The Final Product of an experimental approach, high hopes, then dashed hopes, post-processing, then resurrected hopes, and finally a pretty neat image.

And so to the weekend again. And what might be the last orchid-free weekend until well into June or even August.

 

So, enjoy the churches while you can.

 

Saturday, and not much really planned. We get up at half six with it fully light outside. The cloud and drizzle had not arrived, instead it was pretty clear and sunny.

 

No time for thinking about going out to take shots, as we had hunter-gathering to do.

 

In fact, we didn't need much, just the usual stuff to keep us going. That and the car was running on fumes. So we will that up first, and then into Tesco and round and round we go, fully the trolley up. It being Mother's Day on Saturday, we were having Jen round on Sunday, we were to have steak, so I get mushrooms.

 

And once back, we have breakfast then go to Preston for the actual steak, three ribeyes, all cut from the same stip. Jools had gone to look at the garden centre for ideas as we're going to dig up the raspberries, so just wondering what to put in their place.

 

By then the rain had come, and so we dashed back to the car, and on the way home called in at two churches.

 

First off was Goodnestone, just the other side of Wingham.

 

Its a fine estate church, covered in wonderfully knapped bricks, giving it an East Anglian feel. Before we went in, we sheltered under a tree to much on a sausage roll I had bought at the butcher, that done, we go to the church, which is open.

 

I have been here quite recently, five years back, and in truth no much glass to record, but I do my best, leave a fiver of the weekly collection and we drove over the fields to Eastry.

 

St Mary is an impressive church, with carved and decorated west face of the Norman tower, at its base an odd lean-to porch has been created, leading into the church, which does have interest other than the 35 painted medallions high in the Chancel Arch, once the backdrop to the Rood.

 

I snap them with the big lens, and the windows too. A warden points out what looks like a very much older painted window high among the roof timbers in the east wall of the Chancel.

 

I get a shot, which is good enough, but even with a 400mm lens, is some crop.

 

I finish up and we go home, taking it carefully along nearly flooded roads.

 

Being a Saturday, there is football, though nothing much of interest until three when Norwich kick off against Stoke: could they kick it on a wet Saturday afternoon in the Potteries?

 

No. No, they couldn't.

 

Ended 0-0, City second best, barely laid a glove on the Stoke goal.

 

And then spots galore: Ireland v England in the egg-chasing, Citeh v Burnley in the Cup and Chelsea v Everton in the league, all live on various TV channels.

 

I watch the first half of the rugby, then switch over when England were reduced to 14, so did enjoy the lad Haarland score another hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition.

 

And that was that, another day over with.....

 

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Set away from the main street but on one of the earliest sites in the village, flint-built Eastry church has an over restored appearance externally but this gives way to a noteworthy interior. Built in the early thirteenth century by its patrons, Christ Church Canterbury, it was always designed to be a statement of both faith and power. The nave has a clerestory above round piers whilst the east nave wall has a pair of quatrefoils pierced through into the chancel. However this feature pales into insignificance when one sees what stands between them - a square panel containing 35 round paintings in medallions. There are four deigns including the Lily for Our Lady; a dove; Lion; Griffin. They would have formed a backdrop to the Rood which would have been supported on a beam the corbels of which survive below the paintings. On the centre pier of the south aisle is a very rare feature - a beautifully inscribed perpetual calendar or `Dominical Circle` to help find the Dominical letter of the year. Dating from the fourteenth century it divides the calendar into a sequence of 28 years. The reredos is an alabaster structure dating from the Edwardian period - a rather out of place object in a church of this form, but a good piece of work in its own right. On the west wall is a good early 19th century Royal Arms with hatchments on either side and there are many good monuments both ledger slabs and hanging tablets. Of the latter the finest commemorates John Harvey who died in 1794. It shows his ship the Brunswick fighting with all guns blazing with the French ship the Vengeur. John Bacon carved the Elder this detailed piece of work.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastry

 

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Above the Chancel Arch, enclosed within a rectangular frame, are rows of seven "medallion" wall paintings; the lower group was discovered in 1857 and the rest in 1903. They remained in a rather dilapidated state until the Canterbury Cathedral Wall Paintings Department brought them back to life.

 

The medallions are evidently of the 13th Century, having been painted while the mortar was still wet. Each medallion contains one of four motifs:

 

The trefoil flower, pictured left, is perhaps a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the church is dedicated; or symbolic of Christ.

 

The lion; symbolic of the Resurrection

  

Doves, either singly, or in pairs, represent the Holy Spirit

  

The Griffin represents evil, over which victory is won by the power of the Resurrection and the courage of the Christian.

 

www.ewbchurches.org.uk/eastrychurchhistory.htm

 

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EASTRY,

THE next parish north-eastward from Knolton is Eastry. At the time of taking the survey of Domesday, it was of such considerable account, that it not only gave name, as it does at present, to the hundred, but to the greatest part of the lath in which it stands, now called the lath of St. Augustine. There are two boroughs in this parish, viz. the borough of Hardenden, which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford, and comprehends the districts of Hardenden, Selson and Skrinkling, and the borough of Eastry, the borsholder of which is chosen at Eastry-court, and comprehends all the rest of the parish, excepting so much of it as lies within that part of the borough of Felderland, which is within this parish.

 

THE PARISH OF EASTRY, a healthy and not unpleasant situation, is about two miles and an half from north to south, but it is much narrower the other way, at the broadest extent of which it is not more than a mile and an half. The village of Eastry is situated on a pleasing eminence, almost in the centre of the parish, exhiblting a picturesque appearance from many points of view. The principal street in it is called Eastrystreet; from it branch off Mill street, Church-street and Brook-street. In Mill street is a spacious handsome edisice lately erected there, as a house of industry, for the poor of the several united parishes of Eastry, Norborne, Betshanger, Tilmanstone, Waldershare, Coldred, Lydden, Shebbertswell, Swynfield, Wootton, Denton, Chillenden and Knolton. In Churchstreet, on the east side, stands the church, with the court-lodge and parsonage adjoining the church-yard; in this street is likewise the vicarage. In Brook-street, is a neat modern house, the residence of Wm. Boteler, esq. and another belonging to Mr. Thomas Rammell, who resides in it. Mention will be found hereafter, under the description of the borough of Hernden, in this parish, of the descent and arms of the Botelers resident there for many generations. Thomas Boteler, who died possessed of that estate in 1651, left three sons, the youngest of whom, Richard, was of Brook-street, and died in 1682; whose great-grandson, W. Boteler, esq. is now of Brook-street; a gentleman to whom the editor is much indebted for his communications and assistance, towards the description of this hundred, and its adjoining neighbourhood. He has been twice married; first to Sarah, daughter and coheir of Thomas Fuller, esq. of Statenborough, by whom he has one son, William Fuller, now a fellow of St. Peter's college, Cambridge: secondly, to Mary, eldest daughter of John Harvey, esq. of Sandwich and Hernden, late captain of the royal navy, by whom he has five sons and three daughters. He bears for his arms, Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or; which coat was granted to his ancestor, Richard Boteler, esq. of Hernden, by Cooke, clar. in 1589. Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, is the last surviving male of the family, both of Hernden and Brook-street. Eastry-street, comprizing the neighbourhood of the above mentioned branches, may be said to contain about sixty-four houses.

 

At the south-east boundary of this parish lies the hamlet of Updown, adjoining to Ham and Betshanger, in the former of which parishes some account of it has been already given. At the southern bounds, adjoining to Tilmanstone, lies the hamlet of Westone, formerly called Wendestone. On the western side lies the borough of Hernden, which although in this parish, is yet within the hundred of Downhamford and manor of Adisham; in the southern part of it is Shrinkling, or Shingleton, as it is now called, and the hamlet of Hernden. At the northern part of this borough lie the hamlets and estates of Selson, Wells, and Gore. Towards the northern boundary of the parish, in the road to Sandwich, is the hamlet of Statenborough, and at a small distance from it is that part of the borough of Felderland, or Fenderland, as it is usually called, within this parish, in which, adjoining the road which branches off to Word, is a small seat, now the property and residence of Mrs. Dare, widow of Wm. Dare, esq. who resides in it. (fn. 1)

 

Round the village the lands are for a little distance, and on towards Statenborough, inclosed with hedges and trees, but the rest of the parish is in general an open uninclosed country of arable land, like the neighbouring ones before described; the soil of it towards the north is most fertile, in the other parts it is rather thin, being much inclined to chalk, except in the bottoms, where it is much of a stiff clay, for this parish is a continued inequality of hill and dale; notwithstanding the above, there is a great deal of good fertile land in the parish, which meets on an average rent at fifteen shillings an acre. There is no wood in it. The parish contains about two thousand six hundred and fifty acres; the yearly rents of it are assessed to the poor at 2679l.

 

At the south end of the village is a large pond, called Butsole; and adjoining to it on the east side, a field, belonging to Brook-street estate, called the Butts; from whence it is conjectured that Butts were formerly erected in it, for the practice of archery among the inhabitants.

 

A fair is held here for cattle, pedlary, and toys, on October the 2d, (formerly on St. Matthew's day, September the 21st) yearly.

 

IN 1792, MR. BOTELER, of Brook-street, discovered, on digging a cellar in the garden of a cottage, situated eastward of the highway leading from Eastrycross to Butsole, an antient burying ground, used as such in the latter time of the Roman empire in Britain, most probably by the inhabitants of this parish, and the places contiguous to it. He caused several graves to be opened, and found with the skeletons, fibulæ, beads, knives,umbones of shields, &c. and in one a glass vessel. From other skeletons, which have been dug up in the gardens nearer the cross, it is imagined, that they extended on the same side the road up to the cross, the ground of which is now pretty much covered with houses; the heaps of earth, or barrows, which formerly remained over them, have long since been levelled, by the great length of time and the labour of the husbandman; the graves were very thick, in rows parallel to each other, in a direction from east to west.

 

St. Ivo's well, mentioned by Nierembergius, in Historia de Miraculis Natureæ, lib. ii. cap. 33; which I noticed in my folio edition as not being able to find any tradition of in this parish, I have since found was at a place that formerly went by the name of Estre, and afterwards by that of Plassiz, near St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire. See Gales Scriptores, xv. vol. i. p.p. 271, 512.

 

This place gave birth to Henry de Eastry, who was first a monk, and then prior of Christ-church, in Canterbury; who, for his learning as well as his worthy acts, became an ornament, not only to the society he presided over, but to his country in general. He continued prior thirty-seven years, and died, far advanced in life, in 1222.

 

THIS PLACE, in the time of the Saxons, appears to have been part of the royal domains, accordingly Simon of Durham, monk and precentor of that church, in his history, stiles it villa regalis, quæ vulgari dicitur Easterige pronuncione, (the royal ville, or manor, which in the vulgar pronunciation was called Easterige), which shews the antient pre-eminence and rank of this place, for these villæ regales, or regiæ, as Bede calls them, of the Saxons, were usually placed upon or near the spot, where in former ages the Roman stations had been before; and its giving name both to the lath and hundred in which it is situated corroborates the superior consequence it was then held in. Egbert, king of Kent, was in possession of it about the year 670, at which time his two cousins, Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfrid, who had been entrusted to his care by their uncle, the father of Egbert, were, as writers say, murdered in his palace here by his order, at the persuasion of one Thunnor, a slattering courtier, lest they should disturb him in the possession of the crown. After which Thunnor buried them in the king's hall here, under the cloth of estate, from whence, as antient tradition reports, their bodies were afterwards removed to a small chapel belonging to the palace, and buried there under the altar at the east end of it, and afterwards again with much pomp to the church of Ramsey abbey. To expiate the king's guilt, according to the custom of those times, he gave to Domneva, called also Ermenburga, their sister, a sufficient quantity of land in the isle of Thanet, on which she might found a monastery.

 

How long it continued among the royal domains, I have not found; but before the termination of the Saxon heptarchy, THE MANOR OF EASTRY was become part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and it remained so till the year 811, when archbishop Wilfred exchanged it with his convent of Christchurch for their manor of Bourne, since from the archbishop's possession of it called Bishopsbourne. After which, in the year 979 king Ægelred, usually called Ethelred, increased the church's estates here, by giving to it the lands of his inheritance in Estrea, (fn. 2) free from all secular service and siscal tribute, except the repelling of invasions and the repairing of bridges and castles, usually stiled the trinoda necessitas; (fn. 3) and in the possession of the prior and convent bove-mentioned, this manor continued at the taking of the survey of Domesday, being entered in it under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi; that is, the land of the monks of the archbishop, as follows:

 

In the lath of Estrei in Estrei hundred, the archbishop himself holds Estrei. It was taxed at Seven sulings. The arable land is . . . . In demesne there are three carucates and seventy two villeins, with twenty-two borderers, having twenty-four carucates. There is one mill and a half of thirty shillings, and three salt pits of four shillings, and eighteen acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs.

 

After which, this manor continued in the possession of the priory, and in the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a grant of free-warren in all his demesne lands in it, among others; about which time it was valued at 65l. 3s. after which king Henry VI. in his 28th year, confirmed the above liberty, and granted to it a market, to be held at Eastry weekly on a Tuesday, and a fair yearly, on the day of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist; in which state it continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it came in to the king's hands, where it did not remain long, for he settled it, among other premises, in the 33d year of his reign, on his new created dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it continues at this time. A court leet and court baron is held for this manor.

 

The manerial rights, profits of courts, royalties, &c. the dean and chapter retain in their own hands; but the demesne lands of the manor, with the courtlodge, which is a large antient mansion, situated adjoining to the church-yard, have been from time to time demised on a benesicial lease. The house is large, partly antient and partly modern, having at different times undergone great alterations. In the south wall are the letters T. A. N. in flint, in large capitals, being the initials of Thomas and Anne Nevinson. Mr. Isaac Bargrave, father of the present lessee, new fronted the house, and the latter in 1786 put the whole in complete repair, in doing which, he pulled down a considerable part of the antient building, consisting of stone walls of great strength and thickness, bringing to view some gothic arched door ways of stone, which proved the house to have been of such construction formerly, and to have been a very antient building. The chapel, mentioned before, is at the east end of the house. The east window, consisting of three compartments, is still visible, though the spaces are filled up, it having for many years been converted into a kitchen, and before the last alteration by Mr. Bargrave the whole of it was entire.

 

At this mansion, then in the hands of the prior and convent of Christ-church, archbishop Thomas Becket, after his stight from Northampton in the year 1164, concealed himself for eight days, and then, on Nov. 10, embarked at Sandwich for France. (fn. 4)

 

The present lessee is Isaac Bargrave, esq. who resides at the court-lodge, whose ancestors have been lessees of this estate for many years past.

 

THE NEVINSONS, as lessees, resided at the courtlodge of Eastry for many years. They were originally of Brigend, in Wetherell, in Cumberland. They bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, between three eagles displayed, azure. Many of them lie buried in Eastry church. (fn. 5)

 

THE FAMILY of Bargrave, alias Bargar, was originally of Bridge, and afterwards of the adjoining parish of Patrixbourne; where John Bargrave, eldest son of Robert, built the seat of Bifrons, and resided at it, of whom notice has already been taken in vol. ix. of this history, p. 280. Isaac Bargrave, the sixth son of Robert above-mentioned, and younger brother of John, who built Bifrons, was ancestor of the Bargraves, of Eastry; he was S. T. P. and dean of Canterbury, a man of strict honour and high principles of loyalty, for which he suffered the most cruel treatment. He died in 1642, having married in 1618 Elizabeth, daughter of John Dering, esq. of Egerton, by Elizabeth, sister of Edward lord Wotton, the son of John Dering, esq. of Surrenden, by Margaret Brent. Their descendant, Isaac Bargrave, esq. now living, was an eminent solicitor in London, from which he has retired for some years, and now resides at Eastry-court, of which he is the present lessee. He married Sarah, eldest daughter of George Lynch, M. D. of Canterbury, who died at Herne in 1787, S.P. They bear for their arms, Or, on a pale gules, a sword, the blade argent, pomelled, or, on a chief vert three bezants.

 

SHRINKLING, alias SHINGLETON, the former of which is its original name, though now quite lost, is a small manor at the south-west boundary of this pa Kent, anno 1619. rish, adjoining to Nonington. It is within the borough of Heronden, or Hardonden, as it is now called, and as such, is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. This manor had antiently owners of the same name; one of whom, Sir William de Scrinkling, held it in king Edward I.'s reign, and was succeeded by Sir Walter de Scrinkling his son, who held it by knight's service of Hamo de Crevequer, (fn. 6) and in this name it continued in the 20th year of king Edward III.

 

Soon after which it appears to have been alienated to William Langley, of Knolton, from which name it passed in like manner as Knolton to the Peytons and the Narboroughs, and thence by marriage to Sir Thomas D'Aeth, whose grandson Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, is at present entitled to it.

 

There was a chapel belonging to this manor, the ruins of which are still visible in the wood near it, which was esteemed as a chapel of ease to the mother church of Eastry, and was appropriated with it by archbishop Richard, Becket's immediate successor, to the almory of the priory of Christ-church; but the chapel itself seems to have become desolate many years before the dissolution of the priory, most probably soon after the family of Shrinkling became extinct; the Langleys, who resided at the adjoining manor of Knolton, having no occasion for the use of it. The chapel stood in Shingleton wood, near the south east corner; the foundations of it have been traced, though level with the surface, and not easily discovered. There is now on this estate only one house, built within memory, before which there was only a solitary barn, and no remains of the antient mansion of it.

 

HERONDEN, alias HARDENDEN, now usually called HERONDEN, is a district in this parish, situated about a mile northward from Shingleton, within the borough of its own name, the whole of which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. It was once esteemed as a manor, though it has not had even the name of one for many years past, the manor of Adisham claiming over it. The mansion of it was antiently the residence of a family of the same name, who bore for their arms, Argent, a heron with one talon erect, gaping for breath, sable. These arms are on a shield, which is far from modern, in Maidstone church, being quarterly, Heronden as above, with sable, three escallop shells, two and one, argent; and in a window of Lincoln's Inn chapel is a coat of arms of a modern date, being that of Anthony Heronden, esq. Argent, a heron, azure, between three escallops, sable. One of this family of Heronden lies buried in this church, and in the time of Robert Glover, Somerset herald, his portrait and coat of arms, in brass, were remaining on his tombstone. The coat of arms is still extant in very old rolls and registers in the Heralds office, where the family is stiled Heronden, of Heronden, in Eastry; nor is the name less antient, as appears by deeds which commence from the reign of Henry III. which relate to this estate and name; but after this family had remained possessed of this estate for so many years it at last descended down in king Richard II.'s reign, to Sir William Heronden, from whom it passed most probably either by gift or sale, to one of the family of Boteler, or Butler, then resident in this neighbourhood, descended from those of this name, formerly seated at Butler's sleet, in Ash, whose ancestor Thomas Pincerna, or le Boteler, held that manor in king John's reign, whence his successors assumed the name of Butler, alias Boteler, or as they were frequently written Botiller, and bore for their arms, One or more covered cups, differently placed and blazoned. In this family the estate descended to John Boteler, who lived in the time of king Henry VI. and resided at Sandwich, of which town he was several times mayor, and one of the burgesses in two parliaments of that reign; he lies buried in St. Peter's church there. His son Richard, who was also of Sandwich, had a grant of arms in 1470, anno 11th Edward IV. by Thomas Holme, norroy, viz. Gyronny of six, argent and sable, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counterchanged of the field, collared, gules, garnished of the third. His great-grandson Henry Boteler rebuilt the mansion of Heronden, to which he removed in 1572, being the last of his family who resided at Sandwich. He had the above grant of arms confirmed to him, and died in 1580, being buried in Eastry church. Richard Boteler, of Heronden, his eldest son by his first wife, resided at this seat, and in 1589 obtained a grant from Robert Cook, clarencieux, of a new coat of arms, viz. Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three convered cups, or. Ten years after which, intending as it should seem, to shew himself a descendant of the family of this name, seated at Graveney, but then extinct, he obtained in 1599 a grant of their arms from William Dethic, garter, and William Camden, clarencieux, to him and his brother William, viz. Quarterly, first and fourth, sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; second and third, Argent, a fess, chequy, argent and gules, in chief three cross-croslets of the last, as appears (continues the grant) on a gravestone in Graveney church. He died in 1600, and was buried in Eastry church, leaving issue among other children Jonathan and Thomas. (fn. 7) Jonathan Boteler, the eldest son, of Hernden, died unmarried possessed of it in 1626, upon which it came to his next surviving brother Thomas Boteler, of Rowling, who upon that removed to Hernden, and soon afterwards alienated that part of it, since called THE MIDDLE FARM, to Mr. Henry Pannell, from whom soon afterwards, but how I know not, it came into the family of Reynolds; from which name it was about fifty years since alienated to John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, who dying in 1762, devised it to his nephew John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, the present possessor of it.

 

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.

 

The church, which is exempted from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Mary; it is a large handsome building, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a chancel at the east end, remarkably long, and a square tower, which is very large, at the west end, in which are five very unmusical bells. The church is well kept and neatly paved, and exhibits a noble appearance, to which the many handsome monuments in it contribute much. The arch over the west door is circular, but no other parts of the church has any shew of great antiquity. In the chancel are monuments for the Paramors and the Fullers, of Statenborough, arms of the latter, Argent, three bars, and a canton, gules. A monument for several of the Bargrave family. An elegant pyramidial one, on which is a bust and emblematical sculpture for John Broadley, gent. many years surgeon at Dover, obt. 1784. Several gravestones, with brasses, for the Nevinsons. A gravestone for Joshua Paramour, gent. buried 1650. Underneath this chancel are two vaults, for the families of Paramour and Bargrave. In the nave, a monument for Anne, daughter of Solomon Harvey, gent. of this parish, ob. 1751; arms, Argent, on a chevron, between three lions gambs, sable, armed gules, three crescents, or; another for William Dare, esq. late of Fenderland, in this parish, obt. 1770; arms, Gules, a chevron vaire, between three crescents, argent, impaling argent, on a cross, sable, four lions passant, quardant of the field, for Read.—Against the wall an inscription in Latin, for the Drue Astley Cressemer, A. M. forty-eight years vicar of this parish, obt. 1746; he presented the communion plate to this church and Worth, and left a sum of money to be laid out in ornamenting this church, at which time the antient stalls, which were in the chancel, were taken away, and the chancel was ceiled, and the church otherwise beautified; arms, Argent, on a bend engrailed, sable, three cross-croslets, fitchee, or. A monument for several of the Botelers, of this parish; arms, Boteler, argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or, impaling Morrice. Against a pillar, a tablet and inscription, shewing that in a vault lieth Catherine, wife of John Springett, citizen and apothecary of London. He died in 1770; arms, Springett, per fess, argent and gules, a fess wavy, between three crescents, counterchanged, impaling Harvey. On the opposite pillar another, for the Rev. Richard Harvey, fourteen years vicar of this parish, obt. 1772. A monument for Richard Kelly, of Eastry, obt. 1768; arms, Two lions rampant, supporting a castle. Against the wall, an elegant sculptured monument, in alto relievo, for Sarah, wise of William Boteler, a daughter of Thomas Fuller, esq. late of Statenborough, obt. 1777, æt. 29; she died in childbed, leaving one son, William Fuller Boteler; arms at bottom, Boteler, as above, an escutcheon of pretence, Fuller, quartering Paramor. An elegant pyramidal marble and tablet for Robert Bargrave, of this parish, obt. 1779, for Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh, of Hawley; and for Robert Bargrave, their only son, proctor in Doctors Commons, obt. 1774, whose sole surviving daughter Rebecca married James Wyborne, of Sholdon; arms, Bargrave, with a mullet, impaling Leigh. In the cross isle, near the chancel called the Boteler's isle, are several memorials for the Botelers. Adjoining to these, are three other gravestones, all of which have been inlaid, but the brasses are gone; they were for the same family, and on one of them was lately remaining the antient arms of Boteler, Girony of six pieces, &c. impaling ermine of three spots. Under the church are vaults, for the families of Springett, Harvey, Dare, and Bargrave. In the church-yard, on the north side of the church, are several altar tombs for the Paramors; and on the south side are several others for the Harveys, of this parish, and for Fawlkner, Rammell, and Fuller. There are also vaults for the families of Fuller, Rammell, and Petman.

 

There were formerly painted in the windows of this church, these arms, Girony of six, sable and argent, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counter changed of the field, collared, gules; for Boteler, of Heronden, impaling Boteler, of Graveny, Sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; Boteler, of Heronden, as above, quartering three spots, ermine; the coat of Theobald, with quarterings. Several of the Frynnes, or as they were afterwards called, Friends, who lived at Waltham in this parish in king Henry VII.'s reign, lie buried in this church.

 

In the will of William Andrewe, of this parish, anno 1507, mention is made of our Ladie chapel, in the church-yard of the church of Estrie.

 

The eighteen stalls which were till lately in the chancel of the church, were for the use of the monks of the priory of Christ church, owners both of the manor and appropriation, when they came to pass any time at this place, as they frequently did, as well for a country retirement as to manage their concerns here; and for any other ecclesiastics, who might be present at divine service here, all such, in those times, sitting in the chancels of churches distinct from the laity.

 

The church of Eastry, with the chapels of Skrinkling and Worth annexed, was antiently appendant to the manor of Eastry, and was appropriated by archbishop Richard (successor to archbishop Becket) in the reign of king Henry II. to the almonry of the priory of Christ-church, but it did not continue long so, for archbishop Baldwin, (archbishop Richard's immediate successor), having quarrelled with the monks, on account of his intended college at Hackington, took this appropriation from them, and thus it remained as a rectory, at the archbishop's disposal, till the 39th year of king Edward III.'s reign, (fn. 10) when archbishop Simon Islip, with the king's licence, restored, united and annexed it again to the priory; but it appears, that in return for this grant, the archbishop had made over to him, by way of exchange, the advowsons of the churches of St. Dunstan, St. Pancrase, and All Saints in Bread-street, in London, all three belonging to the priory. After which, that is anno 8 Richard II. 1384, this church was valued among the revenues of the almonry of Christ-church, at the yearly value of 53l. 6s. 8d. and it continued afterwards in the same state in the possession of the monks, who managed it for the use of the almonry, during which time prior William Sellyng, who came to that office in Edward IV.'s reign, among other improvements on several estates belonging to his church, built a new dormitory at this parsonage for the monks resorting hither.

 

On the dissolution of the priory of Christ-church, in the 31st year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, this appropriation, with the advowson of the vicarage of the church of Eastry, was surrendered into the king's hands, where it staid but a small time, for he granted it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, to his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, who are the present owners of this appropriation; but the advowson of the vicarage, notwithstanding it was granted with the appropriation, to the dean and chapter as above-mentioned, appears not long afterwards to have become parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, where it continues at this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

This parsonage is entitled to the great tithes of this parish and of Worth; there belong to it of glebe land in Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Worth, in all sixtynine acres.

 

THERE IS A SMALL MANOR belonging to it, called THE MANOR OF THE AMBRY, OR ALMONRY OF CHRIST-CHURCH, the quit-rents of which are very inconsiderable.

 

The parsonage-house is large and antient; in the old parlour window is a shield of arms, being those of Partheriche, impaling quarterly Line and Hamerton. The parsonage is of the annual rent of about 700l. The countess dowager of Guildford became entitled to the lease of this parsonage, by the will of her husband the earl of Guildford, and since her death the interest of it is become vested in her younger children.

 

As to the origin of a vicarage in this church, though there was one endowed in it by archbishop Peckham, in the 20th year of king Edward I. anno 1291, whilst this church continued in the archbishop's hands, yet I do not find that there was a vicar instituted in it, but that it remained as a rectory, till near three years after it had been restored to the priory of Christchurch, when, in the 42d year of king Edward III. a vicar was instituted in it, between whom and the prior and chapter of Canterbury, there was a composition concerning his portion, which he should have as an endowment of this vicarage; which composition was confirmed by archbishop Simon Langham that year; and next year there was an agreement entered into between the eleemosinary of Christ-church and the vicar, concerning the manse of this vicarage.

 

The vicarage of Eastry, with the chapel of Worth annexed, is valued in the king's books at 19l. 12s. 1d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 19s. 2½d. In 1588 it was valued at sixty pounds. Communicants three hundred and thirty-five. In 1640 here were the like number of communicants, and it was valued at one hundred pounds.

 

The antient pension of 5l. 6s. 8d. formerly paid by the priory, is still paid to the vicar by the dean and chapter, and also an augmentation of 14l. 13s. 4d. yearly, by the lessee of the parsonage, by a convenant in his lease.

 

The vicarage-house is built close to the farm-yard of the parsonage; the land allotted to it is very trifling, not even sufficient for a tolerable garden; the foundations of the house are antient, and probably part of the original building when the vicarage was endowed in 1367.

 

¶There were two awards made in 1549 and 1550, on a controversy between the vicar of Eastry and the mayor, &c. of Sandwich, whether the scite of St. Bartholomew's hospital, near Sandwich, within that port and liberty, was subject to the payment of tithes to the vicar, as being within his parish. Both awards adjudged the legality of a payment, as due to the vicar; but the former award adjudged that the scite of the hospital was not, and the latter, that it was within the bounds of this parish. (fn. 12)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol10/pp98-121

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!! I haven't been able to get out much to shoot, and I'm having photography withdrawals! Dashed out in the yard last evening to find something..... anything! I usually would not get excited about a dandelion in my lawn, but this one seemed to glow in the wet evening light.

© 2014 Paul Newcombe. Don't use without permission.

 

Stanage End, Peak District, UK

 

A lovely sunset a few weekends ago. I'd just got back from the Lakes and dashed up to Stanage North.

On Friday, February 7, 2014, high school and middle school students dashed into the icy Atlantic as part of Special Olympics Virginia’s largest fundraiser: The Polar Plunge and the Cool School Challenge.

 

“Raising one million dollars for the fourth year in a row is incredible,” said Rick Jeffrey, Special Olympics Virginia president. “More importantly, though, these funds will help us to build bigger, better, more inclusive communities across the state of Virginia.”

 

In addition to the money raised, they got to take the icy dip into the Atlantic, all while earning a Friday “pass” from school, earn community service credit, Costume contests – prizes for best dressed male and female, prizes for teacher or team sponsor, and freezing photos.

 

Photography - Craig McClure

14185

 

© 2014

ALL Rights reserved by City of Virginia Beach.

Contact photo[at]vbgov.com for permission to use. Commercial use not allowed.

Dashed light trails from a cyclist's blinking light as he goes over a bridge while cars below speed by on the 580 freeway.

ID

3243

 

Listing Date

8 October 1981

 

History

A late C18 or early C19 house, first shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey.

