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Linton and District History SocietyWhere History Comes To Life

Newspaper Articles2018

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2018 Newspaper Articles

The Glorious First of June - page 1The First Victory of the Synchronised Machine Gun - page 2The Hanoveran Succession - page 4September Anniversaries - page 6Mrs. Beeton Remembered - page 9The Glorious Revolution - page 11The First Lady Elected To Parliment - page 13The Graf Zeppelin - page 14The Kennel Club - page 15Heat Wave - page 16Great Fire of 1666 - page 17Common practices of Women and Men artists - page 18Buffalo Bill - page 21The Goucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Company - page 23Napoleon Bonaparte’s first abdication - page 261st August Anniversaries - page 2811th July, 1882 - page 30Newport Transporter Bridge - page 33Many dead in London - page 35Blackpool Illuminations - page 37The Cinema in the Woods - page 39 Then there was light! - page 40Warsaw remembered - page 42After the Armistice - page 43The Christmas Tree - page 50 The Gunpowder Plot of crime, murder and terrorism - page 55 The Geneva Convention - page 56A Pennyworth of Art - page 61Linton Visits Burton Court - page 65


The Glorious First of June

By 1794 the French Revolution was already five years old and had resulted in the murder not only of their King and Queen, but thousands of French men, women and children, whilst those still alive starved, her ragged armies fought almost all their neighbours. To alleviate the starvation a grain convoy with fleet protection was gathered in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. In an attempt to frustrate delivery to the port of Brest our Channel Fleet of 25 mainly Ships of the Line, the battleships of the day, under the command of Admiral Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe engaged the French Atlantic Fleet some 400 nautical miles off the French coast. The French Fleet of 26 mainly Ships of the Line, commanded by Vice Admiral Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse, were sailing in line ahead as was our fleet, but with the wind astern Admiral Howe was able to close with the enemy and for the first time ordered the fleet to sail straight towards the French ships in order that each ship would sail through separate enemy ships thus causing immense damage with gun fire through their stern windows. Unfortunately the order was understood by only six Captains, but nevertheless very considerable damage resulted. Our casualties amounted to 1,200 whilst the French suffered 4,000 casualties, 3,000 captured, 6 Ships of the Line captured and 1 sunk. However the grain was not lost and the Merchant Men reached their French destination. Both sides at the time claimed victory, but our subsequent blockade of the enemy’s ports proved a success.

Article by Dorian Osborne. Reprinted from The Chimes OnLine - https://www.thechimes.org.uk/historical-blog

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The First Victory of the Synchronised Machine Gun

I will refer to the first successful use in flight of a synchronised aerial machine gun on the 1st July, 1915 on the Western Front.

This was, and still is, a profoundly significant moment in the history of military aviation as previously almost all military and naval aircraft required a pilot and a gunner, the pilot could not carry out both functions. Prior to the synchronised machine gun the gunner was armed with a rifle, revolver and a machine gun mounted where it could be operated by the gunner.

The illustration depicting two aircraft shows a Royal Flying Corps “pusher” aircraft and a German “tractor” propeller configuration. The propeller of the “pusher” is installed behind the pilot and its engine can be seen. The tractor version was faster and more manoeuvrable in flight, but had the disadvantage that there was a very real danger of the gunner or pilot, in his enthusiasm, shooting the blades off the propeller with inevitable fatal consequences, which happened all too often, especially as parachutes were not provided.

As early as 1910 August Euler designed a synchroniser gear to enable a machine gun to be fired through the arc of a spinning propeller without the bullets striking the blades. Both France and Germany conducted research into synchronisation gear during 1913 and 1914, but there were inevitable problems, both with timing of gun and propeller. Also any slight variation in the manufacture, which at ground level used by infantry did not matter, could cause a slight delay in firing, enough for the bullet to strike the propeller blade.

On the first July, 1915 Leutnant Kurt Wintgens successfully engaged a French Morane Saulnier near Luneville at 1800 hours flying a Fokker Eindecker fitted with a synchronised machine gun, and this is the first time that such an aircraft with this type of gun scored a victory. Leutnant Wintgens was awarded an Iron Cross and the Pour le Merite or “Blue Max”.

Both Leutnant Wintgens and the Fokker Eindecker he piloted are illustrated.

By the 1930’s increasingly the function of fighter aircraft was to engage all metal bombers for which the light machine gun was quite unsuitable, that heaver guns mounted in the wings became the standard, the arrangement for the Super marine Spitfire, Hurricane and Messerschmitt.

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Leutnant Kurt Wintgens

Fokker Eindecker


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The Hanoveran Succession

On the 1st August, 1714 the anticipated death of Queen Anne occurred, the last monarch of the Royal House of Stuart, who died without a successor, her only child, Prince William, having died on the 30th July, 1700. This left a constitutional dilemma which had not been resolved during her lifetime.

Normally, all things being equal, the succession would have been straightforward, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, known as the Old Pretender, as the legitimate eldest son of King James II would have been proclaimed King, after all Anne was the younger daughter of King James II and Anne Hyde, and Mary the elder daughter, married to King William III had died without leaving a successor. Thus Prince James Stuart, the son of King James II and his second wife Mary of Modena is the obvious successor.

But there was a problem, the Roman Catholic James II fled to Ireland, driven out by a combination of anti-Catholics and the forces of the protestant William of Orange. After defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, despite French assistance the now ex James II retired to the Court of His Most Christian Majesty King Louis XIV, the Sun King. Unsuccessful French intrigues to re-instate James and later his son Prince James Francis merely fuelled colonial rivalry between us and the French. Almost constant warfare between the Catholic League and Protestants had raged somewhere in Europe since the early 1500s to the Peace of Westphalia in 1649 except the Netherlands had to wait for the Treaty of Rijswijk of 1697. There was no stomach for more Catholics v. Protestants wars, and the Country had already had enough of the dictatorship of the Puritans. There was only one other candidate, the Elector of Hanover. Why Hanover? You may ask. Elizabeth, sister of the martyred King Charles I married Frederick V of the Palatinate of the Rhine by whom she had thirteen children. Sophie, the 12th married Ernest Augustus of Hanover, who was created Elector in 1692. It was Sophie who commissioned the house and gardens at Herren Hausen, which is where she died on the 7th June, 1714, less than two months before her son, now the Elector, George Louis of Brunswick-Luneburg was proclaimed King of Great Britain on the 1st August, 1714.

