English Heritage Members' Magazine by Our Media

Industrial resolution Preparing for a new season at Stott Park Bobbin Mill

MAY 2019

ICONIC How weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re celebrating the bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at their former home

PLUS CONSERVATION IN ACTION AT PEVENSEY AND DOVER CASTLES

THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR AT TINTAGEL CASTLE IN CORNWALL

DISCOVER THE STORIES OF OUR HISTORIC KITCHEN GARDENS

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G E T

C L O S E R

T O

N A T U R E

RUNNING HEAD

Welcome Get in touch

W www.english-heritage.org.uk/members E membersmagazine@immediate.co.uk (for magazine queries only) or members@english-heritage.org.uk (for membership queries) T 0370 333 1181 PO Box 569, Swindon, SN2 2YP

For English Heritage

Luke Whitcomb, Johanna Lovesey, Jeremy Ashbee, Tom Dennis, Tersia Boorer, Tony Dike, Katie Kennedy, Richard Leatherdale

For Immediate Media Co.

Group editor Matt Havercroft Group production editor Oliver Hurley Senior art editor Sam Freeman Art editor Elaine Knight-Roberts Account director Helen Johnston Account manager Joanne Robinson Director Julie Williams Editorial director Dan Linstead Design director Will Slater Consultant editor Dave Musgrove Advertising manager Jamie Bolton Advertising enquiries 0117 300 8518; jamie.bolton@immediate.co.uk

Contributors

Kathy Hipperson, Sarah Baxter, Michael Hunter, Sarah Fairhurst, Roy Porter, Nick Holder, David Atkinson, Michael Callaghan, Tracy Shaw, Bethan Frost, Emily Parker, Rachel Clark, Andrew Hann, Katie Barrie, Paul Pattison, Howard Spencer, Helen Dorritt English Heritage Members’ Magazine is published on behalf of English Heritage by Immediate Media Co, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN, UK T +44 (0)117 927 9009 W www.immediate.co.uk

Advertising income

Thank you to our advertisers and partners. The income raised from advertising and inserts within this magazine goes towards the cost of printing and postage, so more of the funds from your membership can go towards helping to keep the story of England alive for future generations to enjoy too.

he greatest gift we can give the next generation is the story of their past, which is why we have launched our new Pass It On appeal. History gives us all the vital ingredients that shape who we are: a sense of our place in time, of what has gone before and the role of our ancestors in making it happen. It’s easy to think these stories will always be told and the buildings where history was made will stand forever. But experience tells us this is not the case. Each generation has to play its part – and now it’s our turn. Each year, at over 400 specially protected sites, we are able to bring the story of England to life for millions of people thanks to your invaluable support as Members. By donating to this new appeal, you’ll provide vital funds to run Discovery Visits for schoolchildren. With hands-on activities, these expert-led sessions are a great way to engage students and inspire a passion in history that will last a life time. Turn to page 34 for more details. Kate Mavor Chief Executive

Support us

Our work depends increasingly on the income generated through membership and donations, and we are incredibly grateful to those who already support us. This support helps in so many ways: from opening our historic places for all to visit, to conserving the objects and buildings in our care, to involving others in our work through volunteering and community opportunities. To discover more about what your support helps us to achieve, make a donation or find out how to leave a gift to English Heritage in your will, please visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us or call the fundraising team on 020 7973 3797. English Heritage cares for more than 400 historic monuments, buildings and places – from world-famous prehistoric sites to grand medieval castles, and from Roman forts on the edges of the empire to Cold War bunkers. Through these we bring the Story of England to life for more than 10 million visitors each year.

January to December 2018: 424,388 Registered charity no. 1140351 (England) Registered company no. 07447221 (England) Product code: 200547

Contributors

Roy Porter Properties curator

Michael Hunter Art collection curator

Emily Parker Landscape advisor

On page 22, Roy reveals the conservation project taking place to protect the historic walls of Pevensey Castle, a Saxon Shore Fort on the East Sussex coast, following our #lovecastles appeal

On page 32, Michael reveals the story of the chintz fabric with a secret hidden in its floral design that was used to decorate Queen Victoria’s bedroom at her beloved Isle of Wight home, Osborne

Turn to page 42 to read Emily’s guide to our fascinating collection of kitchen gardens – many of which still continue to grow produce at our historic houses across the country

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Contents May 2019

36 ‘STOTT PARK BOBBIN MILL IS THE ONLY WORKING BOBBIN MILL LEFT IN THE LAKE DISTRICT TODAY’ F E AT U R E S

Meet the expert

Stories of England

Behind the scenes

Kathy Hipperson on playing Audley End’s Victorian cook Avis Crocombe

Historian Nick Holder on the legend of King Arthur at Tintagel Castle

Meet the team at Stott Park Bobbin Mill in Cumbria as they repair its steam boiler

New this season

How we’re celebrating the bicentenary of Victoria and Albert’s births at Osborne

Expert care

Roy Porter on the project to preserve the walls of Pevensey Castle in East Sussex

Close-up

The secrets of the fabric used to decorate Queen Victoria’s bedroom at Osborne

Members’ appeal

Give the greatest gift of all to the next generation – the story of their past

Multi-site: kitchen gardens

Landscape advisor Emily Parker reveals the roles of our kitchen gardens

Past lives: George Orwell Discover the story behind the 1984 author’s blue plaque in London

REGULARS

The big picture

What you can expect at Dover Castle’s annual WWII Weekend

Then & now

Our latest news, including a new art exhibition at Stonehenge

Members’ Rewards

Start planning a new adventure with our latest offers and competitions

20 questions

Put your knowledge of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to the test

06 Front cover: Celebrating the bicentenary of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s births at their former home, Osborne

Y O U R E N G L I S H H E R I TA G E

My experience

How we helped one young Member to meet a medieval noblewoman

Industrial resolution Go behind the scenes at Stott Park Bobbin Mill

MAY 2019

ICONIC How we’re celebrating the bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at their former home

PLUS CONSERVATION IN ACTION AT PEVENSEY AND DOVER CASTLES

THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR AT TINTAGEL CASTLE IN CORNWALL

DISCOVER THE STORIES OF OUR VICTORIAN KITCHEN GARDENS

Image: Getty

Over to you

Your letters and views on the magazine and all things English Heritage

Ask the experts

Your questions answered by our experts across English Heritage

Members’ events

We reveal the top five Member-exclusive events to put in your diary

THE BIG PICTURE

WWII Weekend, Dover Castle Every May, over the spring bank holiday, the renowned WWII Weekend takes place at Dover Castle in Kent – the very site at which the Dunkirk evacuation was masterminded in 1940. From the moment visitors arrive they are immersed in 1940s life. So alongside British and German military encampments and the thrilling battle re-enactment – complete with pyrotechnics and replica gun fire – you’ll get to experience life on the home front too. www.english-heritage.org.uk/dover

english-heritage.org.uk www.english-heritage.org.uk

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Then&Now Keep up to date with the latest news, sites and developments

EXHIBITION

new exhibition that opens at Stonehenge in Wiltshire on 24 May illustrates the close connections between the monument and the communities that have lived around it. ‘Linda Brothwell: Conversations in Making’, which will run until mid-November, features 40 vessels created by Brothwell that have been inspired by conversations with local tradespeople, and by prehistoric objects and natural materials found in the countryside around Stonehenge. ‘I have a fascination with tools and a vessel can be thought of as a tool. Vessels were made and used by people in the Neolithic period, in the Bronze Age and still are today,’ says Brothwell.

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Find out more in our new podcast Join Linda in her studio in a forthcoming episode of our new podcast. Simply search for The English Heritage Podcast on your podcast app.

‘The particular beakers and pottery vessels found near Stonehenge are often linked with food and drink, but they had a hugely important ceremonial aspect as well.’ As well as taking inspiration from historical objects, Brothwell’s evocative artworks also pay visual tribute to local people working in the area, from thatchers to tattoo artists, tying the present-day to the area’s rich history. ‘It’s about summing up a place through 40 objects,’ says Brothwell. ‘So each one will be unique but actually together they feel like Stonehenge and the surrounding areas.’ www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge

JOSEPH TURP

See the new exhibition at Stonehenge that brings historical techniques to contemporary art

NEWS

YO U R S AY

GARDENS

Kenilworth’s garden celebrates 10th anniversary

Members reveal the events they are most looking forward to this summer

This July marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire – and there will be a host of activities taking place to celebrate. A special Elizabethan event on 13–14 July will feature period music, falconry displays and re-enactors bringing to life Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who will be showing off his horsemanship skills. The property will also have a new children’s trail and daily activities over 19 days. The stunning garden is a recreation of the garden built by Robert Dudley for Elizabeth I’s visit in 1575, and features a marble fountain, a two-tier aviary, two arbours and a lengthy terrace. www.english-heritage.org.uk/kenilworth

There was something for all ages at the Knights’ Tournament at Beeston Castle in Cheshire, and everyone liked the knights fighting. James Shingler, Staffordshire

IN NUMBERS

Blooming Gardens at Audley End in Essex was excellent. We enjoyed the tours and learning about the site’s history. Paul Dixon, Suffolk

£2.5m The amount donated by Julia and Hans Rausing towards the new footbridge at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall – the largest single private donation we have ever received. www. english-heritage.org.uk/tintagel

700

The number of years since Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland was completed. The remote castle was begun in 1313. www.english-heritage.org. uk/dunstanburgh

The number of years that artisan ceramicists Frank and Sue Ashworth of London Plaques have been making the plaques for our blue plaques scheme. www.english-heritage. org.uk/visit/blue-plaques

I N S TA N T E X P E R T

COMPETITION

How Charles II’s hiding place at Boscobel House lives on

Win tickets to Heritage Live concerts

What’s so special about the tree at Boscobel? When Charles II was on the run from Parliamentarian forces after defeat in the Civil War in 1651, he hid up an oak tree at Boscobel House in Shropshire. A descendant of the tree, the Royal Oak, can still be seen there today. Wood you believe it? Oh dear. Still, your terrible pun is oddly appropriate: from the autumn we will begin replanting the lost woodland of oaks that originally surrounded the king’s hiding place, and will eventually introduce direct descendants of the Royal Oak. How does that work? A master propagator (yes, it’s an actual thing) will collect healthy young shoots from the crown of the Royal Oak. These will be planted

in the field surrounding the tree to create a new woodland. Was the original tree a good hiding place? It was. After spending a day in the tree, Charles escaped to France. He returned to England to reclaim the throne in 1660. www.english-heritage.org.uk/boscobel

Heritage Live is running a series of open-air gigs at Kenwood House in London and Audley End House and Gardens in Essex this summer, and we have two pairs of guest passes to give away to a show of your choice. The concerts include performances by artists such as José Carreras and The Human League. To win a pair of the passes, which include entry to the guest area, visit www.englishheritage.org.uk/rewards (closing date 2 June). Plus English Heritage Members get 10% off adult tickets until 10 June at www.ticketmaster. co.uk/englishheritage. www.english-heritage.org.uk

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IN MY VIEW Frances McIntosh Curator of Hadrian’s Wall

GARDENS

NEWS IN BRIEF

Visit the restored Edwardian bedding at Brodsworth Hall and Gardens Antiques Roadshow at Battle Abbey

