Weston Park was the beloved seat of the Earls of Bradford since the 17th Century. Weston was gifted to the nation by Richard, the 7th and present Earl, and, with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the collection is now in the care of the Trustees of The Weston Park Foundation.
The Bridgeman family were originally from Devonshire but in the late 16th century John Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester, sold the family’s ancestral properties and purchased the Great Lever Estate at Bolton in Lancashire. His son, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, Lord Chief Justice and Keeper of the Great Seal of England married the heiress Judith Kynaston which brought the family extensive estates in North Shropshire.
Orlando also purchased Castle Bromwich Hall estate in Warwickshire for his son John (later Sir John Bridgeman, 2nd Bt.) The 3rd Baronet, another John, added to the family’s land holdings through his marriage to the Llanyblodwell and Llanymynech heiress Ursula Matthews, and it was he who laid out the superb gardens at Castle Bromwich.
On inheriting Weston, Sir Henry Bridgeman 5th Bt., is said to have spent the huge sum of £12,000 on improvements, which included the architect James Paine’s alterations to the House, the building of the Temple of Diana, the Roman Bridge, the Great Barn (which is now the Granary building) and the laying out of the Park by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. In the House, Sir Henry added to the collections, with the painting of horses by George Stubbs, furniture probably supplied by Chippendale, new services of silver and the spectacular Gobelin tapestries that he commissioned when in Paris.
Much of the finance for these great improvements came from the increase in rents made possible by Sir Henry’s enclosures of heaths and commonland and by the exploitation of minerals on the family estates, with coal being mined at Bolton and limestone quarried at Llanymynech in North Shropshire. Such was the standing of Sir Henry Bridgeman that he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bradford.
More information can be found here...
http://www.weston-park.com/about/history/