Old Gorhambury House, Gorhambury, Hertfordshire
These are the remains of a once immense mansion built in 1563-8 by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Keeper. The mansion was visited by Elizabeth I on at least four occasions. Sir Nicholas extended the house in the 1570s. It then passed to Sir Nicholas’s son, Sir Francis Bacon, the celebrated philosopher and Chancellor to James I. Sir Francis further extended the house and created a water garden with a Roman-style banqueting house. The house was extensively repaired in the 1670s by Sir Harbottle Grimston but had been allowed to fall into disrepair by the next century. It was replaced in 1784 by the present Gorhambury House. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2011). Find out more.