 

Exterior

A 2½-storey 2-window house of whitened pebble-dashed front, black-painted smooth-rendered plinth and thin architraves, slate roof and brick end stacks. Openings are offset to the R. On the R side is a panelled door under an original small-pane overlight, and pediment. On the L side are 16-pane horned sash windows to ground and 1st floors, and narrower segmental-headed 16-pane 1st-floor sash window above the entrance, but not aligned with it. A 2-light small-pane attic window is carried above eaves and is under a gable.

The rear is cement rendered. It has 4-pane horned sash windows on the R side, except for an escape door and stair in the upper storey. A 1-storey projection is on the L side, above which is an inserted 1st-floor window. Another 1-storey projection on the R side is partly against the rear of No 1.

 

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a small Georgian town house retaining definite early C19 character, and for group value within the historical townscape.

 

britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300003243-nos13-5-berry-stre...

SULLIVAN, ROBERT BALDWIN, lawyer, office holder, politician, and judge; b. 24 May 1802 in Bandon (Republic of Ireland), son of Daniel Sullivan and Barbara Baldwin; m. first 20 Jan. 1829 Cecilia Eliza Matthews, and they had a daughter; m. secondly 26 Dec. 1833 Emily Louisa Delatre, and they had four sons and seven daughters; d. 14 April 1853 in Toronto.

 

Robert Baldwin Sullivan’s father was an Irish merchant, and his mother was a sister of William Warren Baldwin*. The first member of Robert’s family to come to York (Toronto), Upper Canada, was Daniel, his eldest brother, who became a law student under Baldwin and lived with another uncle, John Spread Baldwin. The rest of the family immigrated in 1819 and the ambitious Daniel Sr established himself as a merchant in York, dealing in soap and tobacco. After a promising beginning, the Sullivans’ aspirations were dashed. In 1821 Daniel Jr died; the following year his father’s death left Robert as the head of the family. Once again the extended family lent its support; in 1823 William Warren Baldwin placed his nephew on the books of the Law Society of Upper Canada and secured for him a position as librarian to the House of Assembly. Having received a solid education in private schools in Ireland, Robert excelled in his law studies and was called to the bar in Michaelmas term 1828.

 

Sullivan first took an active role in politics during the exciting provincial election of 1828, as a campaigner for his uncle. Symptomatic of the increasing organization of the reform movement, John Rolph* had arranged W. W. Baldwin’s candidacy in his home riding of Norfolk, though Baldwin remained in York to aid in the campaign of Thomas David Morrison. Sullivan went to Vittoria to represent his uncle, who was elected, he noted, largely because of Rolph’s influence. Sullivan subsequently returned to the capital and took part with Baldwin and his son Robert in Morrison’s challenge to the return in York of their arch-foe, tory John Beverley Robinson*. He then gave counsel and support to Rolph in his legal defence of Francis Collins*, a supporter of his cousin Robert. Despite the fact that Morrison was defeated and Collins found guilty of libel, Sullivan’s considerable legal talents did not go unnoticed.

 

His future looked bright indeed, but not in the provincial capital. He returned to Vittoria, apparently determined to settle there and take over the law practice vacated by Rolph as a result of his move to Dundas. Shortly afterwards, in early 1829, he married a daughter of John Matthews*, a reform colleague of Rolph’s. But once again, after a promising beginning, successive tragedies unravelled Sullivan’s personal life: on 20 Dec. 1830, six months after the birth of their daughter, Sullivan’s wife died; three months later the baby died. Sullivan quit Vittoria and returned to York to seek the support of his family once more.

 

Upon his return, he again entered the law offices of W. W. Baldwin and Son, and later, in 1831, he established a partnership with Robert, who had married his sister. The firm, with such talented young lawyers, was soon prospering. On his birthday in 1833, the obviously bright and sensitive Sullivan reported to his brother Henry, then studying medicine in Ireland, that things were going well: “Augustus [another brother] . . . is now a Student of the Learned Society of Osgoode Hall – we have six clerks with plenty to do.” The partners were preparing “to go into parliament with the honorable body of Colonial Whigs. next election.” Sullivan and Baldwin had advanced their careers enough to consider themselves eligible to replace the recently dismissed attorney general, Henry John Boulton*, and solicitor general, Christopher Alexander Hagerman*. But, Sullivan said, because of’ their rumoured replacement by law officers from England, neither he nor Baldwin stood a good chance of getting “a silk gown.” By the end of 1833 Sullivan was once again thriving and on Boxing Day, in Stamford (Niagara Falls), Upper Canada, he married Emily Louisa, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Chesneau Delatre.

 

His contemplations aside, Sullivan did not seek a seat in the election of 1834. The following year, however, he stood successfully as an alderman for St David’s Ward, Toronto, no doubt with the mayoralty in mind. A gentleman of Sullivan’s social standing and proven ability would have had little interest in aldermanic duties on a council just one year old. The mayoralty was another matter, however, as John Rolph’s actions the previous year had indicated. At the first meeting of council in 1835, Sullivan was confirmed mayor by tory and radical alike. As Toronto’s second mayor, he proved himself a competent administrator, approaching the problems of council from a practical rather than partisan perspective. Contested ward elections were the first problem; under Sullivan’s guidance, council adopted a set of regulations for hearing these grievances before proceeding with individual cases. Plagued with the same financial problems that had faced the first council [see William Lyon Mackenzie*], Sullivan turned his attention to amending the assessment laws. He was, as well, able to arrange financing for the city’s first major works project, a trunk sewer.

 

Public interest in municipal affairs was, however, sporadic at best. During 1835 council frequently could not convene for want of a quorum and there was discussion about compelling aldermen to attend. Sullivan’s last council meeting, lacking a quorum, was adjourned the following year and he declined to run again. There was, however, no lack of public interest in provincial politics, especially with the arrival of the new lieutenant governor, Sir Francis Bond Head*, in January 1836. And it was Sullivan, the erudite lawyer, who, as mayor of the provincial capital, delivered an address of welcome from the outgoing council.

 

The resignation on 12 March 1836 of Head’s Executive Council, of which Robert Baldwin had been a member, plunged the colony into its greatest political and constitutional crisis up to that point. With a haste that was indecent if nothing else, Sullivan accepted appointment to council and on the 14th was sworn in along with Augustus Warren Baldwin* (another uncle), John Elmsley*, and William Allan. Upper Canadian history provides other possible examples of political turncoats: Henry John Boulton deserved the epithet, John Willson probably did not. But Sullivan’s volte-face is without parallel. At the time of the reform brouhaha in 1828 over the dismissal of Judge John Walpole Willis*, Sullivan had declared, “It was against my principles to shew any respect to the present judges,” and, like his cousin, refused to plead before the “Pretended” Court of King’s Bench. A few years later he professed his eagerness to join the “Colonial Whigs” in the House of Assembly, without warning, he bedded down in 1836 with a group denounced by William Warren Baldwin as the “Tory junto.”

 

Sullivan has, unfortunately, left no explanation, or even rationalization, of his flip-flop. Reward was not long in coming: on 13 July he accepted the commissionership of crown lands, a plum worth £1,000 per annum. The patriarch of the Baldwin–Sullivan family was scathing. “R.S.,” W. W. Baldwin wrote to his son Robert, “is in the midst of enemies but he has thrown himself into their arms, & when they shake him over the precepice, he will not have a friend to console him.” A pariah among acquaintances and an object of rebuke by the whig press, Sullivan was isolated, almost. Robert Baldwin reminded his irate father that “family love” was “heavens best gift . . . let us not let political differences interfere with the cultivation of it – but on the contrary where such unhappily exist always forget the politician in the relation.” Despite Baldwin’s support for Sullivan, their legal partnership appears to have ended some time between 1836 and 1838.

 

Lord Durham [Lambton*] later derided Head’s appointments as ciphers. Sullivan proved an administration man, but he was no one’s tool. And what cannot be questioned is his ability. Head defended his choice, describing Sullivan as well-educated, a leading lawyer, and “a man of very superior talents . . . and of irreproachable character.” He quickly became the dominant figure in an increasingly active council. In a memorandum on the councillors prepared by Head, probably for his successor, Sir George Arthur, Sullivan was lauded as possessing “great legal talent [and] sound judgement particularly on financial questions,” whereas Allan, although honest and honourable, had “not much talent or education” and Elmsley was a “wrong headed man but brave.” Arthur relied heavily on forceful men with incisive analytical minds, such as Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson, John Macaulay, and Sullivan. In June 1838 Sullivan assumed the additional office of surveyor general. During Robinson’s long absence in England from 1838 to 1840, Arthur tended to ignore his law officers and other councillors in preference to Sullivan, who “takes a more enlarged view of the subjects, or, at all events, his sentiments fall more in with my motives of dealing with political questions in the present day; and, therefore, I have generally conferred with him in his office as presiding member of the Executive Council.” In February 1839 Sullivan was appointed to the Legislative Council. So crucial was he to the business of council and to the lieutenant governor as a policy adviser, that Arthur appointed Kenneth Cameron to serve as surveyor general pro tem, between October 1840 and February 1841, so that more important business need not be neglected by Sullivan.

 

In 1838, in the aftermath of the rebellion, Arthur had relied on him increasingly. That year Sullivan prepared, for instance, a mammoth report on the state of the province. The degree to which his analysis fell in line with that of his old enemies can be measured by Robinson’s enthusiastic approval. The report was “natural & forcible” and its tone “liberally conservative.” Sullivan took for granted that without natural or cultural barriers separating Upper Canada from the United States, the colony “must be materially affected by the state of Politics and of the popular mind in the neighbouring republic.” He uttered, albeit eloquently, the usual bromides that depicted American political culture in terms of “tyranny of a majority” and mob rule. He repeated, in short, current tory denunciations of responsible government and an elective legislative council as mere half-way houses to full-blown democratic institutions and chaos. In a manner worthy of Robinson at his best, he defended the Constitutional Act of 1791, the integrity of office holders, and the absolute need, if not the right, of an executive claim to revenues independent of control by the assembly.

 

Sullivan’s foray, in the same report, into policies on immigration, finance, and land matters marked his point of departure from tory nostrums. To his mind, tranquillity was a corollary of prosperity, which could only be achieved through large-scale immigration, a rise in the value of land, and productive public works. These measures would make people much happier “than any abstract political measures” could, and would have the effect of restoring public confidence and the colony’s trade. An enormous public debt sucked up available revenues and was responsible for leaving the province a largely inaccessible wilderness. The lack of superintendence of crown land produced a decline in revenue and immigration. Upper Canada, Sullivan maintained, must gain control of its major source of revenue, customs duties raised at Montreal and Quebec. To this end he gave full voice to a favourite tory war cry – annex Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and the Eastern Townships to Upper Canada, thus leaving the French Canadians to enjoy their own “bad laws, bad roads bad sleighs, bad food . . . in peace and quietness injuring no others and not being interfered with themselves.” The resurrection of union as a panacea for the Upper Canadian crisis would therefore be dangerous, since it would bring together and make supreme the democratic elements in Upper and Lower Canada. Over a year later, in 1839, Sullivan reiterated his hostility to union and his attachment to British institutions in a memorandum sent under Arthur’s name to the Colonial Office. He was at pains to distinguish two elements among the “conservatives”: those “who are so from principle, or attachment from sentiment to British institutions,” and the “Commercial party” which supported “prosperity, public credit and public improvements” but was conservative out of self-interest and only in prosperous times.

 

Sullivan’s lucid analysis of the province’s problems was matched by his equally deft set of practical prescriptions. He favoured the centralization of power, having urged Arthur in April 1838 to retain the power of patronage over the militia and not relinquish it to local colonels. That same year he recommended suspending work on the St Lawrence canals, lest the work become a “perpetual monument of Legislative folly & extravagance,” and he cautioned Arthur to rein in the commissioners responsible for the work. Although he supported the legitimacy of the constitutional privileges of the Church of England, the clergy reserves issue had to be settled in the interests of internal harmony. To this end he favoured dividing the reserves among the Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Wesleyan Methodists, with the proceeds from the reserves used “to secure religious instruction according to the protestant faith.”

 

In 1839 Arthur directed the Executive Council to prepare a report on how best to adapt land policy to the anticipated increase in immigration. The council split. Minority reports were submitted in 1840 by Sullivan and Augustus Warren Baldwin on one side, and William Allan and Richard Alexander Tucker* on the other. In fact, the reports were the efforts of Sullivan and Allan. Sullivan’s represents an eloquent and closely reasoned defence of an agrarian society, composed largely of independent farmers, as the basis for social and political stability and economic prosperity. Allan argued that the province’s economic backwardness could only be overcome by capitalist undertakings. Possessed of a shrewd, intuitive grasp of Upper Canada’s situation and its potential, Allan urged seizing the opportunity to establish “what we have been taught to consider a great desideratum, viz, a class of labourers, separate and distinct from Land owners.” Although Governor Charles Edward Poulett Thomson* (later Lord Sydenham) noted agreement with Allan’s position “as applied to a country under ordinary circumstances,” he saw the province’s present situation as different and he dismissed Allan’s opinion as biased and his arguments as “trashy in the extreme.”

 

Thomson, the architect of union, soon realized how useful Sullivan could be. He abandoned his previous hostility to union, a position which, as Attorney General Hagerman found out, Thomson would not tolerate. Sullivan was prominent in shepherding the measure through the Legislative Council, and appeared a solid “Governor’s man” at its inception. He was one of the four executive councillors, along with William Henry Draper*, Charles Richard Ogden*, and Charles Dewey Day*, in whom Robert Baldwin expressed want of confidence in February 1841. Sullivan retained the commissionership of crown lands until June of that year, in which month he was appointed to the new Legislative Council.

 

John Charles Dent*’s description of Sullivan, as a brilliant orator who charmed with his “Irish provincial accent” but who lacked conviction and steadiness of purpose, is accurate. He seems to have dozed through his duties as president of the Executive Council in 1841–42. He performed another wonderful turnaround in September 1842. When the new governor, Sir Charles Bagot*, was struggling to avoid a reform-dominated ministry, Sullivan supported him in the Legislative Council, asking, “Are we to carry on the government fairly and upon liberal principles or by dint of miserable majorities?” Yet he happily remained as president of council when the miserable majority prevailed, holding that position until November 1843 .

 

Indeed, he rapidly became a partisan of the new order, presumably an indication of his love of intrigue, his respect for power, and his weakness for flamboyant oratory. In October 1842 he was involved in the obdurate politics of the newly formed ministry of Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine*, chairing the committee of the Executive Council which recommended withdrawing government advertising from newspapers “found to join in active opposition to the Government.” Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe*, Bagot’s successor in March 1843, was relatively complimentary to Sullivan as a minister, given that Metcalfe thought most of the executive councillors were fanatics, villains, or incompetents. According to his biographer, John William Kaye, the governor saw Sullivan as talented but dismissed him as inconsistent and lacking the “weight of personal character.” If a lightweight, Sullivan was prominent enough to be a target of the Orange order. After passage of the Party Processions and Secret Societies bills, there was a huge, furious Orange demonstration in Toronto on 8 Nov. 1843. Sullivan’s name was joined with those of the “traitors Baldwin and [Francis Hincks*]” on the mob’s banners.

 

During the ten-month crisis which followed the resignation of the Baldwin–La Fontaine ministry in November, Sullivan was in his element. His talents as an orator and pamphleteer gave him a prominent role in the reform campaign to justify the actions of the late ministry and win the election of 1844. His excessive zeal, however, at times injured the reform cause. He took part in the early meetings of the party’s new provincial organization, the Reform Association of Canada. At its first public meeting, in Toronto on 25 March 1844, Sullivan – ironically, given his “miserable majorities” speech – moved the resolution insisting that provincial ministries required the support of parliamentary majorities. He campaigned in 4th York with Baldwin and advised him on tactics. In September Baldwin reported consulting with Sullivan, James Edward Small*, and John Henry Dunn about whether to resign his militia commission and relinquish his appointment as queen’s counsel, in protest against Metcalfe’s autocracy. On their advice Baldwin retained his militia commission.

 

Sullivan’s most important role continued to be that of public controversialist. In May 1844 Egerton Ryerson* had begun a series of newspaper articles which supported the governor, and later published them as a pamphlet. He claimed to have been sympathetic to the councillors until their “real motives” were revealed by Sullivan and Francis Hincks, when he came to see Metcalfe as “a misrepresented and injured man.” Under the transparent nom de plume of Legion, Sullivan answered in 13 letters in the Examiner and the Globe. The letters, which also appeared as a pamphlet, contained no new insights but were an effective summary of the Baldwinite arguments for responsible government and provided a puncturing lampoon of Ryerson’s pomposity. They show, at places, Sullivan’s tendency to get carried away with his rhetoric. Later in the year the tories made good use of his indiscretion at an election meeting in Sharon, where, in ridiculing the governor as “Charles the Simple,” he seriously overstepped even the limits of that day. His excesses, however, were only one small factor in the reform defeat in the election of 1844. Sullivan ascribed it in large measure to the influence of the Orange order. “Ireland in its worst time,” he told Baldwin in January 1845, “was not more completely under the feet of an orange ascendancy than is Canada at present.”

 

With the party in opposition, Sullivan was not very active in the Legislative Council. He continued to be a close adviser to Baldwin on political matters, presumably more because of Baldwin’s stout family loyalty than because of his chequered record as a political tactician. He had a good deal to say about the worst crisis facing the party between 1845 and 1847: the tories’ wooing of French Canadians disenchanted with the reformers after the 1844 defeat. William Henry Draper came close to forging an alliance with René-Édouard Caron* and others in 1845–46. To Sullivan, writing to Baldwin in August 1846, Caron was “a false sneaking knave”; Hincks, who toadied to the French to maintain support, was nearly as bad. This outburst suggested that Sullivan had a conveniently short memory. La Fontaine did not. During the Draper–Caron flirtation, La Fontaine reminded Baldwin that Sullivan had made a similar attempt, in July 1842, to split the French from the reform party. He had approached both La Fontaine and Caron to enter the Bagot-Draper ministry and leave Baldwin behind.

 

There were issues on which the cousins differed. During the winter of 1844–45 Sullivan, who joined William Hume Blake* in a campaign to reform the Upper Canadian judicial system, expressed his deep disappointment that Baldwin would not give leadership on that effort in the assembly. More significant was their disagreement over tariff policy. After Britain’s adoption of free trade, Baldwin urged Canada, in a speech in November 1846, to follow that lead. Sullivan, however, was an early advocate of a different approach. Speaking to the Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute on 17 Nov. 1847, he championed the emerging capitalist interests of Canada, in sharp contrast to his position in 1840. Rapid industrial development was the solution to Canada’s economic problems, and he suggested the adoption of protective duties as a means to foster the needed industry. Published the following year, Sullivan’s Hamilton appeal was frequently cited when the protectionist movement began to gain strength after 1849.

 

Despite his political success in the 1840s Sullivan’s heavy drinking and fecklessness in business matters nearly destroyed his career. In 1843 he lamented his difficulty in collecting accounts, suggesting that his hand was all too often limp. In this he stood in marked contrast to his cousin. Baldwin was especially fierce in pursuing payment from the wealthy, who, he believed, had a moral duty to meet their debts. In 1844, however, things looked up. Oliver Mowat*, then a gossipy young lawyer, reported that Sullivan had joined the “total abstinence society.” It was a necessary step, in Mowat’s view, for no one in Toronto’s legal community had confidence in the drunken Sullivan. The reformation did not last. In the spring of 1848 Baldwin’s property manager, Lawrence Heyden, told Baldwin that Sullivan was in serious difficulty: “It is very generally reported here that he is broken out again.”

 

Dry or wet, Sullivan remained an intimate adviser to the party chief. His views were sought on delicate matters, such as the manœuvres in 1847 to find a seat for the recent convert from high toryism, Henry John Boulton, who remained anathema to many local reformers. When the party swept the election of January 1848, Baldwin suggested to La Fontaine 24 names, including Sullivan’s, as possibilities for the 11 cabinet positions. According to Baldwin, Sullivan preferred a judgeship, but his experience would be useful in cabinet. Presumably La Fontaine was not as generous about the missteps of Baldwin’s errant cousin, for Sullivan’s name did not appear on the cabinet list presented to Governor Lord Elgin [Bruce*] on 7 March 1848. La Fontaine and Baldwin told him they needed the seat to conciliate a faction in the party. On Elgin’s urging, however, they reconsidered and the next day Sullivan was included as provincial secretary, becoming the most senior of the ministers in terms of service. The governor was delighted for he considered Sullivan both able and “more British” than any other Canadian politician. In July he described Sullivan to Colonial Secretary Lord Grey as the member of council “who has the strongest feeling in favor of settling the lands of the Province and has most influence with his colleagues on questions of this nature.” Sullivan, for example, favoured free land grants and the construction of colonization roads – programs for these would be initiated in the 1850s.

 

Sullivan nevertheless played no major role in the “Great Ministry” and on 15 Sept. 1848, after resigning from council, he received his desired reward, a puisne justiceship on the Court of Queen’s Bench. He did not, however, entirely give up a political interest. While in cabinet, in April 1848, he had dismissed the medical superintendent of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Walter Telfer, and replaced him with the apparently more politically sound George Hamilton Park. Park proceeded to feud with the staff and to fire employees without authorization. Sullivan followed the case closely and gave his assessment of it to Baldwin in January 1849; Park was dismissed that month and the radical newspaper, the Examiner, took his side against the “tyrannous” government. Sullivan guessed correctly that Park’s brother-in-law, John Rolph, was behind the crisis and warned Baldwin that the case was being used by such dissident reformers to embarrass the ministry.

 

Sullivan held his seat on the Legislative Council until May 1851. In January 1850 he had moved from Queen’s Bench to the newly formed Court of Common Pleas, where he sat until his death three years later. A superb orator and incisive analyst when sober, Sullivan nevertheless remained known as a flawed figure, devoid, in the opinion of Dent and others, of “genuine earnestness of purpose” and “strong political convictions.”

I dashed out tonight when I saw the sunset to take a few pictures

Rain on some parts of the Prairies last week pressured canola values lower, but the futures recovered as expectations for more rain were dashed.

Yep, I ran into this huge flock, (or swarm morelike) of starlings at the weekend.

So guess what the theme from Rush is gonna be this week.

 

Feel free to add a humorous tag. In fact, I insist.

 

Also, check this for his favourite song....youtu.be/sCAADk60CMo

This photo was taken around New Year's day, 1957. Sheila had gone to visit my mother and met me for the first and last time.

 

Looking at her expression in this photo, it's obvious that Sheila loved babies. She probably wanted one of her own. it occurred to me that this visit might have prompted a conversation with her husband that resulted in her hopes and dreams being dashed, although I think she might have already been separated or divorced since she isn't wearing a wedding ring in the shot. Unfortunately, there's no one to ask anymore.

 

Sheila's husband not only didn't want children, he didn't want to be married. It wasn't long after this photo was taken that Sheila decided that she couldn't bear the thought of living life without him, and tried for the first time, unsuccessfully, to kill herself. The second time was a success.

 

I know how she must have felt in some ways. I always wanted to be married and to have children. My husband didn't want me, either, and children would never be in my future. It's quite a blow to a woman. I guess I was stronger than she was, or more likely, just had burned less bridges and had family there when I crashed to keep me from burning. Sheila was 3000 miles away from all the people who loved her. I'm sure she felt completely alone.

 

We were far from the happy family she might have thought she was seeing. Mom and Dad had their problems, too, and though the house was beautiful, and Mom appeared to have what she wanted in life, she didn't, either. Who knows what our own mother might have done when her world fell apart had she not had us to give her purpose. Back in the 1950's, it was still a "Leave it to Beaver" kind of world, at least the facade of one. Behind closed doors, many of those facades were shattered.

 

I still remember Mom being upset about her friend's suicide. I don't think I understood the concept of suicide back then, but somehow I did understand that Sheila was dead. I also learned quickly how that kind of grief leveled the people left in its wake. Mom took it much to heart, perhaps because she'd put up that false facade to make her own life look better than it was, and in retrospect, realized that it did more damage than good to her friend. It never occurred to me that this could be the reason that Mom kept the suicide letter packed away for 51 years. Guilt. It was no matter that Sheila invariably took her own life; Mom felt responsible. What if she hadn't pretended things were great. Maybe Sheila would have called and looked for a shoulder to cry on....someone who was sympatico. Knowing Mom, that was probably exactly why it hit her so hard.

 

You don't always get what you want. Living life as honestly and kindly as possible is important. Remembering there's a world out there beyond our own pain is, too.

 

SULLIVAN, ROBERT BALDWIN, lawyer, office holder, politician, and judge; b. 24 May 1802 in Bandon (Republic of Ireland), son of Daniel Sullivan and Barbara Baldwin; m. first 20 Jan. 1829 Cecilia Eliza Matthews, and they had a daughter; m. secondly 26 Dec. 1833 Emily Louisa Delatre, and they had four sons and seven daughters; d. 14 April 1853 in Toronto.

 

Robert Baldwin Sullivan’s father was an Irish merchant, and his mother was a sister of William Warren Baldwin*. The first member of Robert’s family to come to York (Toronto), Upper Canada, was Daniel, his eldest brother, who became a law student under Baldwin and lived with another uncle, John Spread Baldwin. The rest of the family immigrated in 1819 and the ambitious Daniel Sr established himself as a merchant in York, dealing in soap and tobacco. After a promising beginning, the Sullivans’ aspirations were dashed. In 1821 Daniel Jr died; the following year his father’s death left Robert as the head of the family. Once again the extended family lent its support; in 1823 William Warren Baldwin placed his nephew on the books of the Law Society of Upper Canada and secured for him a position as librarian to the House of Assembly. Having received a solid education in private schools in Ireland, Robert excelled in his law studies and was called to the bar in Michaelmas term 1828.

 

Sullivan first took an active role in politics during the exciting provincial election of 1828, as a campaigner for his uncle. Symptomatic of the increasing organization of the reform movement, John Rolph* had arranged W. W. Baldwin’s candidacy in his home riding of Norfolk, though Baldwin remained in York to aid in the campaign of Thomas David Morrison. Sullivan went to Vittoria to represent his uncle, who was elected, he noted, largely because of Rolph’s influence. Sullivan subsequently returned to the capital and took part with Baldwin and his son Robert in Morrison’s challenge to the return in York of their arch-foe, tory John Beverley Robinson*. He then gave counsel and support to Rolph in his legal defence of Francis Collins*, a supporter of his cousin Robert. Despite the fact that Morrison was defeated and Collins found guilty of libel, Sullivan’s considerable legal talents did not go unnoticed.

 

His future looked bright indeed, but not in the provincial capital. He returned to Vittoria, apparently determined to settle there and take over the law practice vacated by Rolph as a result of his move to Dundas. Shortly afterwards, in early 1829, he married a daughter of John Matthews*, a reform colleague of Rolph’s. But once again, after a promising beginning, successive tragedies unravelled Sullivan’s personal life: on 20 Dec. 1830, six months after the birth of their daughter, Sullivan’s wife died; three months later the baby died. Sullivan quit Vittoria and returned to York to seek the support of his family once more.

 

Upon his return, he again entered the law offices of W. W. Baldwin and Son, and later, in 1831, he established a partnership with Robert, who had married his sister. The firm, with such talented young lawyers, was soon prospering. On his birthday in 1833, the obviously bright and sensitive Sullivan reported to his brother Henry, then studying medicine in Ireland, that things were going well: “Augustus [another brother] . . . is now a Student of the Learned Society of Osgoode Hall – we have six clerks with plenty to do.” The partners were preparing “to go into parliament with the honorable body of Colonial Whigs. next election.” Sullivan and Baldwin had advanced their careers enough to consider themselves eligible to replace the recently dismissed attorney general, Henry John Boulton*, and solicitor general, Christopher Alexander Hagerman*. But, Sullivan said, because of’ their rumoured replacement by law officers from England, neither he nor Baldwin stood a good chance of getting “a silk gown.” By the end of 1833 Sullivan was once again thriving and on Boxing Day, in Stamford (Niagara Falls), Upper Canada, he married Emily Louisa, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Chesneau Delatre.

 

His contemplations aside, Sullivan did not seek a seat in the election of 1834. The following year, however, he stood successfully as an alderman for St David’s Ward, Toronto, no doubt with the mayoralty in mind. A gentleman of Sullivan’s social standing and proven ability would have had little interest in aldermanic duties on a council just one year old. The mayoralty was another matter, however, as John Rolph’s actions the previous year had indicated. At the first meeting of council in 1835, Sullivan was confirmed mayor by tory and radical alike. As Toronto’s second mayor, he proved himself a competent administrator, approaching the problems of council from a practical rather than partisan perspective. Contested ward elections were the first problem; under Sullivan’s guidance, council adopted a set of regulations for hearing these grievances before proceeding with individual cases. Plagued with the same financial problems that had faced the first council [see William Lyon Mackenzie*], Sullivan turned his attention to amending the assessment laws. He was, as well, able to arrange financing for the city’s first major works project, a trunk sewer.

 

Public interest in municipal affairs was, however, sporadic at best. During 1835 council frequently could not convene for want of a quorum and there was discussion about compelling aldermen to attend. Sullivan’s last council meeting, lacking a quorum, was adjourned the following year and he declined to run again. There was, however, no lack of public interest in provincial politics, especially with the arrival of the new lieutenant governor, Sir Francis Bond Head*, in January 1836. And it was Sullivan, the erudite lawyer, who, as mayor of the provincial capital, delivered an address of welcome from the outgoing council.

 

The resignation on 12 March 1836 of Head’s Executive Council, of which Robert Baldwin had been a member, plunged the colony into its greatest political and constitutional crisis up to that point. With a haste that was indecent if nothing else, Sullivan accepted appointment to council and on the 14th was sworn in along with Augustus Warren Baldwin* (another uncle), John Elmsley*, and William Allan. Upper Canadian history provides other possible examples of political turncoats: Henry John Boulton deserved the epithet, John Willson probably did not. But Sullivan’s volte-face is without parallel. At the time of the reform brouhaha in 1828 over the dismissal of Judge John Walpole Willis*, Sullivan had declared, “It was against my principles to shew any respect to the present judges,” and, like his cousin, refused to plead before the “Pretended” Court of King’s Bench. A few years later he professed his eagerness to join the “Colonial Whigs” in the House of Assembly, without warning, he bedded down in 1836 with a group denounced by William Warren Baldwin as the “Tory junto.”

 

Sullivan has, unfortunately, left no explanation, or even rationalization, of his flip-flop. Reward was not long in coming: on 13 July he accepted the commissionership of crown lands, a plum worth £1,000 per annum. The patriarch of the Baldwin–Sullivan family was scathing. “R.S.,” W. W. Baldwin wrote to his son Robert, “is in the midst of enemies but he has thrown himself into their arms, & when they shake him over the precepice, he will not have a friend to console him.” A pariah among acquaintances and an object of rebuke by the whig press, Sullivan was isolated, almost. Robert Baldwin reminded his irate father that “family love” was “heavens best gift . . . let us not let political differences interfere with the cultivation of it – but on the contrary where such unhappily exist always forget the politician in the relation.” Despite Baldwin’s support for Sullivan, their legal partnership appears to have ended some time between 1836 and 1838.