Although the Coronation on the 20th October, 1714 of a minor German prince was not to everyone’s liking, especially those favouring the Stuart cause, there is no doubt that the incorporation of Hanover extended British power and prestige. Not only were we now a significant player on the Continental stage, but the Hanoverian army greatly increased our military might.

With the Sun King’s active support the Old Pretender launched a bid for the Crown by landing at Peterhead on 22nd December, 1714, but although proclaimed King James III by his supporters, a combination of ill health and the approach of Government troops led to his departure from Montrose on 5th February, 1715.

King George I never mastered the English language and was accused of spending too much time in Hanover. His residence, Herren Hausen is today part of the European Garden Heritage Network, visited by thousands every year, where its magnificent gardens are preserved much as they were during the time of their creator Sophie Kurfurstin von Hanover, niece of King Charles I, and mother of King George I.

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Sophie when a young lady

A view of part of the gardens at Herren Hausen photographed in 2014


The marble statue of Sophie Kurfurstin von Hanover placed on the spot in the gardens of Herren Hausen where

she died on 7th June, 1714

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September Anniversaries

For the month of September, 2018 your scribe has much to choose from, being the anniversaries of happenings on the 1st September.

In 1644 the Royalist forces of the James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, acting in support of King Charles I succeeded in defeating the ineffective army of the Earl of Wemyss who was defending Perth at the Battle of Tippermuir, and thus capturing the City from the Covenanters.

The “Sun King”, King Louis XIV of France died in 1715 bringing to an end the then longest reign of any monarch. It is possible unfortunate for France that most of the Royal Family had died of smallpox four years earlier, and he was therefore succeeded by his Great Grandson who at the age of five became His Most Christian Majesty King Louis XV, and to whom we owe the flamboyant and exotic paintings of Francois Boucher, Jean Honore Fragonard, Carl Andre van Loo and other artists of the Rococo Age.

The advent of the Franco Prussian War is sometimes cited as one of the factors responsible for the Great War of 1914-18 as France resented the German reacquisition of Alsace and Lorraine. The deciding action of the War was the Battle of Sedan which commenced on the 1st September, 1870 and resulted in the capitulation of the French Army bottled up in the City together with the surrender of the Emperor Napoleon III and the Siege of Paris which followed.

Unlike the 1st Afghan War of 1839-42, the Second Afghan War of 1878 to 1880 was provoked by Russian activity in Afghanistan which threatened the North West Frontier (of India). By the Treaty of Gandamak, May, 1879 the Amir, Mohammad Yaqub Khan agreed to our establishing a Resident in Kabul, but a rebellion by disgruntled Afghan troops led to the murder of the Resident and his guard. Major General Sir Frederick Sleigh Roberts commanding the army defeated the rebel Afghan forces of Ayub Kha at Kandahar on 1st September, 1880, thus bringing the War to a successful conclusion. Frederick Sleigh Roberts who won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny whilst serving as a Lieutenant attached to the Bengal Horse Artillery, was created 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar and Pretoria in 1901 after successful command during the 2nd Boar War. He was the uncle of Field Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and the “Bob” in “Bob’s your uncle.”

Saving the guns EB Battery at Maiwand

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Woodville, Richard Caton - 92nd and 2nd Gurkhas storming Kandahar, 1880


The Battle of Kabul, 1879

Norie, Orlando - Battle of Kandahar

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On 1st September, 1914 the name of the City of St. Petersburg was changed to Petrograd in order to be more Russian and less Germanic, the name by which it was known until the Bolsheviks change the name to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg again. On the 1st August, 1714 the anticipated death of Queen Anne occurred, the last monarch of the Royal House of Stuart, who died without a successor, her only child, Prince William, having died on the 30th July, 1700. This left a constitutional dilemma which had not been resolved during her lifetime.

Normally, all things being equal, the succession would have been straightforward, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, known as the Old Pretender, as the legitimate eldest son of King James II would have been proclaimed King, after all Anne was the younger daughter of King James II and Anne Hyde, and Mary the elder daughter, married to King William III had died without leaving a successor. Thus Prince James Stuart, the son of King James II and his second wife Mary of Modena is the obvious successor.

But there was a problem, the Roman Catholic James II fled to Ireland, driven out by a combination of anti-Catholics and the forces of the protestant William of Orange. After defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, despite French assistance the now ex James II retired to the Court of His Most Christian Majesty King Louis XIV, the Sun King. Unsuccessful French intrigues to re-instate James and later his son Prince James Francis merely fuelled colonial rivalry between us and the French. Almost constant warfare between the Catholic League and Protestants had raged somewhere in Europe since the early 1500s to the Peace of Westphalia in 1649 except the Netherlands had to wait for the Treaty of Rijswijk of 1697. There was no stomach for more Catholics v. Protestants wars, and the Country had already had enough of the dictatorship of the Puritans. There was only one other candidate, the Elector of Hanover. Why Hanover? You may ask. Elizabeth, sister of the martyred King Charles I married Frederick V of the Palatinate of the Rhine by whom she had thirteen children. Sophie, the 12th married Ernest Augustus of Hanover, who was created Elector in 1692. It was Sophie who commissioned the house and gardens at Herren Hausen, which is where she died on the 7th June, 1714, less than two months before her son, now the Elector, George Louis of Brunswick-Luneburg was proclaimed King of Great Britain on the 1st August, 1714.

Although the Coronation on the 20th October, 1714 of a minor German prince was not to everyone’s liking, especially those favouring the Stuart cause, there is no doubt that the incorporation of Hanover extended British power and prestige. Not only were we now a significant player on the Continental stage, but the Hanoverian army greatly increased our military might.

With the Sun King’s active support the Old Pretender launched a bid for the Crown by landing at Peterhead on 22nd December, 1714, but although proclaimed King James III by his supporters, a combination of ill health and the approach of Government troops led to his departure from Montrose on 5th February, 1715.

