browsholme:feature 2 07/09/2013 09:38 Page 14
Green Tourism Browsholme Hall
a stunning
venue
Browsholme Hall – the oldest surviving family home in Lancashire – is the ancestral home of the Parker Family, who have lived there since it was built in 1507
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Browsholme Hall Clitheroe Road Cow Ark, Clitheroe Lancashire BB7 3DE www.browsholme.com Tel: 01254 827166
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F E A S T M AG A Z I N E
rowsholme Hall, pronounced “Brusom”, lies in the Forest of Bowland four miles north-west of Clitheroe overlooking the Hodder Valley. Built in 1507 by Edmund Parker, the red sandstone house has a genuine claim to be the oldest surviving family home in Lancashire. Browsholme is a historic house unique in so many ways – not least for its remarkable antiquarian collection representing the accumulation of the personal possessions of fourteen generations of continuous occupation. Browsholme Hall is not a museum and its guided tours illustrate a living history of the house as well as encapsulating the lifestyle and the survival of one family in Lancashire. Indeed, it is the ancestral home of the Parker family, who have lived in it since it was
built in 1507. The current owners, Robert and Amanda Parker, invite visitors to share their home and gardens and provide guided tours for day visits, groups and coach parties. Origins of the Parker family can be traced to 1381 when, soon after the Black Death, Peter de Alcancotes accepted the office of park keeper for the Forest of Bowland from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The family motto “neither wind nor wave shall move us” perhaps bears witness to the survival of Browsholme through the Reformation, the turbulence of the Civil Wars, the extravagance of the Regency period, through the Napoleonic, Boer and World Wars. Each period has left its trace - a skull from the Pilgrimage of Grace, a royalist coat worn by Capt. Thomas Whittingham, furniture by Gillow and Hepplewhite, even a fragment of a Zeppelin. The Hall has a unique historic collection, an eclectic accumulation of family possessions spanning the fourteen generations who have occupied the Hall since 1507. Ancient oak furniture, fine furnishings by Gillow, portraits by Romney, Lely and Devis, arms and armour, Chinese porcelain, medieval stained glass and a fragment of a Zeppelin.
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