Archaeologists and historians often get annoyed at historical fiction for not following the true facts of the past. Game of Thrones, the hit book and TV series, doesn’t claim to be historical fiction, but it does sneak in bits of history from the past 2,000 years without most people realising. George RR Martin was inspired by a visit to Hadrian’s Wall: his massive ice wall is based on the Roman monument. Apart from the size difference, there are plenty of similarities between the walls. They were both built as barriers between civilisation and unconquered areas. Forts were spaced along their lengths, and troops patrolled north and south of the walls. Life for the Roman soldiers was probably not dissimilar to that of the Night’s Watch: long periods of boredom punctuated with skirmishes. Ancient accounts tell of the Roman wall being overrun with a barbarian attack but the Romans eventually triumphed and rebuilt. I suppose it’s easier to rebuild if it is only men coming through, not giant dragons. Each Roman fort would try to be as self-sufficient as possible. Supplies could be sourced from farmers and traders living in settlements outside the fort. These would also have provided places to drink and shop… just like Mole’s Town south of the ice wall. As both an archaeologist and a Game of Thrones fan, I love how history has inspired Martin to write such popular stories. www.english-heritage.org.uk/ hadrianswall

A remarkable Edwardian bedding area is being restored to its former glory as part of a new project at Brodsworth Hall in South Yorkshire. While both the hall and its gardens are known for exemplifying Victorian style, the site also contains significant areas of Edwardian planting and design. These include the intricate target range beds, the Ladies’ Garden and parts of the Rose Garden. In addition, we are starting to replant the iconic Victorian Spine Banks. The restoration work has added definition to the target range, a unique feature in the social history of British gardens that was designed for

archery target practice. It is hoped that the range will eventually be available for public archery workshops. ‘The beds in the target range are a survival of the Thellusson family history at Brodsworth. These beds are less formal than the Victorian ones, having a flowing character in form and planting,’ says senior gardens advisor Michael Klemperer. Brodsworth Hall was built in the 1860s as a new home for the Thellusson family and their servants. It survived with remarkably few changes until we took on the property in 1990. www.english-heritage.org.uk/ brodsworth

Don’t miss our new podcast We recently launched a brand new podcast, bringing you exclusive interviews about our properties every Thursday. To listen, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/podcast

BLUE PLAQUES

Latest news from our blue plaques scheme

Save on history festival tickets

Taking place near Salisbury from 24–30 June, Chalke Valley History Festival is the world’s largest history festival, and features over 150 talks and debates. Members can save 15% on talk tickets purchased before 2 June. See www. english-heritage.org. uk/rewards.

Artist and designer Abram Games (pictured) has been awarded a blue plaque and was honoured at his former home of nearly 50 years at 41 The Vale, Golders Green. One of the most influential designers of the 20th century, Games’s credo of ‘maximum impact, minimum means’ is exemplified by the symbol he produced for the Festival of Britain in 1951. The film-maker, artist and gay rights activist Derek Jarman has also been awarded a blue plaque recently. Although he is perhaps most readily associated with Dungeness in Kent, Jarman was based in London for much of his life. His plaque adorns Butler’s Wharf, on the south side of the Thames, where he lived and made his convention-defying films during the 1970s and 1980s.

BLUE PLAQUES WORDS: HOWARD SPENCER

How Hadrian’s Wall inspired Game of Thrones

Antiques Roadshow will be returning to one of our properties this summer when the show films a new episode at 1066 Battle of Hastings, Abbey and Battlefield in East Sussex on Tuesday 9 July. For details, go to www.bbc.co.uk/ showsandtours/ takepart/antiques.

NEWS

FUNDRAISING

THREE TO SEE

Marble Hill House gets the green light for garden project

A major £6m project, Marble Hill Revived, has received planning permission from Richmond Council. Thanks to a £4.08m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund, we will conserve the important Palladian mansion, restore the 18th-century garden, protect and enhance the park’s biodiversity and improve sports facilities. We will also open Marble Hill House free of charge and much more often, as well as engaging with the local community and building new audiences through an extensive programme of activity. www.english-heritage.org.uk/marblehillhouse

Don’t miss these three intriguing objects now on display at our historic properties

Carved eagle, 2nd/3rd century

Rembrandt selfportrait, 1665–69

Madonna of the Pomegranate, c.1487

The eagle was a symbol of the Roman army and this one was carved on to a building stone. It will be on display at Housesteads Roman Fort this season.

Following a loan to the Gagosian gallery as part of a major exhibition, the magnificent SelfPortrait with Two Circles has returned to Kenwood in London.

Following its first conservation work in over 100 years, this rare painting by Botticelli’s workshop has returned to Ranger’s House.

EVENTS

Portchester Castle’s prison history to be recreated through a new sound installation Due to open this summer at Portchester Castle in Hampshire, ‘Les Murs Sont Témoins’ (‘These Walls Bear Witness’) is a temporary sound installation by vocal artist Elaine Mitchener that explores the castle’s history as a prisoner-of-war depot. Visitors will encounter voices and sounds revealing the experiences of black prisoners held here during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Sponsored by the University of Warwick, the soundscape draws on research by Professor Kate Astbury and Abigail Coppins, using excerpts from registers, letters, and a play written and performed by the French prisoners of war. The installation will allow the castle to ‘speak’ to visitors, sharing its story as a building of incarceration, creativity and freedom. www.english-heritage.org.uk/portchester

EXPLAINED

How will the timed tickets work for the new Tintagel Castle bridge?

GETTY IMAGES

We are introducing timed tickets at Tintagel Castle when we reopen in the summer. At peak times of the year Tintagel can be very busy, so the introduction of timed tickets will help us to manage the number of people entering the castle. This will help us to protect the archaeology and ecology of this important historic site. For the first time you will be able to book your tickets ahead of your visit. As a Member your ticket will be free, but booking in advance means you will be able to plan your visit at the best time for you. See our website for details of how to book. www.english-heritage.org.uk/tintagel 12

www.english-heritage.org.uk

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M E E T TH E E X PE RT

Kathy Hipperson Historical interpreter, Audley End House and Gardens INTERVIEW ANNIE GR AY PHOTOGR APHS JOBY SESSIONS

I play the role of Mrs Avis Crocombe, the cook at Audley End in the 1880s. She’s part of the costumed characters at the house from May to September. I also play her in a series of videos that you can find on the English Heritage YouTube channel. Not much is written about the real Mrs Crocombe, so there have been some challenges in bringing her to life. She’s mentioned in the census, and we have her original notebook of recipes, but that’s it. A lot of the information we’ve put together has been based on research about Audley End itself, as well as generic information about servants in the late Victorian era. Playing Mrs Crocombe changes depending on whether I’m talking in the kitchen with visitors or making a video. In the kitchens I’m generally talking one-to-one, so you never know where a conversation will end up. It’s often led by what I’m physically doing, such as the dish I’m preparing. A video is more of an educational format, so I’m standing up and presenting. I prefer having an audience to respond to. When people visit us, or watch one of the videos, what I really want them to do is take away facts – about what life was like in the kitchen, about Mrs Crocombe herself and about servants in general during that era. I also enjoy myth-busting some of the preconceptions people have about servants and their day-to-day lives. Historical interpreters come from all sorts of different backgrounds. Some are trained actors like me, and a lot of really talented historical interpreters I know have degrees in history, which certainly helps, as does having some natural acting ability. But the most important thing is being personable with the public. I love my job. I get to spend every day in a costume, talk to lovely visitors and share interesting knowledge with people who will hopefully find it interesting too. My favourite part is getting to find out about ordinary people – kings and queens are 14

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Above Kathy performing as Mrs Crocombe with young Members. Facing page Double vision: camera trickery shows Kathy meeting herself as Mrs Crocombe at Audley End

fascinating, but it’s always nice to get the chance to play someone less known. One of my other roles is Florence Nightingale Richards, the keeper of the keys at Tintagel Castle. She’s great fun to play because she doesn’t have any of the control Mrs Crocombe has. Before playing Mrs Crocombe, I had no interest in cooking at all, especially savoury dishes. I do cook a lot more now, though – often strange dishes and at random times. I like the science of cooking and I like the concept of cooking, but I’m not interested in the taste unless it’s got lots of sugar. I definitely cook some of Mrs Crocombe’s recipes at home – some of them are very popular with my family. My favourite is the gingerbread cake, and the gâteau de pommes is pretty good. But I won’t be making sheep’s brain croquettes again. SEE K ATHY IN CHAR ACTER To see Kathy play Mrs Crocombe, learn how to make some of her recipes, and watch this interview in full, go to www.youtube.com/englishheritage

SEE A SELECTION OF RECIPES FROM MRS CROCOMBE Go to www.englishheritage.com/magazine

On the bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, a new exhibition reveals how they celebrated their birthdays at Osborne

WORDS SAR AH BA X TER

n 24 May 1848, Queen Victoria celebrated her 29th birthday at Osborne House, noting in her journal that ‘I received many lovely things as usual, such a quantity from dearest Albert’. She awoke early to the ‘tenderest congratulation of my beloved one’ before ‘the band began to play under our window’ – perhaps with the lapping Solent just discernible behind the strains of their chorales. The elder four of her children (totalling six at the time) ‘recited some very pretty French verses’ in the nursery while, downstairs, a table – ‘tastefully arranged’ and flower-festooned – was piled with 16

www.english-heritage.org.uk

presents. This was the first birthday she spent at her Isle of Wight retreat. A tradition was being created. This year is the bicentenary of the births of both Queen Victoria (24 May 1819) and Prince Albert (26 August 1819). They purchased Osborne in 1845 and, until Albert’s death in 1861, spent most of their birthdays here. It was their ‘little Paradise’ – and remains the most fitting place to mark their 200th anniversaries today. Opening on 24 May, ‘Celebration: Victoria and Albert’s Birthdays at Osborne’ is a new exhibition and trail, focusing on the playful rituals that were so much a part of the doting couple’s spring/ summer sojourn on the island. ‘It will help visitors understand more about Victoria and Albert’s

NEW THIS SEASON

www.english-heritage.org.uk

domestic life,’ says interpretation manager Sarah Fairhurst, who is responsible for the exhibition. ‘It will highlight the Victoria before the mourning period and help to erode the image of them as stuffy. It will show they had a happy life.’

Shift of power

It’s easy to see why the spirited young queen and her dashing prince delighted in Osborne. The estate was their first private home together. They came here every year, for three or four months, briefly turning this quiet spot off England’s south coast into ‘Westminster-on-Sea’ and the centre of the British Empire. And why not? From here, Victoria could survey the mainland, including the burgeoning naval flotillas at Portsmouth, and dignitaries could easily visit: Windsor and London were only a few hours away by new-fangled railway, and yachts could moor at nearby East Cowes, disembarking in style via the triumphal arch of Trinity Building (since demolished, its former location is where the Red Funnel ferry now arrives). However, for its relative accessibility, Osborne was also separate – Victoria’s personal island within an island, where her and Albert could live a semblance of a normal life. Not that there was anything particularly normal about their gift-giving. ‘They were passionate collectors, and one of the ways in which they built the collection at Osborne was through gifts,’

Above Queen Victoria’s study is crammed with mementos of family life at Osborne, incuding gifts the royal couple gave to each other, such as the painting Florinda, which can be seen hanging here Below The widowed Queen Victoria and the royal family pictured in Osborne’s gardens in 1898

‘At Osborne, Victoria could live a semblance of a normal life’

says Sarah. This intention is clear from Victoria’s own diary entry on her birthday in 1846, spent at Buckingham Palace: ‘What numbers of beautiful, valuable, as well as useful things, my dearest Albert has again showered upon me! But it would take too long to enumerate everything. Several of the gifts are meant for Osborne.’ The house is still home to at least 70 of the gifts the royal couple gave each other. They exchanged specially commissioned sculptures, paintings, porcelain and furniture. They also gave personalised trinkets, such as needlepoint and drawings done by the children. Albert once designed Victoria an entire set of jewellery made from the children’s milk teeth.