King George I never mastered the English language and was accused of spending too much time in Hanover. His residence, Herren Hausen is today part of the European Garden Heritage Network, visited by thousands every year, where its magnificent gardens are preserved much as they were during the time of their creator Sophie Kurfurstin von Hanover, niece of King Charles I, and mother of King George I.


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Mrs. Beeton Remembered

This month I will only relate one event which occurred the first day of this month of October, the anniversary of the first publication of Mrs Samuel Orchart Beeton’s book “Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management” on 1st October, 1861.

This was a husband and wife collaboration, Samuel Beeton wrote and compiled the volume which was edited by his Wife Isabella. However it was not entirely original work, being composed of the recipes and guide to household management of the published works of Hannah Glasse’s “The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy” of 1747, Elizabeth Raffald’s “The Experienced English Housekeeper” of 1769, Maria Eliza Rundell’s “A New System of Domestic Cookery” of 1806, Eliza Acton’s “Modern Cookery for Private Families” of 1845, Marie Antoine Careme’s “La Patissier royal parisien” and the various works of Charles Elme Francatelli published between 1845 and 1862, a process referred to today as plagiarism. It was though the first to include a step by step guide to cookery and management with many coloured illustrations showing how dishes should be prepared and presented for table.

Mrs Beeton was 21 years of age when she commenced work on what would make her a much remembered author long after her demise in 1865. Originally published as 24 monthly instalments by her husband’s firm S. O. Beeton Publishers of 161, Bouverie Street, London in 1859 as “The English Woman’s Domestic Magazine”, the instalments were published as one book on 1st October, 1861.

Title page of ‘Household Management’

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Mrs Beeton - Deserts

Mrs. Beeton Remembered

The volume included information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen Maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House Maids, Lady’s Maid, Maid of All Work, Laundry Maid, Nurse and Nurse Maid, Wet and Sick Nurse and a vast array of additional information over at least 1,300 pages, of which the recipes took up 1,000 pages. Many recipes were supplied by Friends, Relatives and Well-wishers which were tested in the kitchen of the Beeton Household in Pinner, Middlesex and only those which proved successful were included in the book. In the first year alone the book sold 60,000 copies, and almost two million by 1868. Publication ceased in 1915 or thereabouts.

In an age before endless Cookery Television Programmes, before Fanny Cradock, books and magazines were the only source of published information on the how to do it of household management other than “Mother”; often essential for the young newlywed lady of the house if she was to avoid being taken advantage of by domestic staff.

Mrs Beeton’s - Fruits


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The Glorious Revolution

As revolutions go the “Glorious Revolution” which began in 1688 was rather less bloody than most, that is, except for the Irish and Scottish Roman Catholics. The first of November is the anniversary of the departure in 1688 of Prince William of Orange from the Western Netherland’s port of Hellevetsluis on the Maas near Rotterdam. The fleet conveying the Dutch army arrived off the coast in Torbay and a landing was affected at Brixham on the 5th November. Prince William was Stadhouder of the Dutch Republic, effectively the de facto head of state. The Orange family would later become the Dutch Royal Family.

Prince William was married to Mary, the elder daughter of Prince James, Duke of York (New York City is named after him) later to become King James II by his first wife Anne Hyde of the Protestant Faith. Hyde Park in London takes its name from Anne’s Father. James II,s second marriage to Mary of Modena of the Roman Catholic Faith led to widespread protest which the trial of Seven Bishops for opposing James’s Declaration of Indulgences only added fuel to the fire. The anti catholic faction believed that James would have to be removed, and when Queen Mary gave birth to a baby boy in June, 1688 Mary, wife of the Prince of Orange was no longer the next in line of succession. It is believed that as early as April, 1688 William had begun assembling an invasion army, but he was reluctant to proceed further fearing that Great Britain would not accept an invading foreigner as their king.

T Bakhuizen, Ludolf - Prince William boarding the ‘Brielle’ on the Maas, 1689.

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Prince of Orange engraving by William Miller after Turner


The Glorious Revolution

Once he had obtained a letter from Rear Admiral Arthur Herbert, one of the most prominent of the anti James faction he proceeded on the 1st November, landing four days later with 453 ships and transporting an army of some 35,000 troops including 11,000 foot (infantry) and 5,000 horse (cavalry). The loyalty of the opposing English forces of James was unreliable and the defection of Lord Churchill of Eyemouth to William effectively sealed the fate of James whose grip on power daily declined. On the night of the 11/12th December together with Mary his wife, their son and a few close supporters took flight from London dropping the Great Seal into the River Thames in the process.

Thus began the reign of William, Prince of Orange and Mary Stuart, which would last until William’s death in 1702, when his horse stumbled on a mole hill throwing him to the ground. For years afterwards Scots loyal to the Stuart dynasty drank to “the little gentleman in velvet” and/or passed their wine glasses over the finger bowl as a silent toast to the king over the water, that is, James II and his successors. Mary had already died in 1694.

The two pictures show firstly William’s departure from Hellevoetsluis aboard the “Brielle” by the Dutch artist Ludolf Bakhuizen in 1689, only one year after the event, whilst the other is an engraving by William Miller of the painting by J. M. W. Turner showing Prince William landing at Brixham, painted some hundred years or more after 1688.

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The First Lady Elected To Parliment

Today, the 1st December, but in 1919, is the day the first female Member of Parliament took her seat after being elected to the House of Commons following the Representation of the People Act also known as the Fourth Reform Act of 1918. She was not the first to be elected, but Countess Markiewicz was serving a prison sentence in Holloway Goal for Sinn Fein and other suffragettes were also in prison having been found guilty of arson.

Nancy Witcher Langhorne was the eight of eleven children of Mr. and Mrs. Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, a railroad businessman, and was born on the 19th May, 1879. Prior to Nancy’s arrival her father had lost his fortune in the aftermath of the Civil War, and her early childhood was less well to do during the time her father was rebuilding the family fortune. On the 27th October, 1897 she married the wealthy socialite Robert Gould Shaw in New York, but this unhappy union was soon terminated. A chance vacation in Great Britain led to Nancy’s love affair with England and our way of life, especially our aristocracy to which her father’s rebuilt wealth gave her access. She married into the English aristocracy, albeit one born in the United States, Waldorf Astor in 1906, and the Bridegrooms father gave them “Cliveden”, a grand house and estate in Buckinghamshire overlooking the River Thames, as a wedding present. On the death of her father in law, Viscount William Waldorf Aston her husband succeeded to the title becoming the 2nd Viscount Waldorf Astor, thus Mrs. Waldorf Astor became Viscountess Nancy Astor.

