Ferry Meadows Caravan & Motorhome Club Site, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

The sun rises early, at about 4.30am, but thankfully we normally manage to sleep two or three hours later. But with tour schedules full, we cannot hang about as some of our fellow campers do. Today was another day for travelling out to the west of Peterborough, back into Northampton along narrow rural lanes, between the fields of wheat yet to ripen and small flocks of sheep grazing on the gentle slopes. Northampton is very picturesque, not just for its countryside but also for its charming villages, many of the houses with thatched roofs which we had come to associate with East Anglia.

Above us red kites circled in the thermals, as we had seen them doing yesterday above Lyvden New Bield. There we had been delighted with the swifts darted about, the chatter of the jackdaws and the call of cuckoos. Today there were no cuckoos. 

As we came over the last rise before turning into Kirby Hall just north of Corby, we were met with the incongruous sight of the Rockingham Motor Speedway, a collection of steel totally out of sync with the surrounding green countryside. Later when we mentioned this to the English Heritage staff member, she agreed that it seemed like something out of space, although she admitted that she had never attended any event there. The venue was opened in 2001 and hosts a whole range of events with links to motorsport and noise. It claims to be Europe’s fastest racing circuit and brings money into the community, a situation that is welcomed and no doubt helped convince the locals they needed this monstrosity here in the middle of what was once a massive hunting ground, Rockingham Forest. 

Unlike Lyvden visited yesterday, Kirby Hall was completed, but is similarly now little more than a shell. We took advantage of the audio guides and spent nearly two hours wandering about learning the history of the property.

When Henry VIII freed up land for private development with the dissolution of the monasteries, Kirby was purchased in 1542 by Humphrey Stafford. However it was his son, of the same name, who started construction of the Hall in 1570. Five years later, he died and Kirby was sold to Christopher Hutton.

Between 1576 and 1706, Kirby Hall was owned by no less than four successive noblemen named Sir Christopher Hatton. The first Sir Christopher became Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth in 1587 and although he did see the house completed in accordance with the original building plans, he took little personal interest in the property. It seems he was too busy lapping up the favouritism his queen lavished upon him whilst in court.

Dying in 1591, unmarried and childless, he left the Hall to his nephew, William Newport, who subsequently  adopted the Hatton name. In turn the house was passed onto his son, Sir Christopher Hatton II, who refined the initial pattern gardens of the Hall.

The Hall had been waiting for a royal visit for decades and finally  it happened; King James I and his court arrived after frantic completion of the gardens; extension and levelling of what was left of the nearby village of Kirby. Then in 1638, Sir Christopher Hatton III carried out the first major architectural transformation. Hatton had spent ten years in France after the Civil War and came back with his head and notebooks just bursting with ideas.

With the death of Sir Christopher Hatton IV in 1706, Kirby Hall began its long decline. His son felled areas of the woodlands and sold the timber to pay legal debts. During the 1780s a brief attempt was made to arrest the decline but soon after this, the buildings fell into further disrepair and the succession of owners continued to neglect the property. Apparently  the roof was stripped of its lead in 1857 and the avenues of trees cut down to pay gambling debts.

In 1930 care of the house and gardens passed to the Office of Works, then English Heritage took over the responsibility for Kirby Hall in 1984 and started a long term programme for the repair and renovation of both the hall and its gardens where new archaeology was undertaken.

When the gardens were at their peak, they covered an area of almost fifteen acres, but today most of this remains in pasture grazed by healthy looking cattle with calves at foot.

With still most of the day free, we turned to the next item on our schedule: Lyddington Bede House. We drove further east, through even narrower lanes, backing up now and again for large tractors, whose drivers exhibit an arrogant ownership of these country roads, and force any other traffic to give way. Arriving at the village of Lyddington and following the EH symbols along the street, we found that there was no provision for parking anywhere unless you are patronising the busy pub. We parked on the side of the street, partly over the pavement and facing the wrong way, as you do here in England with no fear of the traffic police, and took our eski on to the village green for a picnic. 

After lunch we walked to the Church where we were to find the Bede House as well. We spent some time in St Andrew’s  Church examining the features drawn to our attention by the many interpretative  signs about. The tower and chancel date from the early 1300s, and the nave and aisles from the late 1400s.

The Bede House, just through an arch and pretty gardens, was originally a medieval bishop’s palace, Lyddington  one of the favoured palaces of the bishops of Lincoln. When not in Lincoln or at Court in London, the bishops stayed in places like this around their diocese. Kings and courtiers were hosted in these palaces too, and while this particular house hardly fits with one’s idea of a palace, you cannot overlook the fact that Hampton Court was originally built for the same purpose; Thomas Wolseley was a cardinal, another servant of the Church, although I don’t think they saw themselves as “servants” at all.  

After the dissolution, the palace was put to a new use. Most of the buildings were pulled down but in 1601, the bishop’s quarters were converted by Sir Thomas Cecil, he of Burghley House,  to house “poor, needy or impotent people”, an alms-house for twelve “Bedesmen” (men of prayer) and two Bedeswomen ( women of prayer and to do the women’s work around the place).  They were all to be free of lunacy, leprosy or the French Pox.

We spent some time wandering about the three floors of the house, examining the construction features of the building and imagining how hideous it would have been to live here.  The property was occupied until 1930, the inmates having to meet the strict criteria right to modern times.

The day had turned out well, both weather-wise and with our entertainment. We headed home to make sure we were in time to have our empty gas bottle filled up by the Club site managers. It seems to be the most practical way of buying gas for the caravan, and since we have a spare bottle, we can afford to wait until we are next at a Club site.