Ashdown Village and the Old Stables

Over the years I've done a number of blog posts about Ashdown village, the old farmhouse and the stunning Victorian stables. (You can find the posts if you search on Ashdown village in the search box top left). The village is to the south of the white gates at the bottom of the drive and it's possible to do a circular walk from the house, down the drive, out of the picket gate, turn right past what is left of the village, and right again up the ha ha to Alfred's Castle where there is a footpath taking you back into the woods. It's a fantastic walk and there is so much history to see on it, but it's not publicized because I imagine the National Trust doesn't want hordes of people walking through the village. However with an OS map it's easy to follow the paths and although there isn't a guided walk, you can look out for the following landmarks along the way:

1. The white gates at the bottom of the south avenue are modelled on the original ones which can be seen in early paintings, such as the Kyp drawing of Ashdown House from 1708 and the series of paintings by Henry Seymour.

2. Opposite the gate at the bottom of the drive is a paddock where once there was a pond. This has dried out in the last century but it was once the place where the ice was cut to be stored in the ice house.

3. Immediately opposite and to the right of the paddock is the old stable yard which is now the National

Trust's site office. These are old barns and stables dating to the 18th century in some cases. The barn that borders the road has been restored and is absolutely beautiful (see picture above). Some of the old beams still remain. Behind the southernmost stables is the kennel where the hounds were housed for the Vine and Craven and the Old Berkshire Hunt when these were based at Ashdown. 

4. The biggest and most impressive building to the left of the road is the red brick Victorian stables, which were built in the mid 19th century in a gothic style. Look out for the little clock tower and the Earl's coronet and horse and carriage on the weather vane. The Craven initials and coronet are also on the rainwater heads on the downpipes. Very smart! I've had the pleasure of seeing inside the stables on a couple of occasions and whilst they are in dire need of renovation, you can see what a prestigious building it once was, with huge box stalls for the most valuable horses. The grooms lived on the floors above; the censuses from the 19th century give details of who they were. Look out for the magnificent chimneys as well.

5. The small set of stables to the right of the square is much older. They are the original early 18th century stables with a Flemish Bond pattern to the brick on the north side. Look out for the ghost sign on the wall that dates from when the stable block was used to store ammunition in the Second World War. "No Smoking." Good idea.

6. Beyond the stables there is the village green with the old farmhouse, incorporating an earlier medieval forester's cottage, a grain store standing on staddle stones (those ones that are shaped like mushrooms) and a laundry. It's probable that the green was originally a tenter ground where the washing from the house was dried in the open air.

7. Before you get to the end of the road, where you turn right to go up the ha ha path, there is a  paddock on the left with a huge wall in which you can still see the outline of a hearth. This was the heated kitchen-garden wall, where espaliered fruit trees would grow. There were also mushroom houses and vegetable beds to supply the house in the 19th century. In the field in front of the wall there was once the Ashdown House Chapel but no trace of this remains now.

8. There is a T junction and the road turns left, up towards what was the gamekeeper's cottage and the

choristers' lodge. This is private although you can continue walking straight up the path along the edge of the upper wood. This is the line of the medieval park pale and it takes you to the top of the hill and some spectacular views. In order to do the circular walk, though, you need to take the path that goes straight on at the gate and then bend to the right, keeping the house on your right as you go up the hill towards Alfred's Castle. Here you pass the ha ha at the end of the West Avenue. When the house was originally built, the west avenue stretched across the field as far as the coppice on the left. You will reach a gate that takes you into the hill fort and from there another that takes you back to the Ashdown House woods.

Enjoy the nature, the views and the history along the way!

New Light Through Old Windows

It's hard to believe that it's seven years since I wrote any new posts on this Ashdown House blog. In the meantime, I've written five new dual-time books, raised several more guide dog puppies and dealt with lots of difficult family issues. However, I'm still (just about!) working at Ashdown House and finally, after many years of good intentions, I am writing a non-fiction book about the history of the house. 

