WARWICK Area June 2022
We took a short break to the Warwick area of England. A lush area rich in history. Enjoy the photos!
CITY OF WORCESTER
I grew up in nearby Hereford, so we stopped at Worcester on the way to Warwick. The city is famed for its cathedral (which has a Peregrine Falcon family) and of course the River Severn. I also visited my late aunt's house near the city centre.
Worcester Cathedral has been described as possibly the most interesting of all England’s cathedrals, especially architecturally. The first cathedral was founded in 680. Saint Oswald built a later cathedral in 983, and established a monastery attached to it. Saint Wulfstan began the present building in 1084.
During Anglo-Saxon times, Worcester was one of the most important monastic cathedrals in the country. It was a centre of great learning, which continued into the later middle ages, when Worcester’s Benedictine monks studied a variety of subjects, such as theology, medicine, law, history, mathematics, physics, and astronomy. Some of these medieval university textbooks still survive in the Cathedral library today.
The monastery continued until 1540 when Henry VIII dissolved it, and some of the last monks became the first Dean and Chapter. The Cathedral was badly damaged in the English Civil War, and as a consequence a major programme of rebuilding was required after the Restoration of Charles II. From the late seventeenth until the nineteenth centuries there were several campaigns to restore parts of the Cathedral, including a major programme by the Victorians from 1864-75.
Worcester Cathedral has been described as possibly the most interesting of all England’s cathedrals, especially architecturally. The first cathedral was founded in 680. Saint Oswald built a later cathedral in 983, and established a monastery attached to it. Saint Wulfstan began the present building in 1084.
During Anglo-Saxon times, Worcester was one of the most important monastic cathedrals in the country. It was a centre of great learning, which continued into the later middle ages, when Worcester’s Benedictine monks studied a variety of subjects, such as theology, medicine, law, history, mathematics, physics, and astronomy. Some of these medieval university textbooks still survive in the Cathedral library today.
The monastery continued until 1540 when Henry VIII dissolved it, and some of the last monks became the first Dean and Chapter. The Cathedral was badly damaged in the English Civil War, and as a consequence a major programme of rebuilding was required after the Restoration of Charles II. From the late seventeenth until the nineteenth centuries there were several campaigns to restore parts of the Cathedral, including a major programme by the Victorians from 1864-75.
BADDESLEY CLINTON
Baddesley Clinton is a National Trust property which is unusual in that it has a moat. When the house was first built in the early 1400s, it was surrounded by the Forest of Arden. It got its name from a Saxon, called Baeddi, who first cleared the site in the forest, and the de Clinton family who dug the moat in the 13th century.
In 1438 the site was bought by a lawyer, John Brome, who built some of the house from Arden sandstone quarried on the site.
Through his grand-daughter, the house passed to the Ferrers family. It was Edward Ferrers who built much of what we see today, from 1526 onwards.
Henry Ferrers the Antiquary, who lived at Baddesley from 1564 to 1633, built much of the garden range and the great hall. He also added many of the coats of arms to the house – in carved wood and stained glass.
In 1590 he rented the house to two Catholic sisters, and it was then that it became a hiding place for Jesuit priests. Its three priest holes date from this time.
By the end of the 17th century the estate was in decline. It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century, when Marmion Ferrers was in residence, that its fortunes picked up again.
Marmion married Rebecca Orpen in 1867, and two years later they were joined at Baddesley by her aunt, Lady Georgiana Chatterton, and her second husband, Edward Dering.
The four friends became known as the Quartet and they devoted their time to restoring the house, painting, writing and to religion.
In 1438 the site was bought by a lawyer, John Brome, who built some of the house from Arden sandstone quarried on the site.
Through his grand-daughter, the house passed to the Ferrers family. It was Edward Ferrers who built much of what we see today, from 1526 onwards.
Henry Ferrers the Antiquary, who lived at Baddesley from 1564 to 1633, built much of the garden range and the great hall. He also added many of the coats of arms to the house – in carved wood and stained glass.
In 1590 he rented the house to two Catholic sisters, and it was then that it became a hiding place for Jesuit priests. Its three priest holes date from this time.
By the end of the 17th century the estate was in decline. It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century, when Marmion Ferrers was in residence, that its fortunes picked up again.
Marmion married Rebecca Orpen in 1867, and two years later they were joined at Baddesley by her aunt, Lady Georgiana Chatterton, and her second husband, Edward Dering.
The four friends became known as the Quartet and they devoted their time to restoring the house, painting, writing and to religion.
PACKWOOD HOUSE
Another National Trust property only a few miles away but this one has a topiary garden.
