A Space I Love S3 – The Dining Room at Hillsborough Castle

Historic Royal Palaces Podcast

Historic Royal Palaces

London, Palace, Tower, Historic, Conservation, Royal, Lecture, Learning, Kensington, Hampton, Kew, Banqueting, History, Court, Of, House, Palaces

4.6 • 635 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’re continuing our mini-series on treasured spaces with a trip to Hillsborough Castle and Gardens in Northern Ireland.

We’ll follow Research and Interpretation Producer Emma Lawthers, into the magnificent state dining room – a space that represents the political history of Northern Ireland, with a curious and unexpected connection to the birth of the United States of America.

Find out more about the history of Hillsborough Castle and Gardens:

https://www.hrp.org.uk/hillsborough-castle/history-and-stories/the-story-of-hillsborough-castle-and-gardens/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello listeners. Welcome back to this mini-series on the Historic Royal Palaces podcast.
0:06.0	In this four-part series, our curator's team are going to be venturing into some of our most loved spaces in the palaces.
0:13.0	We have chosen these spaces specially in the hope that we can transport you to some of our favourite moments in history.
0:20.0	We want this series to be calm and reflective
0:22.3	and perhaps you'll even find it a little bit moving.
0:25.9	So please get ready to escape to the past with us. We are standing outside Hillsborough Castle in County Dollard.
0:40.3	We are standing outside Hillsborough Castle in County Down in Northern Ireland.
1:00.0	And Hillsborough Castle is the most recent palace to join the historic Royal Palace's care.
1:07.0	Historic Royal Palace has took over care of Hillsborough Castle in 2014, so relatively recently, just 10 years ago, which is a short time for us.
1:18.1	So Hillsborough Castle, for anyone picturing a medieval castle with turrets, you might be a bit disappointed, but it's a really beautiful 18th century Georgian family home set right
1:29.2	in the centre of Hillsborough Village, which is quite rare. It's not up a big driveway. If you drive
1:35.0	through Hillsborough Village today, you will see it. You'll see its gates and the state entrance
1:41.0	from the road. It was built by Will's Hill.
1:45.0	We think about 1750, touch a bit more on Will's Hill when we get inside.
1:50.0	But he actually designed the whole town, so Hillspirit is a planned town.
1:55.0	It's all very Georgian. It's a conservation area as well.
1:58.0	So I think that Will's Hill, if he came back today, he would be able to navigate his way around the town without too much trouble.
2:05.6	And he would recognise lots of the buildings, especially the court house that I'm looking at now, which is the market house as well.
2:13.6	And the fort, which predates Will's Hill, one of his ancestors built that, but he restored it during his time, and the church as well, St Maliki's, which I'm looking at, and I can see the weather vein at the top of it, which represents another one of the Hill family, one of his many descendants.
2:31.3	So I think for him it would be a very familiar place and it's a beautiful Georgian
2:36.4	town in County Down and we don't have too many of those here so it's really worth coming to visit.
2:43.3	So it's a bit of a windy day here in County Town which wouldn't be unusual at all so you might be
	...

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