She was an active Member of Parliament, and her Intoxicating Liquor (sale to persons under 18) Bill to raise the minimum age for the sale of alcohol in Public Houses from 14 to 18 attained the Royal Accent. Also she was a great supporter of nursery education, and worked to recruit women into the Civil Service and Police Force. She could be both extremely witty and devastating when annoyed, and there were various exchanges between Viscountess Astor and Winston Churchill. On one occasion Nancy Astor is reported as saying to Winston that “If you were my husband, I’d poison your tea” to which he replied “If you were my wife, I would drink it”.

Viscountess Nancy Astor died on the 2nd May, 1964 at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire


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The Graff Zeppellin

Many of my Readers will have heard of the disaster of the “Hindenburg” at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, but did you know that the first flight of these giant Air Ships occurred on the 8th August, 1928, and was named after their originator Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The inaugural flight of the LZ 127 named the “Graf Zeppelin” was in October 1928 flying from Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance to Lakehurst in 111 hours nonstop. She combined comfort and luxury with stability and speed carrying 20 passengers with a crew of 40 at up to 80 miles per hour. Until the fatal accident at Lakehurst on 6th May, 1937 when the D-LZ 129 “Hindenburg” exploded these Air Ships circumnavigated the globe carrying passengers as far as Rio de Janeiro, Japan, Egypt, Russia, and Los Angeles to name just a few destinations. Another of the ship’s achievements was a flight over the orth Pole starting on the 24th and completed on 31st July, 1931.

On the 24th April, 1930 the United States issued a series of postage stamps to commemorate the “Graf Zeppelin”

After the loss of the “Hindenburg” these Air Ships were withdrawn from service, the last being scrapped on the orders of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring.

Article by Dorian Osborne. Reprinted from Ross Gazette

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The Kennel Club

On this day, 4th April, in 1873 Sewallis E. Shirley founded the Kennel club after becoming frustrated trying to organise dog shows without recognised rules. Since the first dog show in 1859 they had become increasingly popular and Mr. Shirley exhibited Fox Terriers from 1865. Together with a group of other gentlemen he organised the First Grand Exhibition of Sporting and Other Dogs held at the Crystal Palace in June 1870.

Afterwards Sewallis Shirley called a meeting with twelve gentlemen all with an interest in judging and exhibiting pedigree dogs. The Meeting was held at 2 Albert Mansions, Victoria Street, London, a small flat with only three rooms. All business was conducted from there until moved to Pall Mall in May 1877. A Stud Book was established in December 1874 listing pedigree dogs competing at shows from 1859 and a code of rules for the guidance of dog shows and field trials.

Following the death of Charles Cruft in 1938 the Kennel Club acquired Crufts Dog Show in 1939, and the first Crufts Show held by the Kennel Club was in 1948 at Olympia in London. The show was moved to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in 1991, its centenary year.

Article by Dorian Osborne. Reprinted from The Ross Gazette

Sewallis Shirley

Charles Cruft.

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Heat Wave

As I write this article for next week’s edition, 4th July, of the “Ross Gazette” the thought occurs to me that if any of you, dear readers, have been finding the present heat wave somewhat trying, spare a thought for the people of Eastern North America who from 4th July, 1911 suffered a particularly severe heat wave, made worse at that time by the very limited domestic refrigeration.

For 11 days the heat wave lasted causing a total of 380 deaths. In Nashua, New Hampshire, where generally a more moderate climate prevailed the temperature rose to 106 degrees Fahrenheit or 41Centigrade, whilst in Boston, Massachusetts 104 degrees was recorded, 40C, still an all time maximum for the city. In New York City alone 146 people died of the heat, which also caused the deaths of 600 horses.

On the 11th July the New York Times reported a welcome development with a wind springing up just in time and blowing an 18 mile per hour comforter, with the temperature dropping to a slightly more comfortable 95.3 degrees not 98 degrees, the heat wave still had a further three days duration before a thunder storm brought the unbearable heat to a very welcome conclusion.


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Great Fire of 1666

Today, the 5th September is the anniversary of the day the fire began to die down as the strong wind which had been fanning the flames of the fire, which started in a bakery or bakers shop at Midnight on Sunday 2nd September in Pudding Lane in the City of London in 1666, had began to drop the previous evening, Tuesday. Known as the Great Fire of London over the course of four days it destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches and St. Paul’s Cathedral, in fact the major part of the walled City of London and properties to the west including the gate house at Ludgate. Some 70,000 to 80,000 inhabitants lost their homes, and the heat generated rose to 1,250 degrees Centigrade or 2,280 degrees Fahrenheit. The cost of hiring a cart for transport of household goods rose from 2 shillings (ten new pence) to £40.00, about £4,000.00 in 2005 values. It is generally regarded that the fire was finally extinguished at Pie Corner on the 6th September, but had almost died out by Wednesday 5th.

Probably the major cause of the fire, other than densely packed timber dwellings was the drought which had persisted since November, 1665, and which followed two exceptionally wet years. The Dutch said it was retribution for Holme’s Bonfire the destruction of a Dutch town during the Second Anglo Dutch War, and whilst King Louis XIV of France sent aid he rejoiced that the fire would hamper the activities of our fleet. There was the usual desire to find someone to blame for the catastrophe, and a simple minded French Watchmaker Robert Hubert was tried, found guilty of starting the fire, and hanged at Tyburn (approximately Marble Arch today) on the 28th September, 1666. Only later was it revealed that he was aboard ship in the North Sea until the second day of the fire. The desire to find someone to blame for misfortune still remains strong today!