During those seven years, so many people have told me how much they enjoyed the blog and found it so useful in discovering more about the Craven family, Ashdown House itself and the local history associated with it. It's been amazing to get such wonderful feedback! Perhaps, at the time, I thought that I had discovered everything I could about Ashdown and didn't have anything left to write about. How wrong I was. In the intervening years, I've studied the Craven papers in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and made many more astonishing finds. I've been to museums and records offices around the country and will continue to do so for my research, and I've had the amazing experience of cataloguing some of the original and previously-unseen Craven papers. All of this I'd like to share here with you as I have a passion for Ashdown House (no surprises there!) and love to share all the history bits that the official site doesn't mention. This blog is not affiliated to the National Trust in any way - they are the people who own and run Ashdown and organize the tours of the property. But this is the place where the magic happens <G!>

There are a number of other places where you can find out more about the history of the Craven family

and their historic homes including The Craven Society Facebook Page and Elizabeth Craven and her World, a blog run by Dr Julia Gaspar. You may also be interested in the Jane Austen side of the family at Kintbury and Beyond. As we go along I'll be including recommended books and places to visit for those discerning tourists who like to see all the famous sites but head off the beaten track as well for something different. And if you are a genealogist interested in Craven family history, please do get in touch as well.

I hope you will rejoin me in stepping into Ashdown's story once again for new light through old windows!

Debunking the Curse of the Cravens

Curses. They’re rather fun in fiction. As someone who has written a book featuring a cursed pearl, I’m the first to admit that I like the Gothic, spooky element of a curse story, especially as the nights draw in towards Halloween and the ghosts start to gather.

However, I have a different attitude towards real-life family curses. They make me feel pretty uncomfortable because these are real people the curses refer to, not fictional ones. Someone might get hurt. And really… Can they possibly stand up to the light of historical enquiry?

One of the biggest, spookiest and most notorious family curse stories that pops up every so often (I

was reading about it again only yesterday) is the so-called curse of the Craven family of Ashdown Park. When it comes to family curses this has all the classic elements; a heartless nobleman who gets a maidservant (or gypsy girl, depending on which version you read) pregnant, casts her out and is cursed for his cruelty. The curse itself is blood-curdling in its threat: That no son and heir to the title shall outlive his mother.  And it comes true, striking down each generation of the family with death and destruction.

Except in one generation this doesn’t happen. Or maybe in two. Or three… Well, you can see where I’m going with this.  Can we talk the incidence of illness in any given historical era? Or the dangers of war? Perhaps not, because that would spoil the story... Well, I’m going to do it anyway because I'm a spoilsport.

What is the truth behind this apparent curse that no son of the Craven family would outlive his mother? Well, first it’s a bit vague, isn’t it?  The Craven family has produced a great many sons across all branches of the family over the years and plenty of them have outlived their mothers. So for convenience sake the curse has been interpreted as “no heir to the title shall outlive his mother” which is a lot easier to check. And if you do check, you’ll find that there is no historical basis for the story of the curse. Not one reference. The first mention of it is in The News of the World in the 1980s.

Never mind. Let’s look at the actual detail behind this claim because it could be true anyway.

If we start with William, First Earl of Craven, who was supposed to have been the philandering

nobleman who brought this on the family, he was born in 1608 and died in 1697. His mother Elizabeth died in 1624, so he outlived her by quite a long chalk.

William was succeeded as 2^nd Lord Craven by the grandson of a cousin. This William was born in 1688 and died in 1711. His mother, Margaret also died in 1711, but in April to William’s October. Foiled again.

William the 3^rd Baron and Fulwar the 4^th Baron were brothers. They died in 1739 and 1764 respectively. Their mother Elizabeth died in 1704 before both of her sons.

William the 5^th Baron died in 1769. There is no record of when his mother died.

William 6^th Baron died in 1791. His mother Mary also died in 1791. William predeceased her by 2 months. At last we’re getting somewhere!

William, 7^th Baron and 1^st Earl of the 2^nd Creation was born in 1770 and died in 1825. His mother, the “beautiful Lady Craven” was alive and causing scandal until three years later!

William 2^nd Earl was born in 1809 and died in 1866. His mother, the actress Louisa Brunton, had died in 1860. Oops! After only 2 generations the curse fails again.

The second Earl’s heir was Viscount Uffington who was born in 1838. He pre-deceased his father, never mind his mother, a not uncommon occurrence. It was his brother George who went on to inherit the Craven Earldom. Both sons were outlived by their mother Emily who died in 1901.

