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 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
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.
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
After a fire in 1791 at Richmond House in Whitehall, London, James Wyatt added two great wings to showcase the saved collection at Goodwood. To give unity to the two new wings, Wyatt added copper-domed turrets framing each façade.
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!
A huge variety of glassware is available for each wine, all labelled by grape type to give the best flavour profile.
Our gin uses wild-grown botanicals sourced from the estate, and is distilled with mineral water naturally chalk-filtered through the South Downs.
From 2005 to present there has been a demonstration area for the rally cars at the top of the hill
Legend of Goodwood's golden racing era and Le Mans winner Roy Salvadori once famously said "give me Goodwood on a summer's day and you can forget the rest".
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!
FOS Favourite Mad Mike Whiddett can be caught melting tyres in his incredible collection of cars (and trucks) up the hillclimb
A 20m woodland rue, from Halnaker to Lavant, was planted by our forestry teams & volunteers, featuring native species like oak, beech, & hornbeam
For safety reasons F1 cars can no longer do official timed runs so instead perform stunning demonstrations!
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
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.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
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.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
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
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
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
FOS Favourite Mad Mike Whiddett can be caught melting tyres in his incredible collection of cars (and trucks) up the hillclimb
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
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.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
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.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
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 famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
Ray Hanna famously flew straight down Goodwood’s pit straight below the height of the grandstands at the first Revival in 1998
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
The Duke of Richmond holds the title of Duke of Richmond and Gordon. This title reflects the historical association with both the Richmond and Gordon families.
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 horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
As the private clubhouse for all of the Estate’s sporting and social members, it offers personal service and a relaxed atmosphere
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
Inspired by the legendary racer, Masten Gregory, who famously leapt from the cockpit of his car before impact when approaching Woodcote Corner in 1959.
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 iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
Goodwood’s pigs are a mix of two rare breeds (Gloucester Old Spots and Saddlebacks) plus the Large White Boar.
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
For centuries, tapestries have depicted epic tales and grand events in textile form. Now contemporary artists are embracing this ancient craft to tell their own, very modern, stories
Words by Oliver Bennett
Magazine
Art
History
A fully rounded trip to Goodwood House should take in its artistic treasures, including masterpieces by Stubbs and Canaletto. But whatever you do, don’t forget the Tapestry Drawing Room. This neoclassical chamber is home to a remarkable set of Gobelins tapestries, commissioned by Louis XV, depicting Don Quixote. “They’re so important,” says James Peill, curator of Goodwood House. “They were part of a series of 30 made for the French king and given to the 3rd Duke when he was French ambassador.”
They're like pixels, with 3000 threads making up the image
These textile treasures are undeniably glorious, but as an art form, hasn’t tapestry had its day? Not a bit of it. The ultimate “slow art”, painstakingly woven and often recounting an epic tale, tapestry has made an enthusiastic return among today’s creative luminaries. “Artists’ and designers’ contemporary rugs have become very collectable in recent years,” confirms Christopher Sharp, CEO and co-founder of The Rug Company, which has made one-off tapestries designed by a number of high-profile names, including Kara Walker, Sir Peter Blake and Sir Paul Smith.
One of the leading exponents of this newfound passion is Grayson Perry, whose four tapestries about fictional Essex everywoman Julie Cope’s Grand Tour were recently on show at Colchester’s Firstsite gallery. Perry is not alone in his love of warp and weft. Last year, Chris Ofili showed his tapestry The Caged Bird’s Song at National Gallery show Weaving Magic – a transposition of a tropical watercolour into tapestry form. And the tapestry trend continues elsewhere. Pae White’s Pomona, comprising three huge tapestries, decorates Bloomberg’s new City of London HQ, while celebrated South African artist William Kentridge’s tapestry Dare/Avere has just been unveiled at Ermenegildo Zegna’s London store. Gavin Turk, Tracey Emin and Martin Creed are among the other art-world stars who have recently embraced the woven medium.
View our very own collection of tapestries with a guided tour of Goodwood House
Why tapestry, and why now? One reason is the revival of interest in time-honoured craft techniques – what Matthew Bourne of Chelsea-based rug-master Christopher Farr attributes to “a search for new and durable art forms that are useful as well as beautiful”. Whatever, tapestry-making is back in the ascendant. The fabled Edinburgh tapestry workshop Dovecot reopened in 2001 after a period in the doldrums and is now riding high; it made Ofili’s tapestry and is currently showing Garry Fabian Miller’s Voyage into the deepest, darkest blue – a grand return for a company that commissioned David Hockney, Graham Sutherland and Frank Stella in the 20th century.
Tapestries are also making waves in the saleroom. In 2012, Bonhams achieved £540,000 for Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s New World Map, a tapestry made from flattened bottle tops and wire. A return, perhaps, to the art form’s Tudor heyday. “Tapestries back then were judged as a higher art than paintings and were more expensive,” says Bourne. “Henry VIII had a lot of his wealth wrapped up in them.”
For some, tapestry’s resurgence isn’t just about the revival of old skills; it has a new relevance in the digital era. Garry Fabian Miller’s work draws an explicit link between digital photography and tapestry, as does William Kentridge, who likens tapestries to film projections. “You can fill a wall with a 3m x 4m tapestry,” he says. “They’re strangely contemporary, like a primitive digital form. On one hand they refer back to Gobelins; on another they’re like pixels, with 3,000 threads making up the image.”
Tapestries back then were judged as a higher art than paintings and were more expensive
Woven artworks are regaining their old prestige. As art historian Thomas P Campbell has said, in the Middle Ages they were more expensive than paintings (Henry VIII owned 300 paintings but 2,500 tapestries) and were used as “portable propaganda” – diplomatic gifts par excellence – which loops us back to the Tapestry Drawing Room, host to many Royal Privy Council meetings overlooked by the Gobelins tapestries.
Intriguingly, Campbell has also likened this historic “gamesmanship” to television hit Game of Thrones. Surely Henry VIII would enjoy the fact that a GoT tapestry has, since last autumn, adorned the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Full of fights, romances, valour and victories, it’s not that far removed from the Bayeux Tapestry, now set to visit the UK as part of a new entente cordiale between the UK and France, indicating tapestry’s enduring merit as an epic storytelling format – not to mention, as Peill puts it, “a very grand way of decorating a room”.
This article is taken from the Goodwood magazine, Spring 2018 issue
Magazine
Art
History