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Common practices of Women and Men Artists

Professor Allen Fisher’s talk on the “Mutual achievements: Common practices of women and men painters in Europe before 1900” comparing the work and close relationship of artists of both genders from the 17th century to the end of the 19th was a fitting conclusion to our short series of lectures on the 100th anniversary of the granting of female suffrage in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and a prelude to the Christmas festivities of goodwill and celebrated a harmony of artistic talent.

The talk on the 28th November provided a snap-shot yet extensive survey of the mutual practices undertaken by a variety of female and male painters over a period of more than 250 years. From the 17th century collaborations of Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi, to the roles of mentor and student in the 17th and 18th century portraits by Mary Beale and Peter Lely, Jacques-Louis David and Elizabeth Vigee le Brun, Angelica Kauffman and Joshua Reynolds and the paintings of flowers and still-lifes by Willem van Aelst and Rachel Ruysch, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin and Anne Vallayer-Coster. The talk then attended to fresh exchanges in the 19th century, the work practices of Edouard Manet, Victorine Meurent and Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, Marie and Felix Bracquemond, Suzanne Valadon, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. The working relationship between painter and model, the family exchanges between husband and wife, sister and brother. The talk visited the responsive practices to military history in works by Ernest Messonier, Elizabeth Thompson later Lady Butler and Lieutenant General Butler, and contemporary animals in paintings by Rosa Bonheur and Edwin Landseer. The overall talk provided a celebration of exemplary work by both women and men, a demonstration of competitive edges and cohesive respect.


Angilique Kaufmann

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Chardin, Jean-Baptiste - Still life with porcelain teapot, 1763

Elizabeth Vigee le Brun - Self portrait

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Jacques-Louis David - Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and Coronation of the Empress Josephine

Sir Joshua Reynolds

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Buffalo Bill comes to London

William Frederick Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill started working at the age of 11 in 1857 after his Father’s premature death, and was employed as a wagon train messenger carrying messages and instructions to the drivers of the various wagons forming the column moving west before the development of railroads. When aged 14 he was engaged as a rider for the Pony Express, and later he served in the US Cavalry both during the Civil War and the various Indian Wars.

In 1883 he opened “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” at North Platte, Nebraska with a large company of actors/performers and toured the United States where the show played to large crowds and was everywhere successful. In 1887 he brought the entire show to Great Britain, and at the command of the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, as part of the American Exhibition, and especially for Queen Victoria, who was delighted, the first performance was staged on the 9th May. This was also part of the celebrations for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, poster

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Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, 1890

Article by Dorian Osborne

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The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Company

After the long summer recess the first meeting of the 2018-19 programme of the Society was held on the 3rd October with a large attendance of both Members of the Society and Visitors who very much enjoyed an illustrated talk by Richard Summers, a Director and volunteer of over 20 years entitled “The Story of a Railway Line”, which covered the rise, fall and eventual reconstruction as a heritage railway of the last cross country main line laid by the Great Western Railway in the early 1900’s. The line ran from Honeybourne in the Vale of Evesham to Cheltenham and gave the “GWR” a direct route from the midlands to the West Country to compete with the Midland Railway’s route. Operation of the railway as an express route as well as providing local traffic to the many stations on the line during the heydays of the railway system was mentioned as was the rapid decline due to falling demand for local passenger services in the 1960’s when under “BR” ownership. The line eventually closed in 1976 but after a number of years when the tracks were lifted and the stations demolished 15 miles of route were bought by the “GWSR”. The story then described the struggle to rebuild the line and stations with the opening to Cheltenham in 2003 and to Broadway this year, 58 years after its closure. The railway has been rebuilt and is almost entirely run by around 900 volunteers, a remarkable feat.

Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway

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GWSR

Toddington Station, G&WR

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GWR as poster

Updated GWSR Map 2018


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Napoleon Bonaparte’s first abdication

Today I shall describe for you, dear Reader, the events which occurred on the 11th April, 1814. This the Treaty of Fontainebleau was effectively the abdication of Napoleon I the Great Disturber after his defeat at the Battles of Leipzig and Paris earlier the same year and the declaration of the French Senate that Napoleon is no longer emperor, the right of succession in his family is abolished and France is absolved from their oath of loyalty to him. Thus ended Napoleon’s rule as Emperor of France

With the total collapse of his power Napoleon had no other choice than abdication but the generous terms of the treaty established Napoleon’s rule over the Mediterranean island of Elba and he was permitted to take with him a personal guard of 400 troops. Also both he and Marie Louise were allowed to retain their titles of emperor and empress but not of France.

The Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed by Austria, France, Prussia and Russia whilst our Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh, refused to sign on behalf of H.M. King George III as we would thereby recognise the legitimacy of Napoleon as Emperor of France and that to exile him to an island over which he would have sovereignty, only a short distance from France and Italy, could easily lead to further war, which is just what happened within one year.

April 11th 1814, Napoleon’s departure for Elba

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Napoleon on the Isle of Elba


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1st August Anniversaries

This week, the 1st August, your Scribe finds himself literally spoilt for choice, so I have decided to mention all six of the momentous events that have contributed to our lives today in chronological order, in each case the date is the 1st August, only the years are different.

In 1714 George Elector of Hanover became King of Great Britain, thus ensuring our future prosperity and freedom from Continental ensnarement. As the great-grandson of King James I, and a protestant he safeguarded the position of the Church of England. 1798 saw the Battle of the Nile, also referred to as the Battle of Aboukir Bay, a decisive victory which stranded a French Army in Egypt and together with Copenhagen and Trafalgar guaranteed British Naval supremacy for about 150 years. The French flag ship l’Orient blew up, which is the event described in Felicia Dorothea Hemans’ poem “Casabianca” of August 1826 and which begins “The Boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled, The flame that lit the battle’s wreck, Shone round him o’er the dead”

Other anniversaries include the Acts of Union with Ireland in 1800, hence the red St Patrick’s Cross within the Union Flag, in 1876 Colorado became the 38th State of the Union in America, the first Boy Scout camp was held on Brownsea Island in 1907, and the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games opened.

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, Bt. - King George I.