And it’s here that the story of the curse really kicks off because it is the case that in the subsequent four generations the Dowager Countesses of Craven have outlived the son and heir. Which all goes to prove…  Not very much in my opinion, especially as the 5^th Earl was badly wounded in the First World War which affected his health throughout the rest of his life. However there are others who are more open to the idea than I am and I’m sure they will carry on telling the tale of the wicked earl, the pregnant maid/gypsy and the subsequent curse that has wreaked havoc for ten generations. As for me, I’ll just keep looking for some historical evidence to back up the tale and in the meantime wish the Earl of Craven (and his mother) a long and happy life untroubled by these stories.

Seas of Blue

The first bluebells are starting to come out in the Ashdown woods. In a week, or perhaps two, there will be a carpet of blue beneath the trees, mingling with the yellow primroses and the white of the wild wood anemones.

Spring in the Wood

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade." Charles Dickens, Great Expectations.

Ashdown, the fairytale house, is waking from its winter sleep. It is spring in the woods, with snowdrops and primroses, and soon the house will be open again too.

We Are Open!

Today Ashdown House opens for the 2015 season! Opening hours are 2pm - 5pm every Wednesday and Saturday. The house is open by timed tour only at 2.15,3.15 and 4.15pm.

Here are a few of the highlights of a visit to this most unusual of NT properties (and yes we may be biased but we think it is fabulous!):

The Landscape. The Sarsen Field is the first thing you see on the left of the drive as you approach the car park. This is open to everyone to walk in and is a fascinating are of Special Scientific Interest where the huge, ancient sarsen stones lie amongst the grass as they have done for thousands of years. Legend says they are an army turned to stone by the magician Merlin.

High on the hill to the east is the weathercock. If you fancy a climb up onto the Downs this gives a

wonderful panoramic view of the park and the surrounding countryside.

The woodland dates back to when this was a medieval hunting ground and the deer still live here.

Landscaped in the 17th century, the woods are full of walks and glades where you can picnic and play and catch sight of the wildlife. The badgers have been digging up the area around the grand avenue for almost 1000 years! There are also hidden geocaches, a tree trail and our Pixie Path. In the fields behind the wood the Balleroy ponies graze.

To the west of the park lies Alfred's Castle, an Iron Age encampment. Smaller than Uffington and Liddington forts it nevertheless commands a wonderful view and at one time controlled the track south from the Ridgeway. Anglo Saxon weapons have been found here; legend states it was the place where King Alfred rallied his army before the Battle of Ashdown in 871 AD.

The house. A stunning 17th century hunting lodge, Ashdown is

well worth a view for the  architecture alone. Of the interior, only the hall, grand staircase and roof terrace of the house are open to visitors because the rooms are privately let. However the wonderful

guided tour weaves the story of Ashdown and its owners over the three hundred and fifty years since it was built. From Queens and cavaliers to Victorian servants, the characters come alive!

We hope to see you soon!

The Who's Who of Ashdown House

One of the highlights of a visit to Ashdown House is the opportunity to view the portrait collection that adorns the walls of the hallway and stair. The portraits are a small part of the collection that Elizabeth the Winter Queen bequeathed to William Craven on her death. If every picture tells a story then these have a whole host of tales to tell. They are members of Elizabeth's family and her court, the people who formed an important part of her daily life, each with a story of their own.

The hallway itself is dominated by a large picture of William Craven, painted in

full armour, flanked by Frederick of Bohemia on the left and Elizabeth on the right. Also featured in the hall are Elizabeth's daughter Princess Louise Hollandine (pictured), the artist of two of the paintings in the collection, and her cousin Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of Charles I. Mary married the Dutch ruler William of Orange and went to live in The Hague with her mother Henrietta Maria in the 1640s. To complete this family ensemble, there is also a portrait of Mary's mother-in-law Amelia, who was at one time Elizabeth of Bohemia's lady in waiting!

The first flight of steps introduces us to three of Elizabeth and Frederick's sons; Charles Louis, the heir to Frederick's princedom, the dashing Prince Rupert of the Rhine (pictured), whose life Craven saved in battle, and Edward, who made an advantageous marriage to one of the richest women in France. There is also an early portrait of their cousin Charles II, painted when he was only nineteen.