Making an exhibition

I had travelled across the Solent to meet Osborne’s art curator Michael Hunter for a sneak preview of the planned birthday celebrations. As I walked towards Osborne’s carriage ring, the yellowwashed Italianate pile was quiet – a grey day deterring the usual crowds. Michael led me up a few steps into the former household dining room, which is being transformed for the exhibition. For now, the builders were in: bare floorboards, dust sheets and scaffold rigs sat below an ornate ceiling, embossed with vines and the royal coats of arms. ‘There will be original birthday gifts on display here,’ Michael explained, ‘plus information panels and a riot of paper flowers. It will be jolly, bright, celebratory.’ None of the objects featuring in the exhibition are new to Osborne. They sit among the vast collection loaned to Osborne by the Royal Collection Trust. But they’ve never previously received star billing. ‘The focus here is often on the house itself,’ said Michael. ‘The objects can get lost but this will bring them out a little more, with detailed interpretation being prepared for about 20 of the key gifts.’ 18

www.english-heritage.org.uk

NEW THIS SEASON

Royal gifts Five of Victoria and Albert’s birthday presents to look out for on the new birthday trail

Painting of Maharaja Duleep Singh by Franz Xaver Winterhalter Given by Victoria to Albert, 1854 The Maharaja of the Punjab was forced by the British to renounce his sovereignty. He settled in England aged 16, and Victoria invited him to Osborne several times. Both Albert and Victoria took a keen interest in India.

The Four Seasons by Mary Thornycroft Given by Albert to Victoria, 1845, 1847 and 1848 Made by one of Victoria and Albert’s favourite British sculptors – lauded for her ability to capture a good likeness – these figures depict the couple’s four eldest children as the seasons: Alfred as autumn, Victoria as summer, Albert as winter, Alice as spring.

Pair of floor candelabra by Osler Given by Albert to Victoria, 1848 The Birmingham firm Osler & Co used new technology such as power-driven lathes to improve its glass-cutting. This pair was shown at the Great Exhibition, where reporters lauded the ability of the glass to ‘diffuse the varied colours of the rainbow on all sides around’.

Bust of Saïd Abdallah by Charles Cordier Given by Victoria to Albert, 1852 ‘A favourite,’ says Michael, ‘both because it is a beautiful object but also the story it tells of the sitter, a Sudanese slave who was only freed when slavery was abolished in France’s colonies in 1848, the year the bust was made.’

ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2019

‘Temperantia’ dish by Elkington & Co Given by Albert to Victoria, 1850 This silver reproduction of a late-16th-century dish was created using cutting-edge metalwork techniques. Other replicas were made, including one now known as the Venus Rosewater Basin – the Ladies’ Wimbledon Trophy since 1886.

www.english-heritage.org.uk

All of this is evident in the presents at Osborne. Victoria bought Albert Renaissance-style vases, Romantic paintings and items crafted using innovative machines. Albert gave Victoria naturalistic statues of their children and other sentimental pieces. In 1857, shortly after the marriage of their eldest daughter, Albert gave Victoria The Grandmother’s Birthday, a painting by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller depicting three happy generations, clearly in anticipation of Victoria soon becoming a grandmother herself. Although the couple were prolific gift-givers there was a modicum of restraint. ‘Victoria and Albert had a certain budget each year and they were quite canny,’ Michael told me as we walked past gorgeous inlaid tables and columns of fake marble. ‘The threat of revolution was strong – the power of monarchy not what it was. They had to show a different face.’

Birthday presence What to expect from Osborne’s bicentenary exhibition

Revealing insight

The inspiration for the exhibition comes from Victoria and Albert, whose journal entries have guided the tone. ‘As we discovered more about how they celebrated at Osborne, it really designed itself,’ says interpretation manager Sarah Fairhurst. The main display will occupy the former household dining room of the main wing, which is being transformed with new carpets and repainted walls that have been restored to their original colour. Influenced by Victoria and Albert’s birthday rooms and tables, the exhibition room will be filled with a riot of paper and faux flowers and garlands. ‘The birthday illustrations show how over the top the celebrations were,’ says Sarah. Information panels will show family photos and reproductions of the detailed table paintings, in which you can identify specific gifts. There will be music too. On one of Albert’s birthdays, Victoria’s journal recalls a band playing ‘first one of Walch’s Reveilles, to which was added the Coburg March’ – this will accompany the exhibition. The birthday trail will then lead through the house and into the garden, where there are gift statues and memorial trees. Take the John Gibson statue of Queen Victoria gazing authoritatively along the Grand Corridor. Victoria commissioned this for Osborne and gave it to Albert on his 30th birthday, in 1849. She was pleased with its ‘impression of youth and yet great dignity’, although Albert was ‘not quite satisfied with the likeness’. However, it remains where the couple placed it: 4ft 11in of imperiousness, displayed within a purpose-built gilded niche, their omnipresent logo – the entwined V and A – inscribed above. It’s a unique insight into their tastes. ‘Edward VII wanted the house to be a memorial to his mother, so much remains exactly where she left it,’ explained Michael. ‘They both liked classical sculpture,’ he added. ‘Victoria’s taste erred towards good likenesses and items that were commemorative or sentimental. Albert was more academic, with a penchant for Raphael, pictures of Germany and new technology.’ 20

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IN NUMBERS

160

Number of servants at Osborne when Victoria and Albert were staying

Estimated number of birthday gifts Victoria and Albert gave each other

£1,000

Cost of Florinda, a painting bought by Victoria for Albert for his birthday

Another face revealed at Osborne is their passion. ‘There’s a lot of naked flesh here,’ said Michael, pointing out frescoes of scantily clad deities and marbles of topless maidens. ‘Many think of Victoria as prudish but not at all.’ For instance, in 1853 Victoria gave Albert Florinda by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, depicting a gaggle of palace girls bathing in a garden, about to be seduced by King Roderic of Spain. This erotic scene was installed in the Queen’s Sitting Room, which connects Victoria and Albert’s bedrooms, hanging boldly in front of the desk they shared to carry out matters of state. Following the trail around the house, via Victoria’s cupid-swathed Minton dressing table set (actually a Christmas present) and a painting of Maurice the dog (given to Albert in 1859), we emerged on the neat upper terrace, pausing between sculptures of Spring and Winter, which were also presents. Rain dripped off their noses, and slightly misted the view down the Broad Walk, across the valley, to little Osborne Beach and the Solent beyond. At least 270 memorial trees – marking visits, deaths and, of course, birthdays – were planted across the estate and a few of these will be incorporated into the trail. The couple’s annual traditions came to a halt after Albert’s death in 1861. Though Victoria continued to frequent Osborne, she altered her routine, spending winters here but never returning for their birthdays. This year’s exhibition captures that all-too-brief period when she wasn’t only a monarch, she was a wife, mother and lover, and when Osborne provided an inkling of the carefree domesticity she often craved. PLAN YOUR VISIT For further information, and to plan your visit to Osborne on the Isle of Wight, go to our website at www.english-heritage.org.uk/osborne

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A recent project at Pevensey Castle reveals some of the conservation challenges we are resolving across the country thanks to your support in last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s #lovecastles appeal WORDS ROY PORTER PHOTOGR APHS DAVID MYERS

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E XPERT C ARE

any of the most significant castles and forts in the country are in our care but, even by our standards, Pevensey Castle is distinguished by its long and often dramatic history, stretching from Roman to modern times. The story begins in the final decade of the third century, when a fort was established on a peninsula jutting into a large bay that provided a sheltered landing place for shipping. This appears to have been occupied throughout the late Roman period until at least the late fifth century when, in the first of its documented episodes of violence, it was apparently attacked and its inhabitants massacred by a Saxon army. By the mid seventh century, the Roman walls of the fort once again protected a community and the descendants of these inhabitants would have witnessed the arrival

of William of Normandy, when his invasion fleet landed at Pevensey Bay in September 1066.

From Roman times to WWII

Radical changes were made after the Conquest, with the fort now a castle held by royal favourites or by the Crown. Within the Roman walls an inner bailey was formed, and given its own moat and stone walls in the 1250s. Such was the continuing strategic importance of the castle that it was subject to four sieges, with that of 1264â&#x20AC;&#x201C;65 being the longest siege in English medieval history. But by the 16th century the castle was unused and falling into ruin and, for the next 400 years, it slumbered. In 1940, however, its military role was revived when it was designated a fortress at the heart of local defence against possible invasion. Soldiers were ordered to hold it to the last man, and its historic defences were updated by the introduction of machine-gun posts and anti-tank measures. www.english-heritage.org.uk

As the physical embodiment of this exceptional history, it’s essential that the remains of Pevensey Castle are kept in good order. As part of the most extensive conservation programme in our history, Pevensey Castle has recently been subject to repair works and consolidation, focused on the internal face of the Roman walls and the external masonry of the medieval inner bailey.

Sympathetic repair work

This work presented some particular conservation challenges. One was scale: Pevensey is the largest of the Roman shore forts, with more than 500m of walls. Another challenge was the character of the Roman wall. Viewed from the exterior of the castle, one of Pevensey’s glories is the survival of its Roman face, constructed in neat greensand blocks embellished with bands of tile and ironrich Wealden sandstone, pointed in pink mortar. The internal elevations, however, present a very different picture. Here the facing stones were deliberately robbed at some point before the medieval castle was established, leaving the raw material of the wall’s core exposed. The Roman builders raised the walls by laying outer courses of squared stones first and then filled the core with

Pevensey timeline The castle’s history, from Roman times to the 1940s

‘Pevensey is the largest of the shore forts and our work ranged across more than 500m of walls’ Above, from left The flint and rubble skin of the Second World War machine-gun post was peeling away from the brick and concrete core; all the loose stones have now been rebedded in their original positions

flint and occasionally chalk. Since at least the late Saxon period, this inner material has been ravaged by the rain and wind, performing a role it was never designed to do. One of the reasons we had to carry out work was because stones in the core were loose, mortar joints opened up and material was falling from the wall. We have comprehensively repointed joints and rebedded loose stones, placing them back in their original positions and using lime mortars that match the appearance of the Roman material. Roman construction methods also accounted for another issue. The walls were built in sections by different work gangs and, where the sections abut, there are vertical joints that, over time, have opened up in several instances. Large vertical fissures in the wall had appeared as a result of settlement of the foundations. The problem was that some of these vertical joints and gaps were becoming very deep and broad, allowing rainwater

293

c.471

1066

Construction work begins on a Roman shore fort at Pevensey, known as Anderida.

Saxon raiders attack Pevensey, slaying all the inhabitants so that ‘there was not even one Briton left there’.

William of Normandy’s invasion fleet lands at Pevensey on the morning of 28 September. William fortifies the site. He later gives the castle to his half-brother Robert of Mortain.

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E XPERT C ARE

Dover Castle conservation

The project to protect the walls of England’s largest castle

Pevensey Castle is not the only castle to receive essential conservation work on its historic walls as part of our national programme, with a similar project already completed at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Most recently, we have shifted our attention to Dover Castle in Kent, where stonemason James Preston (pictured) has started inspecting the 800-year-old walls of one of England’s largest castles. With work due to begin next year, the focus will be on the medieval and Georgian defences at the north end of the castle, from Avranches Tower to Constable’s Gate. The work will include removal of vegetation, repointing and replacement of heavily eroded stone, and we’ll also be dealing with water ingress into the medieval tunnels.

to wash through the core and erode material. In several cases we needed to fill the gap but in a way that didn’t spoil the character of the walls. We seek to always respect the appearance and character of the structure when carrying out conservation work to historic masonry, avoiding introducing repairs that look alien or overtly modern. With the fissures we introduced new flints set back within the wall, laid to emulate the coursing of the core but profiled to control rainwater runoff. This means that the wall still reads as a timeworn structure but, structurally, the risks posed by the cracks have been dealt with.

Extensive vegetation growth compounded the walls’ problems. Properties curators are often asked how we decide which plants to remove and which to retain. The answer depends on the history of a particular site, the condition of its walls and the character of the vegetation. Sometimes a case can be made for allowing managed vegetation but often the case for removal is far stronger, particularly if the vegetation is harmful. Such was the case at Pevensey, where it was growing directly from the walls. It was also covering up key architectural features such as arrow loops, and hiding a large stone siege ball that had been incorporated into the outer bailey wall. This is now visible to visitors. We also had to make sure that works were managed in a way that considered the ecology of the site. Protected species found there include bats, great crested newts and adders – discovered sunbathing one morning by the stonemasons.

Surprising challenges

Conservation projects have the capacity to surprise and Pevensey was no exception. The most difficult challenge lay not with Roman or medieval masonry, but with one of the WWII machine-gun posts. They were built of brick and concrete but given a thin veneer of flint and stone rubble set in cement mortar in order to camouflage them. The outer face was not bonded to the brickwork beneath and at one emplacement it was falling away. We have had to carefully take down the delaminating skin in sections and reinstate it using modern fixings. The project at Pevensey Castle is typical in revealing the dynamic range of conservation challenges facing the ruins in our care. But it also shows how English Heritage, with the support of its Members, responds carefully and creatively to ensure that these nationally important sites continue to face all that confronts them, just as they did in centuries past. PLAN YOUR VISIT For more information on Pevensey Castle and to plan your visit, go to our website at www.english-heritage.org.uk/pevensey

1264–65

1419

1573

1925

1940

Pevensey Castle is besieged by Simon de Montfort the younger, using catapults. It lasts from September to July, making it the longest recorded siege in English medieval history.

Joan of Navarre, dowager queen of England and stepmother of Henry V, is imprisoned at Pevensey after being charged with sorcery and conspiracy to murder the king.

A survey records Pevensey Castle as being ‘very far in decay’.

The castle is transferred to the care of the Office of Works (the predecessor of English Heritage) and a major programme of conservation work begins at Pevensey.

Pevensey Castle is made a key part of anti-invasion defences, with carefully camouflaged machinegun posts introduced to its historic walls.

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passage the douro

along

Entre-os-Rios Barca dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Alva Regua

SPAIN

Oporto Lamego Salamanca Quinta do Seixo Figueiro Castelo Rodrigo

PORTUGAL

Discover the beauty of the Douro Valley aboard the MS Gil Eanes 13th to 20th May; 11th to 18th June & 6th to 13th September 2020

he Douro is not the longest, grandest or most historic of Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rivers, but it certainly is one of the most untouched and beautiful. From its meagre beginnings in the hills north of Madrid it makes its way through Northern Portugal in a meandering flourish to the ocean and the endlessly fascinating city of Oporto. Our cruise aboard the delightful MS Gil Eanes offers the opportunity to sail this delightful river and experience some of the local flavour. Where vessels once laden with barrels of port drifted to Oporto, we will cruise along this lovely river, relaxing on board whilst admiring the beautiful passing scenery and stopping each day for fascinating excursions.

MS Gil Eanes For our cruises along the Douro we have chartered the elegant MS Gil Eanes. Launched in 2015, the ship is well-designed with a modern feel and offers a tranquil atmosphere on which to relax and enjoy the picturesque panoramas of the region. There are 62 cabins and four suites on board which are located over three decks, and have a bright airy feel. Cabins on the Main Deck feature two windows, and those on the Middle and Upper Decks boast French balconies and sliding floor to ceiling windows. Public areas include the lounge bar with floor to ceiling windows, and the Sun Deck with comfortable loungers and some tables and chairs under a shaded area. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are served in the stylish restaurant which seats all passengers in one sitting. The excellent cuisine features delicious local and international dishes. Breakfast and lunch are buffet style with hot and cold items, and dinners are a served set menu with a choice of either two main courses or a vegetarian option. Drinks are included during meal times, and are also available until late in the Lounge Bar. In addition to our Cruise Director and Tour Manager, you will also be joined by a Guest Speaker who will deliver informative and interesting lectures on board, adding to your enjoyment of the cruise and interest of the area.

For full details on this holiday call us today on 020 7752 0000 for your copy of our brochure.

RIVER CRUISING WITH NOBLE CALEDONIA SPECIAL OFFER – SAVE £200 PER PERSON

The Itinerary in Brief Day 1 London to Oporto, Portugal. Fly by scheduled flight. Upon arrival transfer to the MS Gil Eanes and embark. This evening meet your fellow travellers at the welcome dinner. Day 2 Oporto to Entre-Os-Rios. This morning there will be a guided tour of Oporto, Portugal’s second largest city and a World Heritage Site. During our tour we will drive through its narrow streets to find 16th century arcaded buildings, Baroque churches and chapels, as well as the city’s iconic 19th century iron bridge, built by the school of Gustav Eiffel. We continue along the coastal road of the Atlantic to the mouth of the Douro River to view this wealthy neighbourhood with its fashionable villas and manor houses. Our final visit will be to the city’s cathedral, located on the top of the Penaventosa Hill. Inside are beautiful examples of golden carved altarpieces and paintings from the Nasoni period, whilst outside we will enjoy the amazing view over the river. The tour will conclude with a visit to a port wine lodge where we will see the old casks full of port and enjoy a sample of this delicious world famous wine. Return to the ship for lunch and enjoy a relaxing afternoon of cruising. Day 3 Regua. Depart for Regua in the heart of the port producing region,

from where we visit the unique 18th century Mateus Manor House and its gardens. This fine looking palace and gardens is still owned by the Count of Vila Real and is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in Portugal. On our guided tour of the Palace we will see the “rare books” library, as well as vestments and religious icons, and also view the remarkable chestnut wood crafting on the ceilings, as well as some beautiful paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. Stroll around the romantic gardens which feature a unique 100 foot long cedar tunnel and formal garden. Finally, before returning to the vessel, there will be time to visit the villa’s pretty chapel. Day 4 Figueira Castelo Rodrigo. Enjoy a leisurely morning on board as we cruise to Barca d’Alva and after lunch depart for an excursion to the picturesque Medieval town of Figueira Castelo Rodrigo, known as the white village because of its surrounding almond trees. Located at about 2200 feet above sea level, and one of Portugal’s 12 historical parishes, its streets are typically narrow and steep with 16th century facades and Manuelino style windows. The Romans were the first to build a fortress here, then in 1209 Alfonso IX built the fortress wall. Day 5 Salamanca, Spain. Today we will enjoy a full day tour to Salamanca, a Spanish city rich in culture and tradition. Salamanca has been famous as a seat of learning since the early 13th century and has an impressive history, with many fine monuments and architecture. The city attracts around 40,000 international students each year, giving it a cosmopolitan and modern feel. Our guided tour will include the University, House of Shells

and the classic Plaza Mayor, formally a bullfighting site. We will also visit the Gothic “New Cathedral” which was actually constructed in the 16th century, replacing the original 12th century Salamanca Cathedral. After lunch in a local restaurant, enjoy some free time to explore independently. Maybe visit the Casa Lis (the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco), or simply stroll through the plazas and side streets of this delightful city. Day 6 Quinta do Seixo, Portugal. Enjoy a leisurely morning on board as we cruise to Tavora. After lunch we will depart for our visit to Quinta do Seixo, an ancient property with 99 hectares of vineyards and a modern winery. The drive takes us through steep terraced vineyards which boast breathtaking views. On a guided tour we will learn about the production methods and sample some of the local wines. This evening we will be entertained by a Portuguese folklore show on board. Day 7 Lamego. This morning we will enjoy a half day excursion to the historical and charming town of Lamego. This city houses one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Portugal - the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies. Built in the second half of the 18th century over the remains of a 14th century chapel, it is an excellent example of Portuguese Baroque style. It is wonderfully decorated with enormous panels of blue and white tiles, with an impressive staircase of nearly 700 steps. During lunch on board we sail back to Oporto crossing the Crestuma-Lever dam. Join your fellow travellers tonight for the farewell dinner. Day 8 Oporto to London. Disembark after breakfast and transfer to the airport for the return scheduled flight to London.

Alternatively view or request online at www.noble-caledonia.co.uk

Portugal Extension If you would like to spend some time in Portugal before embarking the MS Gil Eanes we are offering a five night extension offering the chance to tour Lisbon, Sintra, Coimbra, Tomar, Guimaraes, and Braga. Full details can be viewed online at www.noble-caledonia.co.uk

Prices & Inclusions Special offer prices per person based on double occupancy start from £2395 for a category E cabin. Cabins for sole use from £2895.

What’s Included: • Economy class scheduled air travel • Seven nights aboard the MS Gil Eanes on full board basis • All-inclusive drinks from 10am to 11pm • Shore excursions • Cruise Director, Tour Manager & Guest Speaker • Gratuities • Transfers NB. Ports and itinerary subject to change. All special offers are subject to availability. Travel insurance, premium brands & sparkling wines are not included in the price. Our current booking conditions apply to all reservations.

