Sample: Britain September/October 2021

FIND YOUR

BRITAIN 6

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE

TRAVEL CULTURE HERITAGE STYLE

WIN A STAY IN

STRATFORDUPONAVON

BATH TIME Immerse yourself in hot springs & history

SCILLY SEASON Cornwall’s magical isles

A RIGHT ROYAL ROW George IV & his spurned queen

On the Tudor trail

TREASURE TROVE

The National Trust’s most precious pieces

Magnificent manors & castles of Warwickshire

SEPT/OCT 2021 £4.95

www.britain-magazine.com

WARWICKSHIRE

On the

Tudor trail From the castle that hosted Elizabeth I to the humble dwelling where Shakespeare was born, Warwickshire is blessed with a host of Tudor sights WORDS NEIL JONES

This image: The 16th-century Charlecote Park near Stratfordupon-Avon

14

BRITAIN

www.britain-magazine.com

WARWICKSHIRE

www.britain-magazine.com

BRITAIN

15

T

wo hundred years ago, in 1821, the publication of a novel called Kenilworth brought visitors flocking to the Warwickshire castle of the title.

The author Walter Scott is celebrated elsewhere in this issue (see p57), but is mentioned here because the popularity of his story – about Elizabethan court favourite Robert Dudley’s ‘secret’ marriage to Amy Robsart and its repercussions – shows that our modern fascination with the Tudors and their dazzling, turbulent times is nothing new. Combine the Tudors and their beautiful homes with Warwickshire’s classic green English countryside and you have the makings of a wonderful tour.

So let’s begin at Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden, now cared for by English Heritage but once the property of monarchs including King Henry VII, who built a tennis court here, and gluttonous Henry VIII, who characteristically concerned himself with the location of a banqueting house. In 1563 Elizabeth I granted the castle to her beloved Robert Dudley, soon to be Earl of Leicester, and Dudley lavished a fortune turning the medieval fortress into a sumptuous palace and pleasure garden to impress the queen.

16

BRITAIN

Elizabeth visited Kenilworth four times, most famously on her summer progress of 1575 when she stayed for 19 days of dancing, fireworks and pageantry – a climactic scene of Scott’s novel. In Leicester’s Gatehouse an exhibition about Dudley and Elizabeth’s romance helps you to sort fact from fiction and you can enjoy superb views from the tower built for the queen’s use. Then explore the authentically recreated garden where Dudley beguiled Elizabeth with richly perfumed flowers, magnificent arbours, a bejewelled aviary and an 18-foot fountain carved from Carrara marble.

Our next visit, an eight-mile drive westwards from Kenilworth, is the gorgeous moated manor house of Baddesley Clinton. This was the seat of the Catholic Ferrers family for 500 years and much of the house you see today, including the Great Hall, was built in the late 1500s by lawyer and diarist Henry Ferrers ‘the Antiquary’: so-called for his scholarly pursuits and interest in heraldic decoration.

Yet all was not quite as peaceful as today’s scene suggests.

Life in Tudor England following Henry VIII’s break with Rome was fraught with dangers as the country lurched about with each successive sovereign, from Protestant

PHOTOS: © MARK HEMSWORTH/IVAN VDOVIN/ALAMY/HOLKHAM HALL/BLENHEIM PALACE

PHOTOS: © CHRISTOPHER NICHOLSON/IAN DAGNALLALAMY/JAMES DAVIES/ENGLISH HERITAGE/NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/ILLUSTRATION: © LAURA HALLETT

WARWICKSHIRE

WARWICKSHIRE Castle Howard is a Clockwise, from Baroque masterpiece this image: The Inset: The 1981 adaptation Elizabethan Garden of Brideshead Revisited at Kenilworth; was filmed atClinton’s the house Baddesley chapel; moated Baddesley Clinton

This image: Holkham Hall’s Old Kitchen Below: The secret staircase at the heart of the house

www.britain-magazine.com

BRITAIN

17

STATELY HOMES This photo: Hardwick Hall’s six sandstone towers were testament to its owner’s vast wealth Left, top to bottom: Lady Arbella Stuart, aged 13; a portrait of Bess of Hardwick that hangs in the house.

Both painted by Rowland Lockey

The

INCREDIBLE HOLKHAM The seat of the Earls of Leicester is one of England’s greatest stately homes WORDS NATASHA FOGES

32

BRITAIN

www.britain-magazine.com

STATELY HOMES

www.britain-magazine.com

BRITAIN

33