I've got a book called "The History of Bradgate" by Marie Forsyth and in that she explains that when Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, died in 1719 (some say 1720), his successor, Henry Grey, 3rd Earl of Stamford, chose to live on the family estates at Enville in Staffordshire, not at Bradgate. It was from this time that the house began to decay, although this was a gradual process. Forsyth goes on to write that the Grey family continued to live in Staffordshire and that "once the house was exposed to the four winds its destruction was inevitable. Local people helped themselves to bricks and slates, walls and towers cracked and fell, and the garden left untended rapidly became a wilderness."
It's sad because it was such a beautiful house.
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Are there many belongings of the Tudors (particularly Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn’s) left in English museums? I was wondering if you thought a lot of them were destroyed by the “anti-royalists” from the 17th and 18th centuries? (Until I can go to England myself and visit the wonderful museums myself, this is something I have ofter wondered about.)