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Parsons, Robert, (1920-2000), architect

This page summarises records created by this Person

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Date: 1920-2000
History: Robert Parsons, an American citizen, first visited Gloucestershire while on active service during the Second World War. In 1970, he took a lease of Newark Park, Ozleworth from the National Trust. The house had been used as an old people's home since the 1940s but was then derelict and in very poor condition. The Trust had even seriously considered the possibility of demolishing the house before finding a tenant. Mr Parsons, who had studied architecture at Harvard, devoted his time and energy over the next 20 years to restoring the house and the dramatic hillside landscape garden of Newark. The restored house was filled with an eclectic collection of beautiful furnishings, and Mr Parsons and his partner, Michael Claydon, made the house an exceptional centre of hospitality for their wide circle of friends. Serious illness obliged Robert Parsons to give up his tenancy in 1995, when some of the contents of the house were sold, but after making a remarkable recovery, he was able to return to Newark 18 months later. He died in March 2000.
Places:
  • Newark Park, Gloucestershire
Sources of authority: Gloucestershire Archives, catalogue of D8667
Name authority reference: GB/NNAF/D91885 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/D5002 )
Collections
Number Description Held by Reference Further information
1
1944-94: corresp rel to restoration of Newark Park and gratitude for hospitality, ts diary of tour of Cotswolds
Gloucestershire Archives
D8667
NRA 3514 Glos RO misc
2
c1950-99: additional records
Gloucestershire Archives
D8667
See Annual Return 2001