 

Lord Durham [Lambton*] later derided Head’s appointments as ciphers. Sullivan proved an administration man, but he was no one’s tool. And what cannot be questioned is his ability. Head defended his choice, describing Sullivan as well-educated, a leading lawyer, and “a man of very superior talents . . . and of irreproachable character.” He quickly became the dominant figure in an increasingly active council. In a memorandum on the councillors prepared by Head, probably for his successor, Sir George Arthur, Sullivan was lauded as possessing “great legal talent [and] sound judgement particularly on financial questions,” whereas Allan, although honest and honourable, had “not much talent or education” and Elmsley was a “wrong headed man but brave.” Arthur relied heavily on forceful men with incisive analytical minds, such as Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson, John Macaulay, and Sullivan. In June 1838 Sullivan assumed the additional office of surveyor general. During Robinson’s long absence in England from 1838 to 1840, Arthur tended to ignore his law officers and other councillors in preference to Sullivan, who “takes a more enlarged view of the subjects, or, at all events, his sentiments fall more in with my motives of dealing with political questions in the present day; and, therefore, I have generally conferred with him in his office as presiding member of the Executive Council.” In February 1839 Sullivan was appointed to the Legislative Council. So crucial was he to the business of council and to the lieutenant governor as a policy adviser, that Arthur appointed Kenneth Cameron to serve as surveyor general pro tem, between October 1840 and February 1841, so that more important business need not be neglected by Sullivan.

 

In 1838, in the aftermath of the rebellion, Arthur had relied on him increasingly. That year Sullivan prepared, for instance, a mammoth report on the state of the province. The degree to which his analysis fell in line with that of his old enemies can be measured by Robinson’s enthusiastic approval. The report was “natural & forcible” and its tone “liberally conservative.” Sullivan took for granted that without natural or cultural barriers separating Upper Canada from the United States, the colony “must be materially affected by the state of Politics and of the popular mind in the neighbouring republic.” He uttered, albeit eloquently, the usual bromides that depicted American political culture in terms of “tyranny of a majority” and mob rule. He repeated, in short, current tory denunciations of responsible government and an elective legislative council as mere half-way houses to full-blown democratic institutions and chaos. In a manner worthy of Robinson at his best, he defended the Constitutional Act of 1791, the integrity of office holders, and the absolute need, if not the right, of an executive claim to revenues independent of control by the assembly.

 

Sullivan’s foray, in the same report, into policies on immigration, finance, and land matters marked his point of departure from tory nostrums. To his mind, tranquillity was a corollary of prosperity, which could only be achieved through large-scale immigration, a rise in the value of land, and productive public works. These measures would make people much happier “than any abstract political measures” could, and would have the effect of restoring public confidence and the colony’s trade. An enormous public debt sucked up available revenues and was responsible for leaving the province a largely inaccessible wilderness. The lack of superintendence of crown land produced a decline in revenue and immigration. Upper Canada, Sullivan maintained, must gain control of its major source of revenue, customs duties raised at Montreal and Quebec. To this end he gave full voice to a favourite tory war cry – annex Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and the Eastern Townships to Upper Canada, thus leaving the French Canadians to enjoy their own “bad laws, bad roads bad sleighs, bad food . . . in peace and quietness injuring no others and not being interfered with themselves.” The resurrection of union as a panacea for the Upper Canadian crisis would therefore be dangerous, since it would bring together and make supreme the democratic elements in Upper and Lower Canada. Over a year later, in 1839, Sullivan reiterated his hostility to union and his attachment to British institutions in a memorandum sent under Arthur’s name to the Colonial Office. He was at pains to distinguish two elements among the “conservatives”: those “who are so from principle, or attachment from sentiment to British institutions,” and the “Commercial party” which supported “prosperity, public credit and public improvements” but was conservative out of self-interest and only in prosperous times.

 

Sullivan’s lucid analysis of the province’s problems was matched by his equally deft set of practical prescriptions. He favoured the centralization of power, having urged Arthur in April 1838 to retain the power of patronage over the militia and not relinquish it to local colonels. That same year he recommended suspending work on the St Lawrence canals, lest the work become a “perpetual monument of Legislative folly & extravagance,” and he cautioned Arthur to rein in the commissioners responsible for the work. Although he supported the legitimacy of the constitutional privileges of the Church of England, the clergy reserves issue had to be settled in the interests of internal harmony. To this end he favoured dividing the reserves among the Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Wesleyan Methodists, with the proceeds from the reserves used “to secure religious instruction according to the protestant faith.”

 

In 1839 Arthur directed the Executive Council to prepare a report on how best to adapt land policy to the anticipated increase in immigration. The council split. Minority reports were submitted in 1840 by Sullivan and Augustus Warren Baldwin on one side, and William Allan and Richard Alexander Tucker* on the other. In fact, the reports were the efforts of Sullivan and Allan. Sullivan’s represents an eloquent and closely reasoned defence of an agrarian society, composed largely of independent farmers, as the basis for social and political stability and economic prosperity. Allan argued that the province’s economic backwardness could only be overcome by capitalist undertakings. Possessed of a shrewd, intuitive grasp of Upper Canada’s situation and its potential, Allan urged seizing the opportunity to establish “what we have been taught to consider a great desideratum, viz, a class of labourers, separate and distinct from Land owners.” Although Governor Charles Edward Poulett Thomson* (later Lord Sydenham) noted agreement with Allan’s position “as applied to a country under ordinary circumstances,” he saw the province’s present situation as different and he dismissed Allan’s opinion as biased and his arguments as “trashy in the extreme.”

 

Thomson, the architect of union, soon realized how useful Sullivan could be. He abandoned his previous hostility to union, a position which, as Attorney General Hagerman found out, Thomson would not tolerate. Sullivan was prominent in shepherding the measure through the Legislative Council, and appeared a solid “Governor’s man” at its inception. He was one of the four executive councillors, along with William Henry Draper*, Charles Richard Ogden*, and Charles Dewey Day*, in whom Robert Baldwin expressed want of confidence in February 1841. Sullivan retained the commissionership of crown lands until June of that year, in which month he was appointed to the new Legislative Council.

 

John Charles Dent*’s description of Sullivan, as a brilliant orator who charmed with his “Irish provincial accent” but who lacked conviction and steadiness of purpose, is accurate. He seems to have dozed through his duties as president of the Executive Council in 1841–42. He performed another wonderful turnaround in September 1842. When the new governor, Sir Charles Bagot*, was struggling to avoid a reform-dominated ministry, Sullivan supported him in the Legislative Council, asking, “Are we to carry on the government fairly and upon liberal principles or by dint of miserable majorities?” Yet he happily remained as president of council when the miserable majority prevailed, holding that position until November 1843 .

 

Indeed, he rapidly became a partisan of the new order, presumably an indication of his love of intrigue, his respect for power, and his weakness for flamboyant oratory. In October 1842 he was involved in the obdurate politics of the newly formed ministry of Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine*, chairing the committee of the Executive Council which recommended withdrawing government advertising from newspapers “found to join in active opposition to the Government.” Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe*, Bagot’s successor in March 1843, was relatively complimentary to Sullivan as a minister, given that Metcalfe thought most of the executive councillors were fanatics, villains, or incompetents. According to his biographer, John William Kaye, the governor saw Sullivan as talented but dismissed him as inconsistent and lacking the “weight of personal character.” If a lightweight, Sullivan was prominent enough to be a target of the Orange order. After passage of the Party Processions and Secret Societies bills, there was a huge, furious Orange demonstration in Toronto on 8 Nov. 1843. Sullivan’s name was joined with those of the “traitors Baldwin and [Francis Hincks*]” on the mob’s banners.

 

During the ten-month crisis which followed the resignation of the Baldwin–La Fontaine ministry in November, Sullivan was in his element. His talents as an orator and pamphleteer gave him a prominent role in the reform campaign to justify the actions of the late ministry and win the election of 1844. His excessive zeal, however, at times injured the reform cause. He took part in the early meetings of the party’s new provincial organization, the Reform Association of Canada. At its first public meeting, in Toronto on 25 March 1844, Sullivan – ironically, given his “miserable majorities” speech – moved the resolution insisting that provincial ministries required the support of parliamentary majorities. He campaigned in 4th York with Baldwin and advised him on tactics. In September Baldwin reported consulting with Sullivan, James Edward Small*, and John Henry Dunn about whether to resign his militia commission and relinquish his appointment as queen’s counsel, in protest against Metcalfe’s autocracy. On their advice Baldwin retained his militia commission.

 

Sullivan’s most important role continued to be that of public controversialist. In May 1844 Egerton Ryerson* had begun a series of newspaper articles which supported the governor, and later published them as a pamphlet. He claimed to have been sympathetic to the councillors until their “real motives” were revealed by Sullivan and Francis Hincks, when he came to see Metcalfe as “a misrepresented and injured man.” Under the transparent nom de plume of Legion, Sullivan answered in 13 letters in the Examiner and the Globe. The letters, which also appeared as a pamphlet, contained no new insights but were an effective summary of the Baldwinite arguments for responsible government and provided a puncturing lampoon of Ryerson’s pomposity. They show, at places, Sullivan’s tendency to get carried away with his rhetoric. Later in the year the tories made good use of his indiscretion at an election meeting in Sharon, where, in ridiculing the governor as “Charles the Simple,” he seriously overstepped even the limits of that day. His excesses, however, were only one small factor in the reform defeat in the election of 1844. Sullivan ascribed it in large measure to the influence of the Orange order. “Ireland in its worst time,” he told Baldwin in January 1845, “was not more completely under the feet of an orange ascendancy than is Canada at present.”

 

With the party in opposition, Sullivan was not very active in the Legislative Council. He continued to be a close adviser to Baldwin on political matters, presumably more because of Baldwin’s stout family loyalty than because of his chequered record as a political tactician. He had a good deal to say about the worst crisis facing the party between 1845 and 1847: the tories’ wooing of French Canadians disenchanted with the reformers after the 1844 defeat. William Henry Draper came close to forging an alliance with René-Édouard Caron* and others in 1845–46. To Sullivan, writing to Baldwin in August 1846, Caron was “a false sneaking knave”; Hincks, who toadied to the French to maintain support, was nearly as bad. This outburst suggested that Sullivan had a conveniently short memory. La Fontaine did not. During the Draper–Caron flirtation, La Fontaine reminded Baldwin that Sullivan had made a similar attempt, in July 1842, to split the French from the reform party. He had approached both La Fontaine and Caron to enter the Bagot-Draper ministry and leave Baldwin behind.

 

There were issues on which the cousins differed. During the winter of 1844–45 Sullivan, who joined William Hume Blake* in a campaign to reform the Upper Canadian judicial system, expressed his deep disappointment that Baldwin would not give leadership on that effort in the assembly. More significant was their disagreement over tariff policy. After Britain’s adoption of free trade, Baldwin urged Canada, in a speech in November 1846, to follow that lead. Sullivan, however, was an early advocate of a different approach. Speaking to the Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute on 17 Nov. 1847, he championed the emerging capitalist interests of Canada, in sharp contrast to his position in 1840. Rapid industrial development was the solution to Canada’s economic problems, and he suggested the adoption of protective duties as a means to foster the needed industry. Published the following year, Sullivan’s Hamilton appeal was frequently cited when the protectionist movement began to gain strength after 1849.

 

Despite his political success in the 1840s Sullivan’s heavy drinking and fecklessness in business matters nearly destroyed his career. In 1843 he lamented his difficulty in collecting accounts, suggesting that his hand was all too often limp. In this he stood in marked contrast to his cousin. Baldwin was especially fierce in pursuing payment from the wealthy, who, he believed, had a moral duty to meet their debts. In 1844, however, things looked up. Oliver Mowat*, then a gossipy young lawyer, reported that Sullivan had joined the “total abstinence society.” It was a necessary step, in Mowat’s view, for no one in Toronto’s legal community had confidence in the drunken Sullivan. The reformation did not last. In the spring of 1848 Baldwin’s property manager, Lawrence Heyden, told Baldwin that Sullivan was in serious difficulty: “It is very generally reported here that he is broken out again.”

 

Dry or wet, Sullivan remained an intimate adviser to the party chief. His views were sought on delicate matters, such as the manœuvres in 1847 to find a seat for the recent convert from high toryism, Henry John Boulton, who remained anathema to many local reformers. When the party swept the election of January 1848, Baldwin suggested to La Fontaine 24 names, including Sullivan’s, as possibilities for the 11 cabinet positions. According to Baldwin, Sullivan preferred a judgeship, but his experience would be useful in cabinet. Presumably La Fontaine was not as generous about the missteps of Baldwin’s errant cousin, for Sullivan’s name did not appear on the cabinet list presented to Governor Lord Elgin [Bruce*] on 7 March 1848. La Fontaine and Baldwin told him they needed the seat to conciliate a faction in the party. On Elgin’s urging, however, they reconsidered and the next day Sullivan was included as provincial secretary, becoming the most senior of the ministers in terms of service. The governor was delighted for he considered Sullivan both able and “more British” than any other Canadian politician. In July he described Sullivan to Colonial Secretary Lord Grey as the member of council “who has the strongest feeling in favor of settling the lands of the Province and has most influence with his colleagues on questions of this nature.” Sullivan, for example, favoured free land grants and the construction of colonization roads – programs for these would be initiated in the 1850s.

 

Sullivan nevertheless played no major role in the “Great Ministry” and on 15 Sept. 1848, after resigning from council, he received his desired reward, a puisne justiceship on the Court of Queen’s Bench. He did not, however, entirely give up a political interest. While in cabinet, in April 1848, he had dismissed the medical superintendent of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Walter Telfer, and replaced him with the apparently more politically sound George Hamilton Park. Park proceeded to feud with the staff and to fire employees without authorization. Sullivan followed the case closely and gave his assessment of it to Baldwin in January 1849; Park was dismissed that month and the radical newspaper, the Examiner, took his side against the “tyrannous” government. Sullivan guessed correctly that Park’s brother-in-law, John Rolph, was behind the crisis and warned Baldwin that the case was being used by such dissident reformers to embarrass the ministry.

 

Sullivan held his seat on the Legislative Council until May 1851. In January 1850 he had moved from Queen’s Bench to the newly formed Court of Common Pleas, where he sat until his death three years later. A superb orator and incisive analyst when sober, Sullivan nevertheless remained known as a flawed figure, devoid, in the opinion of Dent and others, of “genuine earnestness of purpose” and “strong political convictions.”

I broke a pair of old reading glasses this morning. I dashed out to buy a pair of ready-made, of the shelf but then could not read the small print. All resolved, a kind lady helped me find the correct pair.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A few things inside the house. It was mostly empty, large open rooms. These were the few things that took my interest inside.

 

A piano in the mansion.

Meteorite splashdown on Congleton!

 

It was raining heavily when I dashed to the garden shed but as I fled into the dry I noticed a clump of 'dirt and rubble' on the patio flagstones. Now I had only just tidied up the garden in preparation for my brother's family visit and a possible barbeque for the next weekend, so I couldn't quite work out how this smattering of bits had come to be where it was but the persistent raindrops persuaded me to leave it until the end of the week to tidy up.

 

When Saturday arrived it was a reasonably bright day, and popping to the shed once more to get some tools, I again noticed the debris of odd looking rubble on the paving stone. I bent to pick up one of the bigger pieces, about about 5 cm long. It was a completely alien looking piece of material with honeycomb bubbles and sharp, spikey, abrasive edges. I turned it over in my hand unable to identify it as anything I had ever seen before. I picked up another piece, roughly triangular. It contained some bubbles towards one point where it was dark brown in colour but the bubbles receded towards the other corner where it was more orangy. Completely baffled by what I was holding I reached down for more pieces, big and small. Many were grey brown and honeycombed in varying sizes throughout. Others were more toast like in their appearance. It had the metallic smell of hot metal but the weight of stone. As I lifted pieces I realised the hard stone paving slabs below were badly scraped showing a concentration of impact in one area. The debris lay scattered around. I took some steps back to survey the area. On one side there was the brick built shed and on the other just 3m away was the house. A dense hedge forms the third side of the square area, the paved patio extending on the fourth side. It seemed this object could only have come from above. Amazingly, this alien rock was nothing less than a relatively large, and incredibly rare, meteorite!

 

I got a plastic bag and started to collect every piece I could find. A 2cm piece lay by the barbeque some 3 metres away and I found some small fragments which had gone under a plastic plant pot to the side of the shed. The impact zone was centred near the gap between two paving slabs and I found alot of fragments driven down between them. Much of the material had broken down into particles so small I could not pick them up but I noted how there was most close to the main impact point where the meterorite had pulverised itself into the paving slabs. Looking into the bag I reckoned I had enough material to make up a tennis ball in volume. Wow! That's a pretty sizeable meteorite! Everyone in the family came for a look. A neighbour was passed a piece through the hedge to examine and was extremely excited. She had just listened to a radio show a few days earlier talking about how August is the meteorite season. www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2025766/Perseid-m... . I was advised I ought to report such a significant find. Scientists would want to examine it. The world famous Jodrell Bank observatory is nearby but when I tried it the phone rang out. A Google search said I could get my meteorite identified at London's British National History Museum www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/space/meteorites-dust/collect... Being Saturday, I was again thwarted and left a voice mail for them to contact me.

 

I was so excited. Most meteorites that are found are barely the size of your wife's diamond in her wedding ring. What I had found was the equivalent of the Koh-I-Nor diamond! But meteorites can be radioactive so I kept the family at arm 's length and searched out a pair of tweezers to pick up pieces, primarily so that we did not contaminate the meteorite fragments with 'earth' matter.

 

It was a number of hours later when my eldest son knocked on the door having been out for a round of golf. He's particularly interested in The Universe and eagerly came through to see my find. I was telling him where I found it as he peered into the orange Sainsbury's plastic shopping bag when he lifted his head, a big grin breaking out across his face from ear to ear as he realised what I had found. Now my eldest has sometimes had a problem with telling the whole truth and that grin normally means he is about to admit to something. But nothing could prepare me for the let down he was going to give me.

 

Along with Adam's fascination of The Universe is his love affair with his aquarium. No amount of expense is unjustified in his quest to make it the best. The truth, honest, according to him, is that he decided during the week to replace the white coral rocks in his aquarium with rock that would provide more contrast with the bright colours of his Lake Malawi Chichlids. He had bought some new darker rocks and broken them up to fit his tank with my heavy 'dumpy' hammer on the paving stones outside my shed last week! My fragmented, honeycombed 'meteorite' was nothing more alien than black volcanic lava rock sold in the local aquatics shop!!!!!!

 

I'm about to set off on a trip to the dark side of the Moon to hide my embarrassment. Am I taking it too hard? Did I jump too easily to conclusions?

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A few things inside the house. It was mostly empty, large open rooms. These were the few things that took my interest inside.

 

A bust of Winston Churchill above a fireplace.

 

The fireplace with the bust.

And so to the weekend again. And what might be the last orchid-free weekend until well into June or even August.

 

So, enjoy the churches while you can.

 

Saturday, and not much really planned. We get up at half six with it fully light outside. The cloud and drizzle had not arrived, instead it was pretty clear and sunny.

 

No time for thinking about going out to take shots, as we had hunter-gathering to do.

 

In fact, we didn't need much, just the usual stuff to keep us going. That and the car was running on fumes. So we will that up first, and then into Tesco and round and round we go, fully the trolley up. It being Mother's Day on Saturday, we were having Jen round on Sunday, we were to have steak, so I get mushrooms.

 

And once back, we have breakfast then go to Preston for the actual steak, three ribeyes, all cut from the same stip. Jools had gone to look at the garden centre for ideas as we're going to dig up the raspberries, so just wondering what to put in their place.

 

By then the rain had come, and so we dashed back to the car, and on the way home called in at two churches.

 

First off was Goodnestone, just the other side of Wingham.

 

Its a fine estate church, covered in wonderfully knapped bricks, giving it an East Anglian feel. Before we went in, we sheltered under a tree to much on a sausage roll I had bought at the butcher, that done, we go to the church, which is open.

 

I have been here quite recently, five years back, and in truth no much glass to record, but I do my best, leave a fiver of the weekly collection and we drove over the fields to Eastry.

 

St Mary is an impressive church, with carved and decorated west face of the Norman tower, at its base an odd lean-to porch has been created, leading into the church, which does have interest other than the 35 painted medallions high in the Chancel Arch, once the backdrop to the Rood.

 

I snap them with the big lens, and the windows too. A warden points out what looks like a very much older painted window high among the roof timbers in the east wall of the Chancel.

 

I get a shot, which is good enough, but even with a 400mm lens, is some crop.

 

I finish up and we go home, taking it carefully along nearly flooded roads.

 

Being a Saturday, there is football, though nothing much of interest until three when Norwich kick off against Stoke: could they kick it on a wet Saturday afternoon in the Potteries?

 

No. No, they couldn't.

 

Ended 0-0, City second best, barely laid a glove on the Stoke goal.

 

And then spots galore: Ireland v England in the egg-chasing, Citeh v Burnley in the Cup and Chelsea v Everton in the league, all live on various TV channels.

 

I watch the first half of the rugby, then switch over when England were reduced to 14, so did enjoy the lad Haarland score another hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition.

 

And that was that, another day over with.....

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Set away from the main street but on one of the earliest sites in the village, flint-built Eastry church has an over restored appearance externally but this gives way to a noteworthy interior. Built in the early thirteenth century by its patrons, Christ Church Canterbury, it was always designed to be a statement of both faith and power. The nave has a clerestory above round piers whilst the east nave wall has a pair of quatrefoils pierced through into the chancel. However this feature pales into insignificance when one sees what stands between them - a square panel containing 35 round paintings in medallions. There are four deigns including the Lily for Our Lady; a dove; Lion; Griffin. They would have formed a backdrop to the Rood which would have been supported on a beam the corbels of which survive below the paintings. On the centre pier of the south aisle is a very rare feature - a beautifully inscribed perpetual calendar or `Dominical Circle` to help find the Dominical letter of the year. Dating from the fourteenth century it divides the calendar into a sequence of 28 years. The reredos is an alabaster structure dating from the Edwardian period - a rather out of place object in a church of this form, but a good piece of work in its own right. On the west wall is a good early 19th century Royal Arms with hatchments on either side and there are many good monuments both ledger slabs and hanging tablets. Of the latter the finest commemorates John Harvey who died in 1794. It shows his ship the Brunswick fighting with all guns blazing with the French ship the Vengeur. John Bacon carved the Elder this detailed piece of work.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastry

 

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Above the Chancel Arch, enclosed within a rectangular frame, are rows of seven "medallion" wall paintings; the lower group was discovered in 1857 and the rest in 1903. They remained in a rather dilapidated state until the Canterbury Cathedral Wall Paintings Department brought them back to life.

 

The medallions are evidently of the 13th Century, having been painted while the mortar was still wet. Each medallion contains one of four motifs:

 

The trefoil flower, pictured left, is perhaps a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the church is dedicated; or symbolic of Christ.

 

The lion; symbolic of the Resurrection

  

Doves, either singly, or in pairs, represent the Holy Spirit

  

The Griffin represents evil, over which victory is won by the power of the Resurrection and the courage of the Christian.

 

www.ewbchurches.org.uk/eastrychurchhistory.htm

 

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EASTRY,

THE next parish north-eastward from Knolton is Eastry. At the time of taking the survey of Domesday, it was of such considerable account, that it not only gave name, as it does at present, to the hundred, but to the greatest part of the lath in which it stands, now called the lath of St. Augustine. There are two boroughs in this parish, viz. the borough of Hardenden, which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford, and comprehends the districts of Hardenden, Selson and Skrinkling, and the borough of Eastry, the borsholder of which is chosen at Eastry-court, and comprehends all the rest of the parish, excepting so much of it as lies within that part of the borough of Felderland, which is within this parish.

 

THE PARISH OF EASTRY, a healthy and not unpleasant situation, is about two miles and an half from north to south, but it is much narrower the other way, at the broadest extent of which it is not more than a mile and an half. The village of Eastry is situated on a pleasing eminence, almost in the centre of the parish, exhiblting a picturesque appearance from many points of view. The principal street in it is called Eastrystreet; from it branch off Mill street, Church-street and Brook-street. In Mill street is a spacious handsome edisice lately erected there, as a house of industry, for the poor of the several united parishes of Eastry, Norborne, Betshanger, Tilmanstone, Waldershare, Coldred, Lydden, Shebbertswell, Swynfield, Wootton, Denton, Chillenden and Knolton. In Churchstreet, on the east side, stands the church, with the court-lodge and parsonage adjoining the church-yard; in this street is likewise the vicarage. In Brook-street, is a neat modern house, the residence of Wm. Boteler, esq. and another belonging to Mr. Thomas Rammell, who resides in it. Mention will be found hereafter, under the description of the borough of Hernden, in this parish, of the descent and arms of the Botelers resident there for many generations. Thomas Boteler, who died possessed of that estate in 1651, left three sons, the youngest of whom, Richard, was of Brook-street, and died in 1682; whose great-grandson, W. Boteler, esq. is now of Brook-street; a gentleman to whom the editor is much indebted for his communications and assistance, towards the description of this hundred, and its adjoining neighbourhood. He has been twice married; first to Sarah, daughter and coheir of Thomas Fuller, esq. of Statenborough, by whom he has one son, William Fuller, now a fellow of St. Peter's college, Cambridge: secondly, to Mary, eldest daughter of John Harvey, esq. of Sandwich and Hernden, late captain of the royal navy, by whom he has five sons and three daughters. He bears for his arms, Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or; which coat was granted to his ancestor, Richard Boteler, esq. of Hernden, by Cooke, clar. in 1589. Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, is the last surviving male of the family, both of Hernden and Brook-street. Eastry-street, comprizing the neighbourhood of the above mentioned branches, may be said to contain about sixty-four houses.

 

At the south-east boundary of this parish lies the hamlet of Updown, adjoining to Ham and Betshanger, in the former of which parishes some account of it has been already given. At the southern bounds, adjoining to Tilmanstone, lies the hamlet of Westone, formerly called Wendestone. On the western side lies the borough of Hernden, which although in this parish, is yet within the hundred of Downhamford and manor of Adisham; in the southern part of it is Shrinkling, or Shingleton, as it is now called, and the hamlet of Hernden. At the northern part of this borough lie the hamlets and estates of Selson, Wells, and Gore. Towards the northern boundary of the parish, in the road to Sandwich, is the hamlet of Statenborough, and at a small distance from it is that part of the borough of Felderland, or Fenderland, as it is usually called, within this parish, in which, adjoining the road which branches off to Word, is a small seat, now the property and residence of Mrs. Dare, widow of Wm. Dare, esq. who resides in it. (fn. 1)

 

Round the village the lands are for a little distance, and on towards Statenborough, inclosed with hedges and trees, but the rest of the parish is in general an open uninclosed country of arable land, like the neighbouring ones before described; the soil of it towards the north is most fertile, in the other parts it is rather thin, being much inclined to chalk, except in the bottoms, where it is much of a stiff clay, for this parish is a continued inequality of hill and dale; notwithstanding the above, there is a great deal of good fertile land in the parish, which meets on an average rent at fifteen shillings an acre. There is no wood in it. The parish contains about two thousand six hundred and fifty acres; the yearly rents of it are assessed to the poor at 2679l.

 

At the south end of the village is a large pond, called Butsole; and adjoining to it on the east side, a field, belonging to Brook-street estate, called the Butts; from whence it is conjectured that Butts were formerly erected in it, for the practice of archery among the inhabitants.

 

A fair is held here for cattle, pedlary, and toys, on October the 2d, (formerly on St. Matthew's day, September the 21st) yearly.

 

IN 1792, MR. BOTELER, of Brook-street, discovered, on digging a cellar in the garden of a cottage, situated eastward of the highway leading from Eastrycross to Butsole, an antient burying ground, used as such in the latter time of the Roman empire in Britain, most probably by the inhabitants of this parish, and the places contiguous to it. He caused several graves to be opened, and found with the skeletons, fibulæ, beads, knives,umbones of shields, &c. and in one a glass vessel. From other skeletons, which have been dug up in the gardens nearer the cross, it is imagined, that they extended on the same side the road up to the cross, the ground of which is now pretty much covered with houses; the heaps of earth, or barrows, which formerly remained over them, have long since been levelled, by the great length of time and the labour of the husbandman; the graves were very thick, in rows parallel to each other, in a direction from east to west.

 

St. Ivo's well, mentioned by Nierembergius, in Historia de Miraculis Natureæ, lib. ii. cap. 33; which I noticed in my folio edition as not being able to find any tradition of in this parish, I have since found was at a place that formerly went by the name of Estre, and afterwards by that of Plassiz, near St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire. See Gales Scriptores, xv. vol. i. p.p. 271, 512.

 

This place gave birth to Henry de Eastry, who was first a monk, and then prior of Christ-church, in Canterbury; who, for his learning as well as his worthy acts, became an ornament, not only to the society he presided over, but to his country in general. He continued prior thirty-seven years, and died, far advanced in life, in 1222.

 

THIS PLACE, in the time of the Saxons, appears to have been part of the royal domains, accordingly Simon of Durham, monk and precentor of that church, in his history, stiles it villa regalis, quæ vulgari dicitur Easterige pronuncione, (the royal ville, or manor, which in the vulgar pronunciation was called Easterige), which shews the antient pre-eminence and rank of this place, for these villæ regales, or regiæ, as Bede calls them, of the Saxons, were usually placed upon or near the spot, where in former ages the Roman stations had been before; and its giving name both to the lath and hundred in which it is situated corroborates the superior consequence it was then held in. Egbert, king of Kent, was in possession of it about the year 670, at which time his two cousins, Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfrid, who had been entrusted to his care by their uncle, the father of Egbert, were, as writers say, murdered in his palace here by his order, at the persuasion of one Thunnor, a slattering courtier, lest they should disturb him in the possession of the crown. After which Thunnor buried them in the king's hall here, under the cloth of estate, from whence, as antient tradition reports, their bodies were afterwards removed to a small chapel belonging to the palace, and buried there under the altar at the east end of it, and afterwards again with much pomp to the church of Ramsey abbey. To expiate the king's guilt, according to the custom of those times, he gave to Domneva, called also Ermenburga, their sister, a sufficient quantity of land in the isle of Thanet, on which she might found a monastery.

