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 A Photo of Burghley House Entrance .Photo by Dmitrij M.

Top 10 Facts about Burghley house

Burghley House is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire.

The largest and grandest house of the Elizabethan Age, Burghley was built by William Cecil, principal secretary and lord treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I.

He is regarded as the Tudor Queen’s most respected councilor, Cecil was well into the building of the house when Elizabeth ennobled him as Lord Burghley in 1571.

Cecil’s son was created Earl of Exeter, and the house and title have stayed in the family ever since.

1.It is the Grandest House of the Elizabethan Age

Burghley House is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Burghley House was built during the Tudor period when Elizabeth I was Queen of England.

 It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the Cecil family.

 The exterior largely retains its Elizabethan appearance, but most of the interiors date from remodel lings before 1800.

 The house is open to the public on a seasonal basis and displays a circuit of grand and richly furnished state apartments. Its park was laid out by Capability Brown.

2.Located along the old Great North Road between London and Edinburg

Among the many treasures to be discovered along the old Great North Road between London and Edinburgh is the majestic Burghley House in the southern Lincolnshire market town of Stamford.

The house is on the boundary of the civil parishes of Barnack and  St Martin’s Without in the Peterborough unitary authority of Cambridge shire.

It was formerly part of the Soke of Peterborough, a historic area that was traditionally associated with Northamptonshire.

 It lies 0.9 miles, 1.4 km, south of Stamford and 10 miles, 16 km, northwest of Peterborough city center.

3.It was built by Sir William Cecil, between 1555 and 1587

An Image of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Photo by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.

Burghley was built by William Cecil, principal secretary and lord high treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, he modelled on the privy lodgings of Richmond Palace.

He was generally regarded as the Tudor Queen’s most respected councilor.

Cecil was well into the building of the house when Elizabeth ennobled him as Lord Burghley in 1571.

Cecil’s son was created Earl of Exeter, and the house and title have stayed in the family ever since.

It took 32 years to complete Burghley House.

Today the palatial building stands looking much as it did at the end of the 16th century.

The stately home’s interior, however, took its present appearance a century later.

John, the 5th Earl, and his wife, Lady Anne Cavendish, were among the first of the Grand Tourists.

On four trips to France and Italy, they acquired more than 300 important paintings and commissioned tapestries, statuary and furniture.

They refurbished family seat, he brought in the finest craftsmen of his day, including woodcarver Grinling Gibbons.

 Since 1961, it has been owned by a charitable trust established by the family

4.It is Run by the Burghley House Preservation Trust.

Though Burghley House continues to be home to the Cecil family, the house and its treasure-trove contents are part of a charitable trust established in 1961.

Today, the house and gardens, some 1,300 acres of parkland and an estate of 13,000 acres are administered by the Burghley House Preservation Trust.

5.The Burghley Art Collections are Intact and Very Extensive

The house still displays several hundred paintings, a large proportion of which are of the 17th century, bought in Italy by John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter, and Brownlow Cecil, the 9th Earl.

They visited Italy eight times, bringing back large quantities of art.

 John Cecil purchased 300 works of art during his 22 years in Burghley.

The chapel has a large altarpiece by Paolo Veronese and his workshop, and two large paintings by Johann Carl Loth, a German painter active in Venice with few works in British collections.

There are in total seven works by Luca Giordano, including a self-portrait.

There is large collection of Japanese export porcelain pieces still in the house, although some were sold in 1888 and 1959.

There are a number of outstanding pieces of furniture including work by celebrated 18th-century cabinet makers, Ince and Mayhew. 

6.It was Build using Stonemasonry of Elizabethan Architecture

The house reflects the prominence of its founder, and the lucrative wool trade of the Cecil estates.

It has a suite of rooms remodeled in the baroque style, with carvings by Grinling Gibbons.

The roof of Burghley House spans nearly an acre.

The main part of the house has 35 major rooms, on the ground and first floors.

There are more than 80 lesser rooms and numerous halls, corridors, bathrooms, and service areas.

7.The Great Hall is the Largest Room in Burghley House

It is the largest room with a 60-foot-high ceiling, original fireplace and minstrel’s gallery for musicians. Banquets and Balls were held there.

Given the immense size of Burghley, the Great Hall is almost disappointingly not great.

By the time that the house was finally finished, halls were already going out of fashion.

So, there has always been a hall here, but it was never used very much.

Still, every Christmas, the Great Hall is the scene of the staff Christmas party, where as many as 300 estate workers and friends gather for festive cheer.

8.All the Avenues in the Park were Laid by Capability Brown

The avenues in the park were all laid out according to the 1755-1779 designs by Capability Brown, paying due respect to pre-existing plantings, some of which were from the 16th century or earlier.

Brown also created the park’s man-made lake in 1775–1780. Brown’s landscape has been conserved by planting 30,000 new trees between 2012 and 2016.

The Coade-stone lions were used as ornaments originally, but after they  weathered, the existing stone  were made by local mason Herbert Gilbert in 1844.

 Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert planted two trees to commemorate their visit

The annual Burghley Horse Trials happens at the park.

The park also plays host to the “Burghley Run” for Stamford School and an annual meet for the Cambridge University Draghounds.

9.The Most celebrated of Cecils’ in the House are the 6th Marquess of Exeter, David, and Lord Burghley.

Over the generations, succeeding Cecil’s each put their own stamp on Burghley and played the roles in Parliament and Privy Counsel befitting their lofty station.

The 10th Earl was elevated to the rank of Marquess in 1801.

David, Lord Burghley, was Britain’s premier hurdler from 1924-33, winning Olympic gold in the 400-meter hurdles at Amsterdam in 1928 and silver in Los Angeles four years later.

 A somewhat fictionalized Lord Burghley was the basis for Lord Lindsay in the film Chariots of Fire.

 Lord Burghley went on to head the British Amateur Athletic Association and stage the 1948 London Olympics.

 In 1961 he inaugurated the famous annual Burghley Horse Trials.

10.It welcomes Tens of Thousands of Visitors Every Year.

A well-done visitor’s center in the Brewhouse offers interactive learning for all ages, a multimedia introduction to the house and changing exhibitions of the Burghley treasures.

The 17th-century Japanese Kakiemon porcelain, the oldest inventoried collection in the West, always happen at Burghley house.

Burghley House does indeed welcome visitors, from the end of March until late October every year, every day except Fridays.