On the first landing are portraits of three of Elizabeth and Frederick's daughters; Elizabeth, the eldest, the "philosophical princess," a great scholar, Henrietta Maria, the tragic bride of Prince Sigismund of Transylvania, and Sophie,the mother of King George I, "the best queen we never had."

As you climb higher you pass soldiers and statesmen, Prince Christian of Anhalt, Elizabeth's cousin, who rode into battle with her glove as his talisman, and Frances Coke, the runaway bride.

The huge painting on the second landing of Prince Rupert, Colonel Murray and Colonel Russell is a story in itself, painted by William Dobson, court painter to Charles I, and richly decorated with symbols of loyalty. I've blogged about the Dobson painting before - like all the others in the collection it is well worth a view. Come and take a tour of Ashdown and step into the history of the house and the people connected to it!

Welcome to the 2014 season at Ashdown House

The Ashdown House blog will re-open next month in preparation for the new season, which starts on 2nd April.  We'll be featuring new photographs and new articles for 2014 including stories from our visitors and guest blogs. A very Happy Spring to everyone!

St Hubert's Day

It's a busy week for anniversaries at Ashdown House. On Sunday it is St Hubert's Day. Hubert was born in about 656AD and was the first Bishop of Liege. He is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians and metalworkers. Interesting mix! He features in full bishop's regalia in the picture to the left which was taken in the Craven Chapel at Ashbury Church.

During the Victorian and Edwardian period, Ashdown House had its own chapel and private choir (which is another, fascinating story). The chapel was located in Ashdown village and was dedicated to St Hubert as the most appropriate saint for a hunting lodge. Choosing St Hubert as Ashdown's patron saint also underlined the importance that the 3rd Earl of Craven and his Countess placed on hunting, which was one of their great passions. They lived permanently at Ashdown and kept a pack of hounds in the kennels there.

The chapel was demolished in the early 20th century and rather curiously was divided into two parts which became the church halls in two local villages. Half of the chapel is pictured to the right!

The Craven Chapel in Ashbury Parish Church  is also dedicated to St Hubert. It contains a beautiful stained glass window of a hunting scene, pictured left, as well as various memorials associated with the Craven family.

Next week here on the blog we are also celebrating Guy Fawkes Night via The Winter Queen and her links to the gunpowder plot. Check back on the 5th for the whole story!

The Ashdown Parterre

The letter P, in the A - Z of Ashdown, stands for the parterre. The current Ashdown House parterre of box and gravel, laid out in S scrolls in the 17th century style, was created in the 1950s when the house came into the care of the NT. The previous elaborate Victorian parterre had been destroyed during the war and the rationale for choosing a 17th century parterre design was that since the 19th century additions to the house had been demolished and it had been taken back to its original 17th century style, it made sense to match this with a 17th century garden.

When the house was built it had gardens on the north and south side rather than to the west, as can be seen in the engraving by Kip from the early 18th century. Whilst it's not possible to see the detail of these they were very plain. The hunting lodge was considered in the 17th century to be a masculine style of building and a plain box and gravel parterre was a masculine style of garden to match. So the parterre we have today, whilst not identical to the original, is in keeping with the 17th century style of the house and contemporary garden design.

In the mid-Victorian period the Cravens did much work to their

houses at Ashdown and Coombe Abbey, including a major garden restyling at both properties. At Coombe this work was carried out in 1860 by the architect and garden designer William Eden Nesfield. It's likely that he also worked on the Ashdown alterations. His father William Andrews Nesfield was an eminent garden designer who specialised in parterres so it is tempting to speculate that he had an input into the new garden at Ashdown. The Italianate style parterre was very fashionable in this era with intricate flowerbeds, colourful herbaceous borders featuring exotic species, fountains and paths of coloured glass. We have detailed photographs of this parterre garden so know exactly what it looked like.

O for an Octagonal Cupola!

“O” is for the octagonal cupola on Ashdown’s roof. A cupola is defined as “a small, often dome-like structure on top of a building.” As at Ashdown, it usually crowns a larger roof and in Ashdown’s case is built as a “lantern” of timber and glass. This style is a classic of Restoration architecture and can be seen elsewhere, at Belton House in Lincolnshire and at Kingston Lacy in Dorset. This photograph shows the Ashdown cupola as it was before last year’s restoration project.