 

How long it continued among the royal domains, I have not found; but before the termination of the Saxon heptarchy, THE MANOR OF EASTRY was become part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and it remained so till the year 811, when archbishop Wilfred exchanged it with his convent of Christchurch for their manor of Bourne, since from the archbishop's possession of it called Bishopsbourne. After which, in the year 979 king Ægelred, usually called Ethelred, increased the church's estates here, by giving to it the lands of his inheritance in Estrea, (fn. 2) free from all secular service and siscal tribute, except the repelling of invasions and the repairing of bridges and castles, usually stiled the trinoda necessitas; (fn. 3) and in the possession of the prior and convent bove-mentioned, this manor continued at the taking of the survey of Domesday, being entered in it under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi; that is, the land of the monks of the archbishop, as follows:

 

In the lath of Estrei in Estrei hundred, the archbishop himself holds Estrei. It was taxed at Seven sulings. The arable land is . . . . In demesne there are three carucates and seventy two villeins, with twenty-two borderers, having twenty-four carucates. There is one mill and a half of thirty shillings, and three salt pits of four shillings, and eighteen acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs.

 

After which, this manor continued in the possession of the priory, and in the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a grant of free-warren in all his demesne lands in it, among others; about which time it was valued at 65l. 3s. after which king Henry VI. in his 28th year, confirmed the above liberty, and granted to it a market, to be held at Eastry weekly on a Tuesday, and a fair yearly, on the day of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist; in which state it continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it came in to the king's hands, where it did not remain long, for he settled it, among other premises, in the 33d year of his reign, on his new created dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it continues at this time. A court leet and court baron is held for this manor.

 

The manerial rights, profits of courts, royalties, &c. the dean and chapter retain in their own hands; but the demesne lands of the manor, with the courtlodge, which is a large antient mansion, situated adjoining to the church-yard, have been from time to time demised on a benesicial lease. The house is large, partly antient and partly modern, having at different times undergone great alterations. In the south wall are the letters T. A. N. in flint, in large capitals, being the initials of Thomas and Anne Nevinson. Mr. Isaac Bargrave, father of the present lessee, new fronted the house, and the latter in 1786 put the whole in complete repair, in doing which, he pulled down a considerable part of the antient building, consisting of stone walls of great strength and thickness, bringing to view some gothic arched door ways of stone, which proved the house to have been of such construction formerly, and to have been a very antient building. The chapel, mentioned before, is at the east end of the house. The east window, consisting of three compartments, is still visible, though the spaces are filled up, it having for many years been converted into a kitchen, and before the last alteration by Mr. Bargrave the whole of it was entire.

 

At this mansion, then in the hands of the prior and convent of Christ-church, archbishop Thomas Becket, after his stight from Northampton in the year 1164, concealed himself for eight days, and then, on Nov. 10, embarked at Sandwich for France. (fn. 4)

 

The present lessee is Isaac Bargrave, esq. who resides at the court-lodge, whose ancestors have been lessees of this estate for many years past.

 

THE NEVINSONS, as lessees, resided at the courtlodge of Eastry for many years. They were originally of Brigend, in Wetherell, in Cumberland. They bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, between three eagles displayed, azure. Many of them lie buried in Eastry church. (fn. 5)

 

THE FAMILY of Bargrave, alias Bargar, was originally of Bridge, and afterwards of the adjoining parish of Patrixbourne; where John Bargrave, eldest son of Robert, built the seat of Bifrons, and resided at it, of whom notice has already been taken in vol. ix. of this history, p. 280. Isaac Bargrave, the sixth son of Robert above-mentioned, and younger brother of John, who built Bifrons, was ancestor of the Bargraves, of Eastry; he was S. T. P. and dean of Canterbury, a man of strict honour and high principles of loyalty, for which he suffered the most cruel treatment. He died in 1642, having married in 1618 Elizabeth, daughter of John Dering, esq. of Egerton, by Elizabeth, sister of Edward lord Wotton, the son of John Dering, esq. of Surrenden, by Margaret Brent. Their descendant, Isaac Bargrave, esq. now living, was an eminent solicitor in London, from which he has retired for some years, and now resides at Eastry-court, of which he is the present lessee. He married Sarah, eldest daughter of George Lynch, M. D. of Canterbury, who died at Herne in 1787, S.P. They bear for their arms, Or, on a pale gules, a sword, the blade argent, pomelled, or, on a chief vert three bezants.

 

SHRINKLING, alias SHINGLETON, the former of which is its original name, though now quite lost, is a small manor at the south-west boundary of this pa Kent, anno 1619. rish, adjoining to Nonington. It is within the borough of Heronden, or Hardonden, as it is now called, and as such, is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. This manor had antiently owners of the same name; one of whom, Sir William de Scrinkling, held it in king Edward I.'s reign, and was succeeded by Sir Walter de Scrinkling his son, who held it by knight's service of Hamo de Crevequer, (fn. 6) and in this name it continued in the 20th year of king Edward III.

 

Soon after which it appears to have been alienated to William Langley, of Knolton, from which name it passed in like manner as Knolton to the Peytons and the Narboroughs, and thence by marriage to Sir Thomas D'Aeth, whose grandson Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, is at present entitled to it.

 

There was a chapel belonging to this manor, the ruins of which are still visible in the wood near it, which was esteemed as a chapel of ease to the mother church of Eastry, and was appropriated with it by archbishop Richard, Becket's immediate successor, to the almory of the priory of Christ-church; but the chapel itself seems to have become desolate many years before the dissolution of the priory, most probably soon after the family of Shrinkling became extinct; the Langleys, who resided at the adjoining manor of Knolton, having no occasion for the use of it. The chapel stood in Shingleton wood, near the south east corner; the foundations of it have been traced, though level with the surface, and not easily discovered. There is now on this estate only one house, built within memory, before which there was only a solitary barn, and no remains of the antient mansion of it.

 

HERONDEN, alias HARDENDEN, now usually called HERONDEN, is a district in this parish, situated about a mile northward from Shingleton, within the borough of its own name, the whole of which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. It was once esteemed as a manor, though it has not had even the name of one for many years past, the manor of Adisham claiming over it. The mansion of it was antiently the residence of a family of the same name, who bore for their arms, Argent, a heron with one talon erect, gaping for breath, sable. These arms are on a shield, which is far from modern, in Maidstone church, being quarterly, Heronden as above, with sable, three escallop shells, two and one, argent; and in a window of Lincoln's Inn chapel is a coat of arms of a modern date, being that of Anthony Heronden, esq. Argent, a heron, azure, between three escallops, sable. One of this family of Heronden lies buried in this church, and in the time of Robert Glover, Somerset herald, his portrait and coat of arms, in brass, were remaining on his tombstone. The coat of arms is still extant in very old rolls and registers in the Heralds office, where the family is stiled Heronden, of Heronden, in Eastry; nor is the name less antient, as appears by deeds which commence from the reign of Henry III. which relate to this estate and name; but after this family had remained possessed of this estate for so many years it at last descended down in king Richard II.'s reign, to Sir William Heronden, from whom it passed most probably either by gift or sale, to one of the family of Boteler, or Butler, then resident in this neighbourhood, descended from those of this name, formerly seated at Butler's sleet, in Ash, whose ancestor Thomas Pincerna, or le Boteler, held that manor in king John's reign, whence his successors assumed the name of Butler, alias Boteler, or as they were frequently written Botiller, and bore for their arms, One or more covered cups, differently placed and blazoned. In this family the estate descended to John Boteler, who lived in the time of king Henry VI. and resided at Sandwich, of which town he was several times mayor, and one of the burgesses in two parliaments of that reign; he lies buried in St. Peter's church there. His son Richard, who was also of Sandwich, had a grant of arms in 1470, anno 11th Edward IV. by Thomas Holme, norroy, viz. Gyronny of six, argent and sable, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counterchanged of the field, collared, gules, garnished of the third. His great-grandson Henry Boteler rebuilt the mansion of Heronden, to which he removed in 1572, being the last of his family who resided at Sandwich. He had the above grant of arms confirmed to him, and died in 1580, being buried in Eastry church. Richard Boteler, of Heronden, his eldest son by his first wife, resided at this seat, and in 1589 obtained a grant from Robert Cook, clarencieux, of a new coat of arms, viz. Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three convered cups, or. Ten years after which, intending as it should seem, to shew himself a descendant of the family of this name, seated at Graveney, but then extinct, he obtained in 1599 a grant of their arms from William Dethic, garter, and William Camden, clarencieux, to him and his brother William, viz. Quarterly, first and fourth, sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; second and third, Argent, a fess, chequy, argent and gules, in chief three cross-croslets of the last, as appears (continues the grant) on a gravestone in Graveney church. He died in 1600, and was buried in Eastry church, leaving issue among other children Jonathan and Thomas. (fn. 7) Jonathan Boteler, the eldest son, of Hernden, died unmarried possessed of it in 1626, upon which it came to his next surviving brother Thomas Boteler, of Rowling, who upon that removed to Hernden, and soon afterwards alienated that part of it, since called THE MIDDLE FARM, to Mr. Henry Pannell, from whom soon afterwards, but how I know not, it came into the family of Reynolds; from which name it was about fifty years since alienated to John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, who dying in 1762, devised it to his nephew John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, the present possessor of it.

 

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.

 

The church, which is exempted from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Mary; it is a large handsome building, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a chancel at the east end, remarkably long, and a square tower, which is very large, at the west end, in which are five very unmusical bells. The church is well kept and neatly paved, and exhibits a noble appearance, to which the many handsome monuments in it contribute much. The arch over the west door is circular, but no other parts of the church has any shew of great antiquity. In the chancel are monuments for the Paramors and the Fullers, of Statenborough, arms of the latter, Argent, three bars, and a canton, gules. A monument for several of the Bargrave family. An elegant pyramidial one, on which is a bust and emblematical sculpture for John Broadley, gent. many years surgeon at Dover, obt. 1784. Several gravestones, with brasses, for the Nevinsons. A gravestone for Joshua Paramour, gent. buried 1650. Underneath this chancel are two vaults, for the families of Paramour and Bargrave. In the nave, a monument for Anne, daughter of Solomon Harvey, gent. of this parish, ob. 1751; arms, Argent, on a chevron, between three lions gambs, sable, armed gules, three crescents, or; another for William Dare, esq. late of Fenderland, in this parish, obt. 1770; arms, Gules, a chevron vaire, between three crescents, argent, impaling argent, on a cross, sable, four lions passant, quardant of the field, for Read.—Against the wall an inscription in Latin, for the Drue Astley Cressemer, A. M. forty-eight years vicar of this parish, obt. 1746; he presented the communion plate to this church and Worth, and left a sum of money to be laid out in ornamenting this church, at which time the antient stalls, which were in the chancel, were taken away, and the chancel was ceiled, and the church otherwise beautified; arms, Argent, on a bend engrailed, sable, three cross-croslets, fitchee, or. A monument for several of the Botelers, of this parish; arms, Boteler, argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or, impaling Morrice. Against a pillar, a tablet and inscription, shewing that in a vault lieth Catherine, wife of John Springett, citizen and apothecary of London. He died in 1770; arms, Springett, per fess, argent and gules, a fess wavy, between three crescents, counterchanged, impaling Harvey. On the opposite pillar another, for the Rev. Richard Harvey, fourteen years vicar of this parish, obt. 1772. A monument for Richard Kelly, of Eastry, obt. 1768; arms, Two lions rampant, supporting a castle. Against the wall, an elegant sculptured monument, in alto relievo, for Sarah, wise of William Boteler, a daughter of Thomas Fuller, esq. late of Statenborough, obt. 1777, æt. 29; she died in childbed, leaving one son, William Fuller Boteler; arms at bottom, Boteler, as above, an escutcheon of pretence, Fuller, quartering Paramor. An elegant pyramidal marble and tablet for Robert Bargrave, of this parish, obt. 1779, for Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh, of Hawley; and for Robert Bargrave, their only son, proctor in Doctors Commons, obt. 1774, whose sole surviving daughter Rebecca married James Wyborne, of Sholdon; arms, Bargrave, with a mullet, impaling Leigh. In the cross isle, near the chancel called the Boteler's isle, are several memorials for the Botelers. Adjoining to these, are three other gravestones, all of which have been inlaid, but the brasses are gone; they were for the same family, and on one of them was lately remaining the antient arms of Boteler, Girony of six pieces, &c. impaling ermine of three spots. Under the church are vaults, for the families of Springett, Harvey, Dare, and Bargrave. In the church-yard, on the north side of the church, are several altar tombs for the Paramors; and on the south side are several others for the Harveys, of this parish, and for Fawlkner, Rammell, and Fuller. There are also vaults for the families of Fuller, Rammell, and Petman.

 

There were formerly painted in the windows of this church, these arms, Girony of six, sable and argent, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counter changed of the field, collared, gules; for Boteler, of Heronden, impaling Boteler, of Graveny, Sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; Boteler, of Heronden, as above, quartering three spots, ermine; the coat of Theobald, with quarterings. Several of the Frynnes, or as they were afterwards called, Friends, who lived at Waltham in this parish in king Henry VII.'s reign, lie buried in this church.

 

In the will of William Andrewe, of this parish, anno 1507, mention is made of our Ladie chapel, in the church-yard of the church of Estrie.

 

The eighteen stalls which were till lately in the chancel of the church, were for the use of the monks of the priory of Christ church, owners both of the manor and appropriation, when they came to pass any time at this place, as they frequently did, as well for a country retirement as to manage their concerns here; and for any other ecclesiastics, who might be present at divine service here, all such, in those times, sitting in the chancels of churches distinct from the laity.

 

The church of Eastry, with the chapels of Skrinkling and Worth annexed, was antiently appendant to the manor of Eastry, and was appropriated by archbishop Richard (successor to archbishop Becket) in the reign of king Henry II. to the almonry of the priory of Christ-church, but it did not continue long so, for archbishop Baldwin, (archbishop Richard's immediate successor), having quarrelled with the monks, on account of his intended college at Hackington, took this appropriation from them, and thus it remained as a rectory, at the archbishop's disposal, till the 39th year of king Edward III.'s reign, (fn. 10) when archbishop Simon Islip, with the king's licence, restored, united and annexed it again to the priory; but it appears, that in return for this grant, the archbishop had made over to him, by way of exchange, the advowsons of the churches of St. Dunstan, St. Pancrase, and All Saints in Bread-street, in London, all three belonging to the priory. After which, that is anno 8 Richard II. 1384, this church was valued among the revenues of the almonry of Christ-church, at the yearly value of 53l. 6s. 8d. and it continued afterwards in the same state in the possession of the monks, who managed it for the use of the almonry, during which time prior William Sellyng, who came to that office in Edward IV.'s reign, among other improvements on several estates belonging to his church, built a new dormitory at this parsonage for the monks resorting hither.

 

On the dissolution of the priory of Christ-church, in the 31st year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, this appropriation, with the advowson of the vicarage of the church of Eastry, was surrendered into the king's hands, where it staid but a small time, for he granted it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, to his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, who are the present owners of this appropriation; but the advowson of the vicarage, notwithstanding it was granted with the appropriation, to the dean and chapter as above-mentioned, appears not long afterwards to have become parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, where it continues at this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

This parsonage is entitled to the great tithes of this parish and of Worth; there belong to it of glebe land in Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Worth, in all sixtynine acres.

 

THERE IS A SMALL MANOR belonging to it, called THE MANOR OF THE AMBRY, OR ALMONRY OF CHRIST-CHURCH, the quit-rents of which are very inconsiderable.

 

The parsonage-house is large and antient; in the old parlour window is a shield of arms, being those of Partheriche, impaling quarterly Line and Hamerton. The parsonage is of the annual rent of about 700l. The countess dowager of Guildford became entitled to the lease of this parsonage, by the will of her husband the earl of Guildford, and since her death the interest of it is become vested in her younger children.

 

As to the origin of a vicarage in this church, though there was one endowed in it by archbishop Peckham, in the 20th year of king Edward I. anno 1291, whilst this church continued in the archbishop's hands, yet I do not find that there was a vicar instituted in it, but that it remained as a rectory, till near three years after it had been restored to the priory of Christchurch, when, in the 42d year of king Edward III. a vicar was instituted in it, between whom and the prior and chapter of Canterbury, there was a composition concerning his portion, which he should have as an endowment of this vicarage; which composition was confirmed by archbishop Simon Langham that year; and next year there was an agreement entered into between the eleemosinary of Christ-church and the vicar, concerning the manse of this vicarage.

 

The vicarage of Eastry, with the chapel of Worth annexed, is valued in the king's books at 19l. 12s. 1d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 19s. 2½d. In 1588 it was valued at sixty pounds. Communicants three hundred and thirty-five. In 1640 here were the like number of communicants, and it was valued at one hundred pounds.

 

The antient pension of 5l. 6s. 8d. formerly paid by the priory, is still paid to the vicar by the dean and chapter, and also an augmentation of 14l. 13s. 4d. yearly, by the lessee of the parsonage, by a convenant in his lease.

 

The vicarage-house is built close to the farm-yard of the parsonage; the land allotted to it is very trifling, not even sufficient for a tolerable garden; the foundations of the house are antient, and probably part of the original building when the vicarage was endowed in 1367.

 

¶There were two awards made in 1549 and 1550, on a controversy between the vicar of Eastry and the mayor, &c. of Sandwich, whether the scite of St. Bartholomew's hospital, near Sandwich, within that port and liberty, was subject to the payment of tithes to the vicar, as being within his parish. Both awards adjudged the legality of a payment, as due to the vicar; but the former award adjudged that the scite of the hospital was not, and the latter, that it was within the bounds of this parish. (fn. 12)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol10/pp98-121

I changed a bit. I read in the handbook that there is a marking for abstract so I am forced to drop the 'aims and objectives' and re-write it into an abstract. everything else is pretty much the same.

 

WORD COUNT:

 

ABSTRACT - 82

INTRO – 135

RESULTS – 233

CONCLUSION - 173

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -33

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE -84

REFERENCES - 101

 

TOTAL - 841

 

thanks in advance for the comment

11.16 -- Photo by Marco Catini -- Over 150 participants dashed like a turkey in the inaugural Thanks4Giving Turkey Dash 5K. Hosted by the Law Enforcement Torch Run, the event raised over $54,000 for Special Olympics New Jersey athletes.

The rain stopped for a little bit and the sun shone, I dashed outside as the warm light hit my back garden for a few minutes!

 

I have just started the Kim Klassen ecourse Beyond Layers Day 2 was entitled Just Enough and the task for the week was "say more... with less..."

 

[One coloured layer soft light @15% (I sampled a section from the left hand side), I added a layer mask and removed the colour from the plant.

Two layers of Kim's awaken texture, one multiply @ 15% and the other soft light @ 30%]

 

Come check out my BLOG and let me know what you think, I would would love to see you over there too.

 

Let me know what you think about the processing, I would love some constructive feedback!?

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A lantern on the side of the house.

Hilma Hooker Bonaire 2013

The Wreck of the Hilma Hooker

 

1984

 

Perhaps it was just the name that made someone suspicious or perhaps an inside tip. Regardless, when she lost power just off the coast of Bonaire and was towed to the main pier on the island, it was not too long before a search was conducted. Soon after that the cargo ship Hilma Hooker went into the history books as a drug smuggler: 25,000 pounds of marijuana were removed from between a real and a false bulkhead and placed on shore by the authorities.

 

All of this immediately induced Bonaire dive operators to appeal to the government. They wanted the ship to be purposely sunk as a dive site. Hopes ran high as everyone wrote letters and called meetings to discuss a location for the sinking and what would be necessary to make the ship safe for diving once it was sunk. All these hopes and plans were soon dashed. The ship could not be sunk because it was evidence for the Attorney General's office of the Netherlands Antilles. If the owner was proven innocent the ship would have to be returned in the same shape it was in when confiscated.

 

The Hooker, therefore, remained tied to the pier as legal processes moved on. Of course, leaving this unmanned ship tied to a pier was not only expensive but also dangerous because of the many leaks in the very poorly kept hull. The owner apparently was not about to come forward to answer questions and pay any maintenance or towing charges or dock time, not to mention possible jail time. It was necessary that something had to be done soon or the ship could sink right at the pier causing very expensive problems. A decision was made to move the Hooker to a permanent anchorage until all legal aspects were cleared. Owing to a great deal of foresight within both the government and the Bonaire Tourist Bureau, another meeting was called so the dive operators could suggest an anchorage that, in the event the ship should sink, it would be safe for navigation; cause the least amount of coral damage; and possibly, become a dive site.

 

After many months of being tied to the pier and pumped of water, on September 7, 1984 the Hooker was towed to an anchorage. As the days passed, a slight list became noticeable. The list was even more obvious one morning. The owner was still not coming forward to claim the ship and maintain it so the many leaks added up until on the morning of September 12, 1984 the Hilma Hooker began taking in water through her lower portholes. At 9:08 am she rolled over on her starboard side and, in the next two minutes, disappeared.

 

As spectacular a sight as it was, hardly anyone watched the last few minutes of the Hooker's topside life. Within seconds after she disappeared from the surface she settled in 95 feet of water on her starboard side. There was no fanfare because it was not legally intended that the ship should sink.

 

The Hilma Hooker was a general cargo ship with a length of 71.8 meters. She is about 11 meters wide, her tonnage, 1,027 and was built in Holland in 1951. Prior to being the Hilma Hooker the ship was known as the Doric Express. Before that she was the Anna and before that the William Express. Before that she was the Mistral and before that, the Midsland!

 

Because the ship was being held as evidence in a drug case, nothing was allowed to be touched. The Hooker sank with everything on board. It is not one of those totally stripped wrecks made for diving but a true, honest-to-goodness shipwreck. This can create problems, though. The bunk rooms were still filled with debris such as beds, dressers and, occasionally, some articles of clothing. Many doors were still attached and those made from steel can be hard to move. A great deal of caution and discretion is necessary for anyone planning on diving the Hooker.

 

For those familiar with Bonaire, the wreck is in the area of the well known dive site called Angel City. This is a system with an inner and an outer reef separated by white sand. The Hooker rests on the sand bottom.

 

Only 90 minutes after she sank, the first divers went down on the Hooker. The harbormaster of Bonaire wanted to know if the wreck was deep enough not to be a navigation hazard. He needed this information as soon as possible. Exactly 50 feet of water was between the surface and the ship, making it plenty safe for navigation and diving.

 

A reddish brown haze surrounded the lower half of the wreck as rust and dirt settled out of the cargo holds. It was an eerie feeling seeing a ship that was floating on the surface only a few hours ago. The temporary low visibility added to the feeling. Already, many fish were looking over the wreck, probably arguing about who would get which room for a new home. A large ocean triggerfish swam slowly over the hull, apparently not taken aback by this new addition to its territory.

 

Air still bubbled out of various holes rusted through the hull at the waterline. It was obvious that little was done to keep this ship in shape except for its one main job of making some quick money. An occasional drop of oil, mixed with the air bubbles, slowly made its way to the surface. It was amazing how little oil there was. The only real pollution from the wreck was an odd piece of wood that someone will eventually find washed up on shore on another island or coast.

 

Boats showed up the next day with many anxious divers waiting to get a first look at the Hooker underwater. Even from the surface it was obvious there was a shipwreck. Its outline, 50 feet below, could be seen easily from above. The visibility had already cleared up 100 percent and now one could see the entire ship in the crystal blue water.

 

The ship itself has two large deckhouses, one aft and one amidships. The galley and crew's quarters were aft. Amidships is the wheelhouse and chart room. In front of each is a huge cargo hold, completely open, with no debris. Below the aft house is the engine room: No one should venture here. Loose deck plates that once covered the bilge, and many other objects, are cast about haphazardly. There are countless Items upon which a diver could very easily get hung up. Visibility is very low with virtually no light penetrating the compartment.

 

Although the shipwreck has areas that are dangerous, it is still a wreck divers of all levels can fully enjoy if just a bit of good judgment is used. Beginners who want to explore it can easily stay at a depth of 60 feet and swim around the outside. Those with a bit more experience can dive to 70 feet and explore some open passages. This should be done with an experienced buddy. It should be planned well so no one gets too deep inside the wreck. Very experienced wreck divers may want to see as many different compartments as possible. The maximum depth is about 100 feet so everyone must really pay attention to bottom time and depth. One comment most divers make is that it is so easy to go a bit deeper than expected and for longer than planned.

 

Because of the size of the wreck, numerous moorings have been placed for the dive boats. All of Bonaire's dive shops visit the Hooker on a regular basis. Because it can be deeper than most, the trips to the wreck are usually the first dive in the morning. It would be very difficult to crowd this wreck. And, since it lies between two reefs, it is possible to finish the dive among the many varied corals in shallower water.

 

Photographic possibilities are unlimited. One of the favorite shots is with a diver next to the large bronze propeller. Another is the outside steering wheel on the aft cabin house. This is near the funnel of the engine room, which is another favorite shot. Views down the passageways and silhouettes are spectacular in the clear water. These areas are all outside the wreck at reasonable depths, making picture taking possible for everyone. Many fish have made the wreck a permanent home.

 

For years Bonaire has looked for a ship that could be used as a wreck. With the Hilma Hooker, what began as a bad idea for someone turned into a lucky break for Bonaire and its divers.

 

Post Script: Since completion of this article new evidence has been brought to light regarding the actual sinking. The source of this information wishes not to have his/her name mentioned but it can be said it comes from high up in the Cap'n Don's Habitat staff-sort of at the very top, you could say. This source says he/she witnessed a phosphorescent wake cutting through the water late the night before the Hooker sank. It is claimed it was a torpedo from the German submarine U-156, which has not been seen in these waters since last attempting to blow up the Aruba refinery on the evening of February 13, 1942, Capt., Hartenstoin, skipper of the U- 156 his not been seen since then either, so he was not available for questioning.

Italien / Lombardei - Bellagio

 

Bellagio (Italian: [belˈlaːdʒo]; Comasco: Belàs [beˈlaːs]) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Como in the Italian region of Lombardy. It is located on Lake Como, also known by its Latin-derived name Lario, whose arms form an inverted Y. The triangular land mass at the base of the inverted Y is the Larian Triangle: at its northern point sits Bellagio, looking across to the northern arm of the lake and, behind it, the Alps. It has always been famous for its location It belongs to a mountain community named Comunità montana del Triangolo lariano (Larian Triangle mountain community), based in Canzo.

 

Geography

 

Bellagio is situated upon the cape of the land mass that divides Lake Como in two. The city centre occupies the tip of the promontory, while other districts are scattered along the lake shores and up the slopes of the hills. The great Pleistocene glaciations with their imposing flows coming from the Valtellina and Valchiavenna modelled the actual landscape of Lake Como: at least four times the glaciers went as far as Brianza to the south. From the ancient glacial blanket only the highest tops emerged, one of them Mount St. Primo, which obliged the glaciers to divide into two arms.

 

Nowadays, a luxuriance of trees and flowers is favoured by a mild and sweet climate. The average daytime temperature during winter is rarely below 6 to 7 °C (43 to 45 °F), while during summer it is around 25 to 28 °C (77 to 82 °F), mitigated during the afternoon by the characteristic breva, the gentle breeze of Lake Como.

 

The Borgo

 

The historic centre of Bellagio shelters 350m southwest of the promontory of the Larian Triangle, between the Villa Serbelloni on the hill and the Como arm of the lake. At the far tip of the promontory are a park and a marina. Parallel to the shore are three streets, Mazzini, Centrale and Garibaldi in ascending order. Cutting across them to form a sloped grid are seven medieval stone stairs ("salite") running uphill. The Basilica of San Giacomo and a stone tower, sole relic of medieval defences ("Torre delle Arti Bellagio"), sit in a piazza at the top.

 

History

 

Before the Romans

 

Even though there are signs of a human presence around Bellagio in the Paleolithic Period (about 30,000 years ago), it is only in the 7th to 5th centuries BC that there appears on the promontory a castellum, perhaps a place of worship and of exchange which served the numerous small villages on the lake.

 

The first identifiable inhabitants of the territory of Bellagio, from 400BC, were the Insubres, a Celtic tribe in part of Lombardy and on Lake Como up to the centre of the lake, occupying the western shore (the Orobii had the northern arm of the lake and its east bank). The Insubres lived free and independently until the arrival of the Gauls, led by Belloveso, who, around the year 600 BC, undid the Insubres and settled in Milan and Como, occupying the shores of the lake and creating a garrison at the extreme point of their conquest, Bellagio (fancifully Bellasium, named after their commander Belloveso). The Gauls thus became Gallo-Insubres, merged with the primitive inhabitants and introduced their customs and traditions, leaving traces in local names: Crux Galli (now Grosgalla), on the side of Lezzeno, and Gallo, a small chapel on the old road of Limonta which marks today the border between the two municipalities.

 

The Romans

 

In 225 BC, the territory of the Gallo-Insubres was occupied by the Romans, in their gradual expansion to the north. The Romans, led by consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus, defeated the Gallo-Insubres in a fierce battle near Camerlata, occupying Como and the shores of the lake. Insubre hopes of independence were raised by an alliance with Hannibal during the Second Punic War, but dashed by defeat in 104 BC and absorption into a Roman province in 80 BC.

 

Bellagio became both a Roman garrison and a point of passage and wintering for the Roman armies on their way through to the province of Raetia and the Splügen pass. Troops wintered at the foot of the present Villa Serbelloni, sheltered from north winds and the Mediterranean climate. Such variant Latin names as Belacius and Bislacus suggest Bellagio was originally Bi-lacus ("between the lakes").

 

Between 81 and 77 BC Cornelius Scipio brought 3,000 Latin colonists to Lake Como. From 59 BC Julius Caesar, as pro-consul, brought up another 5000 colonists, most importantly 500 Greeks from Sicily. Their names are still borne by their descendants. Bellagio became a mixture of races which became more and more complex in the following centuries. Also it increased its strategic importance because, as well as a place for wintering, it sheltered warships especially at Loppia, where the natural creek made it easy to repair them. Around Loppia there formed one of the first suburbs of Bellagio.

 

The Romans introduced many Mediterranean crops, including the olive and bay laurel; from the name of the latter (Laurus) derives the Latin name of Lake Como (Larius). Among the other plant species introduced were the chestnut, already widespread in southern Italy, the cypress, so well naturalised today as to be considered native, and many kinds of herbaceous plants.

 

In the early decades of the Empire, two great figures brought fame to the lake and Bellagio: Virgil and Pliny the Younger. Virgil, the Latin poet, visited Bellagio and remembered the lake in the second book of the Georgics, verse 155 ("or great Lario"). Pliny the Younger, resident in Como for most of the year, had, among others, a summer villa near the top of the hill of Bellagio; it was known as "Tragedy". Pliny describes in a letter the long periods he spent in his Bellagio villas, not only studying and writing but also hunting and fishing.