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Anald, George - The Battle of the Nile

Berlin, Eröffnung der XI. Olympischen Spiele


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11th July, 1882

Why, you may ask should we wish to know what happened in 1882, other than the year the Married Woman’s Property Act received the Royal Accent, and that was not on the 11th July. Those dear Readers old enough to remember the Suez Crisis of 1954 will be aware of our involvement in Egypt, a British Protectorate from 1882 until 1922. Perhaps the story begins with our then Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli’s purchase in 1875 of a controlling interest in the Suez Canal Company when the spendthrift Khedive Ismail offered his shares for sale to pay debts. In 1881 Urabi Pasha led a military revolt of the Egyptian Army and on the 11th and 12th June there were serious anti European riots in Alexandria in which at least 50 Europeans and 125 Egyptians were murdered. At the same time the various forts guarding the port were being strengthened by Urabi Pasha’s rebellions troops.

Admiral Beauchamp Seymour commanding the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet at the time at anchor both within the Port of Alexandria and the open sea beyond issued an ultimatum to Urabi Pasha to cease work on the forts otherwise they would be bombarded. When the time limit expired at 7 am on the 11th July the fleet opened fire putting all forts out of action.

The army of Urabi Pasha were subsequently defeated at the Battle of Tell el Kebir by the forces of Major General Garnet Wolseley, the same commander who failed to relieve Khartoum and rescue Major General Henry William Gordon in 1885. Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan ridiculed General Wolseley as the “thoroughly modern Major General” in the Pirates of Penzance, actually first performed in 1879, for his desire for army reform.

Bombardment of Alexandria, 1881

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Major General Charles George Gordo

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The Battle of Tel el Kebir, 1882


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Newport Transporter Bridge

The 12th September is the anniversary of the opening in 1906 of the Newport Transporter Bridge in South Wales. The structure, designed by the French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin, to convey vehicles and pedestrians across the River Usk just below Newport and up stream of the docks where the river joins to Seven Estuary. The design allowed ships to pass under the span of the transporter, and avoided the cost of long ramps leading to either bank of the river to enable a bridge to be built high enough for the ships of the period to pass below, the land being low and flat on each side. Because of the shallowness of the river at low tide ferries could not operate continuously, thus the desire for a bridge.

It is a Grade II “listed building” and one of only twelve ever built worldwide, of which only ten survive today, Newport being one, and apart from the Tees Transporter Bridge, is the only one in Great Britain. The two towers are 241 feet high (73.6mt) and it carries vehicles and people 774.3 feet (236mt) in a gondola suspended on cables. It featured in the 1959 crime drama film “Tiger Bay” starring John and Hayley Mills giving audiences the idea that the bridge is in Cardiff some 12 miles away.

Monmouthshire, Newport, Transporter Bridge.

Newport Transporter Bridge, entrance

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Monmouthshire, Newport, Transporter Bridge.


Newport Transporter Bridge, vehicles in transit.

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Many dead in London

Exactly 99 years ago today, that is the 13th June, 1917, London was subjected to the first daylight air raid of the Great War when some twentythree Gotha G IV heavy bombers attacked the Capital for the first time. The attack was led by Hauptmann Ernst Brandenburg of the Luftstreitkrafte (the Imperial German Air Service), centred on the East End and resulted in the deaths of 162 civilians including 18 children and 432 injured. During the raid a primary school in Upper North Street, Poplar suffered considerable damage.

The Gotha biplanes were named after their place of manufacture being the city of Gotha in Germany. They were “Pushers” meaning the propeller was placed behind the cockpit and were slower and less manoeuvrable than, to us, the more familiar tractor version with the propeller in the nose. Hauptmann Ernst Brandenburg on his return was awarded the Pour le Merite or “Blue Max”. Lt. Charles Chabot of the Royal Flying Corps said at the time “Raids hadn’t become a very serious threat and everybody crowded out into the street to watch. They didn’t take cover or dodge.” The Gotha was faster than the Zeppelins and thus both more deadly for the attacked and safer for the crew.

Gotha G IV 2

Crew of Kagohl 3 in front of a Gotha, 1917

Gotha in action

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Gotha RG im flug

Zeppelin Raid plaque, 61, Farringdon Road, London, E.C.

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Blackpool Illuminations

As any serious student of history will soon realise, everything is older, was invented or discovered earlier than is generally believed. Thus we should not be surprised that on the 19th September, 1879 the Blackpool Illuminations were first switched on. This was an eventful year, beginning in January with the Zulu War in South Africa, Rooks Drift, the death of the Prince Imperial, only son of the ex Emperor Napoleon III, the first female students admitted to Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville Hall of Oxford University, the foundation of Sunderland Football Club, the opening of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera “The Pirates of Penzance, and ending in December with the collapse in a storm of part of the first Tay Railway Bridge.

Compared with the illuminations of today, this was a very feeble affair, consisting of 8 carbon arc lamps but at the time it was a first, being proclaimed as “Artificial Sunlight”. From small acorns the mighty oak trees grow, and so it has been with Blackpool and others that have followed. Blackpool occupies 6 miles of the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, the holiday resort in the past of countless workers from the Cotton Mills of Cottonopolis and other industrial towns of the county. A great change occurred in May 1912 when Princess Louise, the Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife opened the new section of the promenade, the Princess Parade which later the same year was illuminated with “festoons of garland lamps”, 10,000 light bulbs were used.

Princess Louise

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Blackpool tower and illuminations.

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The Cinema in the Woods

Some of you, dear Readers, may remember the film “The Longest Day”, released in 1962 otherwise there has been plenty of television documentaries on the subject of the Allied landings in France in 1944, such that we could all be forgiven for thinking that the whole invasion force was assembled along the south coast and conveyed by the Royal Navy to the coast of Normandy on the 6th June, 1944.

As usual in regarding historical matters, the popular view is rarely the whole story, and if you go south-east out of Ross on the A40, just past The Lea take the side road to Wigpool. Here, up in the woods was once a cinema. Not the usual Odeon though, it was a home-made affair with a sheet hung from trees at one end and rough wooden benches to sit on. The auditorium was a sloping hollow which had once been a scowle, or surface-level iron working, usually the entrance to a cave system where the ore would be found.

