Brockhampton: Moated Medieval Manor House

Next we drove the few miles on to Brockhampton, a moated medieval manor house maintained by the Trust. It has been lived in by the manorial lords or their tenants since the 1300s. The main building is quite intact and credible, and there is much apparent period furniture. How to make a narrative out of such a thing, even a small structure, is an interesting question. Do everything medieval? Elizabethan? Jacobean? The Trust's answer this time was to select several actual families that lived at Brockhampton over the centuries, and do a room or rooms featuring them and their epochs. It is quite well done, I think.

The moat and gatehouse were purely for looks

Ruins of a chapel next door...it was a "chapel of ease," not the
parish church...this evidenced by the fact there are no burials
on the site (according to the archaeologists)

The gatehouse; one of the more photographed buildings hereabouts

Vaulting/roofing in the gatehouse

Moat/water feature

Main hall

Vaulting, looking up to the second floor, where the bedrooms are

Master suite, so to speak

Note that when John married into the Brockhampton family,
he took their name

Another bed-chamber, another chapter in the story

Thus: stitched-in above are the instructions to a new servant;
note especially the next-to-last paragraph: "Be aware that I
customarily awake from my first sleep at about 12 midnight,
and may require hot drink as I bide my time until my second
sleep"...a rare reference to the bi-modal sleep pattern of our
ancestors

Moving on a century or two...in a crowded household, the little
kiddies slept in the same room with their parents...and this in
a relatively well-to-do household

Thus

"Mind your head"--at the top of a low staircase

Kitchen/dining; 19th century now

Thus (note built-in microwave)

Finally, the 20th century family room/office...neat place to visit;
the grounds are loaded with interesting trails and hikes, but we
had to move on in search of a place to park for the night...

Croome Court: House, Park, And RAF Base

We over-nighted in a large lay-by northwest of Hereford, having decided to see three or four more of the National Trust sites nearby in Herefordshire and Shropshire. First, the next day, was Croome Court, the park for which was Culpability Brown's first commission, and which includes a Georgian hall and an historic WWII RAF base. Culpability had a hand in designing the hall but not the RAF base, although it is interesting to speculate how he might have handled the run-ways, revetments, control tower (a folly?), the anti-aircraft batteries, etc. The artificial hill--a hazard to landing approaches--would have to be moved back into the artificial lake, at the very least, and the river re-diverted. In any case, I would conjecture that Croome, particularly the hall, is one of the Trust's biggest challenges. Its history is all over the place, no coherence nor connectedness, few artifacts remain of any part of it...just not much material for a historical narrative that doesn't appear, um, contrived. On the other hand, no one could contrive a history as bizarre as Croome's. Apart from architectural restoration, it is becoming a showplace for contemporary "art."

The small but excellent RAF museum

The secret RAF Defford airbase in 1944

Secret because it was where considerable R&D for airborne radar
was done, where radar was installed in night-fighters, etc., and
where crews, including many women, were trained in use of radar

Thus

And thus

And thus

Part of the grounds, including an obligatory folly

The Church of St. Mary Magdalen...Culpability said it had to be a
real "eye-catcher"

Burial items were brought in from the former non-eye-catching
parish church; apparently some of Croome's earlier residents
had been to Italy and seen the recumbent Etruscan tombs

More grounds

Former Jacobean court

The new house, Croome Court

The grounds, before...

And, after...Culpability's plan

The long hall...nothing in it except contemporary
"sculpture"

Needs work

Barbara, 6th Countess of Coventry; the Conventrys are still going
strong, but sold Croome in 1946; for 30 years it was a Catholic
boys' high school; then, the Catholics sold it to Hare Krishna (it
was their national headquarters); 5 years later the Hares sold it
to what became a succession of developers...one who wanted to
make it a conference center, one who wanted to make it a fine
restaurant, and one who lived in it, hoping to flip it back into
a grand home, and make millions; in 2007, it came to the National
Trust

Thus

In what may have been the Georgian dining room; the painting
was actually done by the Hares!

One of the developers had interesting ideas about decoration

A flink on the grounds, just beyond the ha-ha ("hee-haw" to
Americans)

Today's swans, approaching the Chinese Bridge on the re-directed
river, just before the obligatory artificial serpentine lake

Although some of the views were great, not one of my favorite
sites

Weir Garden, Herefordshire

It was to be a three-sight day--four if you count the ASDA--we drove next a few miles back across Hereford to Weir Garden, another National Trust site, an early 20th century landscape garden, and walled garden, on the River Wye.

Thus

Vicki stands for scale by one of the big trees

Part of the largest flock of swans we've seen

Thus

But a scout returns from around the bend: nothing up-river

And so they all turn back

Along the river

Bottom, right middle, stone remains of a Roman villa

Fruit trees along the car park

Grounds...beautiful Herefordshire

Wildflowers

In the walled garden, one of the better ones yet

In the green house...Venus Fly Traps for sale... we would have
bought one, but it's still two months until P arrives

Pitcher plants, also very hard on flies

Chives, anyone?

And, a patch for the kiddies; neat place