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Family Homes

Linley Sambourne House in Kensington, London, Nymans in West Sussex and Birr Castle Demesne in County Offaly, Ireland, remain today the three key homes of this extended family. All three reveal the family's preference for the romantic nineteenth-century vernacular revival style.

Linley Sambourne House

The middle class Victorian home of Edward Linley and Marion Sambourne, its eclectic interior is today just as it was in the late nineteenth-century. It reflects Edward Linley's mildly 'artistic' tastes and his interests in traditional design. Every room is a treasure trove of family memory. Thanks to the energetic campaigning of his granddaughter, Anne, Countess of Rosse, the house is preserved in its entirety, and is now in the care of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is open to the public.

The dining room at Linley Sambourne House. ©The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea: Linley Sambourne House.

Nymans

Nymans was bought by Ludwig Messel in 1890. In the mid 1920s his son Leonard together with his wife Maud reconstructed the Victorian house into a romantic pastiche of a medieval manor. The house was filled with antiques collected by Leonard and Maud. In 1947 a fire destroyed large sections of the building. In 1952, Leonard Messel bequeathed the house and gardens to the National Trust. The gardens are open to the public.


The Great Hall, Nymans. ©The Messel Collection at Nymans Gardens, The National Trust.	Nymans after the fire 1947. ©The Messel Collection at Nymans Gardens, The National Trust.

Birr Castle Demesne

Birr Castle Demesne, the seat of the Earls of Rosse, the Parsons family, was built in a Gothic revival style in the early nineteenth-century. In 1842-45 the 5th Earl built 'the Great Telescope', the largest telescope in the world, in the castle's grounds. After her marriage to Michael, the 6th Earl, Anne, Countess of Rosse, refurbished the interiors in Victorian revival style. In the 1990s, William Brendan, the 7th Earl and his wife Alison restored the telescope and the gardens, and created Ireland's Historic Science Centre. The gardens and the Science Centre are open to the public.


Birr Castle Demesne. ©Birr Castle Archives.	Birr Castle Demesne. ©Birr Castle Archives.