 

Through Bellagio passed, in 9 AD, the Roman legions (partly composed of soldiers from the Bellagio garrison) led by Publius Quinctilius Varus, which had to cross the Splügen pass into Germany against Arminius. They were annihilated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.

 

The Middle Ages

 

At the time of the barbarian invasions, Narses, a general of Justinian, in his long wanderings through Italy waging war, created along Lake Como a fortified line against the Goths. The line included the fortress of Bellagio, the Isola Comacina and the Castel Baradello.

 

Nevertheless, around 568 the Lombards, led by Alboin, poured into the Po Valley and settled in various parts of Lombardy, in the valleys of the Alps and along the lakes. Even the fortress of Bellagio was occupied. In 744 King Liutprand settled there.

 

With their arrival in Italy, the Franks of Charlemagne descended on Piedmont and Lombardy and, through the high Alps, defeated the Lombards in the battle of Pavia of 773. The Lombard territory was divided into counties — thus the beginning of feudalism. Bellagio found itself in the county of Milan under the suzerainty of the Frankish kings.

 

The grandson of Charlemagne, Lothair, having deposed his father in 834, invested as feudal lords of the territory of Limonta and Civenna the monks of Saint Ambrose of Milan (together with the territory of Campione d'Italia). The inhabitants of these two places, which later belonged ecclesiastically to the parish of Bellagio (St. John), were obliged to hand over some of their produce (olive oil, chestnuts ...) to the monks, an obligation preserved for several centuries.

 

There followed the rule of the Ottonian dynasty of Germany. During the reign of Henry V began a long war over the succession to the bishop of Como between Milan, supporting a bishop imposed by the German Emperor, and Como, which had already designated as bishop Guido Grimoldi, consecrated by the Pope. The war lasted ten years (1117–1127), with a series of small victories and defeats on land and water. Bellagio participated with its fleet as an ally of Milan, Isola Comacina and Gravedona. The war ended with the destruction of Como and its subjection to Milan, from which it took decades to recover. It is thought that by 1100 Bellagio was already a free commune and seat of a tribunal and that its dependence on Como was merely formal. However the strategic position of Bellagio was very important for the city of Como, and Bellagio had therefore to suffer more than one incursion from Como and fought numerous naval battles against its neighbour. In 1154, under Frederick Barbarossa, Bellagio was forced to swear loyalty and pay tribute to Como.

 

In 1169, after the destruction of Milan by Frederick Barbarossa (1162), Como attacked Isola Comacina, devastating it and forcing the inhabitants to flee to Varenna and Bellagio, at that time considered impregnable fortresses. The Lombard League was formed, in which Bellagio also participated as an ally of Milan, intervening in the Battle of Legnano (1176) against Barbarossa and Como.

 

The Renaissance and the Baroque

 

Towards the end of the 13th century, Bellagio, which had participated in numerous wars on the side of the Ghibellines (the pro-empire party), became part of the property of the House of Visconti and was integrated into the Duchy of Milan.

 

In 1440, during the lordship of the Visconti, some Cernobbiesi attacked the prison of Bellagio in which the inmates were political prisoners. Liberated, they took flight into mountains of Bellagio, settling in a town that took the name of Cernobbio in memory of the country of origin of their liberators.

 

With the death of Filippo Maria, the House of Visconti lost power. For a short time the area was transformed into the Ambrosian Republic (1447–50), until Milan capitulated to Francesco Sforza, who became Duke of Milan and Lombardy. Bellagio, whose territory (and especially the fortress) was occupied by the troops of Sforza in 1449 during the war of succession, was one of the first towns on the lake to take sides and adhere to Sforza rule.

 

In 1508, under Ludovico il Moro (1479–1508), the estate of Bellagio was taken from the bishop of Como and assigned to the Marquis of Stanga, treasurer, ambassador and friend of il Moro. Stanga built a new villa on Bellagio hill, later ruined in a raid by Cavargnoni.

 

In 1535, when Francesco II Sforza (the last Duke of Milan) died, there started for Lombardy and the land around the Lake of Lario two centuries of Spanish rule (the period in which Alessandro Manzoni's novel The Betrothed is set). The so-called Derta steps that lead from the neighbourhood of Guggiate to that of Suira were built under the Spanish.

 

In 1533, Francesco Sfondrati, married to a Visconti, had acquired the fiefdom of Bellagio and for more than 200 years the Sfondrati family, from the highest rank of Milanese society, ruled Bellagio. The ruins of the sumptuous Stanga building were restructured by Francesco and, successively, by Ercole Sfondrati, who spent the last years of his life in pious religious passion in the villa. On the same peninsula he built the church and convent of the Capuchins (1614), investing enormous capital in the setting, where appeared cypress trees and sweet olives.

 

Favoured by Bellagio's ideal position for transport and trade, various small industries flourished, most notably candle-making and silk weaving with its concomitant silk worms and mulberry trees. With the death in 1788 of Carlo, last of the Sfondrati, Bellagio passed to Count Alessandro Serbelloni, henceforth Serbelloni Sfondrati.

 

The 18th and 19th centuries

 

During the brief Napoleonic period, the port of Bellagio assumed military and strategic importance. A decision, apparently of secondary importance, was to guide the destiny of Bellagio for the two succeeding two centuries: the decision of Count Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duke of Lodi and Vice President of the Cisalpine Republic to establish here his summer home. Count Melzi proceeded to build a villa on the west bank near Loppia. That brought to the area the flower of the Milanese nobility and the promontory was transformed into an elegant and refined court.[citation needed] Roads suitable for carriages were built, first of all to link the villas and the palaces and then towards the town centre; finally the provincial road Erba–Bellagio was completed. The fame of the lakeside town became well known outside the borders of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia: even the Emperor Francis I of Austria visited in 1816 and returned in 1825 to stay in the Villas Serbelloni, Trotti and Melzi.

 

The Romantic discovery of landscape was changing how the Italian lakes were seen. Stendhal had first visited in 1810:

 

What can one say about Lake Maggiore, about the Borromean Islands, about Lake Como, unless it be that one pities those who are not madly in love with them ... the sky is pure, the air mild, and one recognises the land beloved of the gods, the happy land that neither barbarous invasions nor civil discords could deprive of its heaven-sent blessings.

 

At Bellagio he was the guest of the Melzi d’Eril, from whose villa he wrote:

 

I isolate myself in a room on the second floor; there, I lift my gaze to the most beautiful view in the world, after the Gulf of Naples ...

 

Franz Liszt and his mistress Comtesse Marie d'Agoult stayed for four months of 1837 on their way from Switzerland to Como and Milan. In Bellagio he wrote many of the piano pieces which became Album d'un voyageur (1835–38), landscapes seen through the eyes of Byron and Senancour. These works contributed much to the image of Bellagio and the lake as a site of Romantic feeling. D'Agoult's letters show they were sadly aware of drawing an age of motorised tourism in their train.

 

In 1838, Bellagio received with all honours the Emperor Ferdinand I, the Archduke Rainer and the Minister Metternich, who came from Varenna on the Lario, the first steamboat on the lake, launched in 1826. Bellagio was one of the localities most frequented by the Lombardy nobility and saw the construction of villas and gardens. Luxury shops opened in the village and tourists crowded onto the lakeshore drive. Space was not sufficient and it was decided to cover the old port which came up as far as the arcade in order to construct a large square.

 

Gustav Flaubert visited Bellagio in 1845. He told his travel diary:

 

One could live and die here. The outlook seems designed as a balm to the eyes. ... the horizon is lined with snow and the foreground alternates between the graceful and the rugged — a truly Shakespearean landcape [sic], all the forces of nature are brought together, with an overwhelming sense of vastness.

 

The Risorgimento

 

In 1859, as part of the Second Italian War of Independence, Garibaldi's Hunters of the Alps defeated Austrian troops at San Fermo, entering Como and bringing the province under Piedmontese rule. Bellagio thus became part of the Kingdom of Italy under the House of Savoy until Germany created in 1943 the puppet Italian Social Republic under Benito Mussolini.

 

Tourism in the Kingdom of Italy had now become the principal economic resource of the people of Bellagio and from this period on the history of Bellagio coincides with that of its hotels. The first was the present Hotel Metropole, founded in 1825 from the transformation of the old hostelry of Abbondio Genazzini into the first real hotel on the Lario, the Hotel Genazzini. Following this example in the space of a few years came several splendid hotels many of which are still operating, frequently in the hands of the same families who founded them: the Hotel Firenze, built on the old house of the captain of the Lario opened in 1852; the Grand Hotel Bellagio (now the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni) opened in 1872. In 1888 the three largest hotels (Genazzini, Grande Bretagne and Grand Hotel Bellagio) first replaced gaslight with electric, and only after this were they followed by many patrician houses. Bellagio was one of the first Italian tourist resorts to become international, but it has never degenerated into a place of mass tourism.

 

The 20th century

 

Bellagio was part of the Italian Social Republic (RSI) from 1943 to 1945. The Futurist writer and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, a Mussolini loyalist who had helped shape Fascist philosophy, remained in the RSI as a propagandist until his death from a heart attack at Bellagio in December, 1944.

 

Luchino Visconti put Bellagio in a scene of his film Rocco and His Brothers (1960). The scene is on the Europa Promenade, between the pier and the half-derelict Hotel Grande Bretagne. Rocco implies that the old hotels are fading along with the empires they served. The fact that working-class Rocco and his girlfriend are there to make the observation implies in turn the new world of mass tourism replacing them. Ironies lie beyond the scope of the film: the new American empire would find uses of its own for Bellagio.

 

In 2014, Bellagio merged with the town of Civenna: the new municipality retains the name of Bellagio.

 

Buildings

 

Churches

 

Basilica of San Giacomo [it], in the Piazza della Chiesa; Lombard-Romanesque 1075–1125. The base of the bell tower incorporates ancient town defences; the top is 18th century. Inside, a 12th-century cross, a 1432 triptych by Foppa, a 16th-century altarpiece. The Bar Sport across the square occupies a former monastery.

Church of San Giorgio, next to the town hall. The church was built 1080–1120. Inside, a statue and fresco of Our Lady of the Belt. The Genazzini Stairs run under the bell tower to the public library.

Church of San Martino, in Visgnola;

Church of Sant'Antonio Abate, in Casate;

Church of San Carlo Borromeo, to Aureggio;

Church of San Biagio, in Pescallo;

Church of Sant'Andrea, in Guggiate.

 

Villas

 

Along the banks of the promontory of Bellagio are many old patrician houses, each surrounded by parks and gardens of trees. Some like Villa Serbelloni and Villa Melzi d'Eril are open to the public.

 

Villa Serbelloni

 

Just behind the hill of the promontory into the lake, protected from the winds, is the building complex of Villa Serbelloni. The villa dominates the town's historic centre. It can be reached from Via Garibaldi. It was built in the 15th century in place of an old castle razed in 1375. Villa Serbelloni was later rebuilt several times. In 1788 it came into the possession of Alessandro Serbelloni (1745–1826) who enriched it with precious decorations and works of art of the 17th and 18th centuries. Today you can visit only the gardens. The trails, as well as the villa, lead to the remains of the 16th-century Capuchin monastery and the Sfondrata, a residence built by the Sfondrati family indeed, overlooking the Lecco branch of the lake.

 

On the inside, elegant halls with vault and coffered ceilings follow one another accurately decorated in the style of the 17th and 18th centuries. All around, the park develops along most of the promontory of Bellagio with vast tracts of thick woods where the Serbelloni gardeners had traced paths which nowadays still lead the way amongst the small clearings and English style gardens.

 

As noted by Balbiani, rather than being a garden, it is a real "wood, opened by spacious and comfortable paths, and plants with all generations of high trunk trees"; amongst which, oak trees, conifers, fir trees, holm oaks, osmanti, myrtles and junipers, "but above all trees, here situated is the pine tree, which, with its gnarled trunk acts as a screen against the storms".

 

Occasionally, the vegetation thins out at panoramic points which overlook the two branches of the lake, offering a prospect from the slopes of the hill, where the rose bushes flower during the season with their varied colours. The roughness of the rocky plane along the winding path which goes up to the villa has not stopped the construction of terraces and flower beds with yews and boxes trimmed geometrically. Along the upper part of the park is a long row of cypress trees and some palm trees of considerable dimensions.

 

In 1905, the villa was transformed into a luxury hotel. In 1959 it became the property of the Rockefeller Foundation of New York at the bequest of the American-born Princess of Thurn and Taxis (wife of Alessandro, 1st Duke of Castel Duino), who had bought it in 1930. Since 1960 the Bellagio Center in the villa has been home to international conferences housed in the former villa or in the grounds. In addition, outstanding scholars and artists are selected for one-month residencies year-round.

 

Quite different is the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni on the water's edge. A luxurious neo-classical villa built in the 1850s for an aristocratic Milanese family became the nucleus of the (then-called) Grand Hotel Bellagio, opened in 1873. The hotel retains its original Belle Époque fittings.

 

Villa Melzi d'Eril

 

This significant building overlooking the lake was built between 1808 and 1815 by the architect Giocondo Albertolli for Francesco Melzi d'Eril, created Duke of Lodi (the city of Lodi, Lombardy) by Napoleon for whom he filled the role of vice-president of the Italian Republic from 1802. From 1805, with the advent of the short-lived Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, he was its Chancellor.

 

Even after his political career had ended, since this was a Melzi residence, the construction, which he wanted as elegant as the Royal Villa of Monza and the other villas around Lake of Como, was decorated and furnished by famous artists of the period: painters Appiani and Bossi, sculptors Canova and Comolli, and the medalist Luigi Manfredini. The duke had a collector's passion which, in the region on Lake Como, had no rival except that of Giovan Battista Sommariva, owner of the villa bearing the same name (nowadays Villa Carlotta) who, politically defeated by Melzi himself (preferred by Napoleon as vice-president), tried to regain lost prestige by assembling an extraordinary art collection.

 

Villa Melzi is set in English style gardens which develop harmoniously along the banks of the lake, the last reaches of the view from Bellagio towards the hills to the south. Making such a garden required notable changes to the structure of the land and outstanding supporting walls. In such surroundings, enriched by monuments, artefacts (amongst which are a Venetian gondola transported to Bellagio expressly for Napoleon, and two precious Egyptian statues), rare exotic plants, ancient trees, hedges of camellias, groves of azaleas and gigantic rhododendrons, the villa, the chapel and the glass house constitute an ensemble in which the neoclassical style reaches one of its highest peaks.

 

Sport

 

Rowing

 

Rowing is based at the Bellagina Sporting Union, a club specializing in football and especially rowing: world rowing champions Enrico Gandola, Alberto Belgeri, Igor Pescialli, Franco Sancassani and Daniele Gilardoni were born in Bellagio and began their racing careers with Bellagina.

 

Cycling

 

From Bellagio starts the climb to the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cyclists, and therefore an important destination for fans of the sport. The ascent covers a total distance of about 4 km and has a vertical rise of about 500 meters; professional cyclists can do it in 20 minutes. You can also make the climb from Onno to Valbrona on the eastern shore of the lake, and the Wall of Sormano on the road to the western shore. These two climbs, with the ascent to the Sanctuary, are part of the Tris del Lario competition.

 

Trekking

 

Treks of all degrees of difficulty are possible around and above Bellagio on the Larian Triangle. Bellagio Lifestyle gives the major treks with maps and route descriptions.

 

Cuisine

 

The traditional Bellagino feast day dish is the Tóch. Eaten with a wooden spoon, it is composed of polenta mixed with butter and cheese and accompanied with dried fish from the lake, cold, stuffed chicken or home-made salami. Red wine is shared from a communal jug. For dessert, miasca—cake made with cornflour and dried fruit; Pan meino—made with white and yellow flour, eggs, butter, milk and elder flowers; or paradèl —a wafer of white flour, milk and sugar.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Bellagio (auch Bellaggio) ist eine italienische Gemeinde (comune) mit 3577 Einwohnern (Stand: 31. Dezember 2022) und eine Kleinstadt am Comer See. Die Gemeinde gehört zur Provinz Como in der Lombardei. Seit dem 21. Januar 2014 umfasst die Gemeinde Bellagio auch das Gebiet der vormaligen Nachbargemeinde Civenna.

 

Geographie

 

Der Ort ist bekannt für die malerische Lage mit Blick auf die Alpen an der Spitze der Halbinsel, die die zwei südlichen Arme des Sees trennt. Como, Lecco und Bellagio bilden die Eckpunkte des Triangolo Lariano. Das bedeutendste Fließgewässer im Gemeindegebiet ist der Torrente Perlo, der in der Fraktion San Giovanni in den Comer See mündet.

 

Die Nachbargemeinden sind Griante, Lezzeno, Magreglio, Oliveto Lario, Sormano, Tremezzina, Varenna, Veleso und Zelbio.

 

Verwaltungsgliederung

 

Die Gemeinde gliedert sich in einen See- und einen Bergbereich auf. Zu letzterem zählt das ehemalige Gemeindegebiet von Civenna. Zum Seebereich um Bellagio gehören die 21 Fraktionen Aureggio, Begola, Borgo, Breno, Brogno, Cagnanica, Casate, Crotto, Guggiate, Loppia, Neer, Oliverio, Pescallo, Regatola, San Giovanni, San Vito, Scegola, Suira, Taronico, Vergonese und Visgnola. Zum Bergbereich zählen die 14 Fraktionen Cascine Gallasco, Cassinott, Chevrio, Civenna, Costaprada, Cernobbio, Filippo, Guello, Makallé, Paum, Piano Rancio, Prà, Rovenza und San Primo.

 

Sehenswürdigkeiten

 

romanische Basilika San Giacomo

Villa Melzi mit ihrem Garten und dem berühmten Denkmal von Dante Alighieri und Béatrice und Villa Trivulzio-Gerli des Architekten Giuseppe Balzaretti

Kirche Santissima Annunciata mit Polittico

Kirche San Giovanni Battista in der Fraktion San Giovanni

In der Villa Serbelloni hat das Bellagio Center der Rockefeller-Stiftung seinen Sitz. Das Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni liegt an der Uferpromenade am Comer See.

Das frühere Hotel Britannia steht seit Jahren leer und verkommt immer mehr zu einer Bauruine.

 

Verkehr

 

Wer aus Richtung Lugano oder Porlezza kommend den Ort besuchen will, benutzt in der Regel die Autofähre, die von den am Westufer liegenden Orten Menaggio und Cadenabbia fährt und auch Varenna am gegenüberliegenden Ostufer bedient. Alternativ kann man auch die Uferstraßen über Como oder Lecco benutzen, was aber einen Umweg von über 60 Kilometern darstellt. Ferner kann der Ort von Erba aus auf einer kurvenreichen Bergstraße erreicht werden.

 

Bellagio war die Inspirationsquelle für das Hotel Bellagio am Las Vegas Strip.

 

Persönlichkeiten

 

Seit Jahrhunderten ist der Ort infolge seiner pittoresken Lage immer wieder Anziehungspunkt für Prominenz. Belegt sind unter anderem Besuche von John F. Kennedy, Charlie Chaplin und Konrad Adenauer. Auch Plinius der Jüngere schätzte den Ort. Nach ihm ist eine Straße sowie der Raddampfer «Plinio» benannt, der 1963 aus dem Betrieb genommen wurde, aber vom Komitee «Amici del Plinio» wieder restauriert werden soll. Zudem wurde in Bellagio 1837 Cosima Wagner geboren, die Tochter Franz Liszts und zweite Ehefrau Richard Wagners. Teresio Olivelli (* 7. Januar 1916; † 17. Januar 1945 in Hersbruck), ein Dozent und Partisan, Goldmedaille für militärische Tapferkeit, ist hier geboren (Gedenktafel an seinem Geburtshaus). Der Holzschnitzer Antonio Pini, tätig in Sessa TI und Gandria, ist hier geboren.

 

(Wikipedia)

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

Chimney's on the house.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A few things inside the house. It was mostly empty, large open rooms. These were the few things that took my interest inside.

 

A bar in a modern looking area of the house. Closed during the day.

Pininfarina’s 1973 take on the seminal Jaguar saloon wasn’t their finest hour. But while it served to highlight a fundamental weakness in the Italian carrozzieri’s business model, it did lead to something more worthwhile.

 

For the Italian carrozzieri it was a matter of intense pride that no manufacturer was creatively off limits, even one with as strong and universally lauded a design tradition as Jaguar. Predominantly the result of one man’s exceptional taste and unswerving vision, the craftsmen of Piedmont time and again dashed themselves fruitlessly against the creative work of Sir William Lyons and his small band of gifted interpreters. But with Jaguar’s founder taking a back seat in the run up to his retirement, the tectonic plates were shifting.

 

At its core, the motor business is a small and fairly incestuous place and given that Sir William enjoyed a cordial relationship with the Italian styling houses, it was probably widely known not only that change was afoot, but that work would soon begin on a new Jaguar saloon – the first not to be styled under the Jaguar founder’s direct supervision.

 

1972 saw the belated launch of the XJ12, Jaguar’s saloon finally gaining the power unit that had been expressly designed for it. Instantly hailed as the finest luxury saloon in existence, orders poured in for Browns Lane’s flagship, with Sergio Pininfarina obtaining one of the earliest models.

 

Nobody could be in any doubt that the XJ12 was a superb looking car, arguably the most visually accomplished four-door saloon of all time, but Pininfarina wasn’t about to allow this small matter stand in his way. Rebodied along more contemporary Italian lines, the XJ12 PF, stylistically attributed (it is believed) to Paolo Martin was completed in 1973, before being displayed at that year’s Paris motor show.

 

Unsurprisingly, it also found its way to Browns lane that autumn, where it generated a good deal of interest, not all of it favourable. Its arrival was ill-timed, coinciding with the initial presentation of Jaguar’s own saloon proposal to BLMC’s Lord Stokes and John Barber, the review leading to Browns Lane’s stylists being told to come up with something that looked a good deal less like a Jaguar.

 

BLMC’s top dog did however look favourably upon Cambiano’s proposal at a styling review held the following year, as Browns Lane senior body-engineer Cyril Crouch outlined to chronicler, Philip Porter. “We had a line-up of the various Italian ones [proposals] and a couple we’d done and Stokes came along and didn’t think much of any of them, as I recall, apart from the Pininfarina one – an ugly looking brute in my opinion! He liked that best of all, much to the dismay of everyone else.”

 

Whatever one’s view of its stylistic merits, what is evident is that Paolo Martin encountered the same challenges Jaguar’s own nascent styling team faced in marrying more lineal surface language to Jaguar’s traditional, more voluptuous forms. What can be discerned in the overall silhouette, with its low bonnet line, lengthened, falling tail, slim pillars and large glass area, is Martin’s attempt to reflect Jaguar style, but the surfacing and the treatment of the car’s extremities saw a formal shift – one which proved an uneven struggle to execute successfully.

 

Apart from the pinched central light line across the car’s flanks (first seen perhaps on Pininfarina’s 1955 Florida concept and reinterpreted by Jaguar on their own 1973 XJ40 proposal), the bodysides were unadorned – a Jaguar styling staple, as was the distinct wing crown line which created a ‘gothic’ peak above the tail lamps. But it was at the transitions to the nose and tail that Martin’s studious work flounders.

 

The sharply cut-off nose containing large rectangular headlamp units, a broad, rather anonymous looking grille and bulky impact-absorbing plastic bumpers simply looked clumsy, bland and ill-resolved. The tail treatment, while employing a similarly sharp transition, is better, the tail lamps and more delicate treatment of the wing line offering a more plausible interpretation, with only the bumper treatment jarring noticeably.

 

But more damningly, the overall forms and relationship between body and canopy lack the dynamic tension and subtle muscularity of Lyons’ best work, the Pininfarina design appearing somewhat flaccid by comparison. Inside too, while some of the treatments have some visual merit, it was all a bit modish and lacked the warmth and cosy familiarity of Coventry’s offerings.

 

Perhaps more Ferrari than Jaguar in appearance and feeling, what Martin produced was a perfectly acceptable contemporary Pininfarina, but a rather second-rate Jaguar. Nevertheless, the XJ12PF proved rather influential for a time, Jaguar not only carrying out their own version of it (arguably an even less successful attempt), but employing variations of its themes through 1974-76 until both interference from BL management eased and clarity at Browns Lane was restored.

 

Reappraising the XJ12PF today raises a question: Was the Fiat 130 Coupé Paolo Martin’s last truly outstanding Pininfarina design? While it’s one from which elements of the XJ12PF can distantly be gleaned, albeit in a more blunt, less refined manner, it is ironically, a design Jaguar’s styling team turned to later in the ’70s as they struggled to find a way out of their partly self-imposed styling impasse.

  

An unusual and distinctive treatment of the cabin air extractor. Image credit: Coachbuild

Of the Italian carrozzieri, one could readily imagine Pininfarina being well-placed to create a plausible Jaguar saloon, given their rich history of visual elegance, yet with the XJ12 PF they missed the mark by some distance. Still, it wasn’t an entirely wasted effort, garnering a commission from Jaguar to restyle the existing XJ saloon’s canopy, resulting in the superbly realised 1979 Series III. But apart from this Cambiano never quite established a fruitful ongoing relationship.

 

Perhaps the true answer lies here, with senior Jaguar designer, Colin Holtum telling historian, Philip Porter, “You stand as much chance of getting a good car out of the Italians as you do out of us, because they are experienced people, but what the company loses is the design history that created the car. What the Italians don’t have is the Jaguar background. So we have found that, when we deal with outside people, they do a very professional product, but they don’t produce a Jaguar.”

 

Hilma Hooker Bonaire 2013

The Wreck of the Hilma Hooker

 

1984

 

Perhaps it was just the name that made someone suspicious or perhaps an inside tip. Regardless, when she lost power just off the coast of Bonaire and was towed to the main pier on the island, it was not too long before a search was conducted. Soon after that the cargo ship Hilma Hooker went into the history books as a drug smuggler: 25,000 pounds of marijuana were removed from between a real and a false bulkhead and placed on shore by the authorities.

 

All of this immediately induced Bonaire dive operators to appeal to the government. They wanted the ship to be purposely sunk as a dive site. Hopes ran high as everyone wrote letters and called meetings to discuss a location for the sinking and what would be necessary to make the ship safe for diving once it was sunk. All these hopes and plans were soon dashed. The ship could not be sunk because it was evidence for the Attorney General's office of the Netherlands Antilles. If the owner was proven innocent the ship would have to be returned in the same shape it was in when confiscated.

 

The Hooker, therefore, remained tied to the pier as legal processes moved on. Of course, leaving this unmanned ship tied to a pier was not only expensive but also dangerous because of the many leaks in the very poorly kept hull. The owner apparently was not about to come forward to answer questions and pay any maintenance or towing charges or dock time, not to mention possible jail time. It was necessary that something had to be done soon or the ship could sink right at the pier causing very expensive problems. A decision was made to move the Hooker to a permanent anchorage until all legal aspects were cleared. Owing to a great deal of foresight within both the government and the Bonaire Tourist Bureau, another meeting was called so the dive operators could suggest an anchorage that, in the event the ship should sink, it would be safe for navigation; cause the least amount of coral damage; and possibly, become a dive site.

 

After many months of being tied to the pier and pumped of water, on September 7, 1984 the Hooker was towed to an anchorage. As the days passed, a slight list became noticeable. The list was even more obvious one morning. The owner was still not coming forward to claim the ship and maintain it so the many leaks added up until on the morning of September 12, 1984 the Hilma Hooker began taking in water through her lower portholes. At 9:08 am she rolled over on her starboard side and, in the next two minutes, disappeared.

 

As spectacular a sight as it was, hardly anyone watched the last few minutes of the Hooker's topside life. Within seconds after she disappeared from the surface she settled in 95 feet of water on her starboard side. There was no fanfare because it was not legally intended that the ship should sink.

 

The Hilma Hooker was a general cargo ship with a length of 71.8 meters. She is about 11 meters wide, her tonnage, 1,027 and was built in Holland in 1951. Prior to being the Hilma Hooker the ship was known as the Doric Express. Before that she was the Anna and before that the William Express. Before that she was the Mistral and before that, the Midsland!

 

Because the ship was being held as evidence in a drug case, nothing was allowed to be touched. The Hooker sank with everything on board. It is not one of those totally stripped wrecks made for diving but a true, honest-to-goodness shipwreck. This can create problems, though. The bunk rooms were still filled with debris such as beds, dressers and, occasionally, some articles of clothing. Many doors were still attached and those made from steel can be hard to move. A great deal of caution and discretion is necessary for anyone planning on diving the Hooker.

 

For those familiar with Bonaire, the wreck is in the area of the well known dive site called Angel City. This is a system with an inner and an outer reef separated by white sand. The Hooker rests on the sand bottom.

 

Only 90 minutes after she sank, the first divers went down on the Hooker. The harbormaster of Bonaire wanted to know if the wreck was deep enough not to be a navigation hazard. He needed this information as soon as possible. Exactly 50 feet of water was between the surface and the ship, making it plenty safe for navigation and diving.

 

A reddish brown haze surrounded the lower half of the wreck as rust and dirt settled out of the cargo holds. It was an eerie feeling seeing a ship that was floating on the surface only a few hours ago. The temporary low visibility added to the feeling. Already, many fish were looking over the wreck, probably arguing about who would get which room for a new home. A large ocean triggerfish swam slowly over the hull, apparently not taken aback by this new addition to its territory.

 

Air still bubbled out of various holes rusted through the hull at the waterline. It was obvious that little was done to keep this ship in shape except for its one main job of making some quick money. An occasional drop of oil, mixed with the air bubbles, slowly made its way to the surface. It was amazing how little oil there was. The only real pollution from the wreck was an odd piece of wood that someone will eventually find washed up on shore on another island or coast.

 

Boats showed up the next day with many anxious divers waiting to get a first look at the Hooker underwater. Even from the surface it was obvious there was a shipwreck. Its outline, 50 feet below, could be seen easily from above. The visibility had already cleared up 100 percent and now one could see the entire ship in the crystal blue water.

 

The ship itself has two large deckhouses, one aft and one amidships. The galley and crew's quarters were aft. Amidships is the wheelhouse and chart room. In front of each is a huge cargo hold, completely open, with no debris. Below the aft house is the engine room: No one should venture here. Loose deck plates that once covered the bilge, and many other objects, are cast about haphazardly. There are countless Items upon which a diver could very easily get hung up. Visibility is very low with virtually no light penetrating the compartment.