SMALL SHIPS - BIG EXPERIENCES

A The

once and future king

Was King Arthur a historical figure or a legendary hero? The answer may be both: writers from the ninth century onwards mixed tales of a superhuman king with historical traditions WORDS NICK HOLDER ILLUSTR ATIONS CLIVE HICKS -JENKINS

About the illustrator Clive Hicks-Jenkins is our selected artist for this year’s theme of Telling Tales: The Myths, Legends and Folklore of England. Look out for more of Clive’s work, which will be appearing across our website, magazine and social media channels, over the year ahead

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round the year 830 a Welsh monk called Nennius wrote The History of the Britons, in which a fifthand sixth-century British military commander called Arthur leads a series of battles against the English, culminating in the crucial battle of Badon Hill, in which the Britons decisively defeat the enemy. The problem for advocates of a historical Arthur is that Nennius was writing three centuries after this Arthur, and he was crafting a book to appeal to his audience – a Welsh aristocracy under threat from the powerful English and in need of some heroes from the past. No writer before Nennius describes a great British warrior called Arthur. There are one or two other historical Arthurs of this period. Perhaps the best candidate is Artúr, son of the Scottish king Áedán mac Gabráin, who died in battle fighting the Picts around the year 600. The problem with this Arthur is that, although he may well have been a fine fighter, he does not seem to have been particularly famous. By the ninth century, the story of a historical Arthur was mixed up with legends about an almost-superhuman warrior-king: he fights a supernatural boar in the Welsh story Culhwch and Olwen, and he visits the underworld in Taliesin’s poem ‘The Spoils of Annwn’. If we are still unsure about the historical Arthur, there certainly was an important legendary Arthur, established at an early point in British history.

Citadel and port

Archaeological evidence shows that the Cornish cliff-fortress of Tintagel was used as a citadel and port between the fifth and seventh centuries. Luxury goods from the eastern Roman Mediterranean, such as wine, pottery and olive oil, were traded in return for Cornish tin. From the sixth-century writer Gildas we know there was a western British kingdom called Dumnonia (Cornwall, Devon and part of Somerset), ruled by a King Constantine. Given this evidence, it’s hard to resist the conclusion that Tintagel was one of Constantine’s royal bases. There is little reason, however, to associate Tintagel with Arthur. True, archaeologists found a sixth- or seventhcentury inscribed stone at Tintagel mentioning Artognou: the similarity to the name Arthur is at first striking but it was a common element in Celtic personal names.

STORIES OF ENGL AND

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STORIES OF ENGL AND

The connection between Arthur and Tintagel is literary rather than archaeological. In the 1130s Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote The History of the Kings of Britain, an apparently historical work that was largely fiction. Geoffrey took a series of legendary and historical characters and skilfully wove them into an extended story of Britain. Tintagel appears at the very beginning of Geoffrey’s Arthur story when Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, secures his wife Igerna there to protect her from the military (and amorous) advances of King Uther. While Uther’s forces besiege Gorlois elsewhere, Uther’s advisor, the magician Merlin, transforms Uther into the likeness of Gorlois. Uther deceives Igerna, spending the night with her and impregnating her with Arthur. Later, Gorlois is killed in battle and Uther marries Igerna.

The evolution of the story

In this early Arthurian story, Tintagel is not a court or castle of Arthur, nor his birthplace: it is the place of his illicit conception, an unsettling tale of magic, deception, sexual assault and war. Luckily, Arthur grows up to have a higher moral character than his father, becoming the greatest of the ancient kings of Britain and conqueror of most of north-west Europe. This is the chivalric King Arthur, whose renown attracted the bravest knights to his court at Camelot, and whose stories inspired generations of medieval readers. In the 1230s, Richard, Earl of Cornwall and the brother of Henry III, was consolidating his position as the wealthiest and most powerful young

The legend of Tristan and Iseult How Tintagel also became the setting of this fictional romance The story of King Mark and two doomed lovers, his wife Iseult and his nephew Tristan, became part of the Arthurian legends in the 12th century. Tristan goes to the court of his uncle Mark at Tintagel and brings princess Iseult from Ireland as a wife for Mark, but Tristan and Iseult fall in love instead. Even after Mark and Iseult marry, the lovers continue to meet in secret. They make a dramatic escape from Mark but Tristan later agrees to return Iseult, and the lovers are only joined again in death, buried side by side at Tintagel. Like the stories of Arthur, there may be one or two elements of historical fact behind the literary romance. The trio could be sixth-century king Cunomorus, his son Drustanus and wife Ousilla. The 12th-century French stories of Mark, Tristan and Iseult probably have Cornish origins as the characters move around in a recognisably Cornish world. We may not be able to disentangle literature, legend, archaeology and history, but these stories seem to contain kernels of historical truth about an ancient Cornish past.

‘It is largely Tennyson’s Arthur who survives today: a noble but flawed hero’ aristocrat in England. He built castles, mansions and hunting lodges across the land, including at Tintagel. The new Tintagel Castle was unusual: it was a large fortified bridge connecting a courtyard on the mainland cliff to a protruding headland, where he built a hall. The castle had no military value but it staked Richard’s claim to be a great aristocrat: here was the new Earl of Cornwall, whose court was in the very place where the ancient kings of Cornwall had ruled and where the great Arthur was conceived. Richard had entered the Arthurian stories of Cornwall. The legends of Arthur continued to be told and embellished by English, French and other writers. One of the most famous versions was by Chrétien de Troyes, who wrote five Arthurian romances in the late 12th century. Nearly all the ingredients of the Arthur story were in place: the king and his queen, Guinevere, a group of knights including Lancelot, a Round Table, and the story of the search for the Holy 30

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Nick Holder Nick is a senior properties historian, responsible for historical research at Tintagel Castle

Grail. The final flowering of medieval Arthurian storytelling came in 1485 with Thomas Malory’s great Arthurian compendium Le Morte D’Arthur. Interest in the Arthurian legends then waned, until a glorious revival spearheaded by Alfred Tennyson. Like Malory, Tennyson rewrote Arthurian legend for his contemporaries, creating the poetic cycle The Idylls of the King. It is largely Tennyson’s Arthur who survives today: a noble but flawed hero, portrayed in art such as Edward Burne-Jones’ The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon. As early as the ninth century, natural and archaeological features in the landscape came to be named after Arthur. English Heritage manages two such sites: Arthur’s Stone in Herefordshire and King Arthur’s Round Table in Cumbria, both Neolithic sites given their kingly moniker much later. In addition to Tintagel Castle, the modern Arthurian tourist can also seek Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury Abbey, his hillfort-court at Cadbury Castle in Somerset or his Round Table at Winchester Castle. PL AN A LEGENDARY 2019 This year we’re celebrating the myths, legends and folklore connected to our sites. For more details, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/tellingtales

CLOSE U P

The secrets of Osborne’s chintz WORDS MICHAEL HUNTER PHOTOGR APH TOM L ANGFORD

In the centre of Osborne, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s palatial holiday home on the Isle of Wight, is their bedroom. This very private room, still full of the pictures and furniture that the royal couple placed there, hides an altogether more intimate demonstration of their intensely loving relationship. The curtains and furniture covers are made of glazed cotton, known as chintz, block-printed with a design of roses and foliage. What is totally unexpected is that the design perpetuates the loving gaze of Victoria (who faces right) and Albert (who faces left) in outline profiles made up of the tendrils emerging from the flowers. These profiles can only be brought into relief by a discerning eye. In 1954 Victoria and Albert’s private rooms at Osborne were unlocked for the first time since Victoria’s death and visitors were allowed in. By the 1960s the original, 19th-century, floral chintz had deteriorated and a copy of the profile chintz was used as a suitable replacement – a very happy choice of fabric. At Osborne, in their most intimate room, Victoria and Albert still gaze lovingly at each other.

PL AN A VISIT To plan a visit to Osborne and join the celebrations for the bicentenary of Victoria and Albert’s birth, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/osborne

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HISTORY MATTERS 34

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The greatest gift we can give the next generation is the story of their past

We believe that history is one of the greatest gifts we can pass on to the next generation. History gives us all the vital ingredients that shape who we are: a sense of our place in time, of what has gone before and who will come after us. It’s a continuing story that is passed down from generation to generation, whether it tells the history of our families, our communities, or the region or even the country in which we live.

Doing your bit

It’s easy to think that these stories will always be told and the buildings where history happened will stand forever. But time tells us this is not the case. Each generation has to do their bit. Our ancestors fought hard for this heritage

to be passed down to us. And now it’s our turn to ensure that these historic properties continue to be looked after.

kind. But, like many areas, it’s affected by education cutbacks.

Experiencing history up-close

By donating today, you’ll be providing vital funds to run workshops for schoolchildren. With hands-on activities, these sessions are a great way to engage students in history. Whole classes can dress up, handle objects and engage in learning. From discovering what life was like for people in a medieval castle to understanding the Cold War, these workshops inspire a passion for history that will last a lifetime.

Each year, at over 400 specially protected sites, we bring the story of England to life for millions of people, right where it happened. We help you experience history up-close and personally. You can try on period clothing and armour, climb ancient ramparts, examine objects from the past, and stand in the places where big decisions were made. We take special care that the stories we tell are true, based on detailed research, and the experiences we create are fun and stay in the memory. Our popular education visits programme is one of the largest of its

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Will buy a bag of ‘tesserae’ cubed tiles, so each child can design their own mosaics at Wroxeter Roman City. During the session, pupils learn about Roman life and culture, and the importance of its impact on Britain.

Will pay for a collection box of replica Second World War artefacts for pupils to handle at Dover Castle. Throughout the session, children learn about the castle’s role in the planning of the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Will provide the materials for both fence building and rope-making at Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The session gives pupils a fascinating insight into how Neolithic people lived 5,000 years ago. www.english-heritage.org.uk

Industrial resolution Stott Park Bobbin Mill near Lake Windermere in Cumbria is the only working bobbin mill in England. We paid a visit to discover how this unique site is preparing for a new season WORDS DAVID ATKINSON PHOTOGR APHS JOANNE CR AWFORD

www.english-heritage.org.uk

BEHIND THE SCENES

Clockwise, from left Tools of the bobbin trade; work gets underway to repair the mill’s boiler; a series of belts drives the mill’s machinery; bobbins are still made here just as they have since the mill’s Victorian heyday

t’s a sensory overload on the workshop floor. The rotating drive belts beat a repetitive rhythm and the woodworking machines send a concertina of shavings into the air as the prepared blocks are cut and shaped. But, most of all, it’s the aroma of the alder wood that hits me. ‘I love the assault on the senses,’ says site supervisor Tracy Shaw, leaning over a lathe, her cascading dreadlocks tied up roughly under a bobble hat. ‘The pulsating of the line shaft and pulley wheels are, for me, like the pumping heart of the mill.’ We’re standing in the new lathe workshop, dating from the 1880s. Wood shavings from the lathes were allowed to pile up on the floor to waist height during the winter months to help keep the workers warm. Tracy is showing me how to make a bobbin – a spindle around which yarn or thread is wound – from a short length of coppiced wood. As she pulls back the lever to cut out the middle section, more shavings spill across the floor.

‘We’re trying to preserve the mill’s workplace as it was in its heyday’

I’ve come to Stott Park Bobbin Mill, nestled near the shores of Lake Windermere in Cumbria, to find out more about preparing the industrial-heritage site for season opening. It’s been a particularly challenging few months for Stott Park, with a newly refurbished steam boiler due to be reinstalled and the long-overdue cleaning of the mill’s chimney, as well as the usual maintenance of the site and its Victorian-era machinery.

