Madresfield Court
Encyclopedia
Madresfield Court is a country house in England
, in the village of Madresfield
near Malvern
in Worcestershire
. The stately home
, near the village centre has been the ancestral home for several centuries of the Lygon family, whose eldest sons took the title of Earl Beauchamp
from 1815 until 1979, when the last Earl died. Distinguished collections of furniture, art, and porcelain are housed at Madresfield, which was rated by Simon Jenkins
among the 50 best in his book on 1,000 historic houses.
The house is managed by the Elmley Foundation, a British registered charity.
, built in the 12th century, stands at the core of this building. In 1593 Madresfield Court was rebuilt, replacing a 15th century medieval building. It was again remodelled in the 19th century to resemble a moat
ed Elizabethan
house, with the result that it contains 136 rooms. The chapel
was designed by the architect Philip Charles Hardwick
and sumptuously decorated in the Arts and Crafts style
by Birmingham Group artists including Henry Payne
, William Bidlake
and Charles March Gere
.
. Evelyn Waugh
was a frequent guest to the house and is said by Chips Channon in his diary, to have based the Flyte family in Brideshead Revisited
on the Lygons.
In January 2006, documents revealed by the National Archives showed that emergency plans were made to evacuate Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of the British Royal Family
to Madresfield in the event of a successful German invasion following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.
Five years later, Worcestershire County Council’s Historic, Environment and Archaeology Service showed that the 1940 plan was simply part of pre-existing 1938 invasion contingency plans. In the event of an invasion breaking out of a likely lodgement
in Kent and threatening London, the whole UK government would move to Worcestershire with the Royal family residing at Madresfield.
, the last Earl Beauchamp, endowed the Elmley Foundation to ensure the Court's many generations of tradition as a patron of the arts in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Madresfield Court has never been sold or bought in all its long history, instead simply remaining in the hands of the Lygon family.
Madresfield Court is currently (2009) the home of Rosalind, Lady Morrison, niece of the 8th and last Earl Beauchamp. A variety of apple, first cultivated at the house, and a variety of black table grape, are named Madresfield Court.
The house can be visited by appointment only, between April and July each year.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in the village of Madresfield
Madresfield
Madresfield is a village and civil parish in the administrative district of Malvern Hills in the county of Worcestershire, England. It is located about two miles east of Malvern town centre at the foot of the Malvern Hills and is less than two miles from the River Severn...
near Malvern
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
. The stately home
Stately home
A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
, near the village centre has been the ancestral home for several centuries of the Lygon family, whose eldest sons took the title of Earl Beauchamp
Earl Beauchamp
Earl Beauchamp was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for William Lygon, 1st Baron Beauchamp, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Elmley, in the County of Worcester. He had already been created Baron Beauchamp of Powyke in the County of Worcester, in 1806,...
from 1815 until 1979, when the last Earl died. Distinguished collections of furniture, art, and porcelain are housed at Madresfield, which was rated by Simon Jenkins
Simon Jenkins
Sir Simon David Jenkins is a British newspaper columnist and author, and since November 2008 has been chairman of the National Trust. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and London's Evening Standard, and was previously a commentator for The Times, which he edited from 1990 to 1992...
among the 50 best in his book on 1,000 historic houses.
The house is managed by the Elmley Foundation, a British registered charity.
Architectural history
The original Great HallGreat Hall
Great Hall may refer to* Great hall, the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or large manor house* Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, Beijing* Great Hall of the University of Sydney, Australia* Cooper_Union#The_Great_Hall, New York...
, built in the 12th century, stands at the core of this building. In 1593 Madresfield Court was rebuilt, replacing a 15th century medieval building. It was again remodelled in the 19th century to resemble a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
ed Elizabethan
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
house, with the result that it contains 136 rooms. The chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
was designed by the architect Philip Charles Hardwick
Philip Charles Hardwick
-Life:Philip Charles Hardwick was a notable English architect of the 19th century who was once described as "a careful and industrious student of mediaeval art"...
and sumptuously decorated in the Arts and Crafts style
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
by Birmingham Group artists including Henry Payne
Henry Payne (artist)
Henry Arthur Payne RWS was an English stained glass artist, watercolourist and painter of frescoes.Payne was one of the Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen who formed around Joseph Southall and the Birmingham School of Art in the late nineteenth century...