In about 1570, William Fetherston built a new ‘great mancient howse’ which was later handed over to his son John in 1599. The house John inherited was tall, detached and nearly square in plan, with triple gables and a great brick cow barn to the north with further farm buildings to the east.The Fetherstons were yeomen farmers and each subsequent generation expanded the estate through industry. John Fetherston II, was a lawyer who increased the family’s wealth and built the stables and outhouses with their complex brickwork, cupolas and many sundials. At the time of his son’s death in 1714 the Fetherston family commanded an estate of around 690 acres. Through the 18th Century the succession passed through the female line to the Leigh family and then to the Dilkes. The last of the line died in comparative poverty and Packwood was eventually sold to George Oakes Arton, a Birmingham solicitor. When George died in 1901 the principal interest of the property was not the half-timbered mansion of the Fetherstons, but the celebrated and, by then, mystical antiquity of the gardens.
On 29 September 1904 Alfred Ash, second generation industrialist and confirmed suburban dweller, bought at auction the Packwood estate of approximately 134 acres. When asked why he had done it, he is reported to have said: ‘I bought it because the Boy wanted it.’
The ‘Boy’ was his only son, Graham Baron Ash, who was just 16. For the next 40 years Baron Ash, as he liked to be known, was to be the meticulous restorer, furnisher, decorator and beautifier of Packwood. Baron Ash was a complex mix of typically English reserve and true courage, deeply buried emotions and party-loving generosity. His aspirations seem to have masked a degree of social insecurity which surfaced in an almost obsessive concern for correctness in every aspect of his life. Work in the family firm of Ash and Lacy was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1914. Initially Baron Ash volunteered for the medical corps, but was later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, however after wrecking four aircraft, he transferred again, this time to become a Balloon Observation Officer. Aged 21, Baron Ash travelled to America, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Burma, India, Egypt, Italy and Switzerland. He kept a diary in which he recorded the cultures he encountered. While in Amoy, he visited a temple ‘in order to bribe one of the priests to sell me one of the roof decorations.’
A long life of haggling with antiques dealers had begun. Between 1924 and 1932 Baron Ash transformed Packwood. His driving ambition to rid the old house of any trace of its Georgian and Victorian inheritance was in tune with the fashion of the times.
The classical style of the 18th century and the dark, heavily furnished interiors of Victoria’s reign were deeply unfashionable in inter-war England. Baron Ash aimed to create his own private world and a stage set against which he could live the life of an English country gentleman and where many came to enjoy his primly perfect version of country house hospitality.
Externally one of the biggest changes was the replacement of all the Georgian Gothick sashes with leaded casements in the Jacobean style. This transformed the place entirely and immediately lent a far more antique appearance to each façade.Baron Ash felt that the perfect country house of Old England had to have a Great Hall and fortunately a large cow barn lay close to the manor house, divided from it by only a couple of hundred yards. With the addition of a full-height bay window, the installation of a sprung dancing floor and the conversion of the hay rack as a balustrade for a minstrels’ gallery, Baron Ash’s Great Hall was born.
The Topiary Garden
This is one of the great topiary gardens of England with it’s separate Yew Garden receiving much acclaim. Although a plan of 1723 indicates the potential positions of some of the giant specimens the majority were planted in the Nineteenth Century. At the top of the garden is a large mound where you walk up a spiral path surrounded by Box edging to view the assembled multitude of Yew specimens, some over 50 feet high, from the shade of a large umbrella-ed Yew. Tradition has it that this area is known as the Sermon on the Mount. There is also a story that when asked by a visitor during the Victorian period what the garden meant, as it surely must have a meaning, a gardener is said to have quickly made up the story to keep his guest happy. Whichever is true you’ll find more yew trees per square inch here than almost anywhere else in the country. All of which is a testament to the gardener’s skill as the soil here is clay which Yew does not like when it is continually wet in the Winter. The topiary section is closed off in particularly wet months as the many feet of visitors compacting the earth around the roots of the major specimens can have a detrimental effect on their health. Cutting of the specimens is done with a hydraulic hoist but ladders are still used for the more inaccessible parts. The whole edge of the garden has a massive undulating hedge of Box.
In about 1570, William Fetherston built a new ‘great mancient howse’ which was later handed over to his son John in 1599. The house John inherited was tall, detached and nearly square in plan, with triple gables and a great brick cow barn to the north with further farm buildings to the east.The Fetherstons were yeomen farmers and each subsequent generation expanded the estate through industry. John Fetherston II, was a lawyer who increased the family’s wealth and built the stables and outhouses with their complex brickwork, cupolas and many sundials. At the time of his son’s death in 1714 the Fetherston family commanded an estate of around 690 acres. Through the 18th Century the succession passed through the female line to the Leigh family and then to the Dilkes. The last of the line died in comparative poverty and Packwood was eventually sold to George Oakes Arton, a Birmingham solicitor. When George died in 1901 the principal interest of the property was not the half-timbered mansion of the Fetherstons, but the celebrated and, by then, mystical antiquity of the gardens.
