Here’s a neat article from The Telegraph that caught my eye last week:

The grim and impressive ruined battlements of Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire seem an unlikely setting for a garden of fragrance. But if English Heritage’s latest restoration project goes to plan, visitors moving from the dank environs of the Norman Keep into the light will be greeted by a waft of spicy clove scent, just as Elizabeth I was when she visited in July 1575.
…
John Watkins, head of gardens and landscapes at English Heritage, is patiently unpicking the genetic profile of a prized carnation that will occupy pedestalled clay pots at the top and bottom of the stairs. His study of engravings of contemporary gardens by Dutchman Hans Vredeman de Vries revealed that urns bearing plant rarities appear in strategic spots - and in some he could discern a trelliswork of willow holding carnations at nose height.

“The carnation was very much a fashionable plant at the time, introduced in 1540,” says Watkins. “It came over from the Turkish court and was probably Dianthus caryophyllus, the true carnation found in mountains around the Mediterranean. The true carnation has a very distinct, spicy nutmeg-clove fragrance. The pinks we know today are much sweeter.”

Full article

After being part of a cow shed for a while…

From the BBC:

Tudor wooden panelling, missing from a castle for more than 300 years, is to be returned to its home after once being part of a farmer’s cow shed.

It was among items taken from Monmouthshire’s Raglan Castle during the Civil War in the 17th Century.

But the large panel, once owned by a courtier of Henry VIII, was found after it was sold by a collector, who bought it from a farm for £5 in the 1950s.

The panel is now to go on show at the castle’s new visitor centre.

Full article (with a picture - be sure to click for the full view to see the rest of the carving)

And another article from Wales Online

English Heritage, in association with the History Channel, has launched EHTV. There is a variety of subjects and time periods covered and you can also subscribe to it as a video podcast.

The following email and videos are courtesy of Dave Postles (originally posted to H-ALBION and then forwarded to my Tudor list and sent to me directly by kb)

Bradgate House and Lady Jane Grey

The house is paradigmatic of a late-medieval courtyard house, constructed c.1490-1505 by Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, grandfather of Lady Jane Grey who was born in this house. Brick, but with stone quoins, from local Triassic clay with diaper work in vitrified brick. It was left to decay from 1739, the parkland and house bought in 1928 by Charles Bennion and entrusted to the City of Leicester.

The parkland is partly located in a small gorge. The pre-Cambrian rock which is the bedrock is the oldest in Britain. It was overlaid by Triassic clay. The R. Lin eroded the clay, encountering below the pre-Cambrian rock, cut a smaller channel, creating the small gorge - what geomorphologists call superimposed drainage. Despite its smallness, the Lin here represents all the elements of the cycle of erosion in this superimposed drainage system.

The vill of Bradgate was removed outside the park to the new site of Newtown Linford, a linear or street village along the edge of the park. Several cruck or raised cruck cottages are dispersed in this ‘new’ village.

The southern extension of the park was deer park, with the park pale still discernible on the boundary with the adjacent parish of Anstey.

The video clips are designed to illustrate all these features.

1 The small gorge at the Linford entry to the park

2 The deer park on the south bank of the Lin

4 The deer park again

5 The end of the gorge, opening out of the park and house in the distance

6 One of the many exposed outcrops of pre-Cambrian rock

7 The house

8 The house

9 The deer park

[Copyleft - i.e. copyright-free]

Be sure to check out his other videos!

[July 1 - corrected quoted email to read "Thomas Grey ... grandfather of Lady Jane Grey"]

From 24 Hour Museum:

Astley Castle in Warwickshire is one step closer to being saved by building preservation charity the Landmark Trust following news that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has given a pledge of support for a grant of £1.47million.
…
Often laying claim to the title ‘the home of three Queens of England’ the castle has lain derelict since it was devastated by fire in 1978 and was cited by English Heritage as one of the 16 highest priority buildings at risk in England.

The medieval seat of the Astleys, the castle was later owned by the Grey family, of which Lady Jane Grey was a member.
…
Costing a total of £2.2 million the Landmark Trust is developing a fundraising campaign to secure the remaining funds. English Heritage have confirmed a grant this week towards emergency stabilisation work which will be started later this year to stop the building deteriorating further.

