Château Woolsack: A Hunting Lodge and Country Estate in France
Site at a Glance
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- 3.6
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- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page11 sections
History
Château Woolsack is a former hunting lodge and country estate in France, situated on the shore of Lake Aureilhan near Mimizan. The 2nd Duke of Westminster began building it in 1911 in a neo-Cape Dutch and Tudor-influenced style, adapting the South African Woolsack that had served as Rudyard Kipling’s summer residence. The estate combined hunting, private holidays, and large social receptions.
Foundation and design
Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, decided to establish the estate after visiting the area during a wild-boar hunt in late January 1910. He acquired the wooded Sourgens dune, covering more than 10 hectares, in April 1911. The property had been presented to him by the British Crown in recognition of his courage and service during the Second Boer War. Construction began that year.
The duke commissioned Detmar Blow and Fernand Billerey to reproduce The Woolsack at the Cape, a South African summer house adapted for Kipling by Sir Herbert Baker at the request of Cecil Rhodes. The resulting building combined English country-house traditions with the colonial Dutch architecture associated with South Africa’s Cape region. Its name referred to the wool-stuffed, red-covered seat of the Lord Chancellor in the British House of Lords.
Before the building was finished, the duke stayed at the estate in a specially prepared chalet during Christmas 1911. He used Woolsack regularly until 1940 for hunting, private leisure, and receptions. Because no land route reached the property, he and his guests travelled by motorboat from Aureilhan.
A hunting and social estate
Woolsack became a hunting base for the surrounding region. Local residents entered the duke’s service, and a separate English quarter developed away from the main house. It accommodated staff, hunting personnel, friends, kennels, and stables. Hunting with hounds, known in French as chasse à courre, formed the centre of the estate’s activities. Wild boar and deer were pursued locally, together with pigeons, thrushes, ortolans, and woodcocks.
As game became scarcer through over-hunting, the duke sometimes transferred people and animals to Saint-Saëns in Normandy for further hunts. The estate’s social life nevertheless continued. From 1924 to 1930, Coco Chanel was a close friend of the duke and a frequent visitor, occasionally bringing seamstresses from her workshop and housing them at the nearby Villa Le Pylône. Winston Churchill, an intimate friend of the duke since the Boer War, visited frequently with members of his family and first met Chanel at Woolsack in 1927.
Other recorded guests included Charlie Chaplin, Salvador Dalí, Suzanne Lenglen, David Lloyd George, Georges Carpentier, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the illustrator Sem, and Sir Anthony Eden. Churchill painted around twenty canvases of Mimizan and its surroundings during his connection with the estate.
Occupation, fire, and reconstruction
German forces occupied Mimizan on 28 June 1940 and requisitioned the château for officers and their orderlies. During the occupation, furniture, tableware, household linen, paintings, and stuffed boars were removed from the property. The forces withdrew on 24 August 1944, after which the residence was returned to the duke.
The duke married Anne Nancy Winifred Sullivan on 7 February 1947. While the couple were preparing to spend their honeymoon at Woolsack, the château caught fire during the night of 23 February and was largely burned. The duke later used the guest bungalow and returned once before his death in 1953 to arrange the sale of the estate.
Roger Sargos acquired the abandoned château and surrounding forest around 1955. In 1959 he rebuilt approximately three-quarters of the building, including the south façade, intending eventually to provide a home for his grandson Jacques Sargos. The rebuilt façade was leased to Papeteries de Gascogne for seminars and receptions. The company later became the owner and undertook two partial restoration programs under the supervision of the heritage architect.
Barbara and Sir Vivian Ramsey acquired Château Woolsack in 2007 and reconstructed missing parts using original plans obtained from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The château is now a privately owned holiday residence. It lies within a classified protected site under the order of 18 July 1978.
Remains
Château Woolsack stands on the summit of a wooded hillock, called a tuc in Gascon, overlooking Lake Aureilhan. Its principal façade faces the lake. The two-storey building has a square plan arranged around a central open-air courtyard. Four wings enclose the courtyard, while a covered gallery supported by stone columns runs around it and provides access to the rooms.
Main house and lake approach
Château
The house uses solid red brick and half-timbering, with a slate roof covering the four wings. Each wing has a gabled front pierced by bull’s-eye windows, and the gables were fitted out as dovecotes. Dormer windows mark the first-floor bedrooms. The mixture of brick and timber relates the building to the architectural character of the Born region, where comparable features occur in some Landes houses.
A large staircase rises from the landing stage to the main entrance. During the duke’s occupation, the west wing held service and staff rooms. The south wing contained the dining room and salon, with a terrace overlooking the lake. Two bedrooms and a bathroom for the duke and duchess occupied the east wing, while two further bedrooms and a bathroom were placed in the north wing.
Lake landing stages
The principal landing stage on the lake was built in concrete and carried the initial “W” carved into it. A wooden landing stage on the opposite shore stood at the foot of the staircase and provided access to the estate. The crossings carried the duke, his guests, provisions, dogs, and other supplies. The surviving fabric of the château also reflects the rebuilding after the 1947 fire, the large-scale reconstruction of 1959, later partial restoration, and the reconstruction of missing sections after 2007.
Grounds and service buildings
Landscape planting
The grounds were planted mainly with maritime pines. Mimosas brought from South Africa grew beneath them, while Judas trees and rarer species surrounded the house. Camellias, roses, irises, and hydrangeas decorated the approaches, and lemon and orange trees stood on the terrace.
English quarter
The English quarter consisted of about ten separate bungalows built in an English style. Their wood was lacquered white with black trim, and forest paths connected the houses. The group provided accommodation for estate staff, hunting personnel, dog handlers, the chauffeur, muleteer, grooms, and friends, as well as facilities for the hunting animals.
The estate maintained approximately twenty horses, around sixty dogs, and two automobiles. The dogs were kept for the hunting operation, while the horses were housed in the associated stables.
