Frogmore House, Berkshire, England

Frogmore House, located within the Frogmore Estate which is to be found within Home Park, Windsor, Berkshire, is a 17th century grade I listed country house under the ownership of the Crown Esate.

History

Frogmore house was initially built between 1680 and 1684 for its first tenants, Anne Aldworth and Thomas May. The architect employed by Charles II at Windsor Castle was Hugh May thought to be the uncle of Thomas May.

George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland was the first Royal tenant of Frogmore. When he died in 1716 his wife continued living there until her death in 1738. She was followed by a number of tenants leading to the tenancy by Edward Walpole, until 1792 at which time the house was purchased for Queen Charlotte by her husband, the King, George III She and her unmarried daughters used Frogmore as a refuge from court life. They could take private quiet time to follow their pastimes which included painting, drawing, needlework, japanning, reading and botony. In fact Charlotte's interest in botany shows in a number of the rooms at Frogmore, for example a room decorated by artist Mary Moser with flowers and the attention paid to the gardens. Charlotte planted a number of Spanish Chestnuts, laburnums and birch trees and had a quantity of follies built. Princess Augusta Sophia inherited the house on Charlotte's death in 1818 and lived there until her own death in 1840.

Between 1795 and 1804, architect James Wyatt was employed for the enlargement and modernisation of Frogmore when he enlarged the second floor, added flanking pavilions to the north and south of the house and extended to make room for a new dining room and library.

After the Princess's death in 1840, it was given to the Duchess of Kent, by her daughter Queen Victoria. She used it regularly and had it altered to suit her tastes which differed considerably from Charlotte's. There were a number of family functions held at Frogmore and Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor, describing it as follows:

"All is peace and quiet and you only hear the hum of the bees, the singing of the birds and the occasional crowing and cackling from the Poultry Yard!"

Following the death of the Duchess of Kent, Frogmore was used intermittently for what remained of the 19th century seeing the birth of the first child born to Alexandra, the Princess of Wales in 1864, after which it beame the home of Princess Helena, third daughter of Queen Victoria, and her husband Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein until they moved to Cumberland Lodge in 1872. The future king, George V and Queen Mary visited frequently between 1902 and 1910. From 1925 until her death in 1953, Queen Mary collected and arranged in the house souvenirs of the Royal Family, describing it as "a 'family' souvenir museum as well as a museum of "bygones" and of interesting odds and ends." King George V, allowed his first cousin Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, to live at Frogmore during this time and by 1925, when she was escaping the Russian February Revolution, Xenia was "very grateful" that her cousin let her stay at Frogmore. By March 1937, Xenia had moved to Wilderness House in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace from Frogmore House. Since 1928, most members of the Royal Family, except for sovereigns and their consorts, have been interred at the Royal Burial Ground, on the Frogmore Estate.

In 1997, , the Duke of Edinburgh furnished what had previously been Queen Charlotte's library and the Duchess of York's dining room with a selection of items including a mahogany table constructed about 1950 from the decommissioned Royal Yacht Britannia.

Although currently no member of the royal family lives at Frogmore, house is still used by the royal family for entertaining and it was used as a venue for the marriage of the Queen’s grandson, Peter Phillips, to Autumn Kelly in May 2008.

Restoration

Extensive restoration work during the 1980s revealed lost early 18th century wall paintings by Louis Laguerre and reinstated the Green Pavilion to how it is thought to have looked during the time of Queen Charlotte including restoring the conrnice, dado and chimneypiece to Wyatt's original characteristically crisp detailing.

Main Reference WIKI Berkshire Information shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License - see Creative Commons Licenses