Wimpole Estate Photo Gallery

Wimpole Estate near Cambridge has gone through many owners over the centuries. The Chicheley family was here for 250 years from 1428, followed by the Cutlers (1686-1693), Robartes (-1710), Holles (-1711), Harleys (-1739), Earls of Hardwicke (-1906), Viscounts Clifden (-1942), and the Bambridges (-1976). The estate is vast with parks, a farm, and the historic home, Wimpole Hall. The Wimpole Hall interiors we see today are the work of the Bambridges, the last owners who moved in in 1938 as renters, and then as owners from 1942. At the time, the house was mostly empty and they filled it with plenty of pictures and furniture. After Captain Bambridge died in 1943, it became increasingly difficult for Mrs. Bambridge to maintain the property. She gifted it to the National Trust upon her death in 1976, and the impressive Georgian interiors are now open to the public. We enter the ground floor to the oldest part of the house from the mid-17th century. Notice the floor tiles with the Latin welcome greeting - salve. The Yellow Drawing Room was designed for concerts and dances right in the centre of the house where 7 ground floor and first floor rooms would have sat to make room for its huge canopy. Over 10,000 books are placed in the library and book room, a space built by the Harleys. What we see today are collections from the Hardwicke and Bambridge families. The South Drawing Room was decorated by Kelso with carpets, curtains, and other furnishings from the 1940s to 60s in a more feminine style for Mrs. Bambridge. The Ante-Room is believed to be originally a parlour and what we see now is pretty much what Mrs. Bambridge had left it, less some items stolen in a 1967 burglary. Unfortunately, the upstairs rooms are not open to visitors. The Chapel was completed in the 1720s for the Harleys to conduct morning prayers, with James Thornhill taking 3 years to complete the painting. The basement level consists of quarters for the many staff working at the hall. An American visitor remarked in 1849 that the housekeeping was "carried to an extraordinary degree of perfection". There are many other buildings on the huge site amidst all the parkland, with a second-hand bookstore and cafe in the Stable Block.