The 1680 painting of a black groom at Charlecote Park

Nestled in the tranquil village of Charlecote, near Wellesbourne, sits Charlecote Park, roughly 4 miles east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles south of Warwick, England. Administered by the National Trust since 1946, this grand estate covers 185 acres abutting the River Avon. Originally built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, the house was graced by the presence of Queen Elizabeth I in one of its rooms. However, while the general outline of the original Elizabethan house remains, the present house is of mostly Victorian construction, following years of modifications by successive generations of the Lucy family.

The manor is classified as a Grade I listed building and is accessible to the public. High up on one wall in the Tudor great hall is a 1680 painting of Captain Thomas Lucy by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The work includes what is believed to be one of the earliest depictions of an enslaved black presence in the West Midlands. In the right-hand background, a young black groom is dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust notes that it is not known if Kneller painted this unidentified figure from a model or if it is a portrait of a real groom in Captain Lucy's household.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons