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SOLIHULL LOCAL HISTORY CIRCLEWelcome to www.solh.org.uk |
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SOLIHULL LOCAL HISTORY CIRCLEWelcome to www.solh.org.uk |
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REPORTS OF RECENT VISITS:
Visit to Stoneleigh Abbey on 13th May 2010
Fifteen
members of the History Circle met at the 14th Century gatehouse to
the Abbey which had been founded by Cistercian monks in the 12th
Century. After Henry V111's dissolution of monasteries in 1536, it fell into
disrepair. It passed to the Leigh family who started rebuilding in 1561 and
they held it for almost 400 years. In 1946 Stoneleigh was one of the first
stately homes to be opened to the public.
Some of the older parts of the house are 12th Century, with fine Norman doors, some very rare 12th C stained glass, and a knot garden where the original cloisters would have been.We were shown over the 1704 West Wing, starting in the 12th Century under-croft, part of the original Abbey foundations.
The Tudor
West Wing has fine Leigh family paintings throughout, including one of Mary Holbech, who married into the family in 1710: an ancestor of one of our party
who fittingly played a few notes on the chapel organ. The plaster ceilings are
also very fine, having been restored after a fire in 1960.
In 1806 the direct Leigh line died out, so the Reverend Thomas Leigh came over from Gloucestershire to secure his inheritance, along with relatives including his cousin Jane Austen. She lived there for a number of years and used descriptions of the Abbey in several of her novels.
Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert stayed for 3 days in 1858, and one of the rooms
contains her original bed (complete with swan-down trimmed bedspread),
chandelier and furniture. There is even her bathroom in the
basement, with a
toilet labelled ‘Please
Refrain from Sitting on Her Majesty’s Throne’.
After the tour we were able to have some tea and look at the gardens on the banks of the Avon designed in part by Humphrey Repton in the early 19th century.
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Visit to St Mary’s Warwick, Thursday 11th March 2010.
Eighteen
members of the Circle arrived at the Church in the morning for our tour. The
Great Fire of 1694 meant that the Church is in tw
o parts: the chancel, Chapter
House and Beauchamp Chapel from the 14th centuries (and crypt from
Norman times); and the newer part, rebuilt after the fire. During the Fire the
nave with its wooden roof was burnt, but fortunately not the chancel, as it had
a stone
roof
Problems with the new tower meant that a replacement had to be built over the road, with an arch underneath for the traffic, though fortunately no cars are allowed through the arch these days.
Our group
split into two, so we had different guides for the various parts of the church.
We first were shown the Royal Warwickshire Regiment chapel, a reminder of the
long association between the Fusiliers
and Warwick.
The Beauchamp
Chapel is regarded as one of the masterpieces of mediaeval architecture in this
country, and the guide’s history of the Beauchamps, from Warwick the Kingmaker
to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (Elizabeth’s favourite) helped us understand
the story of the family over the centuries.
The tomb of Thomas Beauchamp and his wife in the choir, from the early 15thC was to me as memorable as the tombs in the Chapel, with two bears and other small figures surrounding the carved figures.
We finished
our tour in the Chapter House, which is almost filled by the large (and ugly)
sepulchre of Sir Fulke Greville (his body is below, in the Fulke vault in the
crypt). He has been floated as a possible author for the Shakespearian plays, and recently there have been scientific investigations aimed at discovering if
there is anything inside the monument that might throw light on the controversy.
Our guide pointed out that such a discovery could bring crowds flocking into the
Church, though he thought such an outcome unlikely.
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Solihull
Local History Circle Visit to Birmingham Town Hall 27/10/09
20 of us met
in the entrance to the newly refurbished Town Hall, after enjoying a previous
talk on its renovation last year. 
We sat on the balcony as our guides described the history of the building. built
in 1834, to house the Triennial Music Festival. The design was by Joseph
Hansom, of the Hansom Cab, and based on the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome;
his low tender bankrupted him before the building was completed. It was the
principal venue for classical concerts, with first performances by Mendelsohn
and others, as well as a range of other events, such as readings by Charles
Dickens and community events. In the 20th Century it included pop
concerts as well, with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly.
The imposing outer shell of Anglesey marble clothe a brick building built on a limited budget of around £11,000; the organ cost around £6,000 extra and was known as ‘The Hospital’ because it was paid for by the Birmingham Hospital. After 160 years the leaking roof caused closure in 1996.
The 10 year refurbishment cost £35 million, several times the original estimate, and in late 2007 it re-opened. The second balcony of seats had been removed, the acoustics and soundproofing improved considerably; and the reduced number of comfortable seats (1,200) can be cleared away completely for events such as the very popular tea dances.
We were shown the newly refurbished organ, and one of our guides demonstrated
its workings
We then went ‘backstage’ to look at the various rooms for performers, including the ‘void space’ that is now a reception room used by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall when they re-opened the Hall.
Our guides, some of whom showed us over the Symphony Hall last year, were most helpful and informative, and clearly proud of their part in explaining the splendours of the Town Hall.
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Jean Draycott came to talk to us in May on the Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens, so on the 4th June 16 (?) of us went to the Gardens for a visit, ably organised by Joy Woodall, as usual.
Our guide took us first up to the Hall. It originally dated from the 16th Century, but was bought by the Bridgeman family, for their young son and his bride. An extra floor and other additions were made, and the large walled gardens created at the same time. The Hall isn’t open, and is up for sale again, but at an asking price well beyond the reach of the Friends.
The Gardens are a rare survivor from the Restoration period, and the Friends have worked hard for more than 20 years to bring it back to look like its heyday in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries.
