Other than the Elizabethan connection, we really had, at that point, no idea why we had felt the need to visit Haddon Hall. We knew little about the place, apart from the legend of the romantic elopement of Dorothy Vernon and the fact that ‘ye harmytt’ of Cratcliffe Crags had supplemented his hermit’s income by supplying rabbits to the Hall for the pot.
We knew, though it had somehow failed to register, that the ‘Newark’… the chapel built at Bakewell church where the Sir Godfrey Foljambe and the Knights of the Shrine had met, and which was proving such a fascinating ground for speculation… was also the chapel in which many of the Manners and Vernon family were buried. The very same families responsible for the building of Haddon Hall.
Coincidentally, Henry Foljambe had married Benedicta Vernon, linking their families too. And both the Foljambes and the Manners families had links by marriage with the Cavendish family who own nearby Chatsworth, arguably the greatest of Great Houses… and whose emblem just happens to be a serpent nowed , knotted in a figure of eight, like the infinity symbol… which we had used as part of our first riddle, a couple of days before.
We had also learned that the Hall was thought to be on a ley… a dragon line… and a little knowledge of the land hereabouts would place Haddon Hall on a line midway between Hob Hurst’s House, an unusual, rectangular burial mound on the moors above Beeley, and the great stone circle of Arbor Low. The chances are that this alignment would correspond to one of the eight ‘spokes’ of the leys that radiate from the circle.
Would there be any clues scattered about the building? Any eight-pointed stars, geometries, or any dragons, for instance? Maybe the chapel would hold a clue or two… It would probably be, we thought, too much to ask. Until the stars came out, carved into the stonework. And the geometries in the lead piping. And the odd dragon or two…
And that was before we’d even left the courtyard! The Hall would repay a bit of careful attention… and probably a fair amount of research at a later date. Trying to note or photograph as much detail as we could, we set off to explore, grateful that visitors are allowed to be ‘free range’ and not herded through the rooms.
For there is much to see. It is a beautiful old house, with character and history on every wall and in every room. In places you can see the evolution of the earlier building. In one corner of the courtyard, the base of the slender Eagle Tower is part of the original Norman construction. Permission to build the wall and tower had to be obtained from John of Mortain. It was granted on condition that it was tall enough to be defensive. John was also known as Lackland; he became King of England in 1177 and his reign ended in the signing of the Magna Carta, the beginnings of the constitution and often called the earliest document to set forth human rights.
At the opposite corner of the courtyard, odd masonry, adorned with eight-pointed stars, shows how the building was altered in the medieval period. Ancient wood, silvered with age, still frames the walls and keeps the winter wind from the halls and chambers. The Hall may have a history running back nearly a thousand years, but how old were the trees that went into its building?
An arched doorway leads from the courtyard into the great hall, with beautiful, mullioned windows either side and a border of fragrant herbs adding colour to the winter stone. The herbs would have been used in the kitchen, but also for medicine. Their bruised leaves would have fragranced rooms and perhaps clothing too.
As always, it is in such small details that you find the life of a place. Bruising the leaves of a hardy little plant, recognising its uses, because, hundreds of years later, you still use it yourself for the same purposes, you find a connection with the ancestors… those who went before us and who are part of our distant and extended human family.
It is in the practical things that made life more tolerable, the simple solutions to everyday problems…like the runnels that drain the rainwater from the courtyard… that you feel a connection with history and know it to be part of your own story.
Reblogged this on Sun in Gemini.
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Thanks, Steve x
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Thank you for sharing 🙂 x
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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Thank you for sharing, Michael 🙂
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I love this – As always, it is in such small details that you find the life of a place. So true and you certainly do find the most interesting small details. I must slow down and look for them myself.
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If you cannot find the life of a place, you cannot see into its heart… and it is in the small things and the touch of its people that such life is found. 🙂
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What a fascinating place!
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It is…and very beautiful too!
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Pingback: All in the details – A visit to Haddon Hall II | Campbells World
Thanks Patty!
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Awesome details, lines and angles – they draw you in!
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We never thought we’d get hooked on a house 🙂
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Reblogged this on Stuart France.
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Earlier in the century, there was Sir Richard Vernon who married Benedicta de Ludlow — I’m sure you’ve mentioned them before in relation to their effigies in Tong. What amuses me is that there was a 20th century Richard Vernon and Benedicta, the latter having no connection with the Vernons or the de Ludlows but the Hoskyns. The couple were my parents! Or have I told you all this before? Forgive me if I have!
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I don’t think you have mentioned that before, Sarah! I mentioned one Benedicta as she had married a Foljambe, but the name… which is an unusual one… seems to be woven into the history of Haddon Hall, as not only daughters of the house bore the name, but also incoming brides too.
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It’s my middle name and I love it!
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How lovely! I can see why too 🙂
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Pingback: All in the details – A visit to Haddon Hall II | Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo | First Night History
These photographs and descriptions of the details are excellent, Sue. I feel as if I’ve visited Haddon Hall myself.
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Thank you so much, Robert. I really do wish I could take folks along and share some of these places 🙂
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Well, I felt like I was right there watching you point out and explain different details.
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That’s good to hear, Robert 🙂
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I’m a big fan of the BBC so I see these wonderful centuries old estates and castles and wonder how it must feel to live in a place so steeped in history.
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I love the fact that this one is still a home to its historic family.
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That’s amazing.
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It feels like a home too 🙂
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