The Kyp drawing of Ashdown that dates from the early 18^th century suggests that the original octagonal cupola featured wooden panels in the lantern as well as panes of glass. Certainly we know that the style of the cupola has changed over the 350 years of its existence; successive renovations at times reduced it to four panels, increased it again to eight, displayed trompe l’oeil panels and sometimes replaced the plain glass with coloured panes. This photograph, taken from one of the interpretation panels in the Information Centre, dates from the early 20^th century and shows restoration work taking place on the cupola and roof.

The lantern style of the cupola, with so much glass, allows lots of light into the stairway below. In the 19^th century there was a lamp lit in the cupola at night, giving Ashdown its name of “the lighthouse of the Downs.” More than one traveller of the track from Lambourn across the top of the Downs used it to navigate by.

N For North

In the A - Z of Ashdown we are now at N. N is for the North Avenue, a mile long ride that cuts through both Hailey and Middle Woods and ends in a haha by an ancient holloway. The current design of the woods, with its avenues of trees,  rides and glades, was created in the 18th century. At that time picturesque little lodge buildings, now lost, were built halfway along the North Avenue to frame the view.

When the house was originally built the hunting forest was more thickly wooded and the rides were not as formalised. You can see a stylised version of what it looked like in this engraving by Kyp from the early 18th century. The North Avenue contains an ancient badger sett, at least 700 years old, and along the western edge of the wood are two oak trees dating from the 17th century.

Ashdown in a Golden Light!

We liked this photograph of Ashdown so much we wanted to share it on the blog. It was taken yesterday evening along the North Avenue.

Talk on the History of Ashdown Park

Advance notice that there will be a fundraising talk for Ashbury Village Hall on "The History of Ashdown

Park and the Craven Family" on 22nd June at 7.30pm. The talk will take place in the village hall and there will be an exhibition of pictures and artefacts from the house as well. Supper is included in the £6 ticket price. It's a bargain! Contact 01793 710800 for tickets.

Jane Austen and King James II

At J in the A-Z of Ashdown House is the Austen family of Jane's fame. I've blogged about Jane's connection to the Cravens and to Ashdown House before and you can see the article here. Louisa, Countess of Craven, was a big fan of Jane's writing, declaring in 1816 that Pride and Prejudice was her favourite of Jane Austen's books, in preference to Emma which she still considered to be very fine. We are very pleased that we have a lovely exhibition board this season which gives some information on the links between the Craven and Austen families.

Meanwhile at J we also have King James II, a friend of the First Earl of

Craven who like his brother Charles and cousin Prince Rupert came to Ashdown for the sport and for other entertainment, no doubt. (Ashdown does has a very impressive wine cellar!) In my research I came across a curious story of how the house at Russley Park, which lies a mile or two away across the downs, was extended especially for a visit from James during the 1680s. Curious because with Ashdown only a few miles distant, why would William Craven entertain the King at Russley?

In a further fascinating twist, there is a legend that a secret tunnel cut through the chalk hillside connects Ashdown with Russley Park. If this is true then it's location is lost today but it does raise the question of what it's purpose could have been. Intriguing!

Ice Houses and Iron Age Forts

In the A-Z of Ashdown we have reached I for the Iron Age hill fort and, most appropriately for the weather, Ice Houses. I have blogged about the Ashdown House ice house before - here - and I hope it doesn’t make anyone feel too chilly!

The Iron Age hill fort of Alfred’s Castle lies to the north west of Ashdown House. It is small as hill forts go with a single rampart bank and ditch but it has a large enclosure attached that in aerial photographs shows as crop marks. It is possible that a second ditch was re-used as part of the medieval park pale in 1204. The current bank was originally revetted with sarsen walls but when Ashdown House was built in 1662 these were robbed out to lay the foundations for the house. The antiquarian John Aubrey who passed Ashdown at the time recorded this act of historical vandalism!

