A tour of Browsholme Hall.

In 1815 Thomas Lister Parker published his Description of Browsholme Hall, the first guide to the house and one of the rarest and finest of the genre. The next was written by Colonel Robert Parker in 1957 when Browsholme Hall was opened to the public.

This information, first published in 1980, has thus a long ancestry. It adopts the well-tried formula of a tour of the house followed by a brief history of the Parker family. It cannot be comprehensive but attempts to provide the basic facts about the house and its history, and through a wide range of illustrations to convey the atmosphere and character of Browsholme Hall.

The exterior of the Hall.

Browsholme Hall, pronounced Brusom, lies in the Forest of Bowland four miles north-west of Clitheroe. Now in Lancashire it was until 1975 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The original red sandstone house was built by Edmund Parker who obtained a new lease from the crown in 1507. He died in 1547. The house was ‘H’ shaped a central hall with the parlour wing to the west and kitchens to the east. By 1591, when an inventory was taken, twenty-four rooms existed including the ‘Schole Chamber’, ‘Paynted Chamber’ and ‘Maydens Chamber’. After 1603 when Thomas Parker purchased the freehold, the wings and front were refaced in rusticated sandstone, a fourth storey with triangular gables, decorated with balls, added to the roof, and the central portico or frontispiece affixed. The latter displays a crude provincial version of the orders of architecture, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, and was probably imitated from the more sophisticated example at nearby Stoneyhurst (1592-1595).

In 1711 Edward Parker began building the small wing to the east of the house in a neat classical style, to provide a new kitchen below with bedroom and closet above. This wing is shown incomplete in a drawing in the British Museum dated 1719, which also depicts a balustraded terrace in front of the house from which steps led down to a formal garden with square parterres decorated with stone pyramids. This was surrounded by a high wall broken only by an imposing gate on the axis of the frontispiece. In 1750 gate and walls were swept away by John Parker for the marriage of his son Edward to Barbara Fleming. John also built the stables in front of the house, to the south-east, and was probably responsible for inserting sash windows in the first two storeys of the Elizabethan house, replacing the frames of the ground floor windows in the central bays. At the same time the gabled top storey was removed, and the Parker arms erected above the frontispiece in a rococo cartouche.

In 1804 Thomas Lister Parker removed his great grandfather’s stables from the front and re-erected them in the stableyard. In 1805 he pulled down the front of the west wing and rebuilt on the same ground plan. In 1807 he erected the adjacent new dining room. At first Thomas Lister Parker decorated the roof line with stone pyramids, perhaps from the formal garden, but by 1817 he had replaced these with Parker standards on wrought iron supports. He also erected the bell and inserted the clock, dated 1816, by Charles Reed of Clerkenwell, London, in the last surviving window of the fourth storey of the east wing. He provided the 18th century sash windows on the ground floor with stone mullions in the Elizabethan style. Since then the facade of Browsholme has survived virtually unchanged.

The hall.

The Hall, dating back to the original house built after 1507, was sixty eight feet long until about 1754 when Edward Parker walled off the library at the west. The window shutters and the inner doors may also be about 1754. The ceiling beams were plastered over until 1882 when they were exposed and carved mouldings added. Otherwise the Hall is essentially as arranged by Thomas Lister Parker and depicted in 1807 by John Buckler (1770-1851).

A Turkey-work cushion cover of about 1600 bears the date 1450, the Parker arms and motto, and the verse:

I PRAY GOD BLESSE THE LIFE OF MASTER

EDMUND PARKER AND HIS WIFE AND AL

THE CHILDREN THAT WITH HIM WONN

ES FIVE DAUGHTERS AND SEAVEN SONNES

In 1665 it helped to prove the Parkers’ antiquity when Sir William Dugdale made his visitation. A buff coat was worn by Captain Thomas Whittingham, killed at the Battle of Newbury fighting for the King; his wife was Anne Parker. On the fireplace, made up of fragments of old carving, is the lock by George Dent of Appleby given in 1672 to Rydal Hall, Windermere, by Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676) and brought to Browsholme in 1750 by Barbara Fleming. The dog stirrup, a purse frame of about 1500, was used as a gauge to control dogs in the Forest of Bowland and safeguard the deer: a dog too large to fit through had its front paws cut off. A bellows of about 1580 was illustrated in Shaw’s Specimens ofAncient Furniture (1836), the first book on the subject, dedicated to Thomas Lister Parker. Two square turned chairs of about 1550 represent a type beloved ofearly collectors. The hall chairs, English about 1630, are Italian in style and painted with the Parker crest. The large table in the centre was given to T. L. Parker by Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall.

