It is said that King James I liked the site, and acquired it for use as a sort of garden for the royals. It also had a small, 4-acre grove of mulberry trees, which King James hoped to use for silk production silkworms feed only on mulberry trees. There was a house on the property at the time, and it passed through a succession of owners until , when it was sold to a man named John Sheffield.
He later became the Duke of Buckingham, and it is for him that the house on the property was ultimately named. Sheffield, finding the original house on the property outdated, decided to build a new residence on the site in the early s. George IV, however, was relatively old for a new king. He was 60 when he took the throne, and in poor health.
Having grown up in Buckingham House, he favored the building and wanted to make it the official royal residence. He hired architect John Nash to expand and renovate the structure. His design expanded the main section of the building, adding west wings, as well as branches to the north and south. The east wings were also rebuilt. The reason? The cost of the project. He preferred his princely home, Clarence Palace, instead. When the House of Parliament was destroyed by fire in the s, William IV offered Buckingham Palace as the new home of the legislature.
However, the offer was politely declined. In , the British Parliament voted to complete the furnishing and interior refurbishment of Buckingham Palace for use as the official royal home. Soon after taking up residence in the new palace, however, Queen Victoria complained about the lack of space for entertaining foreign dignitaries.
Construction was completed in , and Queen Victoria reigned until her death in Her son Edward VII ascended to the throne, and he is credited with an interior redesign of the palace, the remnants of which can still be seen today.
The home of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II , and her family since , Buckingham Palace remains the administrative headquarters of the royal family and the site of many official events and receptions.
Today this is the site of Buckingham Church; the higher ground means that the tall spire can be seen for miles around. The very steep slope from the Church down to Well Street would have created great difficulty for any attacking force. Buckingham Church, approached from Castle Street, stands on the site of the medieval castle. The presence of the fort, whether as a strong point to resist renewed Danish attacks or as a jumping-off point for Saxon attacks on Danish armies based at Northampton or Bedford, gave Buckingham an importance far greater than a mere village.
It became one of the Royal Burgs of Wessex and became a county town. The late Saxon Kings had a clear policy of promoting the development of Buckingham. The market established by Danish settlers at Langport, now a hamlet in the grounds of Stowe, was transferred to Buckingham and people were encouraged to move to the town with promises of low taxation. Buckingham was governed by a Reeve who was appointed by the King. The town also had a royal mint and silver pennies were produced for nearly one hundred years.
Buckingham, a Royal Borough, with its own mint, was entitled to imagine that a glorious future awaited it! But lady luck was not on its side. Shortly after the Norman Conquest the original village site and the lands attached to it, including the hamlet of Gawcott, were given to the Church. The estates provided part of the endowment of the rich Prebendary of Sutton Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire cum Buckingham attached to the new Cathedral of Lincoln.
The name Prebend End is still used to describe this part of Buckingham and the town was to remain in the Diocese of Lincoln until The original Buckingham Church was in Prebend End and the site is now occupied by a disused graveyard. There was also the large Prebend Manor House, sometimes used by the Prebend but more often let to tenants, which was was one of the finest in Buckingham but was destroyed in the Civil War in There was clearly much opposition to the Normans who found it especially difficult to impose their rule in the forest of Whittlewood which then covered much of the land between Buckingham and Northampton.
Although sometimes absentees, the Giffords and their successors the de Braose family tried to turn Buckingham into a major commercial centre. Now the town grew beyond the loop of the river and a very large market square was laid out — still the main shopping area of the town. Different parts of the square were used for the sale of differing types of produce — cows at the east curiously still known as North End Square , bulls in the middle the Bull Ring and butter and groceries in Market Hill.
Horses were sold in West Street and sheep and wool in Well Street. The Woolpack Inn in Well Street indicates its former role. But the plan was probably overambitious as Buckingham did not have good natural transport. Prior to the eighteenth century most of the successful towns in England were either on the coast or on navigable rivers.
Another problem concerned the state of the Castle; the buildings were neglected and in were described as being worth nothing. One of the chief functions of county towns was to hold the Shire Assizes but with the Castle in ruins there was no suitable building available in Buckingham.
The Assizes moved elsewhere and were often held in Newport Pagnell. Buckingham got into serious difficulties in the fourteenth century. Around the population of England reached levels not seen again for four hundred years. Already there was hardly enough food to go round. Then shortly after the climate began to deteriorate. Summers became colder and wetter and crop yields fell. The inevitable result was famine.
The Buckingham area suffered badly in the famine of We have sad accounts of inquests held in Buckingham concerning people found dead from starvation at the side of the road. In the Black Death struck causing heavy mortality in the Buckingham area, especially among the clergy and members of monastic orders.
Virtually all of the community at nearby Luffield Priory perished. The plague returned several times in the course of the next century.
By there were probably fewer people living in the area than in Roman times. The fall in numbers had all sorts of social and economic implications; labour became scarce, old style serfdom disappeared, rents fell and some of the old landowning families either became extinct or were forced to sell up.
Their lands were often acquired by enterprising new men. Despite this downturn in fortune, Buckingham struggled on valiantly. The new landowners, families like the Bartons and the Fowlers, tended to live locally — unlike their predecessors.
They had often acquired their money in London, either through the law or through trade, but now they spent it in Buckingham. They also showed a strong sense of civic responsibility; the Bartons paid for the rebuilding of the Church and endowed a town charity. Buckingham did particularly well in the late 15th and early 16th century. For the first time since Roman times bricks were being used in buildings — although difficult for farmers the heavy clay of North Buckinghamshire is ideal for brick making and soon an industry developed which has continued till recent times.
In addition, some of Prince William's most famous wedding photos with the Duchess of Cambridge were taken on the balcony. Another tradition Buckingham Palace holds is the royal Changing the Guard ceremony, in which one regiment takes over for another. Per tradition, the New Guard march to Buckingham Palace from Wellington Barracks with musical accompaniment, thereby becoming the Queen's Guard during the course of the ceremony. Also known as "Guard Mounting," the tradition takes place at 11 a.
The schedule for the ceremony can be seen on the British Army website. While these are only some of the traditions the palace holds, the house and grounds have seen many major historic moments over the years, making Buckingham one of the most influential and historic locations in the history of the British royal family. It isn't uncommon for visitors to England to find themselves curious about Buckingham Palace and what it has to offer.
But the house itself isn't the only part of the grounds worth checking out. The royal garden at Buckingham Palace occupies 42 acres in the City of Westminster and includes features such as the Rose Garden which features 25 different varieties, including one created in honor of William called Royal William , tennis court, and a three-acre lake. Also known as the Memorial Gardens, the flowerbeds at Buckingham are laid out in a semi-circular design and include such as exotic plants as scarlet geraniums, spider plants, and weeping figs.
The garden also includes a mulberry tree that dates back to the time of James I of England In addition to a magnificent garden, the Buckingham grounds are also home to a royal museum with exhibits focusing on different eras of the monarchy. Only a fraction of the royal collection is on display , however. It totals 7, paintings, , prints, and 30, watercolors and drawings. After you tour the museum, you can also tour 19 rooms inside Buckingham Palace itself, open for 10 weeks each summer.
Additionally, the Mall, the road in front of Buckingham Palace, is colored red to create the illusion of a large red carpet leading up to the palace itself. The Mall is flanked by trees on either side and is decorated with Union flags during state visits. Often crowded by the public during royal events, the Mall is intended for major national ceremonies, and scheduled buses are not allowed to use the Mall or go past Buckingham Palace except for permission of the monarch.
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