, William Bidlake
William Bidlake
William Henry Bidlake was an English architect, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham and Director of the School of Architecture at Birmingham School of Art from 1919 until 1924....
and Charles March Gere
Charles March Gere
Charles March Gere, RA, RWS was an English painter, illustrator of books, and stained glass and embroidery designer associated with the Arts and Crafts movement....
.
An inspiration for Brideshead and royal safehouse?
Madresfield was the home of the 7th Earl BeauchampWilliam Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp
William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp KG, KCMG, PC , styled Viscount Elmley until 1891, was a British Liberal politician. He was Governor of New South Wales between 1899 and 1901, a member of the Liberal administrations of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H...
. Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
was a frequent guest to the house and is said by Chips Channon in his diary, to have based the Flyte family in Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
on the Lygons.
In January 2006, documents revealed by the National Archives showed that emergency plans were made to evacuate Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
to Madresfield in the event of a successful German invasion following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.
Five years later, Worcestershire County Council’s Historic, Environment and Archaeology Service showed that the 1940 plan was simply part of pre-existing 1938 invasion contingency plans. In the event of an invasion breaking out of a likely lodgement
Lodgement
A lodgement is an enclave taken by and defended by force of arms against determined opposition made by increasing the size of a bridgehead, beachhead or airheadOxford English Dictionary lodgement, lodgment "3. The action of establishing oneself or making good a position on an enemy's ground, or...
in Kent and threatening London, the whole UK government would move to Worcestershire with the Royal family residing at Madresfield.
The Elmley Foundation
Before her death in 1989, Countess Beauchamp, the widow of William Lygon, 8th Earl BeauchampWilliam Lygon, 8th Earl Beauchamp
William Lygon, 8th Earl Beauchamp was a politician in the United Kingdom.He was the eldest son of the controversial William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, sometime leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords. Standing as a Liberal, he was elected as Member of Parliament for East Norfolk at the 1929...
, the last Earl Beauchamp, endowed the Elmley Foundation to ensure the Court's many generations of tradition as a patron of the arts in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Madresfield Court has never been sold or bought in all its long history, instead simply remaining in the hands of the Lygon family.
Madresfield Court is currently (2009) the home of Rosalind, Lady Morrison, niece of the 8th and last Earl Beauchamp. A variety of apple, first cultivated at the house, and a variety of black table grape, are named Madresfield Court.
The house can be visited by appointment only, between April and July each year.
Further reading
- Williams, Dorothy E. (2001) The Lygons of Madresfield Court Logaston Press. Archivist and Librarian to Madresfield Court 1976-99, Williams gives a vivid synthesis, local and national, of the eight earls, their families and forerunners.
- Byrne, Paula (2009) Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead, Harper Press. A study of the Lygon family and Madresfield Court as influences for Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited".
External links
- Leith, Sam "Let me not be Mad" review of "Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead" by Paula Byrne. (http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/5288163/let-me-not-be-mad.thtml) 26 August 2009.
- Hastings, Selina "House of Memories" recalls a visit to house in 1989 to Lady Beauchamp (follow-up to review article above). (http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/5302001/house-of-memories.thtml) 5 September 2009
- Byrne. Paula (2009)"A house and its history" reviews "Madresfield: The Real Brideshead" by Jane Mulvagh, publisher Dovecote Press. (http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/752701/a-house-and-its-history.thtml) 4 June 2009.
- Jane Mulvagh. " Evelyn Waugh: a blueprint for Brideshead" Daily Telegraph 24 May 2008.
- Nicholas Shakespeare. " Madresfield, a very private house" Daily Telegraph 31 May 2008. Nicholas Shakespeare reviews Madresfield: the Real Brideshead by Jane Mulvagh.
- Two pictures
- National Archive of records ARCHON entry
- BBC feature with 360 ° panoramas
- An article about Madresfield's Victorian rock garden
- A photo on geograph
- http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42866 VCH
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgumbley/3823825707/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgumbley/4432845796/