On 29 September 1904 Alfred Ash, second generation industrialist and confirmed suburban dweller, bought at auction the Packwood estate of approximately 134 acres. When asked why he had done it, he is reported to have said: ‘I bought it because the Boy wanted it.’
The ‘Boy’ was his only son, Graham Baron Ash, who was just 16. For the next 40 years Baron Ash, as he liked to be known, was to be the meticulous restorer, furnisher, decorator and beautifier of Packwood. Baron Ash was a complex mix of typically English reserve and true courage, deeply buried emotions and party-loving generosity. His aspirations seem to have masked a degree of social insecurity which surfaced in an almost obsessive concern for correctness in every aspect of his life. Work in the family firm of Ash and Lacy was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1914. Initially Baron Ash volunteered for the medical corps, but was later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, however after wrecking four aircraft, he transferred again, this time to become a Balloon Observation Officer. Aged 21, Baron Ash travelled to America, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Burma, India, Egypt, Italy and Switzerland. He kept a diary in which he recorded the cultures he encountered. While in Amoy, he visited a temple ‘in order to bribe one of the priests to sell me one of the roof decorations.’
A long life of haggling with antiques dealers had begun. Between 1924 and 1932 Baron Ash transformed Packwood. His driving ambition to rid the old house of any trace of its Georgian and Victorian inheritance was in tune with the fashion of the times.
The classical style of the 18th century and the dark, heavily furnished interiors of Victoria’s reign were deeply unfashionable in inter-war England. Baron Ash aimed to create his own private world and a stage set against which he could live the life of an English country gentleman and where many came to enjoy his primly perfect version of country house hospitality.
Externally one of the biggest changes was the replacement of all the Georgian Gothick sashes with leaded casements in the Jacobean style. This transformed the place entirely and immediately lent a far more antique appearance to each façade.Baron Ash felt that the perfect country house of Old England had to have a Great Hall and fortunately a large cow barn lay close to the manor house, divided from it by only a couple of hundred yards. With the addition of a full-height bay window, the installation of a sprung dancing floor and the conversion of the hay rack as a balustrade for a minstrels’ gallery, Baron Ash’s Great Hall was born.
The Topiary Garden
This is one of the great topiary gardens of England with it’s separate Yew Garden receiving much acclaim. Although a plan of 1723 indicates the potential positions of some of the giant specimens the majority were planted in the Nineteenth Century. At the top of the garden is a large mound where you walk up a spiral path surrounded by Box edging to view the assembled multitude of Yew specimens, some over 50 feet high, from the shade of a large umbrella-ed Yew. Tradition has it that this area is known as the Sermon on the Mount. There is also a story that when asked by a visitor during the Victorian period what the garden meant, as it surely must have a meaning, a gardener is said to have quickly made up the story to keep his guest happy. Whichever is true you’ll find more yew trees per square inch here than almost anywhere else in the country. All of which is a testament to the gardener’s skill as the soil here is clay which Yew does not like when it is continually wet in the Winter. The topiary section is closed off in particularly wet months as the many feet of visitors compacting the earth around the roots of the major specimens can have a detrimental effect on their health. Cutting of the specimens is done with a hydraulic hoist but ladders are still used for the more inaccessible parts. The whole edge of the garden has a massive undulating hedge of Box.
KENILWORTH CASTLE
We didn't have time to visit the interior, so the photos are only of the exterior.
Key Facts:-
Key Facts:-
- The first castle was established in the 1120s by the royal chamberlain, Geoffrey de Clinton, who built most of the Norman keep.
- In the early 13th century King John added an outer circuit of stone walls and a dam to hold back a great lake, so creating one of the most formidable fortresses in the kingdom.
- In 1266 Simon de Montfort held Kenilworth against the king through an extraordinary six-month siege – the longest in English medieval history.
- In the 14th century John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III, developed the castle into a palace, building the great hall and lavish apartments.
- The castle was a favoured residence of the Lancastrian kings in the later Middle Ages – Henry V even built a retreat here at the far end of the lake.
- In 1563 Elizabeth I granted the castle to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who transformed Kenilworth into a magnificent palace. Famously he entertained the queen here for 19 days of festivities in 1575.
- The castle’s fortifications were dismantled in 1650 after the English Civil War. Later, the ruins became famous thanks in part to Walter Scott’s 1821 novel Kenilworth, which romanticised the story of Robert Dudley, his wife Amy Robsart, and Elizabeth I.
WARWICK CASTLE
Warwick Castle, although a true historic castle, is now privately owned by. a leisure company Merlin Entertainments who operate Alton Towers and Thorpe Park etc. So it is a bit too commercial and aimed at kids. However the castle still remains and they do make a show of the history. The highlight for me was the Falconer's Quest a spectacular birds of prey show what was well worth the steep entry charge. Hope you enjoy the photos!