Sojourn in Wiltshire October 2022: Part 1

It's half-term and we are spending the week in a rental cottage, just outside of Shaftesbury in Wiltshire. A time to explore the area and that of nearby Dorset.

On the way up, we decided to stop off at Montacute House, described in the National Trust handbook as: 'Montacute is a masterpiece of Elizabethan Renaissance architecture and design. With its towering walls of glass, glow of ham stone and surrounding garden and parkland, it is a place of beauty and wonder.' It was a shame that it was pouring with rain and we had to keep indoors for pretty much all of our visit. Hence a photograph of a rather wet drive and none of the exterior of the house.

On display were several life-size portraits of Elizabethan notables. Here are the head and shoulders of one such. I didn't take a note of his name but, to me, he looks thoroughly fed up with having to sit still for the artist. Or, perhaps, with having to wear that ruff to keep his wife happy? She starched it especially for the portrait and wear it he must.

Long galleries were originally used as spaces to exercise and spend time with friends where the inclement British weather wouldn’t interfere. Just the place for today. This one is the longest of its type in England, stretching the full 52 metres or 176 feet length of the house. It normally houses a collection of portraits from the National Portrait Gallery but these have been removed for maintenance of the Long Gallery.

This is a detail from what is arguably the most valuable item at Montacute - the Tournai Tapestry. The tapestry was originally part of a larger set woven in the Flemish town of Tournai between 1477 and 1481. It depicts a knight on horseback carrying a standard with arms of Jean de Daillon. It’s one of the few surviving tapestries from the fifteenth century and was commissioned by de Daillon himself, but it was eventually gifted to him by the city of Tournai. Then it disappeared for several centuries, turned up for sale in New York and then bought for the nation by a wealthy benefactor. It has been recently cleaned and repaired and it really is impressive. I think I read that it's the oldest tapestry in the care of the National Trust.

The weather was looking reasonable today - maybe a shower or two but nothing to put us off. We elected to follow a circular route that took it Tisbury at roughly the halfway point, with the promise of a teashop! My GPS clocked the walk at around 7.5 miles which was odd because the map we were following gave the distance at 5.5 miles. Something went strange somewhere. But, notwithstanding this, it was a good walk in the countryside with views and mostly on footpaths and bridleways.

Our walk began and ended at Old Wardour Castle. Once one of the most daring and innovative homes in Britain. It was built in the 14th century as a lightly fortified luxury residence for comfortable living and lavish entertainment. But the Civil War put an end to this and it is now a rather romantic ruin. It was featured in the Kevin Costner film 'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves'. It survived two sieges before abandonment when New Wardour Castle was built nearby. But the new one is a castle in name only as it is really a large country house.

The original doorway that lead into the central courtyard. The facade was four floors high and was built to impress. 

At the centre of the castle, the Great Hall would have been one of the most elaborate rooms in the castle, along with the Great Parlour, where the household would have got on with their lives in relative privacy from the many servants and visitors.

A room on the second floor of the East Tower.

Climbing to the top of the East Tower bring you to the open sky and some fantastic views of the neighbouring lake and countryside. It really is a tall building and you pass through four floors to get to this point.

There is a 'Banqueting House', with Gothic battlements, overlooking the lake. It is thought to have been a place for refreshments for visitors to the castle in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a detail from one of the small stained glass windows found there. Apparently, it can now be hired as a wedding venue.

The track of the path is easy to follow through this field of something or other. Was it maize or was it turnips? I couldn't make up my mind on this one.

St John's church in Tisbury. It is thought that there has been a church on this site since Saxon times, as it is known that there was an abbey in Tisbury in the 7th century which was destroyed by the Danes in the 9th. Between 1180 and 1200 an impressive Norman church was built here, and parts of this remain in today's church, despite a Victorian restoration. A yew tree in the graveyard is at least 2000, and possibly 4000, years old.

A detail of disciples' heads from a stained glass window.

The East Window in St Andrew's Chapel. It dates from the 1860s and is now in need of repair.

The sentiment on the inscription is worth reading and pondering on its modern resonance.

Looking eastwards down the aisle of St John's towards St Andrew's Chapel. The chapel is separated from the main body of the church by a large glass screen and this makes it a rather intimate and comfortable space. I expect that the chapel is used more often than the rest of the church.

A very practical sliding (watch your fingers!) latch on a gate. We haven’t come across this design before and there were two on this walk.

St Leonard's church, Semley - our last stop of the day. It originally dates from the 9th century and was almost completely rebuilt in the mid to late 1800s at the expense of the then incumbent. So, it's essentially a Victorian construct, with just a few bits and bobs from its predecessor.

This monument to George Armstrong has a history that is both interesting and tragic. The model of a horseman has been stolen twice: firstly, to be recovered within 6 months of its theft and, secondly, to disappear completely. What is there now dates from around 2009. George Armstrong's mother was the original donor of the statue. George was a veteran of the Second Boer War but was not eligible to serve in WW1, but not for the want of his trying. He suffered from depression and it was thought by a coroner after his death in 1915 that he had committed suicide at his home in Semley. Because of this, his burial followed the then practice for suicides, with his head facing west, rather than east for everyone else in the graveyard. Hence the orientation of the horseman.

In the Lady Chapel, is a large stained glass window of three lights, swirled about by paintings of semi-abstract flowers, along with others, most notably snowdrops, of almost botanic clarity. The dedication of the window was unexpected: WPC YVONNE FLETCHER 1958-1984 KILLED ON DUTY ST JAMES’S SQUARE LONDON. In the centre is a ‘METROPOLITAN EIIR POLICE’ badge of a star topped by a crown. It is an incident that those of us 'of a certain age' remember well. 
Yvonne, who was a native of Semley, was a police officer fatally shot during a protest outside the Libyan embassy at St. James's Square, London, in 1984. Fletcher, who had been on duty and deployed to police the protest, died shortly afterwards at Westminster Hospital. Her death resulted in the Metropolitan Police Service laying siege to the embassy for the next eleven days, and the United Kingdom severing all diplomatic relations with Libya. No one has ever been convicted for her murder and, I guess, never will.

Definitely Victorian stained glass because of its colour and rather heavy feel - Victorian drab is what I call it. I couldn't find any reference to it anywhere so I could be way off the mark.