The day dawned sunny and cold, the very
best sort of autumn day for venturing out into the country. So mid-morning we
headed down into the charming village of Romsley, picked up the weekend
newspaper and half our picnic lunch before heading south again to the National
Trust’s Hanbury Hall just 14 miles south of our camp. We arrived in time for
the opening of the Hall and spent an hour exploring the rooms, upstairs and
down, and listening to the stories of the occupants from the passionate room
guides.
The guide at the top of the stairs was
so eager to share her knowledge of Sir James Thornhill, a
leading painter of the Baroque period and the first English artist to be
knighted, and his legacy left here. It was he whose decoration graces the “Painted
Hall” at Greenwich Hospital, St Paul’s Cathedral, Hampton Court, Wimpole Hall
and Blenheim Palace. It was his wall and ceiling paintings here at Hanbury Hall
that prompted the National Trust to take the property on in 1953.
The hall was built in the early 18th
century by the wealthy chancery lawyer Thomas Vernon. He was the great grandson
of the first Vernon to settle in Hanbury, a minister of the cloth, who with his
descendants slowly accumulated land, so much of it that by the time Thomas’s
son, Bowater, moved into the Hall, the
family owned nearly 8,000 acres. The manor on the site later built over was bought
by Edward Vernon in 1630, but it was the wealthy Thomas who added most to the
estates and built the Queen Anne style two story red brick mansion that stands
here today.
The last of the Vernon’s to own the
Hall was Sir George Vernon whose love life was a story all of its own. Soon
after he inherited the house and moved in with his wife Doris, he hooked up
with Ruth Horton, a housemaid, promoted her to secretary and companion and
moved her into his bed. Doris eventually moved out, obviously not wanting to be
part of any love triangle, taking up residence of another of the Vernon residences.
Poor old George became very ill in his seventies and took his own life, no
doubt to spare himself too much suffering at the end. On his death, Doris and
Ruth switched residences, and Doris remained resident in the house until she died
in her nineties in 1962, by which time she was living in a tiny corner of the
house, the rest of the house and estate having become rather neglected.
The National Trust has spent years and
years, and a great deal of money restoring the house and gardens to their glory, the parterre alone having taken
twenty seven years to return to its original state.
At midday we ventured out onto the
front lawn and watched a half hour play portraying a court case being prosecuted
by Thomas Vernon regarding a disagreement over the winnings of a lottery. It
was well done and highly entertaining, enjoyed by quite a crowd who boo-ed and
jeered and cheered at appropriate moments.
The orchard, gardens and woods made
for delightful walks, and there was an excellent exhibition of water colours in
the Long Gallery which we enjoyed enormously. We walked beyond the haha out
into the fields dotted with old oaks and struggling replacements, then returned
via the icehouse before heading home via Bromsgrove where we refuelled and shopped
for provisions at Morrisons.
Tomorrow we will move on yet again
from this lovely part of the country, which invites so much more exploration
and time. I would like to think we might return one day, but for now we must be
satisfied with our memories, this blog and the thousands of photos that are
filling the hard drive of my computer.
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