Two excavations by Oxford University recorded Bronze Age origins for the site, dating from the 6^th century BC. This is an interesting tie-in with the line of four Bronze Age barrows on the horizon, thought to mark a tribal boundary and with the Bronze Age artefacts found on Weathercock Hill. Evidence of an Iron Age roundhouse was found and also a Romano-British building dating from the 2^nd to the 4^th century AD.  The Roman building was a “villa farmhouse” of fairly high status with six rooms, several of which had an “opus signium” floor of stone and tile. The building was substantially built of stone and had painted walls but no hypocaust or mosaic floors. It is one in a series of early villas in the area.

In 1855 William 2^nd Earl of Craven donated a copper Romano-British brooch and two bracelets found there to the British Museum.

Alfred’s Castle was originally known as Ashbury Camp and was given the name Alfred’s Castle in the 18^th century when antiquarians wanted to tie it in with King Alfred’s Battle of Ashdown of AD 871. I’ve blogged about the battle in other posts (links here and here) and Ashdown has at least as good a claim to be the site as any, with Alfred’s muster at the hill fort. The Second Earl of Craven also donated a number of other finds from the estate that show Anglo Saxon origins including a knife, shears, spear heads, and a sword. There was also a Viking axe…

In modern times the author James Long used the archaeological dig at Alfred’s Castle as inspiration for his book Silence and Shadows.

There is currently no interpretation board at Alfred’s Castle as we are waiting for the final report from the Oxford University dig so that we can incorporate the details. However it is a site that is well worth seeing as part of the historical landscape.

Hamstead Marshall Palace

Today we’ve reached H in the A – Z of Ashdown and I’m writing about a house built for love of a queen: No, not Ashdown this time, but the grand mansion of Hamstead Marshall, near Newbury. It was at Hamstead that William Craven planned a “miniature Heidelberg” for Elizabeth of Bohemia, The Winter Queen. The intention was to model this mansion on the Palatine palace lost during the 30 Years War. As with many things to do with Craven and Elizabeth the term “miniature” was relative. This was a very grand house indeed. However, after the death of Elizabeth in 1662 its design did not mirror Heidelberg much at all.

Lady Craven, the widow of Sir William Craven, bought the estate of Hamstead from Francis Jhones in 1620 as part of her policy of turning the vast Craven fortune into land ownership. As at Ashdown, building work started some time in 1661 as soon as Lord Craven had returned from exile in Europe. The grand house at Hamstead Marshall was designed by Sir Balthazar Gerbier with the assistance of William Winde. When Gerbier died in the early 1660s Winde took over the design and build. Papers in the Bodleian Library in Oxford give a detailed description of work on the house, which continued for the rest of the 17^th century. They include 40 drawings that show designs for gateposts, porticoes and stabling and a floor plan with 30 rooms including a “withdrawing room to repair the records” a “room to repose after bathing” and a distillery, spicery, confectioner’s room and “Lardery.”

As with Kyp’s view of Ashdown, his engraving of Hamstead Marshall is stylised but there is no reason to suppose it is inaccurate in detail. Aerial photographs have shown the outlines of the parterre gardens, and the remaining gateposts show very fine details.

In 1718, 21 years after the death of the first Earl of Craven, Hamstead Marshall burned to the ground when a brazier was left untended on the roof. Very little is left of this magnificent mansion that was originally intended as a palace for a queen.

In her book Craven Country Penelope Stokes writes extensively about the fascinating history of Hamstead Marshall. You can find more information here. http://www.hamsteadmarshall.net/history/cc.pdf

Ashdown House is getting ready for the 2013 Season!

Spring is around the corner, the snowdrops and daffodils are coming through and in less than 2 months, Ashdown House will be open again. We can't wait to show you around!

The 2013 National Trust Handbook does not feature any opening times for Ashdown so we're giving all the dates, times and other information here on the blog in order for people to plan their visits. I'll be repeating this throughout the season. We would like to encourage as many visitors as possible to come to Ashdown because as one of the little gems of the National Trust, this is a house well worth visiting!

Opening times for Ashdown remain unchanged from 2012. Ashdown House and the parterre gardens are open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 2pm - 5pm.

The first day of opening is Wednesday April 3rd and the season runs to Wednesday 30th October. The woodland is open all year round every day except for Fridays.

