Tring Park (Herts)
Tring Park is a public open space in Tring, Hertfordshire. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is managed by the Woodland Trust and is believed to date back to 1066. A wealthy Banker, Lionel de Rothschild, bought the estate in 1872 and his son Nathaniel - the first Lord Rothschild - made sweeping changes to the mansion and surrounding farms and cottages. Nathanial, known locally as Natty, also gifted some of the land - and subsequently the building - as a coming of age present to his son Walter, who built and opened a zoological museum on the site. Today, this operates as the Natural History Museum at Tring.
Covering an area of about 265 acres, Tring Park contains a mosaic of habitats such as chalk grassland, scrub, mixed woodland and parkland, all landscaped by Charles Bridgeman in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Lying to the South of Tring, the site runs along the Chiltern ridge and offers superb views eastwards over the lowland vale. Once part of Tring House, the site has a rich history, and two ancient monuments - an obelisk and a summer house - can still be found in the heart of the grounds.
Tring Park is an impressive site to explore and great for a relaxing stroll, particularly in the attractive open areas dotted with large individual trees. The superb integration of recreation, conservation and history makes the woodland one of Hertfordshire's most important ecological areas, and one of the Woodland Trust's most exciting and diverse sites.
The woodland is concentrated on the upper slopes of the site where the mixed broadleaves and conifers include ancient ash and beech, with scattered sequoias and elegant avenues of lime and yew. In spring, you'll find bluebells throughout the wood while during summer the grassland is a patchwork of lady's bedstraw, salad burnet, saxifrage and yellow rattle.
Unimproved chalk grassland is an extremely rare habitat - indeed, this is the second largest of its kind in Hertfordshire and it has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. On the scarp slope where the soils are thinnest, chalk-loving plants such as autumn gentian thrive. This very important habitat is home to a rich array of butterflies.
There are many fantastic animal species found at Tring Park - Red Kite, Long-eared Owl, Kestrel, Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap birds can be seen in the skies, while on the ground you might see Field voles and an unexpected resident – edible dormice.
Walter Rothschild was born in London and at the age of seven he declared that he would run a zoological museum. As a child, he collected insects, butterflies and other animals, and by the time he was ten he had enough specimens to start one - in his parents' garden shed. Among his pets at the family home in Tring Park were kangaroos and exotic birds. As a boy, Walter was once dragged off his horse and assaulted by workmen while on a hunting ride near Tring, an experience that he personally attributed to antisemitism.
At 21, he reluctantly went to work at the family bank, N M Rothschild & Sons in London. He worked there from 1889 to 1908. He evidently lacked any interest or ability in the financial profession, but it was not until 1908, at the age of 40, that he was finally allowed to give it up. However, his parents established his zoological museum as a compensation and footed the bill for expeditions all over the world to seek out animals.
Walter was 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall, suffered from a speech impediment and was very shy, but he had his photograph taken riding on a giant tortoise and drove a carriage harnessed to four zebras to Buckingham Palace to prove that zebras could be tamed.
At its largest, Walter's collection included 300,000 bird skins, 200,000 birds' eggs, 2,250,000 butterflies and 30,000 beetles, as well as thousands of specimens of mammals, reptiles and fishes. They formed the largest zoological collection ever amassed by a private individual. The Rothschild giraffe (Giraffa camelopardis rothschildi), a subspecies with five ossicones instead of two, was named after him. Another 153 insects, 58 birds, 17 mammals, three fish, three spiders, two reptiles, one millipede and one worm also carry his name.
Walter opened his private museum in 1892. It housed one of the largest natural history collections in the world and was open to the public. In 1932 he was forced to sell the vast majority of his bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History after being blackmailed by a former mistress. On his death in 1937, the museum and all its contents were given in his will to the British Museum (of which the Natural History Museum, London was then a part), the greatest accession which that institution has ever received. The Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum at Tring is now a division of the Natural History Museum.
Following a visit to Hungary in 1902, Walter brought six live edible dormice (Glis glis) back to Tring. Some of them escaped and started breeding successfully in the wild. They have now become a localised pest over an area of approximately 200 square miles in a triangle between Luton, Aylesbury and Beaconsfield; there are estimated to be at least 10,000 of them. Even though considered an invasive species, they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Walter was fascinated by the cassowary, a large, flightless bird found in Australia and New Guinea. He kept 64 live cassowaries in Tring Park, had portraits done of each, then had each one prepared as taxidermy when they died. Walter wrote a detailed study based on observation of live specimens. Although he thought the birds' individual variation - especially their coloured wattles - indicated many species, there are only three species now recognised by science.
These portraits are just a sample of those prepared at Walter's request by artist Frederick William Frohawk (1861-1946).
Tring Park Mansion was built to a design of Sir Christopher Wren in 1685 and was visited several times by Charles II. Sir William Gore, Lord Mayor of London bought the house in 1705 and it remained in his family for two subsequent generations. In 1786, it was sold to Sir Drummond Smith, a London banker, who refurbished the interior in Georgian style and remodelled the park in the fashion made popular by "Capability" Brown. William Kay, a Manchester textile magnate, bought the estate in 1823 and in 1838, Nathan de Rothschild began renting Tring Park as a summer residence. When the property was sold in 1872, Lionel de Rothschild bought it as a wedding present for his son, Sir Nathaniel (later Lord) de Rothschild. Lord Rothschild's family grew up and lived at Tring Park until the death of the dowager Lady Rothschild in 1935. The house was used by the NM Rothschild & Sons bank during World War II before being taken over by the Arts Educational School (re-named Tring Park School for the Performing Arts) in 1945.
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To log this virtual cache:
In order to log a find on this virtual cache you will need to complete two simple tasks...
Task 1:
At the posted coordinates is a bench surrounding a large tree, take a seat and enjoy the view! Please count how many trees are carved into the scene on the bench and send me the answer via the message centre.
Task 2:
Please take a time/date stamped photograph of yourself or your GPSr, (or a simple thumbs up) somewhere in Tring Park and attached it to your log.
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Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.