Festival of Speed is our longest-standing Motorsport event, starting in 1993 when it opened to 25,00 people. We were expecting 2000!
Spectate from the chicane at the Revival to see plenty of classic cars going sideways as they exit this infamous point of our Motor Circuit.
The first ever horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
The first ever horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
Goodwood’s pigs are a mix of two rare breeds (Gloucester Old Spots and Saddlebacks) plus the Large White Boar.
"En la rose je fleurie" or "Like the rose, I flourish" is part of the Richmond coat of Arms and motto
As the private clubhouse for all of the Estate’s sporting and social members, it offers personal service and a relaxed atmosphere
From 2005 to present there has been a demonstration area for the rally cars at the top of the hill
Every single item from plates to pictures has its own home within the Lodge, with our butler (James) has his own "bible" to reference exactly what is out of place.
The Fiat S76 or "Beast of Turin" is a Goodwood favourite and can usually be heard before it is seen at #FOS
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
Just beyond Goodwood House along the Hillclimb, the 2nd Dukes banqueting house was also known as "one of the finest rooms in England" (George Vertue 1747).
Our replica of the famous motor show showcases the "cars of the future" in true Revival style
Nick Heidfelds 1999 (41.6s) hillclimb record was beaten after Max Chilton in his McMurtry Spéirling fan car tore it to shreds at 39.08s in 2022!
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
One Summer, King Edward VII turned his back on the traditional morning suit, and donned a linen suit and Panama hat. Thus the Glorious Goodwood trend was born.
The first public race meeting took place in 1802 and, through the nineteenth century, ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ as the press named it, became a highlight of the summer season
The first public race meeting took place in 1802 and, through the nineteenth century, ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ as the press named it, became a highlight of the summer season
Whoa Simon! A horse so determined and headstrong, he not only won the 1883 Goodwood Cup by 20 lengths, but couldn't be stopped and carried on running over the top of Trundle hill
One Summer, King Edward VII turned his back on the traditional morning suit, and donned a linen suit and Panama hat. Thus the Glorious Goodwood trend was born.
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
The Fiat S76 or "Beast of Turin" is a Goodwood favourite and can usually be heard before it is seen at #FOS
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
A temple-folly guarded by two sphinxes, the beautiful shell house was built in 1748 with collected shells and the floor made from horse teeth.
Ray Hanna famously flew straight down Goodwood’s pit straight below the height of the grandstands at the first Revival in 1998
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
Ray Hanna famously flew straight down Goodwood’s pit straight below the height of the grandstands at the first Revival in 1998
According to Head Butler at Goodwood House David Edney "Class, sophistication and discretion".
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
Goodwood’s pigs are a mix of two rare breeds (Gloucester Old Spots and Saddlebacks) plus the Large White Boar.
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
The Motor Circuit was known as RAF Westhampnett, active from 1940 to 1946 as a Battle of Britain station.
Our gin uses wild-grown botanicals sourced from the estate, and is distilled with mineral water naturally chalk-filtered through the South Downs.
We have been host to many incredible film crews using Goodwood as a backdrop for shows like Downton Abbey, Hollywood Blockbusters like Venom: let there be Carnage and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Easy boy! The charismatic Farnham Flyer loved to celebrate every win with a pint of beer. His Boxer dog, Grogger, did too and had a tendancy to steal sips straight from the glass.
The first thing ever dropped at Goodwood was a cuddly elephant which landed in 1932 just as the 9th Duke of Richmonds passion for flying was taking off.
Our gin uses wild-grown botanicals sourced from the estate, and is distilled with mineral water naturally chalk-filtered through the South Downs.
In Georgian times, offering your guests a delicious frozen dessert was the height of decadent hospitality – and Goodwood’s icehouses were the pride of the estate.
Goodwood Estate
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Words by Luke Sargent.
Much to the chagrin of Roman author Pliny the Elder (who thought chilling summer wines with winter snows to be degenerate and unnatural), people have been refreshed by a cool summer tipple for millennia. Ice gatherers would harvest snow at the mountaintop by night and trundle back downhill in time to reach the market before sunrise. Where access to ice was less regular, ancient civilisations would shovel and compact winter snowfall into deep pits and cover it with straw, conserving the ice for the warmer months to come.
Throughout the Middle Ages, these pits were entirely function over form – utilitarian structures that stored ice not just for dunking into wine, but for preserving meats and soothing fevers. The practice of using ice for more indulgent purposes first appeared in fashionable 16th-century Italy, chiefly thanks to the lavish parties of the staggeringly affluent Medici family and their Florentine confectioners, who were famed for their delicious sherbets and ices.
It is said that Catherine de’ Medici and her talented artisans brought the art of creating decadent frozen desserts to France, and from that initial spark the craft flourished, with ices becoming a centrepiece of French high society.
During Charles II’s (the 1st Duke of Richmond’s father) exile in Versailles, he became enamoured with the palace’s icehouse and its ability to “conserver le gibier du roi” (preserve the King’s game). On his return to England, he immediately had plans drawn up to put an icehouse in London’s newly created Green Park. Coincidentally, the diarist and horticulturist John Evelyn had just ended his Grand Tour, bringing back notes on many continental icehouses, and he soon found work designing these as landscape features. Ranging in depth from eight to thirty-three feet, these well-like structures were often placed in a prominent position, complemented with walled gardens or a ring of trees, as they exuded an air of wealth and status.
Goodwood has two icehouses. One is a Georgian garden feature occupying an eye-catching position in the park, while the remains of another lie in the private gardens of High Wood, close to The Dairy. An icehouse-like structure appears on the earliest of Goodwood plans (possibly a timber building used to preserve the game hunted from the deer park), and the 18th-century icehouse that exists today is designed around a garden seat that offers a vista across to the cricket pitch and beyond – and would almost certainly have been used for entertaining.
For the Georgians, eating and drinking often centred around a garden building, as walking, talking and consuming were common leisure pursuits. Goodwood had several eye-catching garden features that provided both interest and respite during a morning or afternoon promenade, including the banqueting house, Carné’s Seat, and the exquisite Shell House. Social gatherings usually happened in summer, coinciding with the ripening fruits the estate provided, such as strawberries and peaches, all of which were kept fresh with ice from the icehouse. Milk from the estate’s cows became ice-creams, bombes, and the popular syllabub: a mixture of cream and wine whipped to a froth.
Sadly, use of icehouses began to decline in the 19th and early 20th centuries as gas-powered refrigeration technology became more widespread and affordable – and many icehouses were closed up and forgotten. In 2018, for example, a vast underground icehouse dating from the 1780s was discovered by workmen working on the Regent’s Crescent development in London’s Marylebone. By the time of the great Edwardian house parties and the era of French chef, Monsieur Rousseau, servants no longer had to dash across the park but had the luxury of the latest refrigeration gadgets nearby.
Today, the legacy of Goodwood’s icehouses is somewhat neglected, so if you are lucky enough to be seated in the sunshine with a bowl of pistachio gelato this summer, do spare a thought for these forgotten former superstars of delicious cold confection.
This article was taken from the Spring 2021 edition of the Goodwood Magazine.
Goodwood Estate
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