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4 unusual facts about Garendon Abbey


Garendon Abbey

The house was owned by the Earls of Rutland until 1632, when it was given as part of a dowry for the marriage of Lady Katherine Manners (daughter of the 6th Earl of Rutland) and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

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In 1684 the 2nd Duke of Buckingham sold the house to Sir Ambrose Phillipps (a successful lawyer) for £28,000.

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Sir Ambrose and his son William did little to the house; his grandson, another Ambrose Phillipps, an accomplished gentleman architect inspired by his Grand Tour of France and Italy, started to change the house and the former abbey estate.

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He endowed the abbey with 690 acres of land in Garendon, a Burgage tenement in Leicester and land at Dishley, Shepshed and Ringolthorpe.



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