on the site since the Middle Ages, but it was the Tempest family in the 18th Century who transformed Wynyard Hall into an elegant Queen Anne style mansion with rows of long sash windows as depicted by Nattes. The house was similar in shape to the present house but on three floors instead of two. Archibald Alison, writing the history of Lord Castlereagh and Lord Stewart, described the house as in the ‘Flemish style architecture’. The historian Robert Surtees in 1823 described it as ‘one of the most handsome and convenient mansions in the district’ (The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 3).
However, the Tempest mansion had a relatively short-lived existence. The popular Sir Henry Vane-Tempest died in 1813 and the house subsequently fell into disrepair. In 1819 the late Sir Henry’s newly-married daughter Frances Anne, Lady Stewart and her husband Charles William Stewart, later the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry took up residence. Initially they planned to just redecorate the house but the destructive effect of dry rot led to the demolition of most of the house and the rebuilding on a grander scale. Parts of the 18th-century house are thought to have been incorporated but essentially the house appears to have been rebuilt. In two of Nattes’ watercolours the high arch of the ‘Lion Bridge’ can be seen, it is the only recognizable structure remaining from the Tempest’s 18th-century improvements and still forms the main approach to Wynyard today.
Nattes is renowned for his extensive topographical work throughout England, in 1786 his first views were published by W. Watts in Seats of the Nobility and Gentry and in 1789 he was commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks to record the buildings of Lincolnshire, which resulted in more than 700 drawings and watercolours. His views of Wynyard serve as a rare and important record of the 18th Century appearance of Wynyard before the subsequent 19th Century remodelling.