Tag: recusants

Torquay and Torre Abbey

Thanks to our friends at the Legendary Ten Seconds, I had heard of Torre Abbey but didn’t realise that it was open to visit, as convenient or spectacular as it is. Half of the original building remains, on three floors including an art exhibition, whilst the other half (including the church) is a ruin, complete… Continue reading Torquay and Torre Abbey

A HAWKING RING OF THE TALBOT FAMILY

Recently the rains washed off some soil in a muddy Shropshire field, and yet another metal detectorist had a lucky find–a hawking ring from the Elizabethan period. The most intriguing thing to me was the very bold lettering spelling the name JOHN TALBOT AT GRAFTON across the band of the tiny ring. As it was… Continue reading A HAWKING RING OF THE TALBOT FAMILY

KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION King John was not a good man, He had his little ways. And sometimes no one spoke to him For days and days and days. And men who came across him, When walking in the town, Gave him a supercilious stare, Or passed with noses in the air, And… Continue reading KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Windleshaw Chantry

Windleshaw Chantry dates from about 1415 and is the oldest structure extant in St. Helens. (Now Merseyside, formerly Lancashire.) It is an unusual example of a detached chantry, not part of some other religious building. Locally, it is sometimes known as Windleshaw Abbey, though in fact it was never an abbey or even a priory.… Continue reading Windleshaw Chantry

Walking “Tudor” England

Suzannah Lipscomb has just completed another series on Channel Five, this time visiting the sites related to the “Tudors”. In the first episode, she concentrated on Henry VIII and the naval power he inherited from John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. The second was principally about the penultimate “Tudor”, Mary I, as well as Edward VI… Continue reading Walking “Tudor” England

Markenfield Hall – in the same family since 1310….

We have some wonderful old buildings in this country, and Markenfield Hall in Yorkshire must be up there with the best of them. Occupied (mostly) by the same family since its beginning in 1310, it’s still immaculate now. Go to this article and this one to read more and to see inside. How absolutely amazing… Continue reading Markenfield Hall – in the same family since 1310….

A discovery in the attic at Oxburgh Hall….

Ah, how we all love to hope that one day some vital documents pertaining to Richard III will turn up…in an old, old chest in a long-forgotten corner of an undercroft…or at the top of an ivy-covered tower with a spiral staircase so dangerous it’s dodgy to even breathe near it! Or, as in this… Continue reading A discovery in the attic at Oxburgh Hall….

Keeping it in the family

You will have seen him if you have been to Richard III’s final resting place. There are eight small statues on the main entrance (the Vaughan Porch, left) of St. Martin’s Cathedral but only one of them is wearing a doublet and hose, showing him to have lived a century later than the others. This is… Continue reading Keeping it in the family

THE MALIGNED RICARDIANS

Part 1 – Sir William Cornwallis the younger “ His virtues I have sought to revive, his vices to excuse” (The Encomium of Richard III, Sir William Cornwallis) It is conceivable that historians do not take the early revisionist histories of king Richard III seriously owing to an assumption that the authors were not themselves… Continue reading THE MALIGNED RICARDIANS