Our rather special guided tours take place at 2.15pm, 3.15pm and 4.15pm. We view the elegant entrance hall, the magnificent 17th century staircase and take in the view from the frankly splendid roof platform. Along the way we take a look at Ashdown's renowned 17th century portrait collection and give visitors some background on the fascinating characters who have been a part of Ashdown's 350 year old history, including the dashing cavalier William, 1st Earl of Craven, Elizabeth Stuart the Winter Queen, King Charles II and even Jane Austen. From the royal court to the servants' hall, Ashdown has a tale to tell!

Throughout the year there will be talks, walks and exhibitions in the Information Centre. Our talented lace makers, wood turners and re-enactors will be around to give people a flavour of 17th century life. For those who prefer to visit at their own pace there are self-guided walks around the gardens and also a children's tour. (Don't miss our gorgeous Balleroy ponies!)

Also not to be missed is the atmospheric Iron Age hillfort of Alfred's Castle, said to be the rallying point for Alfred the Great's army before the Battle of Ashdown against the Vikings in AD871.

The ancient track the Ridgeway is nearby, as is the magnificent hillfort at White Horse Hill and Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow. The picturesque village of Ashbury with its 15th century manor house and pub, The Rose and Crown, is just down the road and there is fabulous walking and cycling all around on Weathercock Hill and the Berkshire Downs.

I hope we have whetted your appetite for a visit!

For more information please see the Ashdown House National Trust page at:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ashdown-house/

You can follow us on Twitter as well on @AshdownHouseNT

There is also an information line on: 01494 755569.

For all bookings and any other enquiries please do contact the regional office on 01793 710252 or email asdownhouse@nationaltrust.org.uk or direct to this blog at ncornick@madasafish.com

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Gerbier and Golf

G is for Gerbier and also for golf. In the Victorian heyday of Ashdown House there was a nine-hole golf course in what is now the fields to the west and south west of the house. I have a sketch of what the course looked like and we have drawn it onto an ordnance survey map to see where it would have been.

A number of National Trust properties once had family or “informal” golf courses as part of their landscape. Many, like Ashdown, have been lost but at Lyme Park in Cheshire, Studley Royal in Yorkshire and on Lundy Island, traces remain. There is a fascinating article about the ghost of the lost golf course at Studley Royal in the National Trust Views magazine, which you can click here to see (p33).

Golf first came to England from Scotland in the 17^th century with the Stuart dynasty. At Ashdown the golf course was part of a wider sporting estate that also offered hunting and shooting and had its own cricket team. Whilst we have photographs of the early 20^th century cricket eleven I have yet to come across any of Ashdown’s golfers.

And so to the other “G,” Sir Balthasar Gerbier. Gerbier was born in 1598 in Holland and was, amongst other things, a courtier, diplomat, art advisor, miniaturist, and spy. He was also an architect who worked with William Winde for the first Earl of Craven on the plans for Craven’s “palace” at Hamstead Marshall. It seems plausible that the same combination of Winde and Gerbier also worked on the plans for Ashdown House, which were drawn up at the same time. Gerbier died at Hampstead Marshall either in 1663 (according to a petition to the king from his daughters who asked for £4000 in unpaid salary) or in 1667 (according to Gerbier's monument in the local church). He is also buried there. It seems likely that the date on his memorial is wrong and that the building of both Hamstead and Ashdown were in their early stages when he died.

Ashdown Park Farmhouse

We are at the letter "F" in the A - Z of Ashdown and today I am blogging about Ashdown Park farmhouse, which is situated in Ashdown village, on the green. There are records that state that the farmhouse originally had a date stone over the door with the date inscription of 1617. I'm not sure whether the blank stone that is there now is new or whether the inscription was destroyed. Either way it is a pity that the original carving no longer remains.

I used to assume that date stones such as these marked the year of building but apparently that is not always the case. At Ashbury Upper Mill, for example, there is a date stone in the wall from 1792, which was not the year of build but marked the year when the building underwent major restoration. If the same is true of Ashdown Park farmhouse this makes sense of the suggestion that the building has an earlier, medieval core. The Ashbury estate came into the Craven family in 1625 so the renovation of the farm earlier in the century took place when the estate still belonged to the Essex family.

A lot of additional work was done to the farmhouse in the 18^th century when it was extended. Many of the features, including the windows, are late 18^th century. I think it's a beautiful building in a lovely position on the village green.