Some of the original plantings survived, but as tall straggly trees, so for example cuttings were taken from the trees in the Holly Walk, with the new walk now mature (as is the Maze, also made from holly). In other places contemporary plans and careful archaeology have helped in the reconstruction, including the ‘Clair-Voie’ with a view over the then Warwickshire countryside.
The profusion of plants and flowers (all of them characteristic of their period) was wonderful, especially on the hot day that we visited. The walls were used to grow fruit and ornamental shrubs, and there was even a pineapple pit, warmed by compost. They were so rare that they were placed as ornaments on the dinner table, rented out on occasion to nearby wealthy families, but never eaten.
The walls of the Gardens are not rectangular, as the Coventry to Birmingham road went along the North boundary, so the Bridgemans went to great lengths to make it appear that the walls were at right angles, even having the bricks of the two pavilions that face each other down the Holly Walk cut on an angle to maintain the illusion.
The Gardens contain an orchard of fruit trees, vegetable beds laid out ornamentally, and a wide range of herbs used for salads, medicine and other purposes, like making soap. For example Lungwort was eaten in soups and salads, but also used for ‘coughs, bronchitis, catarrh, hemorrhoids, etc. as well as treating wounds and as an eye-wash’.
There are both formal beds and a ‘wilderness’ (a less formal planting of shrubs and trees), along with the Holly Walk and Maze, an archery lawn, and a parterre of clipped box hedges.
We were able to have refreshments both before and after the visit (very necessary on a hot day), and also buy annuals and small shrubs for our own gardens.
King's Norton Saracen,s Head and Old Grammar School: Thursday 26th.March 2009
21
members of the Local History Circle found their way to King’s Norton on a recent
Thursday morning. We gathered at St. Nicolas Place (the new name for the
Saracen’s Head), where we were met by our guide. She took us first to the Old
Grammar School, now fully restored and in use for meetings and other functions.
When we first visited in October 2005, just after they had won the BBC
Restoration award, it was known that the 13thC timbered first floor is older
than the stone ground floor it sits on and the wooden window on the first floor
was older than the floor itself. The answer is that the floor and window were
re-used from earlier buildings, as could be done in the period when timber was
the main material of construction.
We were also given a much fuller explanation of the building than was possible 3½ years ago, pointing out the traces of paint inside, a witch mark and later builders marks as well. It was a School originally, then a library for a local antiquarian, a store, and even an artists studio (with overflows from the sink leaving their mark).
The old Merchant’s House, dates from the 15th
century, b
ecoming
a pub much later, and the restoration has uncovered parts of the older building
previously hidden, including part of the outside wall of the first floor that
was covered by a later frontage. The beams inside are now fully exposed (and
made safe too), as the photo shows.
Decisions had to be made during restoration about the Victorian part of the building, which has now been replaced by a modern wing, which includes full access to the first floor, and a modern conference (and wedding reception!) room.We were able to enjoy a coffee and light meal afterwards in the café, and were most grateful for the detailed and helpful guide to the two buildings, and of course to Joy Woodall for arranging the visit
OUTING to SYMPHONY HALL: WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY
13 of us had a fascinating tour of
the 2250 seat Hall which cost £45m and was opened by The Queen in 1991. To avoid
any vibrations from the trains passing underneath, the Hall's foundations have
rubber pads and it is physically separate from the rest of the ICC. The
acoustics, designed by Russell Johnson, are perfect for all kinds of music. the
reverberation time of 2.3secs can be increased to 2.8 by opening the doors into
the surrounding void which increases the acoustic size of the Hall by 50%.The
30-ton sound reflector above the stage can be raised or lowered, curtains and
acoustic baffles are also used to change the sound qualities of the Hall as
required.
We then went back-stage and saw
how the choir seating could be floated off the stage on beds of compressed air.
The rear entrance, 40 ft long big enough for large trucks, even has portholes
for cables for the broadcast trucks that can be parked inside. The piano store
held 4 magnificent grand pianos for performers to select, kept in tune by the
Hall’s full time piano tuner. Roger then showed us one of the thick rubber and
steel pads, 800 of which are used to mount the entire hall to insulate it from
the noise of trains in the tunnel underneath. The organ with its 6000 pipes (two
of which were sponsored by members of our
group), was made by the German firm, Kleiss, in 1999 costing £1.5m. It was demonstrated for us by Rachel, a recent
graduate of the nearby Conservatoire. She showed us the difference between
‘flute’ and ‘reed’ pipes, and played us part of a piece by Messiaen to
demonstrate the full volume of the organ.We were then shown a performers
rooms, complete with armchairs, sofas and showers, and finally the Green Room,
not normally open on tours, where two of us were surprised to discover they
were sitting in the chairs requested for the Queen and Prince Philip when they
came to open the Hall. We then posed for our photograph. We
were all most impressed by the sophistication
and complexity of the design of the Hall, and by the knowledgeable guides, who
promised to show us round the old Town Hall on a future visit.
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Coventry's Millennium Scheme: October 23, 2008
Thirteen
Members gathered on a chilly October mornings to visit the site of St. Mary's
Priory and
Coventry's first cathedral. This visit had been the result of the
excellent talk given by George Demidowicz in our previous season of lectures and
George was able to guide us. This gave us a deep insight into the excavations
and the development of the Priory Centre with its preserved undercroft. We were
able to see and hear things that the normal visitors do not have access to
during a tour. We were able to pace out the size of the first cathedral in
Coventry and examine the sites and preserved buildings associated with the
Priory. Everyone present agreed that it had been a privilege to hear about these
important excavations from the person
who had initiated the project.
Updated 22/05/2010
