The work of restoring the house after the devastating fire continues today.

Uppark is pronounced as two words "Up Park".

The first record of Uppark was in 1370 when a valuation of the Hussey family estate mentions an area of land called "Le Upparke". By 1349 much of the woodland had been cleared and several sheep farms occupied the land. By 1440 two of the farms were leased to a London draper called Robert Legge, they were Up Park and Down Park.

The woollen trade soon became very profitable, the son of a Devon a wool merchant, Edmund Ford began buying the estate from the Hussey family in 1549. On Edmund Fords death his land was divided between his two daughters Magdalen and Dorothy, Magdalens son Sir William Ford built the first house at Uppark. Very little is known about this house. It wasn’t until Lord Grey of Warke inherited the land that the Uppark House we see today was built around 1690. The outside of the house looks very much as it did when originally built.

Lord Grey was not a man to be liked or trusted. He was involved in the ‘Rye House’ plot to murder Charles II, but somehow escaped with his life. He was so poor at handling cavalry he is held responsible for the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth (on whose side he was fighting) at Sedgemoor in 1685. After the battle, to save his own skin he turned King’s evidence against his fellow rebels and begged James II (who he was fighting against) for his life, and pledged allegiance to the King. Shortly after in 1689 he changed sides again and went over to the side of William of Orange. Before Lord Grey died in 1701 he was made Earl of Tankerville and a Privy Counsellor. If all this wasn’t enough he took time out to seduce his 18-year old sister in law as well.

This building houses the stables at Uppark, the small white canopy in the distance is the entrance to the dairy.
The stables.	The dairy.

The house and estate were purchased by Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh in 1747. Sir Matthew used his vast fortune to fill the house with paintings and fine furniture. When he died in 1774 the house passed to his son Harry who continued adding to the treasures in the house.

Harry though, is famous for two other reasons. In 1780 he began an affair with a 17-year old Cheshire girl called Emma Hart, he met her in London at the Temple of Aesculapius where she worked as a "hostess". Henry gave Emma her own cottage on the estate so she could be close at hand. It is said that she danced naked on the dining room table at Uppark House. But her time at Uppark was short lived, within a year Emma was sent back to Cheshire, six months pregnant. Emma Hart was however destined to become a household name in England; she was of course Lady Emma Hamilton.

As Henry got older he still had no wife and no children he cared to call his own. One day he walked into the dairy and proposed to a dairymaid. They were married in 1823; he was 71 she was 20. Despite thinking he had made a complete fool of himself, Mary Anne was a devoted wife and looked after him until he died aged 92.

Sheep, still kept on the estate shelter from the sun in what little shade they can find.

The house passed through various family lines until in the 1930’s Lady Meade-Fetherstonhaugh found her vocation and began restoring the textiles at Uppark. She ensured the house was kept in good condition until in 1954 her husband Admiral Sir Herbert Meade gave the house to the National Trust.

The National Trust began an extensive program of renovation at Uppark, but only three days before the house was to be opened to the public in August 1989 a fire broke out and the building gutted. Although the Fire Brigade arrived swiftly all they could do was hold the fire back as firemen; staff and locals went into the building to rescue as much as they could get out before the fire reached them. The future of the house was soon in doubt as one MP called for the house to be bulldozed into the ground and the fields returned to agricultural use.

A delightful little summer house perhaps? This is in fact a meat larder where the game was hung prior to going to the kitchen.

Thankfully the National Trust set about restoring and rebuilding Uppark House; the house finally opened its doors in 1995. Before going into the house, the National Trust have set up an exhibition showing video footage and photographs of the fire and how they went about restoring the house to its former glory.