One court cupboard, about 1600, initialled RT, is from Towneley Hall, Burnley; another, dated 1704, from Ingleton Hall contains a skull used as a memento mon. A dresser made from a Gothic chest, two later chests, one inscribed R. P. Mss. 1681, and a cupboard dated 1669, supports a peg tankard said to have been in use since about the reign of Edward III at Alkincoats; it was presented to Thomas Parker of that place to his cousin T. L. Parker in 1806. Two tankards of 1660 are rose-turned lignum vitae, one with its original silver mounts with the Parker arms, the second remounted in 1808. A coach panel of about 1780 has the arms of Parker quartered with Fleming and impaling Lister. Two lead busts represent Mr. and Mrs. Vigor; he was consul in St. Petersburg which T. L. Parker visited in 1801. Gothic, Renaissance and armorial stained glass, postilions’ boots, a fine medieval jug excavated in 1841, and a primitive portrait probably of Edward Parker, about 1660, complete certainly the earliest and arguably the finest surviving antiquarian interior in England.

The Library.

The Library, cut off from the original hail in about 1754, once contained a distinguised collection of books, manuscripts, coins and medals, including four Caxtons, sold in 1810, and the seal ofthc Commonwealth. It is now most remarkable for its panelling of about 1620, given to Thomas Lister Parker in 1809 byJames Taylor of Parkhead, near Whalley, the ancient home of the Kenyon family. Its diagonal pattern is only paralleled by the dining room of about 1626 at Towneley Hall, Burnley, and by panelling at Norbury Hall, Derbyshire. The overmantel, an earlier introduction by T. L. Parker, bears the arms of the Towneleys of Hapton Tower, to whom it originally belonged; it dates from before 1584. The stained glass displays the Parker arms and those of connected families, including Fleming, Assheton and Redmayne. In about 1870 the beam in the ceiling was exposed and the diagonal panelling extended into the window bays.

The fireplace is flanked by portraits by Arthur Devis (1711- 1787), the Preston painter, depicting Edward Parker and his cousin Robert, the former signed and dated 1757. The same year Devis did a fine double portrait of Edward and his wife Barbara Fleming, which Edward bequeathed to Daniel Wilson of Dalham Tower, Westmorland in 1794. An oval portrait depicts Charles Robert Parker and his brother Henry, both of whom were pages to George III in about 1795. Another portrait of about 1780 shows Mr. Butler and his son.

A portrait of Elizabeth of Bohemia as patroness of the arts and sciences presides over a group of Jacobite relics, whose presence in the house is due to Robert Parker of Alkincoats, a supporter of Prince Charles Edward, the Young Pretender. In 1753 Robert married Elizabeth Parker of Browsholme, his second cousin. Most notable is a pair of silver inlaid Scottish duelling pistols by John Murdoch, said to have been given by the Prince to the Sinclair, whose initial they bear. There is also a group of Jacobite glasses, together with a very rare black-glazed earthenware bowl and three cups decorated with gilt highlanders and thistles. A tartan favour, a tartan garter and a print of the Prince on silk complete the group whose case rests on a finely carved cabinet stand of about 1690.

The Drawing Room.

The Drawing Room is the principal state room of the house, formed when the west wing was rebuilt by Thomas Lister Parker in 1805. Its architect was Jeffry Wyatt, later Sir Jeffry Wyatville (1766-1840); his drawings remain at Browsholme. Although the proportions of the room are classical its ornament is unequivocally Elizabethan, making it one of the earliest Elizabethan revival interiors. The marble chimney-piece was carved in Rome for T. L. Parker’s great-uncle, Sir Peter Leicester (1732-1770) of Tabley House, Cheshire. The mahogany doors are by Gillow of Lancaster, that to the north later converted from double to single. The chandelier is an English rococo example of about 1750, introduced by T. L. Parker in 1805. He also brought in the William Kent style mirror of about 1730, the alabaster miniatures of classical statues by Pisani of Florence, two in their original cases, and the busts of his friends Charles Towneley (1737-1805), the collector and antiquary, and Master Betty (179 1-1874), ‘the juvenile Roscius’, a celebrated child actor.

The two gilt gesso corner armchairs date from about 1730, but the rest of the seat ftirniture is Regency, including two curved sofas from Carr Lodge, Horbury, the home of the architect John Can, an ancestor. Also Regency are the mahogany side tables, probably by Gillow, and the square piano by Broadwood, dated 1805, but introduced in 1978. By the window are two walnut desks of about 1740. Opposite stand two fine pier tables, one of gilt gesso of about 1730, the other, with neo-classical marquetry, dating from about 1780.

