Llanthony Priory Llanthony, Abergavenny NP7 7NN

Norman knight William de Lacy founded a hermitage here when he — untypical of the times — abandoned war and embraced religion. By 1118 Llanthony had become a monastery of Augustinian canons, which continued until it was suppressed in 1539. 

The Priory became one of the great medieval buildings in Wales, in a mixture of Norman and Gothic architectural styles. Renewed building took place around 1325, with a new gatehouse. On 4 April 1327 (Palm Sunday), the deposed Edward II stayed at the Priory on his way from Kenilworth Castle to Berkeley Castle, where he is alleged to have been murdered.Today it is a 900 year ruin.

The ruins have attracted artists over the years, including J. M. W. Turner who painted them from the opposite hillside. The priory was acquired by the Knight family in the 20th century.

Wyken Hall - an Elizabethan Manor house in Suffolk

Wyken Hall lies nine miles north-east of Bury St Edmunds in the parish of Bardwell and Stanton on the divide between the Breckland sands and the boulder clay of central Suffolk.  Iron Age and Roman pottery has been found on the estate. Iron Age and Roman pottery has been found on the estate.

The name Wyken  derives from the Roman vicus - an administrative term and thought to imply a dependant or outlying farm. Ham suggests an early English settlement continuing after the Roman period. The Wyken estate is mentioned in Domesday. The Wykenhale Survey of 1593 describes the manor, then owned by Robert Asheley. Thomas Warren's 1791 map shows that Wyken today is physically still very much as it was over 200 years ago.

Frank Heilgers, a cousin of the present owner, bought Wyken in 1920, 1050 acres of mixed arable and livestock farming. At the time the house was a modest Suffolk farm, dating from the 16th century. The new owner commissioned John Corder, an Ipswich architect, to restore and enlarge it and an attractive and comfortable house was created. 

The current late owner, Kenneth Carlisle, married Carla, an American from the Mississippi Delta, in 1986, and they decided to create a vineyard soon after. They had decided that the time had come to diversify. Farming the estate was contracted out in the 1990s. The farm is managed for wildlife and is part of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, working in conjunction with Suffolk Wildlife Trust. There are wildflower meadows, ponds and reed-beds immediately beyond the gardens which surround the house. The garden was created by Lord Carlisle and his Lady wife who brought a Southern accent to the landscape with rocking chairs from Mississippi, Gothic gates, Peacocks, Brahma hens and Narragansett turkeys. Lady Carla continues to write for Country Life. 

The Country Store and Cafe opened in 1992, in a converted barn, and the restaurant followed soon after. The weekly farmers' market began in 2002. Currently the four acre garden attracts upwards of 5,000 visitors a year.

Today was the first day the gardens were open to the public and it is a relaxing space with beautiful flora.  The restaurant is charming with an interesting delicious menu offering a choice of taste of local produce. 

Here are a few iPhone images

 

Exploring Sourthern Shropshire and the Borders - Clunbury and Hopton Castle

I read the book An Idler on the Shropshire Borders covering the period before WW2 by Ida Gandy and it inspired me to go and explore the area for myself. She found a practice for her doctor husband in a small village. She kept a diary and this book is based on her records.

I started in Clunbury a small village with few houses and photographed St Swithun's Church, a single isle church with a 12th century naive.   As I walked from the church towards the brook I sighted a Leucistic Sparrow.  According to survey data, leucism and albinism occur at a rough estimate of 1 in 30,000 birds. Leucism being more common than albinism. My first sighting! Maybe the Sparrow was not aware of its appearance but I wondered how it would effect breeding.  I then heard a bird singing loudly I am not sure if it is a Dunock or a Hedge Sparrow.

Ida walked the area and described the many woodlands and forest areas and her walk to Hopton Castle. Hopton Castle appears more like a home than a fortress, set in a valley, rather than on a hill top and surrounded by a few trees. Most castles are positioned high with clear views and composed of a strong structure with arrow-slits sometimes called balistraria. This narrow vertical aperture permits the archer large degrees of freedom to vary the elevation and direction of their bowshot but makes it difficult for attackers to harm the archer since there is only a small target at which to aim.  This castle had many large windows that were designed to have window seats, more a feature for occupants to enjoy the view. I found an interesting article  describing the design of the castle. Only the structure of the keep survives.

During the Civil War Hopton Castle was one of the few castles to be held for the Parliament in the west. In 1644 Sir Michael Woodhouse with a force of about 500 laid siege to the castle which was defended by about thirty Roundheads under the command of Samuel More. More eventually agreed terms and surrendered. 

At the start of the Civil War (1642-1649) most of Shropshire's inhabitants either supported King Charles I, or remained neutal.  However, in this corner of Shropshire and Herefordshire, a small number of landowners supported Oliver Cromwell and Parliament.Amongst those were Robert Wallop a staunch Parliamentarian who owned Hopton Castle, and his neighbours, Sir Robert and Lady Harley held nearby Brampton Bryan Castle as a Parliamentarian stronghold. The Royalists had wanted to control Brampton Bryan Castle and in 1644 made a plan to take Hopton Castle as a base from which to make their attack. Brampton Bryan Castle is now a ruin and only open to the public on Scarecrow Sunday. 

The castle may have been founded in the 12th century as a motte and bailey (a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade) by one of the Hoptons as a mesne lord  of the Says of Clun Castle, a lord in the feudal system. Walter de Hopton possibly built the stone castle during the Barons' War of the 1260s. 

There are varying versions of what happened next. According to More's account all those who surrendered, apart from himself, were killed and buried.  Other accounts vary on how the siege ended. They state that after a three-week siege, More delayed surrendering until the bailey had been taken and the entrance to the keep was on fire, at which point the garrison surrendered to Sir Michael Woodhouse, who at his discretion (his prerogative under the laws of war as they were practised at that time), decided not to grant the majority of his prisoners quarter and they were killed by their captors.

This romantic ruin is said to be haunted by the ghosts of soldiers who died in the Civil War.