Full article

This time it is a 16th century coaching inn that has been turned into a private residence. And as a bonus feature… Shakespeare is believed to have stayed at the inn.

From The Telegraph:

The inn at Grendon, where the playwright reputedly stayed, was The Ship, an enormous building for the time and purposebuilt in the 1570s: three floors of brick and timber; 20 bedrooms on the upper floors and several large public rooms with enormous fireplaces and intricate wall paintings on the ground floor.
…
The building, now a private home called Shakespeare House, has been saved from demolition at least twice and its present owners had to rebuild the back wall when they bought it five years ago. “It was a wreck,” says Nick Hunter. “The timbers in the back wall were so damaged and rotten that it was on the verge of collapse. At some time in the past someone had sawn through two major purlins [the horizontal roof beams which support the rafters] so they could install a dormer window and the rear roof was sagging.”
…
Shakespeare House is for sale through Strutt and Parker (01844 342571), as a whole for £2.325 million or in two lots – house for £1.6 million, barn for £725,000.”

Full article (be sure to check out the photo gallery!)

I posted about the restoration of Apethorpe Hall and the public days back in September 2007. Now English Heritage is putting the house up for sale after spending several million pounds to buy and restore the house. The selling price is about £5 million (about US $10 million), but it also still needs millions of pounds worth of restoration work.

Here are some of the articles on the upcoming sale and the controversy over the public money spent on the hall:
Slice of history for sale after £4m renovation
Apethorpe Hall a steal at £5m - plus £12m to restore it to grandeur
Taxpayers lose £4.5m on Apethorpe Hall
Heritage group denies wasting £2m

From the BBC:

People are being given the chance to bid for exclusive tours around some of London’s historic palaces.

A look around the hidden areas of the Tower of London or a roof top walk on Hampton Court Palace are being offered.

The money raised from the auction on the website eBay will go to the upkeep and restoration of the palaces.

Full article

More information from the Historic Royal Palaces website

I’m not sure if I should thank Kathy for sending this along or not… I’ll be totally jealous of the people who get to do this!

This one is close to £3,000,000 (about US $6,000,000). Dang, I really need to start buying a lottery ticket every once in a while.

From EDP24:

Built in around 1600 by Sir Thomas Knyvett, who was the man who arrested Guy Fawkes, the hall remained the family home for more than 300 years and has only changed hands four times.

The property, mentioned in Sir Nicholas Pevsner’s Buildings of England, is of architectural merit with restored mullioned windows and octagonal chimney flues. It has been beautifully restored throughout with original features retained and restored with large reception rooms painted in period colours and some exceptional en suite bathrooms installed. Of particular note is a stunning designer kitchen and a new oak staircase has also been added.

Full article (including aerial photo)

To mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Bess of Hardwick, the public is being given the chance to see areas of her famous building. I’d love to be able to see it myself!

From The Yorkshire Post:

As part of the events to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Bess of Hardwick, Hidden Hardwick tours will take place at the hall, near Chesterfield, on May 13 and 19.

They are an opportunity not only to have a tour of the hall with an experienced guide but also to go off the normal visitor route and explore previously hidden areas.

“From the hidden floor which cannot be seen from the outside to the secret door between the High Great Chamber and the Long Gallery, visitors love the fact they are in places that others are not normally allowed into.”

The tour will also include areas of the roof space where visitors will be able to see the timber frame with the wattle and daub lining of the rooms and the secret servants’ floor.

Full article

Harwick Hall’s page at the National Trust

If you have a spare £1.5 million (approx. US $3 million). Regular visitors know that I love it when these old properties show up for sale.

Here’s an article from The Telegraph about the sale:

A 700-year-old castle which once belonged to King Henry VIII has been put on the market for only the second time in its history for £1.5 million.

Sheriff Hutton Castle, which was built in 1382, comes complete with a hooded ghost and bat cave but it is almost totally ruined.

Just four crumbling 100ft stone turrets and the corners of the keep remain and it has no roof or walls.

However, it boasts an impressive list of former royal owners, including Richard III, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

One thing I find interesting is that the castle was built in the 14th century and was owned by the Neville family that played a big part in the Wars of the Roses, but the title of the article is: “For sale: King Henry VIII’s haunted castle”. Playing to the popularity of the Tudors perhaps?

