St Peter's Parish News
Thursday 1 January 1970
100 years of the National Trust at Ashridge
Yesterday (Thursday 4 June) marked 100 years of the National Trust caring for the Ashridge Estate. After centuries in the hands of the Egerton and Brownlow families, the estate was passed to the National Trust in 1926, while the house and garden was sold off separately. Today the estate comprises 5,000 acres (20 km2), including Ivinghoe Beacon, the Ashridge Monument and parkland landscaped by Capability Brown.
Ashridge House is now a business school, and is rarely open to visitors. In the 1810s, the 7th Earl of Bridgewater commissioned the architect James Wyatt to build Ashridge House. Around this time, Wyatt also carried out restoration work on St Peter’s Church. The widow of the 7th Earl, Countess Charlotte, donated land to St Peter’s in 1842 to establish our cemetery on Rectory Lane.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk 