Industrial in nature

The four-acre site provides a striking contrast to the nearby Lakeland fells, the working mill set among woodland and dominated by a towering brick chimney. The bobbin master’s cottage remains across the country lane and a new walking trail through the woods leads uphill to the High Dam reservoir, which was dug out to supply the mill with water. Unlike other nearby English Heritage sites, such as Furness Abbey and Brougham Castle, the upkeep of Stott Park is a very different proposition. ‘We’re trying to preserve a workplace as it was in its heyday. It’s as if the workers had just gone for a break, leaving their coats on hooks by the door,’ says property manager Mick Callaghan, ‘Stott Park keeps alive a lesser-known Cumbrian industry.’ www.english-heritage.org.uk

Stott Park is the last surviving example of the 100-odd bobbin mills built in the Lake District from the late 18th century onwards to service the booming Lancashire cotton industry at the height of the Industrial Revolution. The mills, fuelled by natural water reserves and abundant local supplies of birch, hazel and ash from the Lakeland woodlands, supplied the industry with the millions of bobbins required at all stages of the spinning and weaving processes.

‘The so-called Bobbin Boys worked up to 16 hours a day at the mill’

Changing times

The mill was built in 1835 but it was under the stewardship of the Coward family from 1855 that it reached its prime, producing up to a quarter of a million bobbins each week. By the time of the 1940s war effort, the cotton industry was in decline but Stott Park had diversified into making wooden tools as well as uniforms for the armed services – assisted by its connection to mains electricity. The site ceased production in 1971 but was saved for the nation, with English Heritage assuming responsibility for its care in 1980. Today, an exhibition in the former coppice barn focuses on the compelling social history of the site. Child labour was common amid the dusty, dangerous conditions of the mill until the Factory and Workshop Act of 1878 stopped boys as young as eight being employed. But the so-called Bobbin Boys, many aged 10 to 14, continued to work up to 16 hours per day, with records showing at least one boy’s head was crushed in the machinery.

From top The working mill provides a stark contrast to its wooded Lakeland setting; Tracy Shaw in the mill’s engine room; children enjoying a visit to the mill

‘If you didn’t work, then you didn’t get paid so, despite the fact there was no guards on the machines, let alone health and safety awareness, you soon learnt to be safe,’ says Mick. The bobbin industry was also heavily dependent on young apprentices, who were often ‘indentured’ – legally bound to their bobbin master for seven years. Site records at Stott Park show the December 1839 indenture of Charles Jackson at the age of 14. During this time, his father was paid £3 per year for the first six years and £5 for the final year. The young apprentices would spend five years working six days per week on a single machine, before being allowed to progress to a larger machine.

One of a kind

READ MORE ABOUT OUR INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE SITES www.english-heritage.org. uk/magazine 38

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Today, Stott Park is the last of its kind – an actual working Lake District bobbin mill. Showing me around the site, Tracy guides us from the original mill, with its rotating circular saws and blocking machine, through to the engine room, where her pride-and-joy, single-cylinder engine replaced the original water wheel before, eventually, giving way to electricity to power the machinery. Exploring the workstations in the new lathe workshop, I learn about the role of the roughing lathes, semi-automatic boring machines and finishing lathes, before heading upstairs to the polishing barrels, where the bobbins were coated in beeswax and spun, then taken to the drying room above the boiler house. We finish looking at the space where the vertical, cross-tube boiler is being reinstalled.

B E H I N DE X T PHEER STCCE A N RE ES

Turning up the heat

Just add water

Fire the engine

Wheels in motion

When a pressure of 40psi is reached on the boiler, the process of warming through the steam engine can begin. The water levels in the boiler are checked, adding more water using either the donkey pump or water injector. The level of pressure in the boiler is maintained and increased.

The Stott Park steam boiler was made to run on the wood by-products of the milling process and drove the mill engine until the 1950s. Tracy Shaw explains how it works 3

Safety first

Before lighting the boiler, safety checks include making sure there are no leaks, there is ample water showing in the sight glasses, and all valves are in the correct position. Then at around 8am the boiler is lit for the day to start heating the water gently, and the water levels are monitored.

After a series of initial safety checks, the steam engine is warmed gently through in varying stages. The position of the piston plates is checked and the flywheel is able to run naturally from its starting position, before operation begins.

Under pressure

The heat is gradually built up in the boiler, while the steam pressure gauge and the water levels are checked regularly. It typically takes up to two hours to build up steam for powering the steam engine in time for the first tour of the day.

When the boiler is fully warmed up, the steam pressure is increased to start the wheel moving. Non-emulsified steam oil is added to the cylinder if necessary. The boiler needs someone on hand for constant attention throughout the day â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from keeping the fire going to maintaining pressure and refilling the water levels. Due to the cost of fuelling the engine, it now only runs on the first weekend of the month and bank holidays.

1 4

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Industrial gems

More industrial heritage sites to visit, from the first iron bridge to a silver factory Shropshire’s Iron Bridge The Iron Bridge is an icon of the Industrial Revolution: the world’s first cast-iron structure. Erected over the River Severn in 1779, it became the inspiration for future bridges and aqueducts. Today, thanks to conservation work, it still stands in the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.

Derwentcote Steel Furnace This 18th-century industrial site in the north-east is a rare survival of a mostly complete steelmaking furnace. It was used for cementation, converting wrought iron into steel, and remains one of the last examples of its type, a reminder of the region’s role in the British steel industry.

Above Carrying out the longoverdue repairs to the mill’s towering brick chimney was no mean feat, with the steeplejack required to abseil up and down to conduct the work

IN NUMBERS

250,000

JW Evans Silver Factory Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter blossomed as a hub for skilled craftsmen making jewellery, silverware and small metalware from the mid18th century. JW Evans, one of many family businesses, remains one of the quarter’s most complete surviving factories with guided tours.

bobbins manufactured every week during the 1880s heyday of the mill

260

different sizes of bobbins made here for the Lancashire cotton trade

acres of woodland walks to enjoy after your visit 40

www.english-heritage.org.uk

If the machines of the 1880s lathe workshop form the heart of the mill, then the steam boiler forms its lungs. Tracy has spent nearly 20 years working with the mill’s machinery, starting by cleaning out the boiler, before working her way up to lighting the fire and, finally, starting the steam engine herself. ‘I understand now why the former boiler men felt they had a relationship with their machines,’ she smiles. ‘You learn by listening to the rhythmic sounds of the engine if something is going wrong.’ The logistics of reinstalling two tonnes of steam boiler have proved challenging over the winter months though, especially as bats were roosting near the roof of the boiler room – hence it couldn’t be lifted out vertically as it had been before. The reinstallation is a three-day process with lifting, installing and, finally, a day of safety checks before Tracy gets her hands on the refurbished apparatus. ‘Some people probably think we shut the doors in November and then open them again in March but, if we didn’t spend the winter looking after the site and maintaining the machinery, then it would simply rot,’ says Mick over mugs of tea in his office. ‘The biggest challenge for me is to keep the site looking as it did in its 1880s heyday,’ he adds, admiring a black-and-white photo from 1909 above his desk of the view across the site. Looking out of the window, it proves how much hard work goes on behind the scenes to keep the view today almost exactly the same as the one in the picture – as if Stott Park remains frozen in time. ‘No wonder,’ laughs Mick, finishing his tea, ‘that we always say winter is far busier than the main visitor season.’ PL AN YOUR VISIT For more details on Stott Park Bobbin Mill in Cumbria or to plan a visit to the site, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/stottpark

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M U LT I - S I T E

The kitchen gardens of country estates provided fruit, vegetables and cut flowers for the household, with many of those in our care continuing to function just as their owners intended

Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland When Sir Charles Monck (1779–1867) built Belsay Hall in 1810–17, he created a new kitchen garden alongside the estate’s formal gardens. Sir Charles had an enquiring mind, especially in matters of modern technology, and this is particularly notable in the kitchen garden. He introduced a heated wall and a range of hothouses for growing exotic fruit, and also included specialist horticultural buildings such as a mushroom house and fig house. In 1833 Sir Charles wrote to the Horticultural Society (later to become the Royal Horticultural Society) expounding on the advantages and disadvantages of the use of a heated wall in the cultivation of figs. He explained how he ‘last autumn took down the back wall and rebuilt it with a flue’,

with the aim of allowing his gardener ‘the most perfect command of temperature’. In 1829 the produce from the kitchen garden was being entered into horticultural competitions, which were a popular way of displaying expertise and innovation. One prize that Belsay took home from a local horticultural society was a bronze medal awarded for ‘six stalks of blanched rhubarb’. Many of the kitchen garden buildings were demolished in the late 19th century, although the structure of the walled garden and heated wall survive. Today, the kitchen garden is no longer used to produce fruit and vegetables, although the view of the heated wall across the paddock is still an impressive sight.

www.english-heritage.org.uk/belsay

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Audley End House and Gardens, Essex The kitchen garden at Audley End was moved to its current location in the 1750s and extended in 1768 by Sir John Griffin Griffin (1719–97). Accounts from the late 18th century include references to cucumber frames and melon beds and, throughout the 19th century, changes were made to the buildings to keep up with rapid horticultural advancements. In 1860 a drawing of the Orchard House was published in a guide to orchard house design, revealing how Audley End was at the forefront of these horticultural innovations. The Vine House has been in place since before 1828 and the vines on display here are over 100 years old. A diary documenting the daily life of gardener William Cresswell at Audley End in 1873 and 1874 was discovered in 1990 in a London flea market. The diary gives a fascinating insight into the daily tasks and concerns of a gardener in a kitchen garden in the 1870s. On Monday 20 July 1874 Cresswell describes his work: ‘Plums and large cherry (in pots) with fruit nearly ripe removed from orchard house to early vinery.’ An impressive range of fruit and vegetables is still grown in the garden today and all of it is put to use, either in Audley End’s restaurant or sold to other restaurants or box schemes.

www.english-heritage.org.uk/audley

‘You can see the same plants that Darwin cultivated for research’ Home of Charles Darwin – Down House, Kent When Charles Darwin (1809–82) and his family moved to Down House, the kitchen garden was already in place. While writing On the Origin of Species in the 1850s, he took over a corner of it for his ‘experimental beds’, using them to investigate his theory of variation and natural selection. In the early 1860s Darwin erected a hothouse alongside the existing greenhouse in the kitchen garden, which he used as a laboratory for his experiments. Several of Darwin’s influential publications emerged from these, relating to the growth patterns and reproductive behaviour of plants. Many of the vegetables grown in the kitchen garden today are Victorian varieties recorded by Darwin in his notebooks, while in the greenhouses you can see the same plants that Darwin cultivated for his research projects. Perhaps his greatest fascination was with insectivorous plants, especially Drosera rotundifolia – at the time his wife Emma mused that ‘he is treating Drosera just like a living creature and I suppose he hopes to end in proving it to be an animal’.

www.english-heritage.org.uk/downhouse 44

www.english-heritage.org.uk

M U LT I - S I T E

Gâteau de pommes recipe Follow the instructions of Audley End’s Victorian cook Avis Crocombe to make this delicious dessert using fresh apples

Ingredients • 1lb sugar • ½ pint water • 2lb peeled and cored apples • Zest and juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons

Osborne, Isle of Wight The walled kitchen garden at Osborne survives from the late-18th-century estate, before the arrival of the house’s most famous residents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. By 1844 almost all the fruit and vegetables for the royal household were being provided by the new 27-acre kitchen garden at Frogmore next to Windsor Castle, and the development of the railways made it possible for fresh produce to be transported to Osborne when required. So while the mild climate of the island could be taken advantage of to grow unusual crops such as oranges, the remaining garden was planted with shrubs, herbaceous and annual plants to supply cut flowers and seasonal planting for the house.