Every once in a while a property listing will come through on my Google News alerts (like the one for Rochford Hall about this time last year) and I just melt when I see them. It also reminds me that I should probably buy at least one lottery ticket a week…

This one is called West Stow Hall and is near Bury St. Edmunds. It’s not as grand as some houses I’ve seen up for sale, it just grabbed me when I saw it. The full listing is here, with several more pictures, including interiors (with a bunch of wonderful beams!!).

When I used to look through picture books of England as a child, one of the things I remember noticing in the old photos (probably mostly taken in the 60s and 70s) was the dark coating from pollution on some of the buildings, in particular the Tower of London (the White Tower) and Westminster Abbey. By the time I saw these buildings in person for the first time (May 1998), the Abbey and the south face of the White Tower had been all cleaned up and were strikingly bright compared to their previous condition. Now, the other three faces of the White Tower are setting cleaned and conserved in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London.

You can find out more about the project and follow the project manager’s diary at the project website at the Historic Royal Palaces site. There is also information on a new display at Hampton Court about the young Henry VIII, since we’re approaching the 500th anniversary of his accession to the throne.

Way cool!

From This Is London:

[F]or 68-year-old Walter, who has spent the last four years painstakingly hand-crafting mullioned windows, stained glass, medieval-style carvings, you name it - it’s the realisation of a lifelong dream.

… Walter’s pride and joy is the only faithful recreation of a Tudor home in Britain, right down to his piece de resistance - the Oriel window, or two-storey bay window that pokes out into the road at the front and necessitated quite a lot of smoothing of ruffled neighbours’ feathers.

At the moment, there are no stairs, no proper floors, no loo - there will be modern plumbing - but there are mountains of wood and notebooks full of his immaculate drawings everywhere.

Full article (with pictures)

There is only a short article about this on the Daily Post site, but it’s good to hear that the window has been restored. Unfortunately only three small fragments from the original window were able to be incorporated into the new one.

Article link

Original blog post on the vandalism

From the BBC:

A 15th Century hall once owned by Henry VIII has opened its doors.
Work to rescue the dilapidated Grade I listed Apethorpe Hall has been carried out by English Heritage after it was labelled an “irreplaceable treasure”.

The comment was made in 2004 by then Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell after the Northants site was recommended for compulsory purchase by the government.

Tours around the hall for visitors are being run by English Heritage, as it nears the completion of £4m repairs.

Apethorpe Hall and estate, dating from 1470, deteriorated after it was left empty since 1982.

Full article

English Heritage website for the restoration project

(tip of the cap to Kathy for the BBC link)

This is just sickening:

A church’s Elizabethan Tudor Rose window has been smashed to bits by thieves just a fortnight after clergymen proudly showed it off to the Prince of Wales.

They climbed in through the remains of the stained glass window at St Gredifael Church in Penymynydd, Anglesey, seized an ancient cannonball and hurled it through another Elizabethan window.

Full article (2 pages)

This is the window that was smashed, which some of you might recognize as the image that used to be on the front page of the website:

Click on the image to go to a page with a little bit more about the window and a link to the full sized picture. I’ve also got a few other pictures of the church itself, which I visited in 2000. (I’m in the process of re-doing all my photos from the negatives, so at some point I’ll have some nicer and bigger versions of the church photos up.)

Got about £1.3 million?

Yes, its *those* Rochfords, as in Thomas Boleyn and family.

Here’s the article and listing information for the Hall, as well as a couple of other lovely historic properties that are for sale. Personally, I’d take any of them!

Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon (my picture is above, from my trip there in 1998) is trying to raise money for some much needed repairs. You can donate or join the Friends of Shakespeare’s Church at their website.

Here’s another story that has gotten lost in the shuffle over the past couple of months…

From 24 Hour Museum:

TOWER OF LONDON UNVEILS MEMORIAL TO THE EXECUTED
By Richard Moss

English Queens, nobles and a trio of unfortunate Scottish soldiers are amongst the names commemorated on a new permanent memorial, unveiled at the Tower of London on September 4 2006.
…
Comprising two engraved circles with a glass-sculpted pillow at its centre, the larger circle of dark stone bears a poem - written by the artist - around its rim, whilst the upper glass circle bears the engraved names of the ten famous and not so famous individuals executed in front of the Chapel Royal.

Full article