 

Although the shipwreck has areas that are dangerous, it is still a wreck divers of all levels can fully enjoy if just a bit of good judgment is used. Beginners who want to explore it can easily stay at a depth of 60 feet and swim around the outside. Those with a bit more experience can dive to 70 feet and explore some open passages. This should be done with an experienced buddy. It should be planned well so no one gets too deep inside the wreck. Very experienced wreck divers may want to see as many different compartments as possible. The maximum depth is about 100 feet so everyone must really pay attention to bottom time and depth. One comment most divers make is that it is so easy to go a bit deeper than expected and for longer than planned.

 

Because of the size of the wreck, numerous moorings have been placed for the dive boats. All of Bonaire's dive shops visit the Hooker on a regular basis. Because it can be deeper than most, the trips to the wreck are usually the first dive in the morning. It would be very difficult to crowd this wreck. And, since it lies between two reefs, it is possible to finish the dive among the many varied corals in shallower water.

 

Photographic possibilities are unlimited. One of the favorite shots is with a diver next to the large bronze propeller. Another is the outside steering wheel on the aft cabin house. This is near the funnel of the engine room, which is another favorite shot. Views down the passageways and silhouettes are spectacular in the clear water. These areas are all outside the wreck at reasonable depths, making picture taking possible for everyone. Many fish have made the wreck a permanent home.

 

For years Bonaire has looked for a ship that could be used as a wreck. With the Hilma Hooker, what began as a bad idea for someone turned into a lucky break for Bonaire and its divers.

 

Post Script: Since completion of this article new evidence has been brought to light regarding the actual sinking. The source of this information wishes not to have his/her name mentioned but it can be said it comes from high up in the Cap'n Don's Habitat staff-sort of at the very top, you could say. This source says he/she witnessed a phosphorescent wake cutting through the water late the night before the Hooker sank. It is claimed it was a torpedo from the German submarine U-156, which has not been seen in these waters since last attempting to blow up the Aruba refinery on the evening of February 13, 1942, Capt., Hartenstoin, skipper of the U- 156 his not been seen since then either, so he was not available for questioning.

And so to the weekend again. And what might be the last orchid-free weekend until well into June or even August.

 

So, enjoy the churches while you can.

 

Saturday, and not much really planned. We get up at half six with it fully light outside. The cloud and drizzle had not arrived, instead it was pretty clear and sunny.

 

No time for thinking about going out to take shots, as we had hunter-gathering to do.

 

In fact, we didn't need much, just the usual stuff to keep us going. That and the car was running on fumes. So we will that up first, and then into Tesco and round and round we go, fully the trolley up. It being Mother's Day on Saturday, we were having Jen round on Sunday, we were to have steak, so I get mushrooms.

 

And once back, we have breakfast then go to Preston for the actual steak, three ribeyes, all cut from the same stip. Jools had gone to look at the garden centre for ideas as we're going to dig up the raspberries, so just wondering what to put in their place.

 

By then the rain had come, and so we dashed back to the car, and on the way home called in at two churches.

 

First off was Goodnestone, just the other side of Wingham.

 

Its a fine estate church, covered in wonderfully knapped bricks, giving it an East Anglian feel. Before we went in, we sheltered under a tree to much on a sausage roll I had bought at the butcher, that done, we go to the church, which is open.

 

I have been here quite recently, five years back, and in truth no much glass to record, but I do my best, leave a fiver of the weekly collection and we drove over the fields to Eastry.

 

St Mary is an impressive church, with carved and decorated west face of the Norman tower, at its base an odd lean-to porch has been created, leading into the church, which does have interest other than the 35 painted medallions high in the Chancel Arch, once the backdrop to the Rood.

 

I snap them with the big lens, and the windows too. A warden points out what looks like a very much older painted window high among the roof timbers in the east wall of the Chancel.

 

I get a shot, which is good enough, but even with a 400mm lens, is some crop.

 

I finish up and we go home, taking it carefully along nearly flooded roads.

 

Being a Saturday, there is football, though nothing much of interest until three when Norwich kick off against Stoke: could they kick it on a wet Saturday afternoon in the Potteries?

 

No. No, they couldn't.

 

Ended 0-0, City second best, barely laid a glove on the Stoke goal.

 

And then spots galore: Ireland v England in the egg-chasing, Citeh v Burnley in the Cup and Chelsea v Everton in the league, all live on various TV channels.

 

I watch the first half of the rugby, then switch over when England were reduced to 14, so did enjoy the lad Haarland score another hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition.

 

And that was that, another day over with.....

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A large and eminently satisfying village church. The old part - north aisle of fourteenth-century date and tower of the fifteenth century - was enlarged in 1839 by a rebuilt nave and chancel. The architects were Rickman and Hussey, pioneers of the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. The exterior is of knapped flints with stone dressings. Inside all is light and of a piece with an elaborate and dignified chancel. In the north aisle is the monument by Scheemakers to Sir Brook Bridges (d. 1717) who built Goodnestone Park, the gardens of which abut the churchyard. There are small pieces of medieval glass, but by far the most impressive window is at the east end of the north aisle, dated and signed E.S. 1899, showing the story of St Gregory and the Slave Boys.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Goodnestone+2

 

------------------------------------------

 

GOODNESTON,

GENERALLY called, and known by the name of GUNSTON, lies the next parish south-eastward from Wingham. It is usually written in antient records, Godwineston, which name it took from earl Godwine, once owner of it.

 

GUNSTON is situated exceedingly healthy and pleasant, in a fine dry and open champaign country, of upland hill and dale. The soil is fertile, though in general inclined to chalk; the lands are mostly arable, open and uninclosed, having a few small inclosures scattered among them, especially about Gunston house, and the village, where it is well cloathed with elms. The village, which contains about thirty houses, stands, with the church, in the southern part of it, having Gunston-house and park adjoining to it, which, though small in extent, and commanding but little, if any prospect beyond the bounds of it, is a beautiful and elegant situation. At the northern boundary of the parish is the hamlet of Twitham, part only of which is in it; beyond which, at Brook, (the parish of Wingham intervening) is a small district of land within this parish. At the eastern boundary of it is the hamlet and street of Rolling, in which is a small seat, belonging to Sir Brook William Bridges, which a few years ago was in the occupation of Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham, and afterwards of Edward Austen, esq. It is now the residence of George Dering, esq. At some distance still further eastward from which there is another small district of land in it, entirely surrounded by the parish of Norborne.

 

A fair is held here for cattle and pedlary, on the 25th of September, yearly.

 

The MANOR OF WINGHAM claims paramount over this parish, in which there is one borough, viz. of Rolling, which claims over it.

 

The MANOR OF GOODNESTON, which before the Norman conquest, was part of the possessions of Godwine, earl of Kent, at whose death it probably came to his son king Harold, and after the battle of Hastings, to the Conqueror; after which it appears to have been held by a family who took their surname from it, one of whom, Thomas de Goodwyneston, held it of the archbishop in king Henry III.'s reign, and in this family, (who bore for their arms, Sable, three martlets, between seven cross-croslets, argent; as they were formerly painted in the windows of this church) it continued down to William de Goodneston, who did homage for it to archbishop Warham at the beginning of king Henry VIII.'s reign. After which it seems to have been divided, and the manor itself, with part of the demesne lands, to have passed into the name of Henecre; and the mansion, with the rest of the demesne lands, by Edith, daughter and heir of William Goodneston, in marriage to Vincent Engeham, who afterwards resided here. The antient residence of this family of Edingham, called Engeham by contraction, was at Engeham, in Woodchurch. They divided into three branches, settled at Woodchurch, Great Chart, and Goodneston. They bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, sable, between three pellets, on a chief, gules, a lion passant-guardant, or. (fn. 1) John Henecre, of Good neston, as appears by his will, died possessed of this manor in 1559, and gave it to William, son of his brother Nicholas, who sold it to Sir Thomas Engeham, grandson of Vincent before-mentioned, and possessor of the mansion, and other part of the lands of it, so that he then became possessed of the whole of it, (fn. 2) held in capite, and it continued in his descendants down to Sir Thomas Engeham, of Goodneston, who about the reign of queen Anne, alienated it, with the appropriation, to Brook Bridges, esq. descended from John Bridges, who was of Worcestershire, at the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, whose great-grandson Col. John Bridges, of Warwickshire, left two sons, John, and Brook, the former of whom was of Barton Seagrave, in Northamptonshire, esq. the eldest of whose sons, John Bridges, esq. of that place, wrote the history of that county; Brook Bridges, esq. the second son of Col. John Bridges, was of Grove, in Middlesex, auditor of the imprest in king Charles II.'s reign, and purchaser of Goodnestone, which seat he rebuilt, and dying in 1717, was buried in the chancel of this church, bearing for his arms, Azure, three water bougets, or, within a bordure, ermine. Brook Bridges, esq. his eldest son, succeeded him at Goodneston, and was created a baronet on April 19, 1718, anno 4 George I. and was for many years one of the auditors of the imprest of the treasury, and was twice married, first to Margaret, daughter of Robert, lord Romney, by whom he had no issue; but by his second wife Mary, second daughter of Sir Thomas Hales, bart. of Bekesborne, he left a son Brook, and a daughter Margaret, married to John Plumptree, esq. He died in 1728, and was succeeded by his only son Sir Brook Bridges, bart of Goodneston, sheriff in 1733, in which year he died, having married Elizabeth, eldest surviving daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Palmer, bart. of Wingham, (who afterwards remarried Charles Fielding, esq. brother to the earl of Denbigh, by whom she had a son Charles). At the death of Sir Brook she was pregnant, and was some months afterwards delivered of a son, the late Sir Brook Bridges, bart. who represented this county in two successive parliaments. He rebuilt this seat, and new laid out the park in the improved modern taste, having married Fanny, only daughter and heir of Edmund Fowler, esq. of Danbury, in Essex, by whom he had five sons and six daughters, of whom, Brook the eldest son, died at Eton school in 1781; William, the second son, after his brother's death, by the archbishop's licence, took the Christian name of Brook likewise, and Brook Henry, the third son, is rector of Danbury, in Essex; of the daughters, Fanny, the eldest, married Lewis Cage, esq. Sophia, the second, married William Deedes, esq. and Elizabeth, the third, married Edward Austen, esq. of Godmersham. Sir Brook Bridges died in 1791, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son the present Sir Brook Wm. Bridges, bart. who is the possessor of this manor, with the seat, park, and appropriation of the church of Goodneston. A court baron is held for this manor.

 

ROLLING, usually called Rowling, is a manor and hamlet, in the eastern part of this parish, which takes its name from the borough in which it is situated. The manor, now obselete, was antiently the residence of a family who took their name from it. In an old leiger book of Davington priory, beginning at king Henry III.'s reign, there is mention of several of this family among its principal benefactors. How it passed after they were become extinct here, which was not till after king Henry IV.'s reign, I have not found; but in the latter end of king Henry VIII.'s reign, John Adams was become possessed of it, and he sold it to John Idley, gent. who resided here, and dying in 1568, was buried in this church. He left it to John his se cond son, who alienated it to Thomas Butler, a younger son of Richard, of Heronden, in Eastry, esq. and he soon afterwards sold it to Sir Roger Manwood, chief baron, whose son Sir Peter Manwood, K. B. alienated it to Dickenson, who parted with it to John Richards, gent. afterwards of Rowling, and in whose descendants, who bore for their arms, Sable, a chevron, between three fleurs de lis, argent, and lie buried in this church, it continued down to John Richards, gent. who died in 1661, (fn. 3) and by will gave it to William Hammond, esq. of St. Albans, and his son, of the same name, in 1696, an act having passed for that purpose, sold it to Sir John Narborough, bart. whose only sister and heir Elizabeth entitled her husband Sir Thomas D' Aeth, bart. of Knolton, to the possession of it, and his grandson Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, is the present owner of this manor, called Rowling-court, for which there has not been any court held for many years past.

 

The HOSPITALS OF HARBLEDOWN, and of ST. JOHN, near Canterbury, are jointly possessed of a farm and lands at Rowling, which is demised by them to Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart.

 

BONNINGTON, in the south-east part of this parish, was in early times the property and residence of a family of the same name, who appear to have been possessed of it so late as the latter end of the reign of king Edward I. but it became of much more eminent note afterwards, from being the antient seat from whence the numerous and knightly family of Bois branched out, as from their original stock, and spread with distinguished reputation through the eastern parts of this county, deriving their descent from R. de Boys, or de Bosco, who is mentioned in the Battle abbey roil of those who accompanied the Conqueror into England, and were amply rewarded by him with the possessions of the conquered Saxons. From R. de Boys, or de Bosco, before-mentioned, descended John Boys, who was of Bonnington in the 30th year of king Edward III. but his descendant William Boys having purchased Fredville, in the adjoining parish of Nonington, removed thither, though some time before his death he returned to Bonnington, where he died in 1507, and was buried in this church. He left five sons and three daughters. To his eldest son John, he gave Fredville; and to the second, Thomas, he gave Bonnington; giving, as Philipott says, the fairest estate to the former, and the antient family seat to the latter; and from the descendants of John Boys, the eldest son, of Fredville, sprang those of Fredville, Hode, Holt-street, Betshanger, Challock, Deal, Sandwich, St. Gregory's, in Canterbury, Denton, and of Surry; and from the descendants of Thomas Boys, esq. of Bonnington, sprang those of Bonnington, Hith, Mersham, Wilsborough, Sevington, and Uffington, all which are now extinct in the male line, excepting those of Sandwich and Wilsborough, a more particular account of all which may be seen under those several places. In the descendants of Thomas Boys, esq. the second son above-mentioned, of Bonnington, resident here, it continued down to Sir John Boys, to whose coat armour king Charles I. gave the augmentation of a crown imperial, or, on a canton, azure; for his loyalty and valour at Donington castle, in Berkshire, of which he was governor, where being summoned by the parliament forces, to surrender the place under peril of being put to the sword, he stoutly answered, that he would never quit the castle without the king's order, nor take nor give quarter. He died in 1664, and was buried at Goodneston, leaving three daughters his coheirs, and they, in 1666, joined in the sale of it to Thomas Brome, esq. sergeant at-law, whose son William Brome, esq. of Farnborough, alienated it in 1710 to Brook Bridges, esq. Whose descendant Sir Brook William Bridges, bart. of Goodneston, is the present owner of it.

 

ARCHBISHOP PECKHAM, on the foundation of the college of Wingham in 1286, endowed the second prebend of it with the tithes of the lands of Thomas de Bonyngton and others, in the hamlet of Bonnyngton, in this parish. (fn. 4)

 

UFFINGTION, in the south-west part of this parish, was another seat of the family of Boys, being purchased by William Boys, esq. (son of Vincent Boys, esq. of Bonnington) for his residence, and he died possessed of it in 1629, in whose descendants it continued till it was at length sold to Oxenden, in which family it has remained ever since, being now the property of Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. of Brome.

 

Charities.

THOMAS APPLETON, yeoman, of Eastry, by his will in 1593, gave to the poor of this parish, 5l. yearly, to be distributed to the poor people, inhabitants here, fourteen days before Christmas-day; to be paid out of lands belonging to him, called Hardiles, in Woodnesborough.

 

GABRIEL RICHARDS, gent. by will in 1671, gave a house, barn, stable, and twenty-six acres of land, in this parish, for the support and maintenance of four aged, decayed gentlemen or gentlewomen, single men or single women, born in Kent; with four lodging-rooms for them, with preference to such persons as should be his relations, now vested in feoffees, and worth about 20l. per annum.

 

The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually thirteen.

 

GOODNESTON, or Gunston, is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.

 

The church, which is dedicated to the Holy Cross, consists of two isles and two chancels, having a beacon tower at the west end, in which are four bells. This church seems to have been erected in great measure by the assistance of the family of Boys, of Bonnington, about the time of king Edward III. for on one side of the west door, under the steeple, is carved in the stone work, Orate p T. boye adjutor isti op. On each side a shield of arms, one a cross, the other a saltier; and at top three more shields, the first of which is that of Langley, and the third of Oxenden; and over a window of the south isle (now stopped up) the centre stone has carved on it, Willyam boyes, and at each corner are carved the singular emblematical figures of a sow with a litter of pigs, and of a sow sitting upright, a chain about its neck, fastened to a rock behind, and an infant child in swaddling clothes in its lap. In the south isle is a stone, with figures in brass, and inscription for William Boys and Isabell his wife. He died anno 1507. In the north isle are monuments for the Richards's, of Rowling, in this parish. In the north window, at the east end, is the figure of a saint, holding in his left hand a shield of arms, Argent, a cross, gules; in his right, a staff, with a cross at top, the lower end in a dragon's mouth, which lies on its back under his feet; and in the same window, the figure of an archbishop, mitre, and pall, his left hand lifted up, as blessing; in his right hand, a staff, with a cross pomelle at top. The pillars between the isles are remarkably large and clumsy, and by their capitals appear antient. In the north chancel, belonging to the estate of Bonnington, are interred the family of Boys, of that seat, though the brasses of most of their stones are lost. A stone, with brasses, and inscription for William Goodneston, gent. obt. 1423; arms, Three martlets, between seven cross-croslets. A stone, with figures in brass, and inscription for Thomas Engeham, esq. and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1558, both the same year. A monument, with the figures kneeling, for Sir Edward Engeham and his lady; he died in 1636. Another for W. Wood, A. M. minister here, and rector of St. Mary Bredman and St. Andrew, Canterbury, obt. 1735. In the south or high chancel, is a monument for Sir Thomas Engeham, descended from those of Woodchurch; he married Priscilla Honywood, daughter of Mrs. Anne Honywood, who hardly escaping martyrdom in queen Mary's reign, lived to see about four hundred descended from her, obt. 1621. A neat monument for Brook Bridges, esq. (second son of John, of Harcourt-hall, in Worcestershire, esq.) auditor of imprests. He repaired and adorned the church, and built a mansion here on the estate which he had purchased, obt. 1717. In the church-yard is a stone, on which were once figures in brass, long since gone, for Thomas Boys, of Bonnington, and Edith his wife. He died in 1479.

 

¶The church of Goodneston was antiently a chapel of ease to that of Wingham, and was at the time of the foundation of the college there by archbishop Peckham, in 1286, separated from it, and made a distinct parish of itself, (fn. 5) and then given to the college; and becoming thus appropriated to the college, continued with it till its suppression in king Edward VI.'s reign, when this parsonage appropriate, with the advowson or patronage of the vicarage or curacy of it, came into the hands of the crown, where, though in the intermediate time it had been granted in lease for a term of years, yet the fee of it remained in the crown till the 43d year of queen Elizabeth, who granted it that year to Nicholas Fortescue, esq. and John Shelbury, in fee, to hold in socage, by a yearly rent, and a payment to the vicar yearly of 13l. 6s. 8d. and they passed away their interest in it to Sir Edward Engeham, of Canterbury, who in the beginning of king James I.'s reign, alienated this rectory, and the vicarage-house of Goodneston, with the vicarage, tithes, and profits belonging to it, and the donation of the curacy, to Henry Vanner, alderman of Canterbury, who by will in 1630, augmented the curate's salary, to be paid out of this parsonage, with the further yearly sum of 6l. 13s. 4d. His heirs quickly afterwards passed it away to William Prude, alias Proude, jun. esq. of Canterbury, who died in 1632, in whose descendants it remained till it was sold to one of the family of Engeham, owners of the manor of Goodneston, and continued so till Sir Thomas Engeham alienated it, with that manor, to Brook Bridges, esq. in whose descendants, baronets, of this place, it has continued down to Sir Brook William Bridges, bart. of Goodnestone, the present impropriator and patron of the curacy of this church.

 

This church is now esteemed as a donative, the value of which has not been certified. In 1640 here were communicants one hundred and seventy.

 

Gabriel Richards, gent. of Rowling, by his will in 1672, gave to the use of the minister of this parish, a house and orchard, valued at 6l. IOS. per annum.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol9/pp241-250

ID Credit: John Horstman

 

Possibly Epicauta hirticornis, Haag-Rutenberg, 1880.

 

Bright orange head and jet black body.

 

We were on our way to breakfast at the hotel one morning when we found this guy on the stone steps. Naturally I dashed back to the room to get my camera and thankfully he stayed around long enough to get a few shots.

On September 11, 1782, Elizabeth “Betty” Zane, with Fort Henry under siege and the defenders out of gunpowder, dashed boldly to a nearby blockhouse, filled her apron with powder, and ran back to the fort as nearly every Indian and British ranger fired at her.

Miraculously she made it back unharmed, and the fort was saved. That courageous act made her a legend in her own lifetime. With the publication of the book Betty Zane by Zane Grey in 1903, she would rank just under Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett in the pantheon of American frontier history for many years. Betty Zane’s courageous act was the defining event of Wheeling’s early days. (Text by Joe Roxby, from the book, Legendary Locals of Wheeling.)

 

- image from The American Magazine, Volume 12, p. 605, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, 1881, Ohio County Public Library Archives.

 

▶ Read more about the Heroine of Fort Henry

▶ Visit the Library's Wheeling History website

 

The photos on the Ohio County Public Library's Flickr site may be freely used by non-commercial entities for educational and/or research purposes as long as credit is given to the "Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling WV." These photos may not be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation without the permission of The Ohio County Public Library.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A few things inside the house. It was mostly empty, large open rooms. These were the few things that took my interest inside.

 

A fireplace and a mirror.

Suddenly, chilly gust of wind throw opened window. She dashed there and tried to close it, but her clothes became wet instantly.

By Stoff _ If you wanna use or buy that image, or for more info just FlickrMail me ;)

More than 400 brave souls dashed in Minneapolis on March 3, 2018 to support Special Olympics Minnesota. These participants raised $34,000! Photos taken by Fred Sobottka.

On Friday, February 7, 2014, high school and middle school students dashed into the icy Atlantic as part of Special Olympics Virginia’s largest fundraiser: The Polar Plunge and the Cool School Challenge.

 

“Raising one million dollars for the fourth year in a row is incredible,” said Rick Jeffrey, Special Olympics Virginia president. “More importantly, though, these funds will help us to build bigger, better, more inclusive communities across the state of Virginia.”

 

In addition to the money raised, they got to take the icy dip into the Atlantic, all while earning a Friday “pass” from school, earn community service credit, Costume contests – prizes for best dressed male and female, prizes for teacher or team sponsor, and freezing photos.

 

Photography - Craig McClure

14185

 

© 2014

ALL Rights reserved by City of Virginia Beach.

Contact photo[at]vbgov.com for permission to use. Commercial use not allowed.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A few things inside the house. It was mostly empty, large open rooms. These were the few things that took my interest inside.

 

A portrait of Winston Churchill. I took it twice as the first shot was blurry.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A few things inside the house. It was mostly empty, large open rooms. These were the few things that took my interest inside.

 

Sign's / plaque's inside the house.

 

A photo of Prince Charles when he unveiled the plaque which marked the day he and Camilla came to Bletchley Park.

And so to the weekend again. And what might be the last orchid-free weekend until well into June or even August.

 

So, enjoy the churches while you can.

 

Saturday, and not much really planned. We get up at half six with it fully light outside. The cloud and drizzle had not arrived, instead it was pretty clear and sunny.

 

No time for thinking about going out to take shots, as we had hunter-gathering to do.

 

In fact, we didn't need much, just the usual stuff to keep us going. That and the car was running on fumes. So we will that up first, and then into Tesco and round and round we go, fully the trolley up. It being Mother's Day on Saturday, we were having Jen round on Sunday, we were to have steak, so I get mushrooms.

 

And once back, we have breakfast then go to Preston for the actual steak, three ribeyes, all cut from the same stip. Jools had gone to look at the garden centre for ideas as we're going to dig up the raspberries, so just wondering what to put in their place.

 

By then the rain had come, and so we dashed back to the car, and on the way home called in at two churches.

 

First off was Goodnestone, just the other side of Wingham.

 

Its a fine estate church, covered in wonderfully knapped bricks, giving it an East Anglian feel. Before we went in, we sheltered under a tree to much on a sausage roll I had bought at the butcher, that done, we go to the church, which is open.

 

I have been here quite recently, five years back, and in truth no much glass to record, but I do my best, leave a fiver of the weekly collection and we drove over the fields to Eastry.

 

St Mary is an impressive church, with carved and decorated west face of the Norman tower, at its base an odd lean-to porch has been created, leading into the church, which does have interest other than the 35 painted medallions high in the Chancel Arch, once the backdrop to the Rood.

 

I snap them with the big lens, and the windows too. A warden points out what looks like a very much older painted window high among the roof timbers in the east wall of the Chancel.

 

I get a shot, which is good enough, but even with a 400mm lens, is some crop.

 

I finish up and we go home, taking it carefully along nearly flooded roads.

 

Being a Saturday, there is football, though nothing much of interest until three when Norwich kick off against Stoke: could they kick it on a wet Saturday afternoon in the Potteries?

 

No. No, they couldn't.

 

Ended 0-0, City second best, barely laid a glove on the Stoke goal.

 

And then spots galore: Ireland v England in the egg-chasing, Citeh v Burnley in the Cup and Chelsea v Everton in the league, all live on various TV channels.

 

I watch the first half of the rugby, then switch over when England were reduced to 14, so did enjoy the lad Haarland score another hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition.

 

And that was that, another day over with.....

 

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Set away from the main street but on one of the earliest sites in the village, flint-built Eastry church has an over restored appearance externally but this gives way to a noteworthy interior. Built in the early thirteenth century by its patrons, Christ Church Canterbury, it was always designed to be a statement of both faith and power. The nave has a clerestory above round piers whilst the east nave wall has a pair of quatrefoils pierced through into the chancel. However this feature pales into insignificance when one sees what stands between them - a square panel containing 35 round paintings in medallions. There are four deigns including the Lily for Our Lady; a dove; Lion; Griffin. They would have formed a backdrop to the Rood which would have been supported on a beam the corbels of which survive below the paintings. On the centre pier of the south aisle is a very rare feature - a beautifully inscribed perpetual calendar or `Dominical Circle` to help find the Dominical letter of the year. Dating from the fourteenth century it divides the calendar into a sequence of 28 years. The reredos is an alabaster structure dating from the Edwardian period - a rather out of place object in a church of this form, but a good piece of work in its own right. On the west wall is a good early 19th century Royal Arms with hatchments on either side and there are many good monuments both ledger slabs and hanging tablets. Of the latter the finest commemorates John Harvey who died in 1794. It shows his ship the Brunswick fighting with all guns blazing with the French ship the Vengeur. John Bacon carved the Elder this detailed piece of work.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastry

 

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Above the Chancel Arch, enclosed within a rectangular frame, are rows of seven "medallion" wall paintings; the lower group was discovered in 1857 and the rest in 1903. They remained in a rather dilapidated state until the Canterbury Cathedral Wall Paintings Department brought them back to life.

 

The medallions are evidently of the 13th Century, having been painted while the mortar was still wet. Each medallion contains one of four motifs:

 

The trefoil flower, pictured left, is perhaps a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the church is dedicated; or symbolic of Christ.

 

The lion; symbolic of the Resurrection

  

Doves, either singly, or in pairs, represent the Holy Spirit

  

The Griffin represents evil, over which victory is won by the power of the Resurrection and the courage of the Christian.

 

www.ewbchurches.org.uk/eastrychurchhistory.htm

 

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EASTRY,

THE next parish north-eastward from Knolton is Eastry. At the time of taking the survey of Domesday, it was of such considerable account, that it not only gave name, as it does at present, to the hundred, but to the greatest part of the lath in which it stands, now called the lath of St. Augustine. There are two boroughs in this parish, viz. the borough of Hardenden, which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford, and comprehends the districts of Hardenden, Selson and Skrinkling, and the borough of Eastry, the borsholder of which is chosen at Eastry-court, and comprehends all the rest of the parish, excepting so much of it as lies within that part of the borough of Felderland, which is within this parish.

 

THE PARISH OF EASTRY, a healthy and not unpleasant situation, is about two miles and an half from north to south, but it is much narrower the other way, at the broadest extent of which it is not more than a mile and an half. The village of Eastry is situated on a pleasing eminence, almost in the centre of the parish, exhiblting a picturesque appearance from many points of view. The principal street in it is called Eastrystreet; from it branch off Mill street, Church-street and Brook-street. In Mill street is a spacious handsome edisice lately erected there, as a house of industry, for the poor of the several united parishes of Eastry, Norborne, Betshanger, Tilmanstone, Waldershare, Coldred, Lydden, Shebbertswell, Swynfield, Wootton, Denton, Chillenden and Knolton. In Churchstreet, on the east side, stands the church, with the court-lodge and parsonage adjoining the church-yard; in this street is likewise the vicarage. In Brook-street, is a neat modern house, the residence of Wm. Boteler, esq. and another belonging to Mr. Thomas Rammell, who resides in it. Mention will be found hereafter, under the description of the borough of Hernden, in this parish, of the descent and arms of the Botelers resident there for many generations. Thomas Boteler, who died possessed of that estate in 1651, left three sons, the youngest of whom, Richard, was of Brook-street, and died in 1682; whose great-grandson, W. Boteler, esq. is now of Brook-street; a gentleman to whom the editor is much indebted for his communications and assistance, towards the description of this hundred, and its adjoining neighbourhood. He has been twice married; first to Sarah, daughter and coheir of Thomas Fuller, esq. of Statenborough, by whom he has one son, William Fuller, now a fellow of St. Peter's college, Cambridge: secondly, to Mary, eldest daughter of John Harvey, esq. of Sandwich and Hernden, late captain of the royal navy, by whom he has five sons and three daughters. He bears for his arms, Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or; which coat was granted to his ancestor, Richard Boteler, esq. of Hernden, by Cooke, clar. in 1589. Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, is the last surviving male of the family, both of Hernden and Brook-street. Eastry-street, comprizing the neighbourhood of the above mentioned branches, may be said to contain about sixty-four houses.

 

At the south-east boundary of this parish lies the hamlet of Updown, adjoining to Ham and Betshanger, in the former of which parishes some account of it has been already given. At the southern bounds, adjoining to Tilmanstone, lies the hamlet of Westone, formerly called Wendestone. On the western side lies the borough of Hernden, which although in this parish, is yet within the hundred of Downhamford and manor of Adisham; in the southern part of it is Shrinkling, or Shingleton, as it is now called, and the hamlet of Hernden. At the northern part of this borough lie the hamlets and estates of Selson, Wells, and Gore. Towards the northern boundary of the parish, in the road to Sandwich, is the hamlet of Statenborough, and at a small distance from it is that part of the borough of Felderland, or Fenderland, as it is usually called, within this parish, in which, adjoining the road which branches off to Word, is a small seat, now the property and residence of Mrs. Dare, widow of Wm. Dare, esq. who resides in it. (fn. 1)

 

Round the village the lands are for a little distance, and on towards Statenborough, inclosed with hedges and trees, but the rest of the parish is in general an open uninclosed country of arable land, like the neighbouring ones before described; the soil of it towards the north is most fertile, in the other parts it is rather thin, being much inclined to chalk, except in the bottoms, where it is much of a stiff clay, for this parish is a continued inequality of hill and dale; notwithstanding the above, there is a great deal of good fertile land in the parish, which meets on an average rent at fifteen shillings an acre. There is no wood in it. The parish contains about two thousand six hundred and fifty acres; the yearly rents of it are assessed to the poor at 2679l.