The cinema was made by the US Army 144th Field Artillery Group, 3rd Army, based here prior to D-Day. Their primary function was to supply the invading force once a bridgehead had been established. So while their comrades had sailed on June 6th, the 144th remained until 22nd July, when they moved to Lydney, then to Southampton and landed on Utah Beach on July, 25th. They took with them the arms and material which had been safely hidden in the Forest, out of sight from German bombers.

The cinema was used by troops and local people alike and a measure of the friendship between them is that the departing troops left markers for the locals to show where their surplus food supplies had been buried. Nothing remained of the cinema except fond memories.


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Then there was light!

An exhibition in Frankfurt am Main which opened on the 16th May, 1891 with a waterfall powered by a 100 horse power electric motor may seem to be irrelevant in Ross today. Some may think “so what”, but without the invention of three phase current which enabled electricity to be conveyed over a considerable distance with good consistency of strength much that we all take for granted today e.g. television and microwave ovens would not be possible, especially in rural areas. Although later refined by Nikola Tesla using alternating current (AC) with an induction motor, the three phase method demonstrated at the International Electrotechnical Exhibition proved that electricity generated in Lauffen am Neckar some 109 miles away (175km) was powerful enough to operate both the waterfall and the entrance illuminated by 1,000 light bulbs.

The inspiration for the exhibition came from the successful Exposition Universelle (World Fair) in Paris in 1889 which prompted the publisher of the Frankfurter Zeitung (Frankfurt Daily News) to interest the Elektrotechnische Gesellschaft (Electrotechnical Society) to arrange an exhibition. The International Electrotechnical Exhibition did not close until 19th October and demonstrated Germany’s lead at that time in electrical technical innovation. It was supported by some well known firms today including Allgemeine Electricitatsgesellschaft (AEG-General Electricity Company) and Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (Oerlikon Engineering Works).

Waterfall powered by a 100 HP pump, Frankfurt, 1891

Drehstromuebertragung Lauffen - Frankfurt.

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IEA Frankfurt am Main, 1891

IEA Frankfurt am Main, official poster,1891

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Warsaw remembered

Today the 15th August is the anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw which lasted until the 25th August, 1920, being a very important event within the war between Poland and Red Russia. Initially, following the invasion of the newly created independent Poland by the Bolshevik Red Army, the defending Poles retreated in complete disarray. However on the 16th re-grouped Polish forces commanded by Field Marshall Josef Pilsudski counterattacked in force. Having conducted a largely fighting withdrawal from their eastern frontier to Warsaw the Field Marshall conceived a plan of action to defend and not withdraw from their line north of Warsaw whilst attacking the Red Army from the south. The immediate result was to halt the Soviet advance, the capture of 66,000 Soviet prisoners and 10,000 dead compared with 4,500 Polish fatalities. This was the decisive turning point of the Bolshevik Polish War, or the Soviet Polish War as it is sometimes known which commenced on February 14th 1919 and ended with the Peace of Riga on March 18th 1921.

The outcome of the War was a slightly enlarged Poland to the east, acquisition of some territory from Lithuania, and forestalling a planned Soviet invasion of newly independent Lithuania. It enabled both countries to remain independent of Soviet domination until 1939. It also stopped the spread of Communism until 1945. This was only one of many wars caused by the political vacuum created by the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman Empires in the Great War.

First Marshall Josef Klemens Pilsudski

Article by Lee Hines. Reprinted from The Ross Gazette

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After the Armistice

Whilst this past week we have been concentrating, and quite rightly, on honouring those who died in the 1914-18 war, little attention has been paid to what happened after November 11th. But this omission was rectified in a fascinating and wide-ranging talk “The Aftermath of the Great War” given by Dorian Osborne to Linton and District History Society last week.

Mr Osborne began by looking at the “land-grab” which followed the various peace treaties including the Treaty of Versailles when whole parts of Central and Eastern Europe, Germany, Austria and Hungary were ceded to adjacent nations and to create new or resurrected countries, namely, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia as well as to the supporters and members of the victorious allied forces. Much of this was fuelled by and also incited the latent nationalism of many countries and this was further inflamed by the destabilisation of society. A major part of his lecture centred on the bloody chaos in the Russian empire in the wake of the October 1917 revolution. For this he drew on contemporary memoirs and fascinating, previously unseen, photographs from his wife’s family collection. So appalling were the atrocities being perpetrated that an international intervention force was despatched to the furthest reaches of Mother Russia to maintain order – not always successfully.

In contrast Mr Osborne also covered social changes in terms of music, fashion, art, and, of course, the role of women. But he ended on a sombre note examining the reasons for the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism.

Gertrude Bell

Armenian Girl’s School, March, 1919

Armenian Refugee Camp, Port Said, March, 1919

Armenians making carpets, March, 1919

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Art Deco figurines, 1920’s

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Famagusta. March, 1919

Funeral in Odessa, 21st Feb. 1918

Funeral in Odessa, Feb. 1918

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Funeral of casualties, Odessa, 21st Feb, 1918

January, 1918

Leaving the Front for home, Jan. 1918

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Lihons, 24th June, 1916

Lihons, 1936

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Mainly British Refugees, March, 1918

Odessa, Revolutionary Soilors, 1917

PH. Locarno Conference, Gustav Stresemann, Austin Chamberlain, Briand

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Russian deserters, March, 1918

W.A.A.C. Girls in Flanders


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The Christmas Tree

We have my dear Wife to thank for the idea of writing about Christmas Trees. This is fascinating, and appears to have its origin in “the Tree of Paradise” from medieval mystery plays performed on the 24th December to commemorate the name day of Adam and Eve, and were decorated with apples to represent the forbidden fruit and wafers for the Eucharist. Later references can be found in Alcobaca, Portugal around 1400 with the use of laurel, but there is much earlier use of evergreen decoration and worship in ancient pre Christian times in China, Egypt, Rome and Northern Europe. There are records of decorated Christmas Trees from 1441 in Reval (Tallinn) and Riga and Breman in 1570. The Christmas Tree was adopted by the Protestants during the Reformation of the 17th Century, and by the 18th Century was widely practiced in the Rhineland. With the Congress of Vienna of 1815 the Catholic countries adopted Christmas Trees which took on their form more familiar to us today.

