Staffordshire's fairytale flatpack glass palace destroyed by Second World War soldiers
The repeal of a tax on glass led to the construction of some awesome hot- and glasshouses, including the one at Enville Hall.
On a visit to the botanical gardens in Belfast, Edinburgh or Kew (other exceptional ones are also available) you might find yourself marvelling, not only at the array of exotic plants, but also at some exceptional feats of Victorian engineering.
Think magnificent iron and glass green- and hothouses, constructed to nurture plants used to warmer climes.
These vast houses were only made viable by the repeal of the catchily titled National Debt Bill of 1746. Introduced by George II, the bill included a tax on the materials used to make glass. A century later, the same tax had risen to a ridiculous 300% of the value of the product, meaning that even the ultra-high-net-worths of the day couldn't afford them.
The Earl of Stamford and Warrington's flatpack 'fairy palace'.
When the bill was finally done away with, by Robert Peel in 1845, imaginations ran wild. Hothouse manufacturers, inspired by Joseph Paxton’s vast Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, sprung up across the country.
Gray and Ormson became synonymous with the craft, designing and transporting vast flatpack-style cast iron frames from their offices in Chelsea, all around the country.
The Earl of Stamford and Warrington commissioned a gargantuan conservatory from the company for Enville Hall, Staffordshire, in 1853.
The more than 60-foot tall and 150-foot-long glass palace was photographed by Country Life in 1901. It boasted domes and turrets and mixed Moorish and Gothic tropes. The writer commissioned to pen the words that appeared next to the photographs described it as ‘a truly astonishing feature’ and ‘a fairy palace'.
Sadly, the upkeep of such a thing was far from a priority by the 20th century's inter-war years.
The conservatory fell into a state of disrepair, with parts of it dismantled between the late 1920s-30s. Soldiers, billeted to the hall during the Second World War, used what remained during demolition practice sessions — a dramatic ending for a dramatic building.
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