In 1848 the original portico from the 18th-century house was reused to form the formal entrance to the kitchen garden. Two lean-to glasshouses, with service buildings behind, were erected in 1854 by Thomas Clark & Co of Birmingham on the south-facing wall of the garden for the display of exotic plants. Cold frames were used for the production of violets, a favourite of Queen Victoria’s, as they still are today. The original cross-path pattern has been restored and a new garden was added in 2000, designed by Rupert Goldby. His design incorporates trained Victorian fruit trees, often with names linked to the royal couple, such as Lane’s Prince Albert apples and Victoria plums.

www.english-heritage.org.uk/osborne

Method • Boil the sugar and water until a thick syrup is obtained. Add in the apples, chopped roughly, and the lemon juice. • Continue to boil over a low heat, stirring frequently, until a thick purée results. It will be fairly brown but should not be allowed to burn. The purée should leave the bottom of the pan clean and dry for a few seconds after a spoon is passed across it. • Add the lemon zest, cut finely, and pour into buttered or oiled moulds. • Leave to set overnight if possible – the texture should be that of thick marmalade. (If it is too runny, boil it again and leave for longer.) • Turn out, and serve as is, or with slivered almonds stuck into it, or with custard. Food historian Annie Gray comments, ‘This easy recipe is a great way to preserve apples. Moulded foods were popular in the Victorian era, and Avis includes two recipes for gâteau de pommes in her notebook. One calls specifically for nonsuches, which are still grown in Audley today.’ WATCH THE VIDEO See Mrs Crocombe in the kitchens at Audley End House in The Victorian Way playlist at www.youtube.com/englishheritage

www.english-heritage.org.uk

Walmer Castle: from plot to plate Senior gardener Rachel Clark reveals a year in the life of Walmer’s garden and how its produce is supplied to the café January and February Seeds are sown into individual modules in our propagation glasshouse. Other important jobs are marking out new bed designs, fruit tree pruning and chitting the potatoes.

July and August This time of year is when we start summer pruning our fruit trees and thinning out our apples. We also continue sowing our lettuce and beetroot, and keep the mulch on the beds topped up.

March and April We plant out strawberries, broad beans, lettuce and potatoes, pot on aubergines, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers and sow herbs. We begin harvesting asparagus and early salad leaves, as well as pulling rhubarb.

September and October We still have plenty to harvest from the garden on a daily basis, creating a display of squashes, picking and storing our apples and tidying up the beds in preparation for the winter.

May and June Daily jobs include weeding, maintenance and checking for pests and diseases. Seasonal jobs include sowing lettuces, beetroot, courgettes and melons, lifting potatoes and planting out leeks and celeriac.

November and December I draw each of the beds to scale and plan them out for next year, adding in new varieties I’d like to trial. We’re supplying celeriac, leek and kale to the kitchen, plus stored apples and squashes.

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Walmer Castle and Gardens, Kent The area of land that now contains the kitchen garden at Walmer Castle in Kent has probably been a productive space for over 300 years, growing fruit, vegetables and flowers for the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, whose official residence has been there since 1708. One of the glasshouses was constructed in 1898 and included a vinery, tomato house and small fernery, while a second glasshouse was added between 1936 and 1941. Particularly striking within the glasshouse today is the majestic bird of paradise flower (Strelitzia reginae). Unusual varieties of fruit and vegetables are displayed in the garden in eye-catching patterns that change depending on the season. Beautifully trained fruit trees, mostly comprising

WATCH THE JOURNEY FROM PLOT TO PLATE www.english-heritage.org. uk/magazine

traditional Kentish varieties, surround the planting beds, and an area of orchard contains three apple trees donated by the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers – one of which was planted by the Queen Mother. The produce from the garden is used in the castle tea room, creating a fresh and seasonal menu. As part of our current project to open up new areas of Walmer Castle’s gardens with support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a new café has been created, providing a space to enjoy the kitchen garden whatever the season. DISCOVER MORE Read more about our historic gardens at www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/ inspire-me/historic-gardens

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Out&About Over to you Trending Ask the experts Members’ events 20 questions

Margaret Brotherton, the Duchess of Norfolk, is joined at Framlingham Castle by Olivia Plompen-Philip and Felicity Webb

If you’re a young Member and would like to take part in a future video, email us at membersmagazine@ immediate.co.uk MY EXPERIENCE

‘I actually felt like a medieval noblewoman’ Young Member Olivia on a trip to Framlingham Castle to remember

filmed, I actually felt like a medieval noblewoman walking around in the clothes. Lots of visitors were looking at us in our costumes, so it felt like we were very special. Margaret Brotherton was amazing. She was very regal. She showed us how they ate and answered lots of questions about life there. She was a very powerful lady and more people should know about her. I know the Margaret Brotherton we met was

an actress but she was so believable. The most surprising thing was that they did not use forks and carried their own knife for spearing meat from a sharing plate and then used their fingers to put it in their mouths. I am not allowed to do that at home! I wish I could learn about history in this way for all the places we visit as you can really imagine life there. It was the best day ever. www.youtube.com/englishheritagefilm www.english-heritage.org.uk

TONY PICK

won a competition to interview Margaret Brotherton, the Duchess of Norfolk, for an English Heritage video and spend the day at Framlingham Castle to see what it was like to live there in medieval times. We moved from Belgium to England three years ago, near Framlingham Castle, which is the best thing about living in England as I get to go to the castle a lot. On the day the video was

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Chess puzzle

The historic cannons at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall (on loan from the Royal Armouries)

As a chess set collector I was interested to note the chess piece in your feature on Whitby Abbey in the March 2019 issue. Do you have any other information about the piece? It is unlike the Isle of Lewis rook from Norway and has an Islamic influence yet is made from Yorkshire jet coal. Michael Wiltshire Susan Harrison, collections curator, replies: Chess can be traced from an Indian war game towards the Islamic world. It reached southern Europe before the year 1000 and spread north, reaching England after the Norman Conquest. The early figures were abstract to western audiences and developed into the pieces we recognise now. For example, the Arabic rukhkh was a camel-mounted soldier but the piece was represented as an abstract chariot. Gradually the form developed – the rook becoming the more familiar castle and the bishop replaced the elephant. The jet chessman from Whitby is an uncommon but not rare find. There are over 50 examples known from England and include different pieces in bone, antler, ivory, wood and jet. We also have another jet rook from Rievaulx Abbey. It is accepted that these are English-made given the history and development

TRENDING What’s got you talking on our social media channels?

of the game. Jet outcrops at Whitby, so many of the English examples are made of Whitby jet.

Pendennis cannons Many years ago I visited Pendennis Castle in Cornwall and, after standing next to one of the old cannons and watching the firing of the gun, I asked the question as to whether they ever fired the cannons at the castle. To my surprise, and delight, I was told that they were about to fire the cannon at my side. It was a most enlightening experience but what topped it off was the story then related to me that on a previous occasion a firing was arranged (in connection with the television programme Blue Peter, I believe) and, unbeknown to the firing crew, a Russian ship was passing. They immediately lodged

Osborne opening This video, which shows what goes on behind the scenes at Osborne to prepare the house for the new season, has had over 7,800 views. bit.ly/2HOwICe

Bridging the gap Our video showing the feat of engineering involved in the making of the new bridge at Tintagel Castle has generated over 12,900 views to date. bit.ly/2U7eFxm

a complaint that they were being fired on. Whether this was really true or not is hard to say but it’s a cracking yarn. Years later, I heard Russian ships were moored up the River Fal with the crews being given food by the locals. Norman Langridge

Plastic-free We are always pleased to receive our new Members’ Magazine and especially your What’s On guide. I sit here with my diary and see what we are able to visit to make the most of all you offer. However, we particularly wanted to say a massive thank you for taking the issue of plastic packaging seriously and sending our goodies in a useful plastic-free bag. Very much appreciated. Gilli and Andy Gore

We are abseiling A spectacular image of stonemason James Preston inspecting Dover Castle’s 800-year-old walls has drummed up more than 3,600 likes. bit.ly/2JwRjgy

OUT & ABOUT

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Interview with Mrs Crocombe Two young Members travel to Audley End in Essex to grill the celebrated Victorian cook.

Ask the experts The English Heritage team answers your questions

Paul Pattison

Katie Barrie

Roy Porter

Senior properties historian

Marketing manager (Midlands)

Senior properties curator (South)

Deal Castle in Kent, which was built for Henry VIII

Behind the scenes of our kitchen gardens Watch our video to find out how produce grown at Walmer Castle in Kent goes from plot to plate.

Find out about our industrial heritage sites The sites that allow you to envision what life would have been like during the Industrial Revolution.

Design a birthday card for Queen Victoria Younger Members can show off their creativity and have the chance to win a special prize.

Dan Arntzen asks… recently visited Deal Castle and was Q Iintrigued by its intricate circular configurations. Was this purely aesthetic or was there a practical benefit to the design? Paul Pattison replies… Castle is one of 10 similar artillery forts built A Deal for Henry VIII in the period 1539–42, during a national emergency (see also our sites at Walmer, Camber, Hurst, Portland, St Mawes and Pendennis). Although they have symmetrical forms, aesthetics was not a prominent consideration. The forts are a very English solution to artillery defence at a time when designers were applying principles that they often incompletely understood. The circles used in Henry’s forts attempted 360-degree offence and defence, with guns on multiple levels overlapping their fire. That principle was proved to be mistaken, as circular designs left blind spots to be exploited by the enemy. Henry’s subsequent forts, built from 1545, experimented with the Italian ‘angle bastion’ system, which was more effective in creating systematic fields of fire. Forts using this system developed elaborate star-like shapes, arguably of equal aesthetical value to circular forts but with a more effective and deadly result.

Andrea Whalley asks… trying to get my son (who is eight) Q I’m more interested in history. Can you recommend any events in the Midlands that might capture his imagination? Katie Barrie replies… got a a host of exciting events A We’ve across the Midlands that are perfect for any eight-year-old (and older!). There’s a week of Get Hands on With History at Kenilworth Castle (28 May–2 June), where little ones can transform themselves into a courtly lord or lady. Witley Court is hosting a Very Victorian Weekend on 26–27 May with Victorian games and a traditional Punch and Judy show, and Kenilworth has our popular Knights’ Tournament over the same weekend (25–26 May), including a medieval living history encampment and the grand melee final. David Powis asks… The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, it Q In mentions that Pevensey Castle was besieged in the year 491 and all inhabitants were killed. Are there any traces left? Roy Porter replies… understanding of Pevensey’s history A Our in the late 5th century is very limited, and the attack by Ælle and his son Cyssa is its single documented event from this time. Historians generally consider the date given in the The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles to be wrong, and that the attack actually happened in about 470, but as The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles was compiled four hundred years after the event, it means that the account of the siege lies somewhere in the borderland between history and legend.

