Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
"What were country houses for? They were not originally, whatever they may be now, just large houses in the country in which rich people lived. Essentially they were power houses - the houses of a ruling class. As such they could work at the local level of a manor house, the house of a squire who was like a little king in his village and ran the county in partnership with his fellow JPs at quarter sessions. They could work at a local and national level as the seat of a landowner who was also a member of parliament, ... basically, people did not live in country houses unless they either possessed power, or, by setting up in a country house, were making a bid to possess it." (Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House, Penguin, 1978, p. 2)
The country house was only part of the package to promote the status of the owner. These mansions were usually set in beautifully designed parks, as David Whitehead explains in his guest author essay.
Herefordshire has its share of impressive country houses, although many others have been demolished. Only three of the many beautiful estates in the county will be mentioned here, but information on the others can be found by searching the online Historic Environment Record database.
The Brockhampton Estate, now owned by the National Trust, is one of the best Herefordshire examples demonstrating continuity from the Middle Ages through the Tudor period and culminating in a Georgian mansion of the 18th century. Lower Brockhampton manor house (HER entry number 7157) is a picturesque medieval moated timber-framed house with an impressive base-crucked hall. Crucks are pairs of timbers rising from ground level to meet at the apex of a roof. These pairs were often cut from the same tree. In the base-cruck construction, the crucks sit on a base and do not meet at the top but are jointed into collar beams, allowing the hall to be higher and wider than the little country cruck cottages that you can see over much of Herefordshire. Much of the exposed timber work at Little Brockhampton is decorated and attests to the expensive building technique. J.W. Tonkin has surveyed timber houses in the county, and has demonstrated that all the surviving base-cruck halls in Herefordshire belonged to the upper gentry. In the absence of detailed written sources, this would confirm the higher status and wealth of the Domulton family of Lower Brockhampton.
An exquisite timber-framed 16th century gatehouse bestrides the moat (HER 939). The moat, according to County Archaeologist Dr Keith Ray, was built in several stages, the last phase being for ornamental purposes. In earlier, more troubled days, a moat could safeguard livestock from theft or help to repel attackers. The nearby medieval chapel (HER 938) is now in ruins.
Another property now under the management of the National Trust is Croft Castle near Leominster (HER 6347 and HER 2470). The Croft family goes back to the Norman period, when Herefordshire was part of the fiercely contested Welsh Marches. It is unusual for an estate to be associated with one family for so many centuries, but members of the Croft family have lived here since before Domesday (Bernard de Croft) to the present day. Over the centuries they have played an important part in the political history of this county.
The building that can be seen today is a Tudor house with a number of alterations and details from various periods and styles, built not for defensive purposes but as a country house. As such, Croft with its towers and curtain walls is a mock castle intended to look medieval but with all the graciousness of living and domestic comforts that the Tudors aspired to. John Leland's 16th century description mentions the walls and ditches: "... the manor of the Croftes, sett on the browe of hill, somewhat rokky, dychid and waullyd castle like." (Itinerary, Part V, p.75)
Archaeological excavations have provided evidence for a series of terraced gardens leading to the still existing ornamental pond. Traces of the ha ha - a 1.5m ditch forming the boundary to the garden - still survive. Most impressive is a sweet chestnut avenue, stretching for half a mile and believed to be over 350 years old. A story connected with this (now sadly diseased) avenue of trees is that it was planted to commemorate the victory over the Spanish Armada.
Croft Castle and its estate are open to the public.
Harewood Park House is one of several country houses in Herefordshire which had to be demolished because the owners could not afford to keep it in good repair. All that is left is a 19th century chapel, a walled garden and a stable block. Nevertheless, it merits a mention because of its history. Historical events can be mirrored in the waxing and waning fortunes of a country estate and of this Harewood Park is a particularly good example. (For more detailed information, see Heather Hurley, "Historic Harewood", in Kevin Brookes et al, Historical Aspects of Ross, Ross-on-Wye & District Civic Society and Logaston Press, 2000.)
During the early Middle Ages, Harewood was part of the royal forest which stretched from Hereford to the Forest of Dean. King John granted Harewood to the Knights Templar of Garway in 1215, and they built a preceptory here. In 1324, upon the destruction of the Templar order, Harewood passed to the Knights Hospitaller.
Upon the dissolution of the monasteries, when the medieval chapel was ruined, the estate came into private ownership. The land speculators Robert and Hugh Thornhill paid £1399 18s 0d to the augmentation office (an office Henry VIII set up to collect all the money from the sell-off of the monasteries and church estates) in 1546.
The Browns from Much Dewchurch bought Harewood Park a year later and it remained in that family for several generations. They erected a very large house built of stone, with a round tower at one end of the building and a square tower at the opposite end. In the middle was a central semi-octagonal tower. At the end of the Civil War this Tudor house was sold to the Hoskyns of Morehampton in Abbeydore to cover debts.
Many Herefordshire families suffered severe financial set-backs during the Civil War, although some weathered the storm. Bennet Hoskyns, a lawyer and MP, seemingly did well under both sides of the conflict. Under Cromwell's government he was High Sheriff, yet in 1676 he was rewarded by Charles II with a baronetcy for maintaining 30 soldiers in Ireland.
Several generations later the Hoskyns, with the aid of a generous marriage settlement, built a Georgian mansion in place of the Tudor house. This was completed some time before 1787 (HER 24186). The house was set in magnificent parkland with terraced pleasure grounds, some very impressive trees and an ornamental pond. (D. Whitehead, A Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Herefordshire, ed. by Jane Patton, Hereford and Worcester Gardens Trust, 2001, p.194)
The crumbling medieval chapel was also replaced with a new chapel in 1793. Chandos Hungerford Hoskyn did not like this chapel, and when he inherited the estate in 1862 he replaced it with a new one designed by Rushforth in a Romanesque style. This was the last major building work to be undertaken at Harewood, and the estate thereafter went into decline. Harewood Park was purchased by the Governors of Guy's Hospital in London, and during World War II the mansion served as an auxiliary hospital. After the war ended the house, in need of refurbishment and modernisation, was put on the market, but as no buyer could be found it was stripped and demolished in 1959. Today the estate is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and is not open to the public.
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2003]