Osterley House Illustrated Card

£3.25

This card features Osterley House created exclusively by Charlotte Berridge.

All my cards are printed on 300gsm recycled card, supplied with a recycled envelope. They are carefully hand packaged in a biodegradable cellophane bag. Each folded card measures approx 105mm wide x 148mm tall.

All cards are blank inside for your own message.

A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT THIS BUILDING
Osterley is one of the last surviving country estates in London. Surrounded by gardens, park and farmland it’s always one of our favourite weekend walks especially when we factor in a pint at the Hare & Hounds pub on the way.

The house was created in the late 18th century by architect and designer Robert Adam for the Child family to entertain and impress their friends and clients. Today the house is presented as it would have looked in the 1780s.

The original Manor House on this site was built in the 1570s for banker Sir Thomas Gresham. The stable block from that period thankfully remains. Gresham was so wealthy that he also bought nearby Boston Manor House which is currently undergoing a fabulous lottery funded renovation (another of my local illustrated buildings)

Two hundred years later the manor house was falling into disrepair, when it passed into the ownership the Child family. They employed Scottish architect Robert Adam, who was just emerging as one of the most fashionable architects in Britain, to remodel the house.

Robert Child’s only daughter, Sarah Anne Child, married John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland in 1782. When Child died two months later, his will placed his vast holdings, including Osterley, in trust for any second-to-be born grandchild. This was Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, who was born in 1785.

Robert Child’s passed all his holdings to his grandchild to ensure there was no dealing with his son-in-law, The Earl of Westmorland. This was because the Earl eloped with Child’s daughter, Sarah Anne, to marry in Gretna Green when he would not consent to their marriage. Child always wanted a non-noble pairing for his daughter, someone willing to take on and ensure the continuation of his own surname. A fascinating story which must of caused a huge uproar at the time.

Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (the grand daughter, keep up folks) married George Villiers in 1804, and having children, the estate passed into the Villiers family. In 1819, George changed the family surname to Child-Villiers.

George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey, opened Osterley to the public in 1939 after having received many requests to see its historic interior. The Earl justified his decision by saying that “he did not live in it and that many others wished to see it” – 12,000 people visited the house in its first month of opening. After the Second World War, the Earl approached Middlesex County Council, who had shown interest in buying the estate, but eventually he decided to give the house and its park to the National Trust. The furniture was sold to the Victoria & Albert Museum.