Ickworth

I have spent considerable time searching place names in Canada, the United States, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, even India and the Bahamas. Not surprisingly, the UK is the only place in the world that has an Ickworth. Ickworth is an impressive great house and garden, dating from the 1700s, about 4 miles from Bury St. Edmonds. Only in Britain could a positively icky name like Ickworth name a place, particularly a grand place. People who know British place names will not be surprised. The founder of Ickworth, Lord Hervey, was a lucky man. He was the third born--first got the title and the estate, second became a military man--and our hero got to be a churchman [sic], but, because of his connections, presumably, not just any churchman. He got to be Bishop of Derry, in (then) Ireland, the richest bishopric in the land, and, as often happens, he grew wealthy, doing well while doing good. While this was going on, his two elder brothers conveniently died, and Bishop Hervey shortly became the fabulously wealthy Lord Hervey. He had been much impressed by his Grand Tour as a young man and thus wanted to recreate an Italian villa in east Anglia, along with Italianate gardens to match. Thus Ickworth. Lord Hervey did not live to see Ickworth finished, but his son continued the dream, and the rest is history, and more...and a silly name.

This is a pano shot...the place is huge; the left wing is where the family lived,
the rotunda originally was to become a "public" museum, Britain's first
(although one never knows what the British aristocracy means by "public"),
now it holds the "state" rooms, dining, library, withdrawing, etc.; service was in
the curvy right wing basement, and the right hall never was finished out...it became
storage, etc., and now houses all the National Trust's shoppes, reception,
membership, resto, bookshop, etc.

Garden view of the rotunda

Helpful model of what Hervey may well have had in mind...

We did the tour of the so-called state room, in the rotunda; here in the silver
room

Interesting collection of silver fish (I swear I am not making this up)

There's even a book on the Ickworth silver

There's so much stuff they cycle stuff in and out of display, using storage rooms
like this

Curvy hall way connecting the rotunda with the right
(west?) hall; note the long planks were cut to exactly fit
the curvature of the hall, each 10 meters or more long

State dining room with family pix

Certainly the best painting there, a real Velasquez

Grand Tour chess board done by one of the Ladies

Angelica Kauffman's portrait of Lady Elizabeth Cristiana
Hervey, aka Bess, aka Mrs. Foster; Mr. Foster was not a
nice guy; Bess fled to Bath where she chanced to meet
Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire; and her husband,
the Duke...and the rest is one of the greatest menage a trois
incidents of history

In Kauffman's portrait, Bess is wearing a a miniature, thought to be of Georgiana;
after the latter died, Bess married the Duke; watch the The Duchess, great movie
that would have been an even greater TV series; Kauffman herself is interesting...
a highly regarded female painter in 18th century, one of the founders of the Royal
Academy...

Reynolds' portrait of one of the sea-faring Herveys

In the library, a real treasure, one of only a dozen or so copies of the House of
Commons Journals, from QE1 up to the Georges; this is one of several shelves of it

Now in the underside of it all; Ickworth in the later 19th century was producing
its own electricity, via a "water-gas" internal combustion machine, with considerable
plumbing; huge batteries, etc.

Carpenter's bench

The actual kitchen was in another building; this is the "warming up" kitchen
in the basement of the rotunda, dishes from which were sent up via dumbwaiter 

Staff dining hall

Why I never got into Downton Abbey (click to enlarge)

Ditto

Ditto again

The gardens were formal, Renaissancy, "Italianate," and not very interesting

Except for the Stumpery, which was the largest we've seen (it's a Victorian thing)

Ick!

St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmonds

It's only a 3-banger, according to Jenkins' England's Thousand Best Churches, but we found it pretty interesting, the structure, the decor, the carving, Mary Tudor's burial, and more. It took us two tries to get in. Such is the nature of these places. Saturday afternoon, despite all the notices and website, it was all locked up. We came back Sunday morning, carefully calculating our arrival for the interim between the 9:30AM and 11:00AM services. We were spot on, and a member of the congregation was there to welcome us and explain. It was the coffee/tea/pastries social time between the "informal" service and the "formal" service. We were happy to get in.

At the doorway; a mostly 15th century affair, with earlier bits and later bits

One of the largest of parish churches

The ceiling, with 11 pairs of "life-sized" carved wooden
angels watching over

Social hour, between the informal and formal services

The usual memorials

Choir and chancel

Burial of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, little sister of Henry VIII, of celebrated
beauty, married off to the king of France, whom she quickly wore out (without issue,
as the saying goes)...but she kept the title Queen of France

Then married her love, the Duke of Suffolk, without notifying her brother, now
the king, thereby committing treason; he forgave her, with an incredibly hefty
fine; it didn't help matters that she had a squabble with Anne Boleyn, one of her
ladies in waiting in France; her brother not one of those people you want to get
on the wrong side of; fortunately, she died young, was buried at the abbey in
Bury St. Edmonds, then moved here after Henry dissolved all the abbeys; not to
be confused with Mary, Queen of England, Bloody Mary

Chancel window

And ceiling

One of many such

One of several such educational bits

John Baret's cadaver tomb, built before his death, to keep his mind fixed on the
important things; also to let his friends know he had bought remission from
Purgatory from the pope (they were having a sale)

Nearest the chancel, one of two painted angels

Abaft the beam

West window

Pew carving

Samson window

 

St. Edmundsbury Cathedral

It was an abbey church, then a parish church, and only in 1914 did it become a cathedral, that is, the seat of a redistricted C of E bishop. Though bits, mostly the nave, go back to the Medieval era, much of the church, including the chancel and the roof, was rebuilt in the early 20th century. Relatively few European or British churches or cathedrals were built in one go (e.g., Salisbury or Bourges), but St. Edmundsbury has not stood the test of time, as yet, and was accordingly of less interest to us. We had to walk through the abbey grounds, now the city park and garden, and the cathedral, in order to get to our main goal, the parish church of St. Mary (next post). Nonetheless, there was one item in the cathedral of surpassing interest...

Helpful map of the abbey area

Another representation of how it all might have looked in the good old days;
St. Mary's is at the lower right

In the city park/garden, formerly abbey grounds

Cathedral tomb slabs re-used...up-cycled

New, 20th century roof of St. Edmundsbury; click to enlarge
and see the hovering painted angels

Nave

Surpassing interest department: as a fund-raiser, they're constructing a super-sized
and super-accurate Lego model of the cathedral; complete with maze

 

Yes, we contributed our brick

Not this one though; I'm holding out for Wells or Winchester

Actual helpful model of the cathedral; note mock transepts (they don't really
extend beyond the aisles)

Back to reality: Susanna and the dirty old men

Other glass

Beautiful organ

Chancel, quire, etc.

Beautiful crossing

Each of the parish churches in the diocese contributed a couple cushions

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Pantokrator
and the meaning of the Holy Finger(s) (click to enlarge)

Pancake Eater

Gorgeous font

Moving right along, looking up at the funny faces on the Norman gate/tower,
which the townspeople apparently didn't tear down

Pedestrian signage in Bury is superb