SKYSCAN BALLOON PHOTOGRAPHY

MEMBERS’ AREA

SEND US A QUESTION For your chance to have your questions answered by one of our English Heritage experts, email us at membersmagazine@immediate.co.uk english-heritage.org.uk

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Members’ events

Five of our unmissable Member-exclusive events over the months ahead

BEST OF THE REST Blooming Gardens

12 June

Beginners’ Photography Workshop

Wrest Park, Bedfordshire If you’ve always wanted to learn more about how to use your camera but didn’t know where to start, this Members-exclusive workshop is ideal – and it’s set in the beautiful surroundings of Wrest Park. Explore the grounds of this stunning property while learning how your camera settings can affect images, and learn how to compose a great shot.

Explore our beautiful historic gardens at their blooming best with tours, demonstrations and stalls. Our gardeners will be on hand throughout the day to share their tips, and you can listen to live music as you soak up the sights and scents of the garden. WHEN AND WHERE?

12 June

Tour of Museum of Cornish Life

2 July

SAT 15–SUN 16 JUN

Blackpool Tour

Eltham Palace and Gardens, London

Blackpool, Lancashire

Museum of Cornish Life, Cornwall

Enjoy a guided tour of the museum with lunch in the beautiful town of Helston. Housed in the town’s historic Market Buildings, the museum features thousands of objects over three floors. It’s one of the largest social history collections in the southwest, ranging from archaeological evidence of the area’s earliest settlers to a fully stocked 1950s kitchen.

14 June

Memories From the Frontline

Wrest Park, Bedfordshire

Jerry Palmer talks about the published memoirs written by nurses during and after the Great War that featured in his book, Memories From the Frontline. This was the first time in history that a large number of women had been so closely involved with war.

Discover the early history of the seaside town from 1750 to 1870, explore the Winter Gardens and then, following lunch, the walking tour will continue, covering the town’s expansion from 1870 to 1945. The tour will finish with a behind-thescenes look at Blackpool Tower, which dates from 1894.

20 June

Blooming Gardens: Flower Arranging at Witley Court

Witley Court and Gardens, Worcestershire Join floristry expert Gill Ross at the beautiful Witley Court for a workshop in flower arranging. Bask in the beauty of the site and your marvellous creations, enjoy a relaxing lunch and have the chance to explore the wonderful site.

For more Members’ events, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-events

EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS’ OFFER

Go to the Osborne Horse Trials for £5 Come and see some of the world’s top riders compete as the Osborne Horse Trials return to the Isle of Wight on 23–24 July. A limited number of tickets are available to English Heritage Members and can be booked on a first come, first served basis for £5 each at: www.bede-events. co.uk/tickets

Walmer Castle and Gardens, Kent SAT 22–SUN 23 JUN

Osborne, Isle of Wight

Witley Court and Gardens, Worcestershire Mount Grace Priory House and Gardens, North Yorkshire SAT 29–SUN 30 JUN

Wrest Park, Bedfordshire

Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, South Yorkshire Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland www.english-heritage.org. uk/events english-heritage.org.uk

see more. do more. discover more.

EARLY BOOKING OFFER ENDING SOON

SAVE £100PP ON 2020 DEPARTURES

BOOK ON OR BEFORE 31ST MAY 2019† Great Wall of China

Discover China

13 DAYS

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Take an adventure through China’s ancient and modern wonders. Travel from bustling Beijing, with its Great Wall, to ancient Xi’an and its Terracotta Warriors, cruising the Yangtze River en-route. Days 1-3 Beijing and the Great Wall Fly from London to Beijing, arriving on Day 2. Day 3 begins with a rickshaw tour before you transfer to the Great Wall of China, visiting the incredibly well-preserved Mutianyu section. Return to Beijing via the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube for a Peking duck dinner. Days 4-5 Shanghai Today’s tour takes in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. This afternoon, rail to Shanghai where you are met by an English-speaking guide for a tour, seeing the Bund. On Day 5, visit Yu Garden, the Old City and Yuyuan Bazaar. Later, rail to Yichang, transferring to Maoping to board the Century Diamond or Sun. Days 6-8 The Yangtze Today, your scenic cruise along the Yangtze River begins. Take a shore excursion to the Three Gorges Dam, before passing through Xiling Gorge. On Day 7, the ship makes its way through the Qutang and Wu Gorges. On Day 8 you visit Shibaozhao Pagoda. Days 9-10 Chengdu Disembark in Chongqing and board the

£2,095

Included in the Price

high-speed train to Chengdu. On arrival, take in highlights including the Wenshu Monastery, and Jinli Street. On Day 10, visit the Panda Research Centre before lunch at a local restaurant. Later, you visit beautiful Renmin Park. Days 10-13 Terracotta Warriors Transfer to Xi’an by rail where you enjoy a dumpling banquet tonight. On Day 12, visit the incredible Terracotta Warriors, discovered in the 1970s. Later, you have a guided tour, seeing the city walls, Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Great Mosque. On Day 13, fly to London where your tour ends.

✓ Fully escorted by a UK Tour Manager from start to finish ✓ Scheduled flights from London to Beijing and from Xi’an to London ✓ All rail and coach travel throughout your tour ✓ 7 nights’ hotel accommodation ✓ 4-night cruise of the Yangtze River ✓ Breakfast every day, 7 lunches and 10 dinners ✓ Tours of Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi’an ✓ The Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors ✓ Visit the Panda Research Centre

BEIJING

XI’AN 2

CHENGDU 2 1

CHONGQING

YICHANG

Nights in hotel

By Rail

Nights on ship

By Ship

SHANGHAI

Dates and Prices 4, 11 Apr 20 18 Apr 20 9, 16 May 20 23 May 20 29 Aug 20 5 Sep 20 12 Sep 20 17 Sep 20

£2,195 £2,295 £2,395 £2,395 £2,395 £2,395 £2,445 £2,475

19 Sep 20 8 Oct 20 10, 17 Oct 20 24 Oct 20 29 Oct 20 31 Oct 20 5 Nov 20 7 Nov 20

£2,475 £2,475 £2,495 £2,495 £2,395 £2,295 £2,195 £2,095

For 2019 departures, please check the website for the itinerary and latest dates and prices.

CALL TO BOOK OR REQUEST YOUR FREE BROCHURE

01904 730541 www.raildiscoveries.com/CVS

As of 14th February 2019

This tour may be suitable for reduced mobility passengers. Please call for details. Book with 100% confidence, flight-inclusive holidays are ATOL or ABTOT protected, non flight-inclusive holidays are protected by ABTOT. Dates and prices are subject to availability. Prices shown are per person, based on 2 people sharing. Prices may change prior to and after publication. Itinerary may differ depending on the departure date you choose. †Book on or before 31st May 2019 and save up to £100 per person on selected 2020 departures. The early booking discount varies depending on the price of the departure. Prices do not include the discount. Terms and conditions apply. Please call for further details. Calls will be recorded.

OUT & ABOUT

questions 20

Test your knowledge of Victoria and Albert with our quiz

1 In what way were Victoria and Albert related? 2 As well as being born in the same year, what other link connects Victoria and Albert’s births? 3 What was Albert’s title before marrying Victoria?

7 Osborne’s mild climate and its setting overlooking the Solent reminded Albert of which European landscape?

Log into the Members’ Area at www.english-heritage. org.uk/members to check your answers

16 For what purpose did Albert build the Swiss Cottage at Osborne?

8 Can you identify these three rooms at Osborne?

4 What year did Victoria and Albert get married? 1839 1840 1842 1845

17 What was the official cause of Albert’s death in 1861?

9 What unusual action did Victoria do with Albert’s ear?

18 After Albert’s death, what nickname did the British public give to Victoria?

10 What’s this building, which is closely modelled on Osborne?

5 What were the names of Victoria and Albert’s children? 6 Which architect was employed by Albert to design the couple’s country retreat at Osborne?

11 Which of Victoria and Albert’s children had a sculpture studio at Osborne? 12 What public event did Albert inspire and champion? 13 In what year was Albert granted the official title of Prince Consort? 14 What did Albert have built for Victoria at Osborne in 1847? 15 How many assassination attempts did Victoria survive?

19 The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens was unveiled by Victoria to commemorate her husband in 1872. But what is its official name? 20 What did Victoria continue to do for Albert until her own death in 1901? Go to www.englishheritage.org.uk/kids for WIN! our kids’ competition, in which a goody bag from our online shop – where you can find a wide range of items – can be won. www.english-heritage.org.uk english-heritage.org.uk

PA S T L I V E S

George Orwell in London It is 70 years this June since the novel 1984 was first published. Its author, George Orwell, is now commemorated with a blue plaque WORDS HOWARD SPENCER ILLUSTR ATION HARRY TENNANT

eorge Orwell is one of the select band of authors whose name has become an adjective – and the word ‘Orwellian’ applies to the totalitarian nightmare evoked in 1984. He wrote most of the book while living on the Hebridean island of Jura, though the action happens in London – the chief city of Airstrip One, Oceania. One key landmark that inspired Orwell was the monumental white tower of University of London’s Senate House in Bloomsbury, the wartime headquarters of the Ministry of Information, and Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Orwell himself – real name Eric Blair – had spent most of the 1930s and much of the Second World War in London, living in a series of short-term lodgings in the area around Hampstead, then a far more

www.english-heritage.org.uk

‘Heppenstall’s failure to do the washing-up was a point of contention’ arty and low-slung locale than it is today. His official blue plaque – put up by Greater London Council in 1980 – is at 50 Lawford Road, Kentish Town, where he lived on the first (and top) floor with the poet Michael Sayers and the critic Rayner Heppenstall from August 1935 to January 1936. When he left, it was to go on the voyage north into post-industrial decline that he later wrote up as The Road to Wigan Pier.

Orwell worked and slept in a large back room in this London house, and enjoyed the kind of love-hate relationship with his flatmate Heppenstall that anyone who has ever shared accommodation would recognise. It appears that Heppenstall’s failure to do his share of the washing-up was a particular point of contention. When not doing someone else’s dirty dishes, Orwell found time to complete Keep the Aspidistra Flying – a novel that derived its title from the exceptionally hardy indoor plant that was a mainstay of middleclass homes from the Victorian era onwards. Its protagonist, Gordon Comstock, was a well-educated, idealistic young man with ‘a talent for writing’, whose family had once been well off but had fallen somewhat down the social ladder. Orwell did not look far for his model for Comstock, who had an aspidistra on his writing desk that valiantly resisted his attempts to kill it. Thanks to its once-futuristic title, 1984 was widely assumed to be a prediction of what was coming (and regarding the ubiquity of screens, Orwell certainly scored a bullseye). But, just like Keep the Aspidistra Flying before it, it is essentially a work of social and political satire, from one of the sharpest commentators on England and the English. FIND OUT MORE Discover other blue plaques in The English Heritage Guide to London’s Blue Plaques, which is available from www.english-heritageshop.org.uk

1066 Battle of Hastings, Abbey and Battlefield, East Sussex

HISTORY MATTERS. PASS IT ON To truly understand history, we believe children should be able to stand in the places where it was made. Whether it’s taking inspiration from Darwin’s experiments at Down House, exploring biodiversity at local sites, or investigating the technological history of Roman Britain using experimental archaeology and digital modelling, we make this possible for more than 300,000 schoolchildren each year.

Home of Charles Darwin – Down House, Kent

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Stonehenge, Wiltshire Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire

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Portchester Castle, Hampshire