Open for Visitors!

Today I had the thrilling experience of taking the scaffolding tour to see the conservation work that is taking place on Ashdown House. I urge everyone (assuming that you are not on another continent or afraid of heights!) to come to Ashdown and take this tour while you can because it is an amazing experience! The tour first ascends three flights to look at the replacement of the chalk stone blocks on the walls. Visitors are then taken up to the viewing platform above the roof. At this stage you are four storeys up and on a level with Ashdown's flat roof and cupola, the top of which is currently suspended to allow work on it to take place. This part of the tour has a lot of "wow" factor! From here you can see the replacement of the Cotswold slate roof, the work that is taking place on the flat roof and the cupola, and the massive leaning chimneys of Ashdown. You can also look out through specially appointed "windows" to view the surrounding countryside.

The house itself is also open, albeit without our fine portrait collection whilst the conservation work is ongoing. Tours of the house and gardens will be taking place as well as the scaffolding tour, and the Information Centre has a new display.

Practical arrangements: Ashdown House is open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons from 2pm to 5pm. First opening day is Wednesday 4th April. The woodlands are open every day except Fridays. Scaffolding tours take place on Wednesdays only, the first tour starting at 2.15pm. Places are limited, so please be prompt. For safety reasons no under 18s can take the scaffolding tour and no people in inappropriate footwear. Sensible shoes and boots, please!

We hope that you enjoy visiting the house and seeing it not only in its 350th anniversary year but at a time in its history when so much exciting work is taking place.

Carpenter

The horse in this fine painting is Carpenter, a hunter belonging to the second Lord Craven (1668 - 1711). Carpenter, a grey, was said to be William Craven's favourite horse. He is pictured here against a backdrop that could well be the Lambourn Downs close to Ashdown. The picture was part of the Craven Collection until sold in the 1980s.

Carpenter was painted in 1701 by Robert Byng, a pupil of Sir Godfrey Kneller. Byng also painted a portrait of Craven's two sons William and Fulwar, both of whom went on to inherit the Craven barony. Not much is known about the second Baron Craven, the grandson of a cousin of the first Earl. He was 29 when he succeeded to the Craven estates and to the barony but not the earldom. His main seat was at Combe Abbey and according to Penelope Stokes' invaluable book "Craven Country" a contemporary described him as "fat and fair, fond of field sports and the bottle." He was a typical Tory squire of his day. He married Elizabeth Skipwith, sister of Sir Fulwar Skipwith of Newbold Hall, another Warwickshire landowner. She died in childbirth. William held the traditional offices of High Steward of Newbury and Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.

William commissioned a survey of all his estates, of which there were twenty six (!) listing the tenants and their leases. At this time the Uffington estate, of which Ashdown was the big house, was one of the largest of his holdings.

In the painting, Carpenter is held by Lord Craven's black page. It seems likely that Lord Craven, who was a Lord Proprietor of Carolina, brought some of his household slaves to Britain to work as servants. From the late 17th century a black page was a fashionable accessory in many aristocratic households. At the end of the 18th century the First Earl of Craven of the 2nd Creation is recorded as having at least one male black servant working at Hamstead Marshall.

Treasure in the Attic

With the conservation work at Ashdown moving into it's spring phase it was time for a group of us to meet up with the National Trust's regional archaeologist Gary to have a look at the finds from the work in the roof. Disappointingly for those of us who were not-so-secretly hoping to find some Charles II gold half-guineas or a pearl necklace belonging to Elizabeth of Bohemia, there was nothing quite so exciting. In fact the process was rather like sorting through a collection of filthy hoover bags on a windy day. Here John models the latest in all-weather archaeological finds sorting gear!

So the finds were not dramatic but they were instructive in terms of the building of the house. There were plenty of bits of 17th century lath and plaster wall with some splendid examples of 17th century handmade nails. There were some beautiful roof tiles with the original wooden pegs in them and one small piece of glass from the original cupola.

The guys from the current renovation project came over for a look and were particularly impressed by the broken tea cup left by workmen in the 1920s. There were newspapers and cigarette packets from the 1980s including a packet of Embassy slim panatellas. A lot of smoking seemed to have been going on near the 17th century wooden roof beams! There was also a rook's nest, a dead rat and a dead bat. Treasure indeed.

The most mysterious find was a series of little handwritten labels with words such as "curialis" and "resttecouche" on them. Also the name Maisey. Any help with the interpretation of these would be most welcome.

Elsewhere the work is providing a fascinating insight into the original structure and build of the house. Evidence has been found of the dormer windows that feature in the Kyp engraving of Ashdown from the early 18th century. The cupola has revealed secrets of it's original design, with moulded timbers and sixteen panels, some of glass others trompe oeil. Much more on these discoveries on the blog later. And here is a picture of our favourite find so far: Details of the 1927 Derby chalked onto a roof beam, maintaining the Ashdown tradition of a keen interest in racing.

Water!

When Capability Brown landscaped the grounds around Ashdown House in the 1770s one thing he could not introduce was a water feature. Until Ashdown was connected to mains water in the 1940s the only fresh water supply was from the wells derived from springs on the estate. There was also a "dew pond" by the old stables and a dip in the field shows the spot where this used to be.

The villages along the Portway, the old Roman road from Wanborough to Wantage, grew up along the spring line. This is where the water that had percolated through the chalk came out, forming streams and springs. At Upper Mill in Kingston Winslow they dammed the stream to power both the upper and lower mills. There was a spring in the garden of one of the cottages that was used by the entire village. In Ashbury the springs fed the watercress beds below the Manor.

Higher up along the Ridgeway there has never been a water source which was one of the reasons that the Romans preferred the lower route. At Lambourn, site of one of King Alfred's palaces, there is a "winter bourn" a river that is supposed to be seasonal, flowing in the winter and drying up in the summer. Its source is in the woodlands and it derives from a series of springs. The water falling on the Downs takes three months to work its way through the chalk and emerge as a river. It's water is beautifully clear.

Season's Greetings from Ashdown House!

Conservation Work Update

Work on the Ashdown House conservation project has been continuing apace. With the roof space accessible, several interesting things have been found - carpentry marks on the roof timbers, historical "rubbish" left by previous renovations and a new species of bat for Ashdown - the Serotine!

The original timbers behind the Bath stone window lintels have completely rotted away and will be replaced. Work on the staircase has revealed early examples of wallpaper that have been taken away for analysis and dating. All these fascinating discoveries will be interpreted for visitors to Ashdown when the house re-opens in April.

It's also time to give advance notice of a talk about Ashdown House and the Craven Family at the Shrivenham Heritage Centre on Tuesday 15th November at 7.30pm!

The William Dobson Portrait

Here at Ashdown House we are very proud to have in our collection a group portrait that was painted by William Dobson, Court painter to King Charles I, who was described by John Aubrey as "the most excellent painter that England hath yet bred." Tomorrow, 16th October, there will be a special piece about our Dobson painting on the Number One London Blog. Please do drop in to read about Prince Rupert, Colonel Murray and Colonel Russell and a painting that is packed full of symbols of loyalty to the Royalist cause.