The first portrait to deserve mention is that of Thomas Lister Parker, the builder of the room, by James Northcote (1746-1831). Northcote was much patronised by T. L. Parker from at least 1801 to 1820. He also painted the copy after Reynolds’ Shepherd Boy, hanging below, and the nearby 1807 portrait of his younger brother Major Edward Parker. T.L. Parker’s father, John Parker M.P., painted by Romney, his grandmother Barbara Fleming, painted at the age of 74 by Mr. Clarke, a pupil of Reynolds, and his great- grandmother Dorothy, Lady Fleming, by Hudson, complete this family group. However the finest portrait in the room is that by Pompeo Batoni of Daniel Wilson of Dalham Tower, dated 1773, a memento ofhis friendship with Edward Parker. The most charming is that painted by Mathew Hall in 1898 of Beatrice Parker, the mother of the previous owner.

Above ‘Cupid bound by the Graces’ by Angelica Kauffmann R.A. is ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’ by Luny, bought at the artist’s sale in 1838 by Captain Percival, who served in the action as a midshipman, and introduced to Browsholme in 1978. The seascape opposite is a copy by the young Augustus Wall Callcott (1779-1844) of’A View off Sheerness’, a Turner of 1807 which T. L. Parker then purchased but had to sell in 1811. The original is now in the National Gallery in Washington.

The Dining Room.

The Dining Room was added to the west wing as a single storey extension in 1807. Its ceiling was designed by Jeifry Wyatt. The original purpose of the room was to serve as a gallery for Thomas Lister Parker’s ambitious collection of paintings, of which a printed catalogue was issued in 1807, and which were offered for sale in a second catalogue, with prices, in 1808. The gallery also contained a water organ executed in August 1807 by Mr. Flight of Messrs Flight and Robson of St. Martins Lane, London. The original black marble chimney-piece was soon replaced, but the crimson of the wall hangings has survived. In 1819 the window contained armorial stained glass at the top. The gilt pier table, already in the room in 1819, is English of about 1750, its only parallel being in the Foundling Hospital in London. The sideboard, manufactured from earlier fragments, is listed in 1833 Inventory as a ‘Valuable and Splendid Sideboard.

Curiously inlaid top, and richly carved antique front and back, surmounted with the family crest.’ It supports a number of Leeds creamware plates with the same crest, which were delivered to Browsholme on 13 August 1777. Nearby on a butler’s waggon of about 1810 is part of a Chinese armorial tea and chocolate service given by Captain Price to Thomas Parker ofAlkincoats as a wedding present in 1778. The wine table, chairs and dining table are all Regency about 1810, the latter supporting a silver rosewater dish with the Parker arms, by Leslie Durbin, 1953. The most distinguished painting, ‘Grouse Shooting in the Forest ofBowland’ depicting William Assheton of Cuerdale Hall and the Rev. T. H. Dixon Hoste, was painted by James Northcote in 1803. Below is a print from the painting dated 1809 and a Pratt Ware jug with decoration taken from the print of about 1800. Northcote also did a ‘Scene in the Forest of Bowland’ (1806), a portrait of the last Keeper of the Forest, Robert Shaw, who died in 1807 aged 88, and a Danish Terrier menacing a cock (1804). Other paintings by Northcote include a portrait of Sir James Gardner (1806) and ancestral portraits of Roger Parker, Dean of Lincoln in 1614, painted in 1811, of Captain Thomas Whittingham, slain at the Battle of Newbury in 1644, and of Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1666-1732) a collateral ancestor. A copy of one of Van Dyck’s well-known portraits of Charles I hangs above the mantelpiece.

Above the sideboard are more recent ancestors, including Edward Parker of Alkincoats (1786-1865), Thomas Goulbourne Parker (18 18-1879), John Robinson Parker (1857-1938) and the previous owner, Robert Goulbourne Parker (1900-1975).

The Ante Room.

The Ante-Room, so named in the 1815 Description, contains an overmantel which was briefly in the present Library before 1815. It is said to have come from the old Library at Browsholme. The stained glass depicts the arms of Sunderland, Tempest, Buller, Redmayne, Bouch and Parker, among others; it was probably made about 1805 by Mr. Wright of Leeds and Mr. R. B. Harmden of Cambridge, who executed much of the glass at Browsholme. In this room was formerly displayed a silver stirrup cup dated 1819 in the form of a hare’s head inscribed ‘May there never be a want of this head in the Forest of Bolland, to amuse the guests of old Browsholme’.