They were however unknown in Great Britain until introduced by Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Queen of King George III in 1800, but did not gain popularity until promoted by the Prince Consort after 1841. During the latter part of the 19th century popularity became widespread, but an embargo on foreign imports in 1933 led to the growth of home grown trees we know today. From 1947 the City of Oslo in Norway have given us a Christmas Tree each year as a “thank you” for our country’s support during the War which is erected in Trafalgar Square in London as illustrated.

Gertrude Bell

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Article by Dorian Osborne - reprinted from The Ross Gazette

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The Gunpowder Plot of crime, murder and terrorism

If you missed the talk on the 14th November by Dr. Timothy Brain, retired Chief Constable of Gloucestershire you missed a special treat. Dr. Brain explained that early seventeenth century England was a dangerous place, with Catholics and Protestants pitted against each other in life, both this and the next, and death struggles. When King James I succeeded “Good Queen Bess” in 1603 the Catholics petitioned him and he seemed to offer some hope, but he soon realised that he had to align himself with the English Protestant establishment.

In this febrile atmosphere an impecunious minor landowner from Northamptonshire, Robert Catesby, dreamed up the most spectacular act of terrorism in history that would have destroyed the whole Government, king, lords spiritual and temporal, MPs, judges and the Royal Family. Had he succeeded the blast of the explosion would have obliterated the Houses of Lords and Commons, Westminster Abbey, the state archives and Crown Jewels.

Catesby gathered a group linked by religion, family and friendship plus an explosives expert, a captain in the Spanish army fighting the Dutch Protestants, one Guy Fawkes, who also hated Scots and a house adjoining the House of Lords was leased and also the ground floor or cellar of the Lords into which was stored 36 barrels of gunpowder. The plan was to blow the gunpowder when Parliament assembled for the State Opening on the 5th November, 1605.

Robert Catesby also had to increase the circle of conspirators and one, to save his own friends, blabbed anonymously and Fawkes was discovered together with the gunpowder. Fawkes was tortured to reveal the plot and the conspirators who had fled to the south west midlands to try to raise a rebellion but were cornered in Holbeche House near Dudley and subsequently hanged, drawn and quartered. To celebrate the great deliverance the public drank toasts to the king and lit bonfires, where we have been ever since.

Gertrude Bell

Article by Dorian Osborne - reprinted from The Ross Gazette

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The Geneva Convention

There have been four Geneva Conventions, but the first was signed on the 22nd August, 1864, and led to the establishment of the International Red Cross. The original signatories were the Swiss Confederation, Grand Duchies of Baden and of Hesse, Kingdoms of Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and the Algarves, Prussia, Spain, Württemberg, the Second French Empire.

The Convention did not just happen because it seemed a good idea at the time. It was the indirect result of the Battle of Solferino, an Italian city south of Milan, in 1859 between Austria (defending) and France and Sardinia attacking. So great were the casualties, with at times individual surrender not being accepted and almost nonexistent medical attention of any description that in 1862 Jean-Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman and social activist published “Memories of Solferino”, an account of the suffering. At the time the event was remembered in much the same way as people today recall more recent horrors, and a ground swell of concern led to the Convention.

Who today, visiting Paris and passing the rue de Solferino or through “Solferino” on the Metro is aware of the significance of the name, though anyone visiting the remaims of the model village created by Napoleon III, also named “Solferino” after the French victory to provide homes for retired soldiers in South West France, will know.

Geneva Convention of 1864.l

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Geneva Conventions, 1864-1949

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Red Cross Great War Poster

Red Cross help to refugees in Romania, 1940Article by Dorian Osborne - reprinted from The Ross Gazette

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A Pennyworth of Art

Although our advertised speaker was unable to attend, at the last minute Chairman Dorian Osborne stepped into the breach with a delightful talk on “Postcards”. Featuring many cards from his own collection he explained their evolution from the late Nineteenth Century, following the establishment of the European Postal Union which enabled items to be sent across countries with one recognised stamp, rather than a different charge in each country.

In the beginning the placing of the stamp – upright, leaning right or left or even upside down, could have hidden meanings from “I Love You” to “Leave me alone”. However, different countries had different “languages”, what meant one thing to the British, could be quite the opposite to the French. Ah – plus ca change!

The subject matter however was very similar between countries, although the styles varied. These included patriotic cards with pictures of the ruling families, promotional cards from railways and steamship companies, drawings and, later, photographs extolling the virtues of a particular place and beauties of the day, both portraits and, shall we say, more intimate pictures!

Among the extraordinary subjects were those of destroyed buildings (the Campanile of St Mark’s Square, Venice) and wartime (1914-18) drawings of ladies in the supposed national costumes of the Allied countries, and we had a most interesting, if unexpected talk.

Bainsfather, Bruce - The Stout Gentleman

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Broad Street, Ross-on-Wye, c. 1900.

Berlin, 1899

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English, 1900’s

Great War - Medals

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Paris, 1910

Kronprinzessin Ww, Stephani

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Article by Dorian Osborne - reprinted from The Chimes OnLine

Posted 11-8-06

Railway Station, Ross

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St. Mark’s Square

Uraguay


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Linton Visits Burton Court

Although our lecture season is over until the autumn, members of Linton & District History Society enjoy summer outings and on June 6th visited Burton Court, Eardisland. This fine manor house has Norman foundations, a superb medieval and Tudor Great Hall and later Regency, Victorian and Arts and Crafts additions.

From the “modern” entrance designed by Clough Williams-Ellis of Portmeirion fame, you come to wonderful cantilevered spiral staircase descending into the hall. (The house can host weddings and every bride would love to make an entrance down those stairs.)

At the bottom of the stairs we were delighted to see a small sculpture by Walenty Pytel, a Linton resident whose work can also be found in Ross. We were shown round the public rooms on the ground floor by two local historians and also by the owner, Edward Simpson, who lives there with his family. These rooms include the Library, the original bookcases of which had held the books which are now in Hereford Cathedral’s Chained Library. This was a gift from previous owners, the Brewster family. Like the Dining Room it has lovely views over the gardens and the North Herefordshire countryside.

Excavations in the grounds have revealed artefacts from the Bronze Age. Norman and medieval eras. The house is a member of the Historic Houses Association and guided tours are available by arrangement.


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