Return to Herefordshire - Part 1: Bromyard

 

E was on holiday from work last week and wanted to go to the caravan for a few days. We were so lucky with the weather as it was dry, sunny and warm without being too hot.

Usual click and collect on the Tuesday and then on Wednesday E said she wanted to have a look round the market town of Bromyard often referred to as The Jewel in the Downs and The Town of Festivals.

Bromyard is a historic market town first recorded in 840AD. It is situated in the valley of the River Frome and near the county border with Worcestershire.  It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and the name Bromyard is derived from the Old English "an enclosure covered or fenced with broom or gorse"  It contains a number of half timbered buildings.

The Old Vicarage converted to an office in 1967.

The Visitor Centre and Art Gallery near the car park were open and I made a rare excursion these days into a building! Sadly, the visitor centre contained far fewer books for sale than I remembered. 

The almshouses were constructed in the early 17th century to provide for "poor women of good character" from the ancient township of Bromyard.  In 1962 the almshouses were modernised and converted from the original seven houses to four flatlets.

The front of the Queen's Arms was rebuilt in the late 19th century and there is late 16th century timber framing at the side and rear.

The Falcon Hotel is 16th/17th century with close studding on the lower two floors and 18th century timbering above.

17th century timber framed house formerly the Lamb Inn

Flowerdews is a lovely tea room where we have had two lovely lunches in the past.  It seems to be for sale so I do hope the tearoom isn't closing - it wasn't open when we visited last week.

The Hop Pole Inn (still closed by the look of it) is late 18th century.

The Old Post Office from 1852-1910.

Unsurprisingly, I couldn't persuade B and E to visit St Peter's church which is so interesting and lovely but if you want to read the post on a previous visit  please see St Peter's Church Bromyard .

There is also a very good Science Fiction museum full of Dr Who Memorabilia which D and I visited some years ago. To read the post please see Science Fiction and Dr Who Museum

I did suggest we visit the nearby Ralph Court Gardens in the afternoon but again no-one else was keen!

We picked some cooking apples to bring home from the small tree at the caravan - its a much smaller crop this year compared to last!

I hope everyone is staying safe and well

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.

Reference: Buildings of England - Herefordshire by Alan Brooks and Nikolaus Pevsner (2012)

Recent Reading and Palmer's Rough LNR

 

It seems months since I did a post on recent reading so here are the latest books read this year.  Quite a selection but some of the non-fiction I started much earlier in the year and they took a long time to read!

"Their Lost Daughters" is the second in the Jackman and Evans series and is a really good thriller with plenty of twists and turns.

Another enjoyable easy to read book. I really like the Mitchell and Markby books.

 I've been meaning to read a Barbara Pymm book for years and finally got round to buying one for the Kindle. Although a little dated! (set in the 1950's I think) I found it witty and amusing in parts and I will read more of her work.

It took me a long time to read "The Inklings" - it did seem a rather long book.  There is very little in the book about Tolkien (the author has written a separate biography on him which I do have and read many years ago).  Obviously I have heard of C S Lewis but I have to admit that many of the other authors covered were new to me which made it quite a difficult read. It was still an interesting book though and I learnt a great deal about the Inklings group of people.

I am always getting ideas of new authors to try from Rosie on "Corners of My Mind" blog and I spotted she had read some of this series. It really was a good book only marred by the fact that the kindle version was dire in its editing. Sentences or paragraphs seem to have been missed out and in many chapters the last few pages are repeated. I have bought the next in the series and am hoping the editing is better!

I enjoyed "The Whitby Murders" more than others in the series but it did get some poor reviews from some readers on Amazon. I must admit though it was a little repetitive and far longer than it needed to be.

It took me months and months to read The Earth which is strange as usually I romp through Fortey's books and have loved them all.  There again it is quite a few years now since I studied geology and volcanoes, lava and earthquakes were never my favourite topics. I much preferred sedimentary rocks and fossils.  However, once the first few chapters were out of the way I really enjoyed the rest of the book and learnt a lot.

"The Remarkable Pinwill Sisters" is an incredibly good book full of photos. The book covers the life and works of the sisters who were professional lady woodcarvers in an era when this was somewhat unusual. The book is so well researched and the illustrations show many of their wood carvings mainly in Devon and Cornwall. The sisters were so very talented. The book just made me want to visit Devon immediately to see some of the churches where their work can be found. The author should really be congratulated on this sumptuous book.

I never fail to enjoy a Wesley Peterson book and this was no exception.  Thank goodness there are more in the series!

My son recommended this book to me.  It is really funny in parts but at other times poignant and sad as it describes the changing world of local journalism in recent years and the closure of so many local papers which did such an important job in producing local news.  It was strange for me to read this book in a way as it was like listening to comments made by my son during his jobs in journalism over the last 12 years or so.  

I am still not 100 per cent sold on the Inspector Morse series although this was, for me, more enjoyable than the first two. It could be that I find them too dated and Morse's attitude to women I think is exceedingly irritating at times! But there again life was different in the 1970's.

Seeing so many timber framed buildings in Herefordshire I decided to finally read this book which I have had on the kindle for some time.  It is very interesting although for me perhaps it goes into a little too much technical detail at times.  By the way Mandy if you see this post I have found the term "Half Timbered Buildings" in the glossary which was something you asked about in a comment.  It is another term for timber framed construction. In some cases it is used to refer to a building with a stone or brick lower floor and a timber framed one above.

Palmers Rough

A few weeks ago I gave D a lift to Palmers Rough LNR in Solihull as he needed some photos for his job.  I have a feeling it was one of the places I intended to visit (but didn't) when I was doing a series of posts on Edith Holden (Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady fame) as the woods are not that far from where she lived in Kineton Green.