On a bone-inlaid oak chest of drawers is an oak desk bearing the initials EP, perhaps for Edward Parker (1602-1667). A big oak chest of about 1650 supports the only remaining piece of early pewter, a large charger of about 1750 engraved with the Parker arms, while on an oak cupboard initialled PTA are stoneware jugs, one dated 1688, the other with GR for William of Orange. The X-framed chairs, apparently dated from about 1710, are unusual survivals, they are depicted in a number of the early 19th century Buckler watercolours. In the centre of the room a baize covered Regency rent-table is now used to support changing displays textiles and ceramics.

In 1798 to 1799 Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-185 1 executed a number of watercolours of houses in Lancashire, including Towneley Hall, Mitton Hall and Stoneyhurst. His watercolour of Browsholme was engraved by James Basire for the History of if/halley (1800) by Thomas Dunham Whitaker (1759- 182 1) a local antiquary who was a close friend of Thomas Lister Parker, to whom the plate was dedicated. In 1976 the original watercolour was purchased by the present owner’s father to hang at Browsholme. It shows the house before the alterations of 1804 to 1807.

The Back Corridor and Stairs.

The date of the corridors, built behind the single pile of the original Hall is unknown; their present cornices are of 1805. The corridor leading from the Ante Room to the stairs contains more armorial stained glass opposite an English pastoral tapestry, probably woven in Soho in about 1740, and a group of oak chairs and a settle, all dating from around 1680. There is also a variegated trophy of hats on a Victorian iron hatstand.

The principal staircase was ‘curiously carved in oak’ before the 1805 alterations, when its remarkable window, a jigsaw of stained glass of various dates from the 13th to the 19th centuries, was created from pieces said to have come from Whalley Abbey. Other windows to the stairs were blocked when rooms were built above the eastern corridor. In the stairwell on an oak cupboard stands a cast of ‘Clytie’, a classical bust which was the favourite possession of Charles Towneley, who bequeathed this cast to his friend Thomas Lister Parker. A 16th Century Brussels tapestry from a ‘Labours of the Months’ series is one of several which were hung on the stairs by T. L. Parker and are now sadly in need of restoration. A desk on an oak table is inscribed BB. MY. 1646.

On the landings are a group of six tall oak chairs of about 1680, introduced in 1978, but originally from Alkincoats, the Parker house in Colne. Some curious lights, converted from gilt fire-dogs, and supported on mahogany brackets, are listed in the 1833 Inventory. Further up are 17th century oak chests and Yorkshire chairs, part of the large collection of mainly 17th century provincial oak furniture at Browsholme. The first landing stands directly behind the elaborately carved chapel of the house, dated 1897, but never completed.

The Yellow Room.

The Yellow Room, already so named in the 1833 Inventory when it contained a mahogany four-post bed with yellow worsted hangings, is now panelled in oak in the 17th century style, mainly by Richard Alston, who also executed the present Tudor-style bed dated 1891. His patron, Colonel John Parker, painted the watercolours showing the gardens in their Edwardian heyday, one dated 1907.

A large chest of drawers inscribed RP 1688, exploits the baroque motif of spiral turning as ornament to effective excess. Another aspect of provincial oak furniture is exhibited by a chest inscribed RP 1718, a date which illustrates the long survival of the 17th century style in remote districts. A massive cupboard inscribed IIM 1678 is interesting for its sloping top storey, presumably made to fit a particular room. Much more sophisticated are three simple but curvaceous chairs of about 1735, a neat mahogany table of about 1790 with ebony stringing, and standing on it, a small Flemish ebony and tortoiseshell cabinet of about 1650. However, the decoration of the room is dominated by blue and white porcelain, mainly 18th century Chinese export wares.

The room is now entered from the staircase through two doors between which is the massive thickness of the original exterior wall. It forms part of an enfilade of first floor rooms whose main access would originally have been through the doors on the window side in the late 17th century manner. The next room normally shown to the visitor is the Oak Drawing Room, but as the Yellow Room may sometimes be closed the Velvet Room, which would then be shown, is described next.

The Velvet Room.

The Velvet Room had in 1833 a four-post bedstead with oak posts and crimson velvet hangings, whence, presumably, the name of the room. The present bed was reconstructed from fragments of an Elizabethan bed from Hamerton Hall in 1902 by Richard Aiston, the Browsholme carpenter, who also executed the panelling of the room with his apprentice, Bob Whalley. The elaborately carved armorial overmantel was designed by his patron, Colonel John Robinson Parker, who also devised the frieze of coats-of-arms linked by swags of flowers and fruit, painted by E. Rose. A sketch by James Northcote depicts Robert Shaw, the last Keeper of the Forest of Bowland, who also appears in two paintings by Northcote in the Dining Room. The two horse portraits were painted by J. Stringer in 1779. These flank an oak clothes press bearing the date 1609. The oak chest of drawers in the corner, inscribed RP 1696 is a fine example of the restraint and neatness of functional oak furniture of this date. A similar neatness is combined with elegance in three side chairs of about 1740.