 

At the south end of the village is a large pond, called Butsole; and adjoining to it on the east side, a field, belonging to Brook-street estate, called the Butts; from whence it is conjectured that Butts were formerly erected in it, for the practice of archery among the inhabitants.

 

A fair is held here for cattle, pedlary, and toys, on October the 2d, (formerly on St. Matthew's day, September the 21st) yearly.

 

IN 1792, MR. BOTELER, of Brook-street, discovered, on digging a cellar in the garden of a cottage, situated eastward of the highway leading from Eastrycross to Butsole, an antient burying ground, used as such in the latter time of the Roman empire in Britain, most probably by the inhabitants of this parish, and the places contiguous to it. He caused several graves to be opened, and found with the skeletons, fibulæ, beads, knives,umbones of shields, &c. and in one a glass vessel. From other skeletons, which have been dug up in the gardens nearer the cross, it is imagined, that they extended on the same side the road up to the cross, the ground of which is now pretty much covered with houses; the heaps of earth, or barrows, which formerly remained over them, have long since been levelled, by the great length of time and the labour of the husbandman; the graves were very thick, in rows parallel to each other, in a direction from east to west.

 

St. Ivo's well, mentioned by Nierembergius, in Historia de Miraculis Natureæ, lib. ii. cap. 33; which I noticed in my folio edition as not being able to find any tradition of in this parish, I have since found was at a place that formerly went by the name of Estre, and afterwards by that of Plassiz, near St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire. See Gales Scriptores, xv. vol. i. p.p. 271, 512.

 

This place gave birth to Henry de Eastry, who was first a monk, and then prior of Christ-church, in Canterbury; who, for his learning as well as his worthy acts, became an ornament, not only to the society he presided over, but to his country in general. He continued prior thirty-seven years, and died, far advanced in life, in 1222.

 

THIS PLACE, in the time of the Saxons, appears to have been part of the royal domains, accordingly Simon of Durham, monk and precentor of that church, in his history, stiles it villa regalis, quæ vulgari dicitur Easterige pronuncione, (the royal ville, or manor, which in the vulgar pronunciation was called Easterige), which shews the antient pre-eminence and rank of this place, for these villæ regales, or regiæ, as Bede calls them, of the Saxons, were usually placed upon or near the spot, where in former ages the Roman stations had been before; and its giving name both to the lath and hundred in which it is situated corroborates the superior consequence it was then held in. Egbert, king of Kent, was in possession of it about the year 670, at which time his two cousins, Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfrid, who had been entrusted to his care by their uncle, the father of Egbert, were, as writers say, murdered in his palace here by his order, at the persuasion of one Thunnor, a slattering courtier, lest they should disturb him in the possession of the crown. After which Thunnor buried them in the king's hall here, under the cloth of estate, from whence, as antient tradition reports, their bodies were afterwards removed to a small chapel belonging to the palace, and buried there under the altar at the east end of it, and afterwards again with much pomp to the church of Ramsey abbey. To expiate the king's guilt, according to the custom of those times, he gave to Domneva, called also Ermenburga, their sister, a sufficient quantity of land in the isle of Thanet, on which she might found a monastery.

 

How long it continued among the royal domains, I have not found; but before the termination of the Saxon heptarchy, THE MANOR OF EASTRY was become part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and it remained so till the year 811, when archbishop Wilfred exchanged it with his convent of Christchurch for their manor of Bourne, since from the archbishop's possession of it called Bishopsbourne. After which, in the year 979 king Ægelred, usually called Ethelred, increased the church's estates here, by giving to it the lands of his inheritance in Estrea, (fn. 2) free from all secular service and siscal tribute, except the repelling of invasions and the repairing of bridges and castles, usually stiled the trinoda necessitas; (fn. 3) and in the possession of the prior and convent bove-mentioned, this manor continued at the taking of the survey of Domesday, being entered in it under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi; that is, the land of the monks of the archbishop, as follows:

 

In the lath of Estrei in Estrei hundred, the archbishop himself holds Estrei. It was taxed at Seven sulings. The arable land is . . . . In demesne there are three carucates and seventy two villeins, with twenty-two borderers, having twenty-four carucates. There is one mill and a half of thirty shillings, and three salt pits of four shillings, and eighteen acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs.

 

After which, this manor continued in the possession of the priory, and in the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a grant of free-warren in all his demesne lands in it, among others; about which time it was valued at 65l. 3s. after which king Henry VI. in his 28th year, confirmed the above liberty, and granted to it a market, to be held at Eastry weekly on a Tuesday, and a fair yearly, on the day of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist; in which state it continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it came in to the king's hands, where it did not remain long, for he settled it, among other premises, in the 33d year of his reign, on his new created dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it continues at this time. A court leet and court baron is held for this manor.

 

The manerial rights, profits of courts, royalties, &c. the dean and chapter retain in their own hands; but the demesne lands of the manor, with the courtlodge, which is a large antient mansion, situated adjoining to the church-yard, have been from time to time demised on a benesicial lease. The house is large, partly antient and partly modern, having at different times undergone great alterations. In the south wall are the letters T. A. N. in flint, in large capitals, being the initials of Thomas and Anne Nevinson. Mr. Isaac Bargrave, father of the present lessee, new fronted the house, and the latter in 1786 put the whole in complete repair, in doing which, he pulled down a considerable part of the antient building, consisting of stone walls of great strength and thickness, bringing to view some gothic arched door ways of stone, which proved the house to have been of such construction formerly, and to have been a very antient building. The chapel, mentioned before, is at the east end of the house. The east window, consisting of three compartments, is still visible, though the spaces are filled up, it having for many years been converted into a kitchen, and before the last alteration by Mr. Bargrave the whole of it was entire.

 

At this mansion, then in the hands of the prior and convent of Christ-church, archbishop Thomas Becket, after his stight from Northampton in the year 1164, concealed himself for eight days, and then, on Nov. 10, embarked at Sandwich for France. (fn. 4)

 

The present lessee is Isaac Bargrave, esq. who resides at the court-lodge, whose ancestors have been lessees of this estate for many years past.

 

THE NEVINSONS, as lessees, resided at the courtlodge of Eastry for many years. They were originally of Brigend, in Wetherell, in Cumberland. They bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, between three eagles displayed, azure. Many of them lie buried in Eastry church. (fn. 5)

 

THE FAMILY of Bargrave, alias Bargar, was originally of Bridge, and afterwards of the adjoining parish of Patrixbourne; where John Bargrave, eldest son of Robert, built the seat of Bifrons, and resided at it, of whom notice has already been taken in vol. ix. of this history, p. 280. Isaac Bargrave, the sixth son of Robert above-mentioned, and younger brother of John, who built Bifrons, was ancestor of the Bargraves, of Eastry; he was S. T. P. and dean of Canterbury, a man of strict honour and high principles of loyalty, for which he suffered the most cruel treatment. He died in 1642, having married in 1618 Elizabeth, daughter of John Dering, esq. of Egerton, by Elizabeth, sister of Edward lord Wotton, the son of John Dering, esq. of Surrenden, by Margaret Brent. Their descendant, Isaac Bargrave, esq. now living, was an eminent solicitor in London, from which he has retired for some years, and now resides at Eastry-court, of which he is the present lessee. He married Sarah, eldest daughter of George Lynch, M. D. of Canterbury, who died at Herne in 1787, S.P. They bear for their arms, Or, on a pale gules, a sword, the blade argent, pomelled, or, on a chief vert three bezants.

 

SHRINKLING, alias SHINGLETON, the former of which is its original name, though now quite lost, is a small manor at the south-west boundary of this pa Kent, anno 1619. rish, adjoining to Nonington. It is within the borough of Heronden, or Hardonden, as it is now called, and as such, is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. This manor had antiently owners of the same name; one of whom, Sir William de Scrinkling, held it in king Edward I.'s reign, and was succeeded by Sir Walter de Scrinkling his son, who held it by knight's service of Hamo de Crevequer, (fn. 6) and in this name it continued in the 20th year of king Edward III.

 

Soon after which it appears to have been alienated to William Langley, of Knolton, from which name it passed in like manner as Knolton to the Peytons and the Narboroughs, and thence by marriage to Sir Thomas D'Aeth, whose grandson Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, is at present entitled to it.

 

There was a chapel belonging to this manor, the ruins of which are still visible in the wood near it, which was esteemed as a chapel of ease to the mother church of Eastry, and was appropriated with it by archbishop Richard, Becket's immediate successor, to the almory of the priory of Christ-church; but the chapel itself seems to have become desolate many years before the dissolution of the priory, most probably soon after the family of Shrinkling became extinct; the Langleys, who resided at the adjoining manor of Knolton, having no occasion for the use of it. The chapel stood in Shingleton wood, near the south east corner; the foundations of it have been traced, though level with the surface, and not easily discovered. There is now on this estate only one house, built within memory, before which there was only a solitary barn, and no remains of the antient mansion of it.

 

HERONDEN, alias HARDENDEN, now usually called HERONDEN, is a district in this parish, situated about a mile northward from Shingleton, within the borough of its own name, the whole of which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. It was once esteemed as a manor, though it has not had even the name of one for many years past, the manor of Adisham claiming over it. The mansion of it was antiently the residence of a family of the same name, who bore for their arms, Argent, a heron with one talon erect, gaping for breath, sable. These arms are on a shield, which is far from modern, in Maidstone church, being quarterly, Heronden as above, with sable, three escallop shells, two and one, argent; and in a window of Lincoln's Inn chapel is a coat of arms of a modern date, being that of Anthony Heronden, esq. Argent, a heron, azure, between three escallops, sable. One of this family of Heronden lies buried in this church, and in the time of Robert Glover, Somerset herald, his portrait and coat of arms, in brass, were remaining on his tombstone. The coat of arms is still extant in very old rolls and registers in the Heralds office, where the family is stiled Heronden, of Heronden, in Eastry; nor is the name less antient, as appears by deeds which commence from the reign of Henry III. which relate to this estate and name; but after this family had remained possessed of this estate for so many years it at last descended down in king Richard II.'s reign, to Sir William Heronden, from whom it passed most probably either by gift or sale, to one of the family of Boteler, or Butler, then resident in this neighbourhood, descended from those of this name, formerly seated at Butler's sleet, in Ash, whose ancestor Thomas Pincerna, or le Boteler, held that manor in king John's reign, whence his successors assumed the name of Butler, alias Boteler, or as they were frequently written Botiller, and bore for their arms, One or more covered cups, differently placed and blazoned. In this family the estate descended to John Boteler, who lived in the time of king Henry VI. and resided at Sandwich, of which town he was several times mayor, and one of the burgesses in two parliaments of that reign; he lies buried in St. Peter's church there. His son Richard, who was also of Sandwich, had a grant of arms in 1470, anno 11th Edward IV. by Thomas Holme, norroy, viz. Gyronny of six, argent and sable, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counterchanged of the field, collared, gules, garnished of the third. His great-grandson Henry Boteler rebuilt the mansion of Heronden, to which he removed in 1572, being the last of his family who resided at Sandwich. He had the above grant of arms confirmed to him, and died in 1580, being buried in Eastry church. Richard Boteler, of Heronden, his eldest son by his first wife, resided at this seat, and in 1589 obtained a grant from Robert Cook, clarencieux, of a new coat of arms, viz. Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three convered cups, or. Ten years after which, intending as it should seem, to shew himself a descendant of the family of this name, seated at Graveney, but then extinct, he obtained in 1599 a grant of their arms from William Dethic, garter, and William Camden, clarencieux, to him and his brother William, viz. Quarterly, first and fourth, sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; second and third, Argent, a fess, chequy, argent and gules, in chief three cross-croslets of the last, as appears (continues the grant) on a gravestone in Graveney church. He died in 1600, and was buried in Eastry church, leaving issue among other children Jonathan and Thomas. (fn. 7) Jonathan Boteler, the eldest son, of Hernden, died unmarried possessed of it in 1626, upon which it came to his next surviving brother Thomas Boteler, of Rowling, who upon that removed to Hernden, and soon afterwards alienated that part of it, since called THE MIDDLE FARM, to Mr. Henry Pannell, from whom soon afterwards, but how I know not, it came into the family of Reynolds; from which name it was about fifty years since alienated to John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, who dying in 1762, devised it to his nephew John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, the present possessor of it.

 

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.

 

The church, which is exempted from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Mary; it is a large handsome building, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a chancel at the east end, remarkably long, and a square tower, which is very large, at the west end, in which are five very unmusical bells. The church is well kept and neatly paved, and exhibits a noble appearance, to which the many handsome monuments in it contribute much. The arch over the west door is circular, but no other parts of the church has any shew of great antiquity. In the chancel are monuments for the Paramors and the Fullers, of Statenborough, arms of the latter, Argent, three bars, and a canton, gules. A monument for several of the Bargrave family. An elegant pyramidial one, on which is a bust and emblematical sculpture for John Broadley, gent. many years surgeon at Dover, obt. 1784. Several gravestones, with brasses, for the Nevinsons. A gravestone for Joshua Paramour, gent. buried 1650. Underneath this chancel are two vaults, for the families of Paramour and Bargrave. In the nave, a monument for Anne, daughter of Solomon Harvey, gent. of this parish, ob. 1751; arms, Argent, on a chevron, between three lions gambs, sable, armed gules, three crescents, or; another for William Dare, esq. late of Fenderland, in this parish, obt. 1770; arms, Gules, a chevron vaire, between three crescents, argent, impaling argent, on a cross, sable, four lions passant, quardant of the field, for Read.—Against the wall an inscription in Latin, for the Drue Astley Cressemer, A. M. forty-eight years vicar of this parish, obt. 1746; he presented the communion plate to this church and Worth, and left a sum of money to be laid out in ornamenting this church, at which time the antient stalls, which were in the chancel, were taken away, and the chancel was ceiled, and the church otherwise beautified; arms, Argent, on a bend engrailed, sable, three cross-croslets, fitchee, or. A monument for several of the Botelers, of this parish; arms, Boteler, argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or, impaling Morrice. Against a pillar, a tablet and inscription, shewing that in a vault lieth Catherine, wife of John Springett, citizen and apothecary of London. He died in 1770; arms, Springett, per fess, argent and gules, a fess wavy, between three crescents, counterchanged, impaling Harvey. On the opposite pillar another, for the Rev. Richard Harvey, fourteen years vicar of this parish, obt. 1772. A monument for Richard Kelly, of Eastry, obt. 1768; arms, Two lions rampant, supporting a castle. Against the wall, an elegant sculptured monument, in alto relievo, for Sarah, wise of William Boteler, a daughter of Thomas Fuller, esq. late of Statenborough, obt. 1777, æt. 29; she died in childbed, leaving one son, William Fuller Boteler; arms at bottom, Boteler, as above, an escutcheon of pretence, Fuller, quartering Paramor. An elegant pyramidal marble and tablet for Robert Bargrave, of this parish, obt. 1779, for Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh, of Hawley; and for Robert Bargrave, their only son, proctor in Doctors Commons, obt. 1774, whose sole surviving daughter Rebecca married James Wyborne, of Sholdon; arms, Bargrave, with a mullet, impaling Leigh. In the cross isle, near the chancel called the Boteler's isle, are several memorials for the Botelers. Adjoining to these, are three other gravestones, all of which have been inlaid, but the brasses are gone; they were for the same family, and on one of them was lately remaining the antient arms of Boteler, Girony of six pieces, &c. impaling ermine of three spots. Under the church are vaults, for the families of Springett, Harvey, Dare, and Bargrave. In the church-yard, on the north side of the church, are several altar tombs for the Paramors; and on the south side are several others for the Harveys, of this parish, and for Fawlkner, Rammell, and Fuller. There are also vaults for the families of Fuller, Rammell, and Petman.

 

There were formerly painted in the windows of this church, these arms, Girony of six, sable and argent, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counter changed of the field, collared, gules; for Boteler, of Heronden, impaling Boteler, of Graveny, Sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; Boteler, of Heronden, as above, quartering three spots, ermine; the coat of Theobald, with quarterings. Several of the Frynnes, or as they were afterwards called, Friends, who lived at Waltham in this parish in king Henry VII.'s reign, lie buried in this church.

 

In the will of William Andrewe, of this parish, anno 1507, mention is made of our Ladie chapel, in the church-yard of the church of Estrie.

 

The eighteen stalls which were till lately in the chancel of the church, were for the use of the monks of the priory of Christ church, owners both of the manor and appropriation, when they came to pass any time at this place, as they frequently did, as well for a country retirement as to manage their concerns here; and for any other ecclesiastics, who might be present at divine service here, all such, in those times, sitting in the chancels of churches distinct from the laity.

 

The church of Eastry, with the chapels of Skrinkling and Worth annexed, was antiently appendant to the manor of Eastry, and was appropriated by archbishop Richard (successor to archbishop Becket) in the reign of king Henry II. to the almonry of the priory of Christ-church, but it did not continue long so, for archbishop Baldwin, (archbishop Richard's immediate successor), having quarrelled with the monks, on account of his intended college at Hackington, took this appropriation from them, and thus it remained as a rectory, at the archbishop's disposal, till the 39th year of king Edward III.'s reign, (fn. 10) when archbishop Simon Islip, with the king's licence, restored, united and annexed it again to the priory; but it appears, that in return for this grant, the archbishop had made over to him, by way of exchange, the advowsons of the churches of St. Dunstan, St. Pancrase, and All Saints in Bread-street, in London, all three belonging to the priory. After which, that is anno 8 Richard II. 1384, this church was valued among the revenues of the almonry of Christ-church, at the yearly value of 53l. 6s. 8d. and it continued afterwards in the same state in the possession of the monks, who managed it for the use of the almonry, during which time prior William Sellyng, who came to that office in Edward IV.'s reign, among other improvements on several estates belonging to his church, built a new dormitory at this parsonage for the monks resorting hither.

 

On the dissolution of the priory of Christ-church, in the 31st year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, this appropriation, with the advowson of the vicarage of the church of Eastry, was surrendered into the king's hands, where it staid but a small time, for he granted it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, to his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, who are the present owners of this appropriation; but the advowson of the vicarage, notwithstanding it was granted with the appropriation, to the dean and chapter as above-mentioned, appears not long afterwards to have become parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, where it continues at this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

This parsonage is entitled to the great tithes of this parish and of Worth; there belong to it of glebe land in Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Worth, in all sixtynine acres.

 

THERE IS A SMALL MANOR belonging to it, called THE MANOR OF THE AMBRY, OR ALMONRY OF CHRIST-CHURCH, the quit-rents of which are very inconsiderable.

 

The parsonage-house is large and antient; in the old parlour window is a shield of arms, being those of Partheriche, impaling quarterly Line and Hamerton. The parsonage is of the annual rent of about 700l. The countess dowager of Guildford became entitled to the lease of this parsonage, by the will of her husband the earl of Guildford, and since her death the interest of it is become vested in her younger children.

 

As to the origin of a vicarage in this church, though there was one endowed in it by archbishop Peckham, in the 20th year of king Edward I. anno 1291, whilst this church continued in the archbishop's hands, yet I do not find that there was a vicar instituted in it, but that it remained as a rectory, till near three years after it had been restored to the priory of Christchurch, when, in the 42d year of king Edward III. a vicar was instituted in it, between whom and the prior and chapter of Canterbury, there was a composition concerning his portion, which he should have as an endowment of this vicarage; which composition was confirmed by archbishop Simon Langham that year; and next year there was an agreement entered into between the eleemosinary of Christ-church and the vicar, concerning the manse of this vicarage.

 

The vicarage of Eastry, with the chapel of Worth annexed, is valued in the king's books at 19l. 12s. 1d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 19s. 2½d. In 1588 it was valued at sixty pounds. Communicants three hundred and thirty-five. In 1640 here were the like number of communicants, and it was valued at one hundred pounds.

 

The antient pension of 5l. 6s. 8d. formerly paid by the priory, is still paid to the vicar by the dean and chapter, and also an augmentation of 14l. 13s. 4d. yearly, by the lessee of the parsonage, by a convenant in his lease.

 

The vicarage-house is built close to the farm-yard of the parsonage; the land allotted to it is very trifling, not even sufficient for a tolerable garden; the foundations of the house are antient, and probably part of the original building when the vicarage was endowed in 1367.

 

¶There were two awards made in 1549 and 1550, on a controversy between the vicar of Eastry and the mayor, &c. of Sandwich, whether the scite of St. Bartholomew's hospital, near Sandwich, within that port and liberty, was subject to the payment of tithes to the vicar, as being within his parish. Both awards adjudged the legality of a payment, as due to the vicar; but the former award adjudged that the scite of the hospital was not, and the latter, that it was within the bounds of this parish. (fn. 12)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol10/pp98-121

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A porte-cochere on the right.

And so to the weekend again. And what might be the last orchid-free weekend until well into June or even August.

 

So, enjoy the churches while you can.

 

Saturday, and not much really planned. We get up at half six with it fully light outside. The cloud and drizzle had not arrived, instead it was pretty clear and sunny.

 

No time for thinking about going out to take shots, as we had hunter-gathering to do.

 

In fact, we didn't need much, just the usual stuff to keep us going. That and the car was running on fumes. So we will that up first, and then into Tesco and round and round we go, fully the trolley up. It being Mother's Day on Saturday, we were having Jen round on Sunday, we were to have steak, so I get mushrooms.

 

And once back, we have breakfast then go to Preston for the actual steak, three ribeyes, all cut from the same stip. Jools had gone to look at the garden centre for ideas as we're going to dig up the raspberries, so just wondering what to put in their place.

 

By then the rain had come, and so we dashed back to the car, and on the way home called in at two churches.

 

First off was Goodnestone, just the other side of Wingham.

 

Its a fine estate church, covered in wonderfully knapped bricks, giving it an East Anglian feel. Before we went in, we sheltered under a tree to much on a sausage roll I had bought at the butcher, that done, we go to the church, which is open.

 

I have been here quite recently, five years back, and in truth no much glass to record, but I do my best, leave a fiver of the weekly collection and we drove over the fields to Eastry.

 

St Mary is an impressive church, with carved and decorated west face of the Norman tower, at its base an odd lean-to porch has been created, leading into the church, which does have interest other than the 35 painted medallions high in the Chancel Arch, once the backdrop to the Rood.

 

I snap them with the big lens, and the windows too. A warden points out what looks like a very much older painted window high among the roof timbers in the east wall of the Chancel.

 

I get a shot, which is good enough, but even with a 400mm lens, is some crop.

 

I finish up and we go home, taking it carefully along nearly flooded roads.

 

Being a Saturday, there is football, though nothing much of interest until three when Norwich kick off against Stoke: could they kick it on a wet Saturday afternoon in the Potteries?

 

No. No, they couldn't.

 

Ended 0-0, City second best, barely laid a glove on the Stoke goal.

 

And then spots galore: Ireland v England in the egg-chasing, Citeh v Burnley in the Cup and Chelsea v Everton in the league, all live on various TV channels.

 

I watch the first half of the rugby, then switch over when England were reduced to 14, so did enjoy the lad Haarland score another hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition.

 

And that was that, another day over with.....

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Set away from the main street but on one of the earliest sites in the village, flint-built Eastry church has an over restored appearance externally but this gives way to a noteworthy interior. Built in the early thirteenth century by its patrons, Christ Church Canterbury, it was always designed to be a statement of both faith and power. The nave has a clerestory above round piers whilst the east nave wall has a pair of quatrefoils pierced through into the chancel. However this feature pales into insignificance when one sees what stands between them - a square panel containing 35 round paintings in medallions. There are four deigns including the Lily for Our Lady; a dove; Lion; Griffin. They would have formed a backdrop to the Rood which would have been supported on a beam the corbels of which survive below the paintings. On the centre pier of the south aisle is a very rare feature - a beautifully inscribed perpetual calendar or `Dominical Circle` to help find the Dominical letter of the year. Dating from the fourteenth century it divides the calendar into a sequence of 28 years. The reredos is an alabaster structure dating from the Edwardian period - a rather out of place object in a church of this form, but a good piece of work in its own right. On the west wall is a good early 19th century Royal Arms with hatchments on either side and there are many good monuments both ledger slabs and hanging tablets. Of the latter the finest commemorates John Harvey who died in 1794. It shows his ship the Brunswick fighting with all guns blazing with the French ship the Vengeur. John Bacon carved the Elder this detailed piece of work.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastry

 

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Above the Chancel Arch, enclosed within a rectangular frame, are rows of seven "medallion" wall paintings; the lower group was discovered in 1857 and the rest in 1903. They remained in a rather dilapidated state until the Canterbury Cathedral Wall Paintings Department brought them back to life.

 

The medallions are evidently of the 13th Century, having been painted while the mortar was still wet. Each medallion contains one of four motifs:

 

The trefoil flower, pictured left, is perhaps a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the church is dedicated; or symbolic of Christ.

 

The lion; symbolic of the Resurrection

  

Doves, either singly, or in pairs, represent the Holy Spirit

  

The Griffin represents evil, over which victory is won by the power of the Resurrection and the courage of the Christian.

 

www.ewbchurches.org.uk/eastrychurchhistory.htm

 

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EASTRY,

THE next parish north-eastward from Knolton is Eastry. At the time of taking the survey of Domesday, it was of such considerable account, that it not only gave name, as it does at present, to the hundred, but to the greatest part of the lath in which it stands, now called the lath of St. Augustine. There are two boroughs in this parish, viz. the borough of Hardenden, which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford, and comprehends the districts of Hardenden, Selson and Skrinkling, and the borough of Eastry, the borsholder of which is chosen at Eastry-court, and comprehends all the rest of the parish, excepting so much of it as lies within that part of the borough of Felderland, which is within this parish.

 

THE PARISH OF EASTRY, a healthy and not unpleasant situation, is about two miles and an half from north to south, but it is much narrower the other way, at the broadest extent of which it is not more than a mile and an half. The village of Eastry is situated on a pleasing eminence, almost in the centre of the parish, exhiblting a picturesque appearance from many points of view. The principal street in it is called Eastrystreet; from it branch off Mill street, Church-street and Brook-street. In Mill street is a spacious handsome edisice lately erected there, as a house of industry, for the poor of the several united parishes of Eastry, Norborne, Betshanger, Tilmanstone, Waldershare, Coldred, Lydden, Shebbertswell, Swynfield, Wootton, Denton, Chillenden and Knolton. In Churchstreet, on the east side, stands the church, with the court-lodge and parsonage adjoining the church-yard; in this street is likewise the vicarage. In Brook-street, is a neat modern house, the residence of Wm. Boteler, esq. and another belonging to Mr. Thomas Rammell, who resides in it. Mention will be found hereafter, under the description of the borough of Hernden, in this parish, of the descent and arms of the Botelers resident there for many generations. Thomas Boteler, who died possessed of that estate in 1651, left three sons, the youngest of whom, Richard, was of Brook-street, and died in 1682; whose great-grandson, W. Boteler, esq. is now of Brook-street; a gentleman to whom the editor is much indebted for his communications and assistance, towards the description of this hundred, and its adjoining neighbourhood. He has been twice married; first to Sarah, daughter and coheir of Thomas Fuller, esq. of Statenborough, by whom he has one son, William Fuller, now a fellow of St. Peter's college, Cambridge: secondly, to Mary, eldest daughter of John Harvey, esq. of Sandwich and Hernden, late captain of the royal navy, by whom he has five sons and three daughters. He bears for his arms, Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or; which coat was granted to his ancestor, Richard Boteler, esq. of Hernden, by Cooke, clar. in 1589. Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, is the last surviving male of the family, both of Hernden and Brook-street. Eastry-street, comprizing the neighbourhood of the above mentioned branches, may be said to contain about sixty-four houses.

 

At the south-east boundary of this parish lies the hamlet of Updown, adjoining to Ham and Betshanger, in the former of which parishes some account of it has been already given. At the southern bounds, adjoining to Tilmanstone, lies the hamlet of Westone, formerly called Wendestone. On the western side lies the borough of Hernden, which although in this parish, is yet within the hundred of Downhamford and manor of Adisham; in the southern part of it is Shrinkling, or Shingleton, as it is now called, and the hamlet of Hernden. At the northern part of this borough lie the hamlets and estates of Selson, Wells, and Gore. Towards the northern boundary of the parish, in the road to Sandwich, is the hamlet of Statenborough, and at a small distance from it is that part of the borough of Felderland, or Fenderland, as it is usually called, within this parish, in which, adjoining the road which branches off to Word, is a small seat, now the property and residence of Mrs. Dare, widow of Wm. Dare, esq. who resides in it. (fn. 1)

 

Round the village the lands are for a little distance, and on towards Statenborough, inclosed with hedges and trees, but the rest of the parish is in general an open uninclosed country of arable land, like the neighbouring ones before described; the soil of it towards the north is most fertile, in the other parts it is rather thin, being much inclined to chalk, except in the bottoms, where it is much of a stiff clay, for this parish is a continued inequality of hill and dale; notwithstanding the above, there is a great deal of good fertile land in the parish, which meets on an average rent at fifteen shillings an acre. There is no wood in it. The parish contains about two thousand six hundred and fifty acres; the yearly rents of it are assessed to the poor at 2679l.

 

At the south end of the village is a large pond, called Butsole; and adjoining to it on the east side, a field, belonging to Brook-street estate, called the Butts; from whence it is conjectured that Butts were formerly erected in it, for the practice of archery among the inhabitants.

 

A fair is held here for cattle, pedlary, and toys, on October the 2d, (formerly on St. Matthew's day, September the 21st) yearly.

 

IN 1792, MR. BOTELER, of Brook-street, discovered, on digging a cellar in the garden of a cottage, situated eastward of the highway leading from Eastrycross to Butsole, an antient burying ground, used as such in the latter time of the Roman empire in Britain, most probably by the inhabitants of this parish, and the places contiguous to it. He caused several graves to be opened, and found with the skeletons, fibulæ, beads, knives,umbones of shields, &c. and in one a glass vessel. From other skeletons, which have been dug up in the gardens nearer the cross, it is imagined, that they extended on the same side the road up to the cross, the ground of which is now pretty much covered with houses; the heaps of earth, or barrows, which formerly remained over them, have long since been levelled, by the great length of time and the labour of the husbandman; the graves were very thick, in rows parallel to each other, in a direction from east to west.