Palmers Rough was mentioned in the Domesday book and comprises 18 acres of 2 separate mixed broadleaf woods.  It was made a Local Nature Reserve in 2000.  It is located in what is now the suburban area of Shirley.

Black slug (red form)?

We've just returned from a few days in Herefordshire and I'll do a few posts next week. We mainly visited places we've been to before but I did manage to visit one new church.

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.

Bagot's Castle, Baginton, Near Coventry (Heritage Week visit)

 

During Heritage Week D and I decided to visit Bagot's Castle, Baginton, near Coventry.  D finished work at lunchtime Friday so we went in the afternoon deciding it would be quieter than at the weekend!

St John the Baptist church, Baginton - exterior is mainly 13th century with a pretty little 14th century spire.

*D

When a volunteer saw me taking pictures of the church he mentioned there was a lady inside getting it ready for the weekend opening and she wouldn't mind me looking around. Of course I would have loved to have done so but we had left home later than planned, got lost!, and Bagot's Castle was closing at 4.00 so I decided I just didn't have the time which is a shame.

The Bagot's Castle site has been occupied for centuries.  A nearby quarry used in the 1930's and 1940's revealed archaeological finds providing evidence of human activity in the area long before the Medieval perod.  Finds included Mesolithic and Neolithic flintwork and Iron Age and Roman pottery.

A motte and bailey castle was built on the site c 1100-1135 probably by a Geoffrey Savage.

We'd been give a map of the site and followed a circular walk showing the main points of interest.

A long deserted medieval village extended from the churchyard west to the castle. The village probably originated in the Anglo Saxon period and the Domesday Book of 1086 records 15 households. During the later Middle Ages,following disuse of the castle, the village was depopulated and properties were abandoned. Today the surviving shallow earthwork mounds show where the medieval houses were built.  Unfortunately it was difficult to get a photo to show this! 

*D

Sir William Bagot purchased the site around 1381 and in 1387 constructed a stone castle on a natural escarpment overlooking the River Sowe.  It is believed the castle was three storeys high with a kitchen and store at ground level, a reception and banqueting hall on the first floor and other accommodation on the second.  The remains of a turreted stair remain which probably linked all three levels.  The roof space would have had areas and probably watch towers in each corner from which the surrounding countryside could be watched.  It is believed a moat surrounded the castle.

Today the south ditch survives and the ruins are of a tower house built by Sir William Bagot in the 1380's and 1390's.  It would orginally have been four storeys high and would have been entered from the east via a drawbridge over the ditch. All that remains today is the basement which contained five rooms.

*D

*D

Sir William Bagot was a favourite of King Richard II and an important political figure.  It is recorded that the king stayed  at Baginton in 1398 before a proposed duel between Henry Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV) and Thomas Mowbray of Gosford Green.  The castle was also used as a prison in 1403 for the Duke of Northumberland after the Battle of Shrewsbury.  Bagot died in 1407 and is buried with his wife Lady Margaret in the church pictured at the top of the post where there is a monumental brass commemorating them (I knew I should have gone in the church!!!).

Levitating cones on sticks! protecting a short staircase.

The Tower House was excavated in the 1930's by a team under the supervision of the Coventry archaeologist J H Edwards.  Many medieval finds were made, for example, pottery, glass and metalwork.  Most of these had been thrown in the ditch but in the buildings over 2000 green and yellow tiles were found.

The castle was sold in 1417 to  Richard de Beauchamp, the 13th Earl of Warwick.  He had many other residences and it is not known how many times he visited Bagot's Castle.  In 1471 the castle was in the hands of the Collegiate Church of St Mary's, Warwick, and it appears that the castle was then not used.

In 1540 the castle was described as being "desolate" and in 1544 it was bought by Francis Goodyers.  Again he possessed many other properties and it is likely he used stone from Bagot's castle to renovate some of them.  Thereafter the castle became a ruin.  On his death the castle was inherited by his son Henry who had a rather extravagant lifestyle and to raise money he sold the castle and estate to Sir William Bromley in 1618.  The Bromley family had moved to the area and had built the nearby Baginton Hall. The hall suffered a massive fire and was rebuilt and at the same time the site of the castle was landscaped and turned into a park and pleasure ground.

The family built a small gazebo or banqueting site overlooking the river (please see photos below of the ruins of this).  Old photos show it was originally two storey with a tiled floor.  

In the 19th century the second Baginton Hall was also destroyed by fire and not rebuilt.  The castle site and the gazebo fell into disuse and vegetation began to take over the site.  In the 20th century the Coventry Boy Scouts Association purchased the site with the idea of building an adventure park. These plans never came to pass (imho thank goodness!) and the site was sold to Finham Golf Club.

The present owner purchased the castle and, with the help of donations and sponsorship, began to clear the site of rubbish and trees and plants.  The site was eventually opened to the public.

I should have taken Timothy!

*D

We followed the trail a short distance along the banks of the River Sowe.

The trail then passes three fishponds fed by a spring further up the slope.  They would have belonged to Baginton Hall and are first recorded on a tithe map of 1841 and were still being used in 1886.  However, it is likely that were constructed earlier in the Medieval period to provide fresh fish for the castle residents and an eel trap is still in place. The ponds have recently been restored to benefit nature.

It was a really interesting afternoon out and D and I really enjoyed it. I just wish we had allowed more time as there was a exhibition in the Visitor Centre which we didn't have time to see.

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

Photos marked with *D taken by my son with the Canon SX50 bridge camera. Rest of pictures taken by me (one handed as I was trying to hold a laminated map of the route in the other hand!) with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.

Reference : History of Bagot's Castle on their website and various information boards as we walked round.