Weston Park is acountry house inWeston-under-Lizard,Staffordshire, England, set in more than 1,000 acres (400 ha) of park landscaped byCapability Brown. The park is located 10 miles (16 km) north-west ofWolverhampton, and 8 miles (13 km) east ofTelford, close to the border withShropshire. The 17th-century Hall is aGrade I listed building and several other features of the estate, such as theOrangery and the Stable block, are separately listed as Grade II.

Weston Park
The South (garden) frontage
Type	House
Location	Weston-under-Lizard,Staffordshire
Coordinates	52°41′34″N2°17′16″W / 52.6929°N 2.2879°W /52.6929; -2.2879
Built	c. 1670
Architect	attributed toElizabeth Wilbraham
Architectural style(s)	Carolean
Governing body	Private
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Weston Hall and service wings to north and east
Designated	16 May 1953
Reference no.	1039264
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Orangery and attached link to house, 25 m west of Weston Hall
Designated	16 May 1953
Reference no.	1374071
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Gateway attached to south west of Stable Block of Weston Hall
Designated	4 July 1985
Reference no.	1374073
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Stable Block, 60 m to north east of entrance front of Weston Hall
Designated	16 May 1953
Reference no.	1188130
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Stables and Granary at Weston Hall
Designated	16 May 1953
Reference no.	1188133
Location of Weston Park in Staffordshire

Weston Park House and the surrounding parkland were given to the nation in 1986 by the7th Earl of Bradford, with the support of theNational Heritage Memorial Fund. It is now in the care of the trustees of the Weston Park Foundation. The house retains its art collection with over 30,000 objects and is open to the public.

Weston lies within land that was first mentioned in theDomesday Book when it was held byNorman Rainald de Bailleuil,Sheriff toRoger de Montgomery. The park is all that remains of themedieval deer park and forest. Originally belonging to the de Westons of Weston, it passed by inheritance to a branch of the Mytton family when their heiress, Elizabeth Mytton married Sir Thomas Wilbraham. Eventually the land passed toEarls of Bradford when their younger daughter, Mary Wilbraham, marriedRichard Newport, 2nd Earl of Bradford of the first creation.

The house was built in 1671 forLady Elizabeth Wilbraham.^[1] Although it is often claimed that she was her own architect, there is no conclusive documentary evidence for this and it is most likely that the executant architect was William Taylor, who is known to have been at Weston Park in 1674.^[a][2] Lady Wilbraham was evidently an enthusiastic patron, however, and her heavily-annotated copy of Palladio’s book (I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura) remains in the collection at Weston Park. The three-storey, twelve-bayed south front of the house was originally the entrance front but alterations and improvements carried out in the latter 19th century for CountessSelina andOrlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford of the second creation, involved the movement of the main entrance to the east front. The original courtyard of the U-shaped house was roofed over above the ground floor, and closed off by a new front.^[3]

In the eighteenth century, with the failure of the male line of the Newport Earls of Bradford, Weston was inherited bySir Henry Bridgeman, 5th Baronet, whose mother Lady Anne Bridgeman (née Newport) was a granddaughter of Lady Wilbraham. The Bridgemans were already substantial landowners in Shropshire and inWarwickshire but chose to make Weston their main seat. Sir Henry Bridgeman commissioned Capability Brown to landscape the park. He also employedJames Paine in the 1760s to make alteration to the house and to add a Roman Bridge and Temple of Diana in the park.^[4][5]

The collection includes many portraits from the 17th to 20th centuries, with rare pieces such as two portraits of ladies of the Wilbraham family byJohn Michael Wright, two early portraits byJohn Constable, and two portraits of apparently the same child bySofonisba Anguissola. Most major English 18th-century portraitists are represented, and there are a number of portraits byAnthony van Dyck and his workshop; that of Sir Thomas Hanmer is especially fine. There is aGeorge Stubbs of horses, and a pair of coastal scenes byClaude Joseph Vernet (Calm andStorm).^[6] There is a raretoilet service in silver of 1679, one of only 12 English-made early services left in the country.^[7] There is good furniture, including many pieces made for the house byThomas Chippendale, and a room with tapestries from theGobelins Manufactory made for Weston in the 1760s. The elaborately embroidered ceremonial purse (or "burse") ofSir Orlando Bridgeman, in his office ofLord Keeper of the Great Seal (1667–72), is displayed next to a portrait of him with it.

Adjacent to the house is the estate church, dedicated toSt Andrew.Pevsner describes the church as "an enterprise of Lady Wilbraham...[of] 1700-1".^[8] Theorangery,^[9] stable block,^[10] and granary, which all adjoin the house, have their own Grade II listings.^[11] The 1767 Granary building was restored in 2009 with support from theHeritage Lottery Fund and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

There are gardens and a large park, which includes a lake and aminiature railway. The Grade I listed Roman Bridge crosses the Temple Pool in a single stone built arch.^[4] The Grade I listed Temple of Diana is actually anorangery and garden house. Built in stone ashlar in three bays and fronted with ionic columns, the interior is decorated with painted panels byGiovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo, depicting the life of the goddessDiana.^[5] Paine, its architect, later described the temple as "my greenhouse at Weston". Weston Hall suggests that hall and gardens were the inspiration forBlandings Castle in theLord Emsworth stories byP.G. Wodehouse.^[2]

KingGeorge V's daughterMary, the Princess Royal spent part of her honeymoon at Weston.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998 theG8 Summit Retreat was held at the house with heads of State or government present including US PresidentBill Clinton and Russian PresidentBoris Yeltsin.^{[citation needed]}

From 1999 until 2017 the grounds of Weston Park were used as one of the sites of the annual dual-siteVirgin sponsoredV Festival, the other site beingHylands Park inChelmsford.^{[citation needed]}

The park is the site for the annual Midland Game Fair which takes place on the third weekend of September. The fair, which consists of traditional British country pursuits including working dog trials, fishing and animal husbandry, attracts up to 50,000 visitors from both Britain and Ireland.In 2023, Weston Park hosted Camp Bestival Shropshire.^[12]

In 2024, the site hosted theEnglish National Cross Country Championships.^[13]

•  
  LadyElizabeth Wilbraham, the possible architect of Weston, by SirPeter Lely, one of the portraits in the collection
•  
  Mary Wilbraham byJohn Michael Wright
•  
  Grace Wilbraham byJohn Michael Wright
•  
  Main entrance
•  
  Stable block
•  
  Temple of Diana
•  
  Ceremonial purse ofSir Orlando Bridgeman,Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 1667–72, at Weston Park
•  
  The 1679toilet service

• List of Grade I listed buildings in Staffordshire
• Listed buildings in Blymhill and Weston-under-Lizard

• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974).Staffordshire. Buildings of England. London, UK: Penguin Books.ISBN 0-14-071046-9.

• Official site
• Aerial view estate map
• Photos of Weston Park and surrounding area on geograph