Discover Olympic Gold at England’s greatest Elizabethan house

As Britain gears up for Olympic glory in 2012, one of the country’s more colourful past Olympic champions is being celebrated at England’s greatest Elizabethan house.

Burghley has long dominated the sweeping approach to the Georgian stone town of Stamford in Lincolnshire and been a hit with visitors for four centuries - whether Elizabethan royalty, locals or tourists from across the globe.

Today, it still packs that ‘wow’ factor – offering a packed family day out with a combined ticket giving access to the House plus two gardens, including firm family favourite the Tudor-inspired Gardens of Surprise.

But it was also home to an Olympic Gold Medal winner and one of the prime movers behind the last London Games in 1948.

David, Lord Burghley (1905-1981), who inherited the title of 6th Marquess of Exeter from his father in 1956, was one of the golden athletes of his generation. As well as winning the gold medal for the 400 metres hurdles at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, he won Silver in the 1932 Los Angles Olympics 4x400 yard relay.

During 2012 Burghley House will be dedicating its annual Treasury Exhibition to the Olympic connections and achievements of the Gold medal winning Olympian. The exhibition will show memorabilia including his running outfit, medals and information about his role in the 1948 London Olympics.

And there will be more sporting fun during summer 2012 to celebrate the London Games and the House’s connections to medal-winning success with plans ranging from a special hurdle practice event to giving the annual summer Festival of Surprises an Olympic theme.

But visitors to the House can get a taste of the Olympic exhibition this year too because some of the materials, including the medals and his running shoes, are already on display in the Olympic Corridor at Burghley, which visitors pass through after a tour round the house.

Once he retired from active sport, he worked hard for amateur ideals within the Olympic movement. As President of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, Chairman of the British Olympic Association and a member of the International Olympic Committee, he was instrumental in bringing the Olympic Games to England in 1948 and was also chairman of the Organising and Executive Committee for those Games.

During his time at Cambridge, Lord Burghley - as he was then known - was also the inspiration behind one of the key characters in the movie Chariots of Fire, played by Nigel Havers.

Lord Burghley trained by balancing matchboxes on top of the hurdles and this colourful behavior was reflected in the character of Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 film (although producers replaced matchboxes with glasses of champagne).

A famous scene in that film was also inspired by one of Lord Burghley’s feats – the race around the Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge, against fellow athletes, when he became the only person to sprint around the courtyard before the college clock tolled 12 times.

His other athletic achievements included the record for running a quarter mile round the promenade deck of the Queen Mary - for the record, he did it in 58 seconds, dressed in formal evening wear, in March 1936.

For more details about Burghley House, visit www.burghley.co.uk or telephone 01780 752451.

 
EDITOR’S NOTES:
Burghley, near Stamford in Lincolnshire, has been the home of the Cecil Family for over 400 years and is England’s greatest Elizabethan House. Burghley is owned and maintained by Burghley House Preservation Trust, which looks after a huge collection of great works of art, including one of the most important private collections of 17th century Italian paintings, the earliest inventoried collection of Japanese ceramics in the West, exceptional 18th century furniture and wood carvings by Grinling Gibbons and his followers. The Trust also maintains a 13,000-acre estate including residential, commercial and agricultural lettings, woodland and Burghley Park, which is open daily at no charge.