 

St. Ivo's well, mentioned by Nierembergius, in Historia de Miraculis Natureæ, lib. ii. cap. 33; which I noticed in my folio edition as not being able to find any tradition of in this parish, I have since found was at a place that formerly went by the name of Estre, and afterwards by that of Plassiz, near St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire. See Gales Scriptores, xv. vol. i. p.p. 271, 512.

 

This place gave birth to Henry de Eastry, who was first a monk, and then prior of Christ-church, in Canterbury; who, for his learning as well as his worthy acts, became an ornament, not only to the society he presided over, but to his country in general. He continued prior thirty-seven years, and died, far advanced in life, in 1222.

 

THIS PLACE, in the time of the Saxons, appears to have been part of the royal domains, accordingly Simon of Durham, monk and precentor of that church, in his history, stiles it villa regalis, quæ vulgari dicitur Easterige pronuncione, (the royal ville, or manor, which in the vulgar pronunciation was called Easterige), which shews the antient pre-eminence and rank of this place, for these villæ regales, or regiæ, as Bede calls them, of the Saxons, were usually placed upon or near the spot, where in former ages the Roman stations had been before; and its giving name both to the lath and hundred in which it is situated corroborates the superior consequence it was then held in. Egbert, king of Kent, was in possession of it about the year 670, at which time his two cousins, Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfrid, who had been entrusted to his care by their uncle, the father of Egbert, were, as writers say, murdered in his palace here by his order, at the persuasion of one Thunnor, a slattering courtier, lest they should disturb him in the possession of the crown. After which Thunnor buried them in the king's hall here, under the cloth of estate, from whence, as antient tradition reports, their bodies were afterwards removed to a small chapel belonging to the palace, and buried there under the altar at the east end of it, and afterwards again with much pomp to the church of Ramsey abbey. To expiate the king's guilt, according to the custom of those times, he gave to Domneva, called also Ermenburga, their sister, a sufficient quantity of land in the isle of Thanet, on which she might found a monastery.

 

How long it continued among the royal domains, I have not found; but before the termination of the Saxon heptarchy, THE MANOR OF EASTRY was become part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and it remained so till the year 811, when archbishop Wilfred exchanged it with his convent of Christchurch for their manor of Bourne, since from the archbishop's possession of it called Bishopsbourne. After which, in the year 979 king Ægelred, usually called Ethelred, increased the church's estates here, by giving to it the lands of his inheritance in Estrea, (fn. 2) free from all secular service and siscal tribute, except the repelling of invasions and the repairing of bridges and castles, usually stiled the trinoda necessitas; (fn. 3) and in the possession of the prior and convent bove-mentioned, this manor continued at the taking of the survey of Domesday, being entered in it under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi; that is, the land of the monks of the archbishop, as follows:

 

In the lath of Estrei in Estrei hundred, the archbishop himself holds Estrei. It was taxed at Seven sulings. The arable land is . . . . In demesne there are three carucates and seventy two villeins, with twenty-two borderers, having twenty-four carucates. There is one mill and a half of thirty shillings, and three salt pits of four shillings, and eighteen acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs.

 

After which, this manor continued in the possession of the priory, and in the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a grant of free-warren in all his demesne lands in it, among others; about which time it was valued at 65l. 3s. after which king Henry VI. in his 28th year, confirmed the above liberty, and granted to it a market, to be held at Eastry weekly on a Tuesday, and a fair yearly, on the day of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist; in which state it continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it came in to the king's hands, where it did not remain long, for he settled it, among other premises, in the 33d year of his reign, on his new created dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it continues at this time. A court leet and court baron is held for this manor.

 

The manerial rights, profits of courts, royalties, &c. the dean and chapter retain in their own hands; but the demesne lands of the manor, with the courtlodge, which is a large antient mansion, situated adjoining to the church-yard, have been from time to time demised on a benesicial lease. The house is large, partly antient and partly modern, having at different times undergone great alterations. In the south wall are the letters T. A. N. in flint, in large capitals, being the initials of Thomas and Anne Nevinson. Mr. Isaac Bargrave, father of the present lessee, new fronted the house, and the latter in 1786 put the whole in complete repair, in doing which, he pulled down a considerable part of the antient building, consisting of stone walls of great strength and thickness, bringing to view some gothic arched door ways of stone, which proved the house to have been of such construction formerly, and to have been a very antient building. The chapel, mentioned before, is at the east end of the house. The east window, consisting of three compartments, is still visible, though the spaces are filled up, it having for many years been converted into a kitchen, and before the last alteration by Mr. Bargrave the whole of it was entire.

 

At this mansion, then in the hands of the prior and convent of Christ-church, archbishop Thomas Becket, after his stight from Northampton in the year 1164, concealed himself for eight days, and then, on Nov. 10, embarked at Sandwich for France. (fn. 4)

 

The present lessee is Isaac Bargrave, esq. who resides at the court-lodge, whose ancestors have been lessees of this estate for many years past.

 

THE NEVINSONS, as lessees, resided at the courtlodge of Eastry for many years. They were originally of Brigend, in Wetherell, in Cumberland. They bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, between three eagles displayed, azure. Many of them lie buried in Eastry church. (fn. 5)

 

THE FAMILY of Bargrave, alias Bargar, was originally of Bridge, and afterwards of the adjoining parish of Patrixbourne; where John Bargrave, eldest son of Robert, built the seat of Bifrons, and resided at it, of whom notice has already been taken in vol. ix. of this history, p. 280. Isaac Bargrave, the sixth son of Robert above-mentioned, and younger brother of John, who built Bifrons, was ancestor of the Bargraves, of Eastry; he was S. T. P. and dean of Canterbury, a man of strict honour and high principles of loyalty, for which he suffered the most cruel treatment. He died in 1642, having married in 1618 Elizabeth, daughter of John Dering, esq. of Egerton, by Elizabeth, sister of Edward lord Wotton, the son of John Dering, esq. of Surrenden, by Margaret Brent. Their descendant, Isaac Bargrave, esq. now living, was an eminent solicitor in London, from which he has retired for some years, and now resides at Eastry-court, of which he is the present lessee. He married Sarah, eldest daughter of George Lynch, M. D. of Canterbury, who died at Herne in 1787, S.P. They bear for their arms, Or, on a pale gules, a sword, the blade argent, pomelled, or, on a chief vert three bezants.

 

SHRINKLING, alias SHINGLETON, the former of which is its original name, though now quite lost, is a small manor at the south-west boundary of this pa Kent, anno 1619. rish, adjoining to Nonington. It is within the borough of Heronden, or Hardonden, as it is now called, and as such, is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. This manor had antiently owners of the same name; one of whom, Sir William de Scrinkling, held it in king Edward I.'s reign, and was succeeded by Sir Walter de Scrinkling his son, who held it by knight's service of Hamo de Crevequer, (fn. 6) and in this name it continued in the 20th year of king Edward III.

 

Soon after which it appears to have been alienated to William Langley, of Knolton, from which name it passed in like manner as Knolton to the Peytons and the Narboroughs, and thence by marriage to Sir Thomas D'Aeth, whose grandson Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, is at present entitled to it.

 

There was a chapel belonging to this manor, the ruins of which are still visible in the wood near it, which was esteemed as a chapel of ease to the mother church of Eastry, and was appropriated with it by archbishop Richard, Becket's immediate successor, to the almory of the priory of Christ-church; but the chapel itself seems to have become desolate many years before the dissolution of the priory, most probably soon after the family of Shrinkling became extinct; the Langleys, who resided at the adjoining manor of Knolton, having no occasion for the use of it. The chapel stood in Shingleton wood, near the south east corner; the foundations of it have been traced, though level with the surface, and not easily discovered. There is now on this estate only one house, built within memory, before which there was only a solitary barn, and no remains of the antient mansion of it.

 

HERONDEN, alias HARDENDEN, now usually called HERONDEN, is a district in this parish, situated about a mile northward from Shingleton, within the borough of its own name, the whole of which is within the upper half hundred of Downhamford. It was once esteemed as a manor, though it has not had even the name of one for many years past, the manor of Adisham claiming over it. The mansion of it was antiently the residence of a family of the same name, who bore for their arms, Argent, a heron with one talon erect, gaping for breath, sable. These arms are on a shield, which is far from modern, in Maidstone church, being quarterly, Heronden as above, with sable, three escallop shells, two and one, argent; and in a window of Lincoln's Inn chapel is a coat of arms of a modern date, being that of Anthony Heronden, esq. Argent, a heron, azure, between three escallops, sable. One of this family of Heronden lies buried in this church, and in the time of Robert Glover, Somerset herald, his portrait and coat of arms, in brass, were remaining on his tombstone. The coat of arms is still extant in very old rolls and registers in the Heralds office, where the family is stiled Heronden, of Heronden, in Eastry; nor is the name less antient, as appears by deeds which commence from the reign of Henry III. which relate to this estate and name; but after this family had remained possessed of this estate for so many years it at last descended down in king Richard II.'s reign, to Sir William Heronden, from whom it passed most probably either by gift or sale, to one of the family of Boteler, or Butler, then resident in this neighbourhood, descended from those of this name, formerly seated at Butler's sleet, in Ash, whose ancestor Thomas Pincerna, or le Boteler, held that manor in king John's reign, whence his successors assumed the name of Butler, alias Boteler, or as they were frequently written Botiller, and bore for their arms, One or more covered cups, differently placed and blazoned. In this family the estate descended to John Boteler, who lived in the time of king Henry VI. and resided at Sandwich, of which town he was several times mayor, and one of the burgesses in two parliaments of that reign; he lies buried in St. Peter's church there. His son Richard, who was also of Sandwich, had a grant of arms in 1470, anno 11th Edward IV. by Thomas Holme, norroy, viz. Gyronny of six, argent and sable, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counterchanged of the field, collared, gules, garnished of the third. His great-grandson Henry Boteler rebuilt the mansion of Heronden, to which he removed in 1572, being the last of his family who resided at Sandwich. He had the above grant of arms confirmed to him, and died in 1580, being buried in Eastry church. Richard Boteler, of Heronden, his eldest son by his first wife, resided at this seat, and in 1589 obtained a grant from Robert Cook, clarencieux, of a new coat of arms, viz. Argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three convered cups, or. Ten years after which, intending as it should seem, to shew himself a descendant of the family of this name, seated at Graveney, but then extinct, he obtained in 1599 a grant of their arms from William Dethic, garter, and William Camden, clarencieux, to him and his brother William, viz. Quarterly, first and fourth, sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; second and third, Argent, a fess, chequy, argent and gules, in chief three cross-croslets of the last, as appears (continues the grant) on a gravestone in Graveney church. He died in 1600, and was buried in Eastry church, leaving issue among other children Jonathan and Thomas. (fn. 7) Jonathan Boteler, the eldest son, of Hernden, died unmarried possessed of it in 1626, upon which it came to his next surviving brother Thomas Boteler, of Rowling, who upon that removed to Hernden, and soon afterwards alienated that part of it, since called THE MIDDLE FARM, to Mr. Henry Pannell, from whom soon afterwards, but how I know not, it came into the family of Reynolds; from which name it was about fifty years since alienated to John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, who dying in 1762, devised it to his nephew John Dekewer, esq. of Hackney, the present possessor of it.

 

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.

 

The church, which is exempted from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Mary; it is a large handsome building, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a chancel at the east end, remarkably long, and a square tower, which is very large, at the west end, in which are five very unmusical bells. The church is well kept and neatly paved, and exhibits a noble appearance, to which the many handsome monuments in it contribute much. The arch over the west door is circular, but no other parts of the church has any shew of great antiquity. In the chancel are monuments for the Paramors and the Fullers, of Statenborough, arms of the latter, Argent, three bars, and a canton, gules. A monument for several of the Bargrave family. An elegant pyramidial one, on which is a bust and emblematical sculpture for John Broadley, gent. many years surgeon at Dover, obt. 1784. Several gravestones, with brasses, for the Nevinsons. A gravestone for Joshua Paramour, gent. buried 1650. Underneath this chancel are two vaults, for the families of Paramour and Bargrave. In the nave, a monument for Anne, daughter of Solomon Harvey, gent. of this parish, ob. 1751; arms, Argent, on a chevron, between three lions gambs, sable, armed gules, three crescents, or; another for William Dare, esq. late of Fenderland, in this parish, obt. 1770; arms, Gules, a chevron vaire, between three crescents, argent, impaling argent, on a cross, sable, four lions passant, quardant of the field, for Read.—Against the wall an inscription in Latin, for the Drue Astley Cressemer, A. M. forty-eight years vicar of this parish, obt. 1746; he presented the communion plate to this church and Worth, and left a sum of money to be laid out in ornamenting this church, at which time the antient stalls, which were in the chancel, were taken away, and the chancel was ceiled, and the church otherwise beautified; arms, Argent, on a bend engrailed, sable, three cross-croslets, fitchee, or. A monument for several of the Botelers, of this parish; arms, Boteler, argent, on three escutcheons, sable, three covered cups, or, impaling Morrice. Against a pillar, a tablet and inscription, shewing that in a vault lieth Catherine, wife of John Springett, citizen and apothecary of London. He died in 1770; arms, Springett, per fess, argent and gules, a fess wavy, between three crescents, counterchanged, impaling Harvey. On the opposite pillar another, for the Rev. Richard Harvey, fourteen years vicar of this parish, obt. 1772. A monument for Richard Kelly, of Eastry, obt. 1768; arms, Two lions rampant, supporting a castle. Against the wall, an elegant sculptured monument, in alto relievo, for Sarah, wise of William Boteler, a daughter of Thomas Fuller, esq. late of Statenborough, obt. 1777, æt. 29; she died in childbed, leaving one son, William Fuller Boteler; arms at bottom, Boteler, as above, an escutcheon of pretence, Fuller, quartering Paramor. An elegant pyramidal marble and tablet for Robert Bargrave, of this parish, obt. 1779, for Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Francis Leigh, of Hawley; and for Robert Bargrave, their only son, proctor in Doctors Commons, obt. 1774, whose sole surviving daughter Rebecca married James Wyborne, of Sholdon; arms, Bargrave, with a mullet, impaling Leigh. In the cross isle, near the chancel called the Boteler's isle, are several memorials for the Botelers. Adjoining to these, are three other gravestones, all of which have been inlaid, but the brasses are gone; they were for the same family, and on one of them was lately remaining the antient arms of Boteler, Girony of six pieces, &c. impaling ermine of three spots. Under the church are vaults, for the families of Springett, Harvey, Dare, and Bargrave. In the church-yard, on the north side of the church, are several altar tombs for the Paramors; and on the south side are several others for the Harveys, of this parish, and for Fawlkner, Rammell, and Fuller. There are also vaults for the families of Fuller, Rammell, and Petman.

 

There were formerly painted in the windows of this church, these arms, Girony of six, sable and argent, a covered cup, or, between three talbots heads, erased and counter changed of the field, collared, gules; for Boteler, of Heronden, impaling Boteler, of Graveny, Sable, three covered cups, or, within a bordure, argent; Boteler, of Heronden, as above, quartering three spots, ermine; the coat of Theobald, with quarterings. Several of the Frynnes, or as they were afterwards called, Friends, who lived at Waltham in this parish in king Henry VII.'s reign, lie buried in this church.

 

In the will of William Andrewe, of this parish, anno 1507, mention is made of our Ladie chapel, in the church-yard of the church of Estrie.

 

The eighteen stalls which were till lately in the chancel of the church, were for the use of the monks of the priory of Christ church, owners both of the manor and appropriation, when they came to pass any time at this place, as they frequently did, as well for a country retirement as to manage their concerns here; and for any other ecclesiastics, who might be present at divine service here, all such, in those times, sitting in the chancels of churches distinct from the laity.

 

The church of Eastry, with the chapels of Skrinkling and Worth annexed, was antiently appendant to the manor of Eastry, and was appropriated by archbishop Richard (successor to archbishop Becket) in the reign of king Henry II. to the almonry of the priory of Christ-church, but it did not continue long so, for archbishop Baldwin, (archbishop Richard's immediate successor), having quarrelled with the monks, on account of his intended college at Hackington, took this appropriation from them, and thus it remained as a rectory, at the archbishop's disposal, till the 39th year of king Edward III.'s reign, (fn. 10) when archbishop Simon Islip, with the king's licence, restored, united and annexed it again to the priory; but it appears, that in return for this grant, the archbishop had made over to him, by way of exchange, the advowsons of the churches of St. Dunstan, St. Pancrase, and All Saints in Bread-street, in London, all three belonging to the priory. After which, that is anno 8 Richard II. 1384, this church was valued among the revenues of the almonry of Christ-church, at the yearly value of 53l. 6s. 8d. and it continued afterwards in the same state in the possession of the monks, who managed it for the use of the almonry, during which time prior William Sellyng, who came to that office in Edward IV.'s reign, among other improvements on several estates belonging to his church, built a new dormitory at this parsonage for the monks resorting hither.

 

On the dissolution of the priory of Christ-church, in the 31st year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, this appropriation, with the advowson of the vicarage of the church of Eastry, was surrendered into the king's hands, where it staid but a small time, for he granted it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, to his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, who are the present owners of this appropriation; but the advowson of the vicarage, notwithstanding it was granted with the appropriation, to the dean and chapter as above-mentioned, appears not long afterwards to have become parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, where it continues at this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

This parsonage is entitled to the great tithes of this parish and of Worth; there belong to it of glebe land in Eastry, Tilmanstone, and Worth, in all sixtynine acres.

 

THERE IS A SMALL MANOR belonging to it, called THE MANOR OF THE AMBRY, OR ALMONRY OF CHRIST-CHURCH, the quit-rents of which are very inconsiderable.

 

The parsonage-house is large and antient; in the old parlour window is a shield of arms, being those of Partheriche, impaling quarterly Line and Hamerton. The parsonage is of the annual rent of about 700l. The countess dowager of Guildford became entitled to the lease of this parsonage, by the will of her husband the earl of Guildford, and since her death the interest of it is become vested in her younger children.

 

As to the origin of a vicarage in this church, though there was one endowed in it by archbishop Peckham, in the 20th year of king Edward I. anno 1291, whilst this church continued in the archbishop's hands, yet I do not find that there was a vicar instituted in it, but that it remained as a rectory, till near three years after it had been restored to the priory of Christchurch, when, in the 42d year of king Edward III. a vicar was instituted in it, between whom and the prior and chapter of Canterbury, there was a composition concerning his portion, which he should have as an endowment of this vicarage; which composition was confirmed by archbishop Simon Langham that year; and next year there was an agreement entered into between the eleemosinary of Christ-church and the vicar, concerning the manse of this vicarage.

 

The vicarage of Eastry, with the chapel of Worth annexed, is valued in the king's books at 19l. 12s. 1d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 19s. 2½d. In 1588 it was valued at sixty pounds. Communicants three hundred and thirty-five. In 1640 here were the like number of communicants, and it was valued at one hundred pounds.

 

The antient pension of 5l. 6s. 8d. formerly paid by the priory, is still paid to the vicar by the dean and chapter, and also an augmentation of 14l. 13s. 4d. yearly, by the lessee of the parsonage, by a convenant in his lease.

 

The vicarage-house is built close to the farm-yard of the parsonage; the land allotted to it is very trifling, not even sufficient for a tolerable garden; the foundations of the house are antient, and probably part of the original building when the vicarage was endowed in 1367.

 

¶There were two awards made in 1549 and 1550, on a controversy between the vicar of Eastry and the mayor, &c. of Sandwich, whether the scite of St. Bartholomew's hospital, near Sandwich, within that port and liberty, was subject to the payment of tithes to the vicar, as being within his parish. Both awards adjudged the legality of a payment, as due to the vicar; but the former award adjudged that the scite of the hospital was not, and the latter, that it was within the bounds of this parish. (fn. 12)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol10/pp98-121

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

Tables and chairs outside the mansion.

This is the lake at Bletchley Park. We walked around it to the mansion.

 

First glimpse of the mansion.

 

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

Palais Coburg

At the site of today's Palais Coburg were in the 18th Century several buildings, which like almost all buildings that were built on the city walls or leaning on these, were of a military nature. So here was situated the Stadt-Schultheissen Office (Wikipedia: In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß (Middle High German schultheize, from Old High German sculdheizo; Latinised as scultetus or sculteus; in Switzerland: Schultheiss, also: Schultheis, Schulte or Schulze; in Italian the two offices Scoltetto and Sculdascio, Medieval Latin sculdasius and Polish Sołtys) was the head of a municipality (akin to today's office of mayor), a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler), which was the seat of the respective city commander. Here lived and died in 1766 Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun. His successor as resident, Field Marshal Franz Moritz Graf Lacy, succeeded to acquire the building of the Imperial Court Chamber. He changed the city commandant's house into the Palais Lacy and inhabited this until his death in 1801. His nephew and heir sold the building in the same year to the Hungarian Count Franz Joseph Koháry. This one could in 1812 also acquire a neighboring house. The Kohárys were among the wealthiest landowners in Hungary. Franz Joseph's daughter Gabriele Maria Antonia married in 1816 Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Since the marriage between a prince and a countess was not befitting one's social status, much trouble and especially money had to be expended in order to raise the family Koháry, 1817, but retroactive to 1815 in the rank of prince. To document this rise in rank, they began with measures to develop the still modest palace. Prince Franz Joseph Koháry inhabited it hardly, however, since he lived mainly in Oroszvár south of Bratislava. When he died in 1826, his Viennese palace was still not very representative .

His daughter inherited it and rented it for the moment to Countess Cordelia Potocki. Through the Kohárysche heritage, to which belonged ore mines and steel plants and large agricultural estates in Hungary and the Slovakia of today, the family Coburg, which called itself since 1825 Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, could finally think of the construction of a befitting palace. She lived then in later Palais Archduke Karl Ludwig in the Favoritenstraße. The appreciation of the family through Victoria's accession to the throne in England made a representative place to stay of the Viennese branch of the family appear urgent. Duke Ferdinand had in the years 1843 to 1847 instead of the existing buildings, that ist, at the access of the side facing the city to Braunbastei, built a great palace. His son August Ludwig had 1843 married Princess Clementine of Orleans Bourbon, daughter of the French citizen king Louis-Philippe, and determined the building to his Viennese home. The architect was Karl Schleps. For the execution of his plans responsible was Adolf Korompay. Karl Schleps had the plans yet submitted in 1839, but he passed away as early as next year. He was succeeded by his former assistant Franz Neumann. With Philip Menning another architect was hired, so it is not clear today which architect what share of the palace has. To extend the construction site, some adjacent properties, as the Croats Dörfl (Kroatendörfl) were purchased. The architecture is a blend of classicism and historicism and clearly reflects those change in the architecture, which took place at this time. But for the moment followed no interior expansion, because Louis-Philippe demanded that his grandson in France should enter this world and the ducal couple moved to Paris. In 1849 that part of the palace, which is on the Seilerstaette, was largely transformed into an apartment building, designed by Franz Neumann. Yet three years earlier, Baron Sina wanted it to acquire and here housing the stock exchange and the Wechselgericht (competend in exchange disputes), but those plans had dashed.

Resided in 1851 the English ambassador to Austria, Lieutenant General John Fane, as a tenant here. Johann Strauss served him for its festivals as music director. 1852 the Palais was also inside ready to move in and Herzog August Ludwig was able to return to Vienna. After the Braunbastei 1863 was demolished, arose the classicist garden facade. Just before the turn of the century resided Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who stemmed from the family of Coburg, in his Vienna stays in the palace. During World War II, the right part of the portico was hit by a bomb. Thereby also two figures of the Attica went lost. During occupation time Russian soldiers were intitially quartered in the palace. Plans to demolish the palace and build in its place a hotel, were fortunately not realized. After this for a long the Directorate General of Austrian Federal Railways was occupying the building as tenant. 1978 sold Princess Sarah Aurelia of Saxe-Coburg the Palais to a real estate broker. Restoration plans came to a nothing for the moment again and again for financial reasons. Currently, the building belongs to a private foundation under German investor Peter Pühringer. Since 2000 it was subjected to a comprehensive refurbishment. Here two years ago one of the finest luxury hotels in the city with excellent restaurants was put into operation. In addition, there are a number of homes and offices in the vast complex of buildings. The originally planned shopping mall was not realized.

Casemates. But although the palace does not just lie at the ring road, the owner has for himself the free outlook in the city park by a servitude secured, that has been preserved until today. While the Bastion side remembers aristocratic country houses such as Castle Liechtenstein at Maria Enzersdorf or the former Weilburg in Baden, the Seilerstaette-front is more as a bourgeois apartment building designed. Attractive visual appearance is the to the ring turned 21-axis garden facade. It is characterized by the two-storey columns order which has the Palais soon led in common parlance to the name "asparagus Castle" after its establishment. The facades of the palace namely does not show the with Viennese palais common colossal order in which multiple floors are aggregated by giant pilasters or giant pillars. Here the walls are structured by Ionic columns. On whose entablature have been put Corinthian columns. Behind the pillars of the seven-axis central risalit lie open loggias in the two upper floors. They were originally connected by staircases on both sides of the garden. As this had to be re-created in 1864 due to the razing of the bastions, the Attica area has been redesigned. Franz Neumann and Leopold Mayer placed here figures, representing the personifications of music, hunting, strength, history, science, agriculture and flower care. It's due to the construction of the palace on the Braunbastei that parts of the Renaissance fortifications of Vienna have been preserved, most of all, the of brick masonry consisting casemates. They are located directly below the palace and were made available again in the last renovation in 2003. In this case , however, the ramp leading to the bastion was destroyed.

Ball room. The late classicist road tract at the Seilerstaette is the a little older part of the building. Since we have got to deal was a narrow downtown alley, the facade at the Seilerstaette is relatively flat structured. Due to the level difference to the bastion it has a considerable height. In the two-story base zone three large banded arched portals are inserted. The windows of the upper floors are designed differently (round arch pediment, not crowns). The central projection is superimposed a shallow three-storey loggia. Franz Neumann Younger created about 1880 the strict historical front building at the Coburggasse. It is organized by risalits and presents an attic parapet. The here located portal is provided with seashell decor. From the Seilerstaette one enters the palace through a two-story vestibule that leads to the magnificent staircase. It is supported by Ionic columns. Large decorative vases stand on pedestals. The piano nobile is a remarkable space ensemble of late Classicism and early-Baroque. Of its equipment only the to the wall fixed parts remained preserved because after the Second World War much of the furniture was sold. The inlaid parquet floors have been replaced for the most part in 2001. The in the center located ballroom is a with stucco marble overlayed room decorated with stuccoed volutes. Gilded mirror frames and wall lights complete the equipment. It is lit by a glass ceiling. Interesting is the family room or Green Salon. Here hang numerous portraits of members of the Coburg family, including those in the 19th Century as kings or dukes reigning different European countries (Belgium, Portugal, Bulgaria, England). The Blue Salon is decorated with full-length pictures of the inner family circle of the palace residents. They stem from Franz Xaver Winterhalter and from those workshop. Neo-Baroque is also the Yellow Salon Over the three doors hold stucco figures the coat of arms of Coburg and Orleans.

www.burgen-austria.com/archive.php?id=756

When Mom was released, she dashed under the car; her welcoming party started meowing for food, which makes me suspect their feralness. So I got them some cans of 9 Lives.

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

This is the mansion at Bletchley Park. Also known as Bletchley Park Mansion.

 

It is Grade II listed.

 

Large house, now offices. 1860 altered and extended 1883-6 and c1906

for HS Leon. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings; principal

gables half-timbered with pebble-dashed infill, some others tile-hung;

Welsh slate roof with red tile ridge; brick stacks, with clustered

flues, ribs and bands. Transomed wooden windows, principal windows with

leaded upper lights. Decorative wooden barge boards and finials to

gables. Large rambling house, of 2 storeys with partial attic.

Entrance elevation: 6 bays. Lavish ashlar detailing including

architraves. Entrance in bay 2 has internal, vaulted, porch protecting

panelled half-glazed double-door with side lights, traceried upper part

and fanlight the latter leaded and with coloured glass. Flanking porch

are hexagonal brick columns surmounted by panelled stone tops which

flank base of 4-light oriel window with decorative base. Projecting

from porch, and attached to it are 2 seated griffins on bracketed

plinths. Shaped pediment with elaborate finial. Gabled bay 1 has

projecting 2-storey canted bay with pretted eaves band and cornice below

swept, domed, metal roof. On its left is single-storey wooden

conservatory with traceried bays, formerly an open-sided loggia.

Paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3 have ashlar framed triple window to ground

floor with gableted butresses,and two canted bay windows over. Across

bay 4 is 3 bay embattled ashlar loggia fronting elaborate - panelled

double-door with canted bay window to right; inserted 1st floor window.

Bay 6 has polygonal 2-storey bay window with shaped pediments screening

finialed polygonal roof. Right return: 3 left-hand bays in same style

as front, the rest plainer; but attached to right end is dovecote-like

structure: octagonal, of 2 stages, having plinth; inserted ground-floor

windows; ashlar upper stage with 2-light windows below string; and plain

tile roof with gablets and finial. Rear: plainer having tradesmen's

entrance; complex roofline, one roof having louvre with finialed lead

cupola; and embattled tower with blue-brick decorative work and date

(former steep hipped roof removed). Left return: in style of front,

with ashlar canted and curved bay windows; paired, gabled, bays 2 and 3

decorative half-timbered 1st floor; shaped pediment to bay 4; and former

loggia (much altered) across right-hand bays. Interior: high quality,

elaborate, interiors survive, with panelling, panelled doors, decorative

fireplaces, and decorative plaster ceilings. Entrance vestibule: stone

columns and vaults. Entrance Hall: arcaded polished-stone screen wall

and panelled area beyond with elaborate 2-stage, columned, ashlar

fireplace surround and traceried panelling and painted glass to roof.

Room at right end: Jacobethan fireplace; coffered ceiling with floral-

decorated plaster panels. Stairhall: panelled; ground-floor arcade and

deep floral frieze; decorative coved, coffered, ceiling over stair;

fretted balustrade with carved surround and carved octagonal newels to

stair panelled stair well. Library : elaborate wooden jacobethan

inglenook with overmirror; fitted book cases and shelves; fluted frieze;

compartmental ceiling with decorative plaster panels. Ballroom :

linenfold panelling; wall recess flanked by clustered wooden columns

from which spring traceried arches; elaborate plaster work to frieze and

to coved, ribbed, ceiling which has pendant finials. Billiard room:

brattished panelling and cornice; columns support ceiling ribs; wooden

trusses. Additional fireplaces, panelling, and decorative doors,

plasterwork and cornices to 1st floor.

 

Bletchley Park House was the headquarters building of World War II

operational centre, in the grounds of which was the hut in which the

vital cracking of the Nazis' Enigma Code occurred. Churchill was one of

the important visitors to the house.

 

Bletchley Park House - Heritage Gateway

 

A pair of stone griffin's near the main entrance.