Beyond the Velvet Room the rebuilding of the west wing in 1805 produced a principal suite, the Blue Bedroom and Dressing Room, behind which is a smaller suite, the Red Bedroom and Dressing Room. Beneath this is a back room surviving from the pre-1805 arrangements of the west wing, a symptom of Thomas Lister Parker’s adhoc approach to rebuilding. The Blue and Red Suites are at present undergoing a complete programme of restoration and, with an appropriate arrangement of the surviving furniture, will represent the Regency classicism which was an important aspect of Browsholme.

The Oak Drawing Room.

The Oak Drawing Room was probably panelled in about 1700, in a provincial version of the Grinling Gibbons style, remarkable for its vigour rather than its refinement. The ceiling was plastered over until 1866 when Mr. Shaw of Saddleworth restored the room, introducing the single carved beam, and replacing the Regency fireplace with one of Victorian Elizabethan design lined with polychrome tiles. In the windows, which provide an excellent view over the park up to the eye-catcher arch of the front lodge, is some heraldic stained glass, including the arms of James I and of Bouch of Ingleton.

Among the paintings are a copy of Holbein’s Sir Thomas More and a portrait of an Elizabethan gallant inscribed ‘Only-Death Makes-Captains-Quayle-And-Lusti- Souldiers-For-To-Fayle’. Until recently the room was carpeted in a woven floral carpet similar to one shown by Simcox of Kidderminster at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The most remarkable piece of furniture is a mahogany armchair whose back is splendidly formed of acanthus scrolls: it is perhaps an early English experiment in the rococo style, dating from about 1740. A pair of armchairs of neater proportions, about 1760, represent the later development of this style, while provincial rococo is exemplified by a wine table of about 1750 whose tripod legs are enlivened with rococo frills. It supports a silver salver presented in 1965 to the previous owner, Colonel Robert Parker, by the Parachute Regiment with which he served.

Between the windows is a table whose top, decorated with oyster veneers, was made about 1700; on it is a Japanese export jar and cover of about the same date. The gilt mirror above is a curious Regency adaptation of a picture frame of about 1750. The remaining furniture of the room includes two early 17th century

court cupboards, one of which carries a small carved cabinet of about 1670, some tall leather covered chairs of the same period, two brass inlaid mahogany tables of about 1790, and a sofa table, probably by Gillow of Lancaster, of about 1810. The ceramics cover a Lambeth tin-glazed earthenware bottle of about 1650, a stoneware mug of about 1670 attributed to John Dwight ofFulham, a pair ofTurkish jugs of about 1700 and two 20th Century pieces by Pilkingtons. Under the court cupboards are ‘famille verte’ Chinese porcelain dishes.

The Oak Bedroom and Back Stairs.

The Oak Bedroom, sometimes shown, is similar to the neighbouring Yellow Room, with another bed made by Richard Alston and late 17th Century panelling embellished by him. The most notable piece of furniture is a massive oak clothes press dated 1711. There is also a small collection of Martin Ware introduced to Browsholme in 1978.

The Back Staircase is contemporary with the wing added in 1711. The plasterwork and woodwork are fine provincial craftsmanship a window contains a glass panel with the racehorse Second ‘taken from the life’ by William Peckitt of York and dated 1757. The 1711 wing contains a bedroom and closet on the first floor, one of whose windows is diamond engraved with the name of Elizabeth Parker and her bridesmaids’ initials A L and E W, done on her wedding night, I May 1750. Beneath is the old kitchen. These rooms, the near-by Billiards Room and Servants’ Hall, now a workshop for the maintenance and repair of Browsholme, and the east wing were in 1978 modernised by the parents of the present owner.

A vast collection of family documents is on loan to the Lancashire Record Office. There is also a large holding of textiles and dress and the remains of a major collection of ceramics. Even the books and silver which have left the house can be studied from surviving catalogue and bills. But Browsholme is primarily a family house and tasks of conservation and research must often take second place to the pressures and problems of everyday living. However, it is the very adaptability of such a house as Browsholme to changing social and economic conditions which lends it much of its fascination and will, it is hoped, allow it to survive for yet another century as the family home of the Parkers who built it.

The Hall

The Dining Room

The Library

The Main Stairs

The Oak Room

The Drawing Room

The Velvet Room

Poster from the early 1800's

asking people to protect

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