Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
Last month we had bought an annual pass to Astley so we were looking forward to going there again. We had hoped to pick up a bit of fruit and veg from the kitchen garden, but by the time we had had our house tour it was all gone. Better luck next time. The 'memorial gardens' are tastefully done and appropriate given that the house was a gift to Chorley from a man who wanted the war sacrifices to be remembered. In this wall are shell cartridges recovered from the area of the Somme where Chorley men went over the top. The way the house is entered now you make your way from a side door to the Morning Room (1625). The ceilings are some of the oldest in the house. The panelling dates from the late Seventeenth Century and is brought from elsewhere. The female figures are earlier than the rest of the panelling. The thing about the plasterwork (and woodwork) in this house is that it is overwhelmingly abundant as we shall see but also that it can be remarkably crude. In the inner courtyard the earliest timber-framed sections of the house are seen, and the use of wooden pegs and wattle and daub. Of the Great Hall behind the front door country Life in 2014 put it thus..."To walk through the front door of Astley Hall on the edge of Chorley in Lancashire is to enter a completely unexpected architectural fantasy. For behind the regimented grids of windows, there lurks one of the most overwhelming displays of plasterwork ever created. Here, the visitor is not merely presented with larger-than-life displays of foliage, fruit and flowers, but also a wild carnage of cherubs cavorting around the hall and its adjacent drawing room. The effect is of an unsupervised children’s party that is just about to descend into playful murder." The painted panelling is remarkable. It dates from the Sixteenth Century and comes originally from Duxbury Hall Chorley. The notable characters depicted were presumably specifically chosen by the Standish family who lived there then and highlight their knowledge and maybe experience of travel. in the 1850's a redesign of Duxbury led to them coming to Astley. We had longer in The Remembrance Room this time in particular talking to the interesting guide. She explained that Chorley after WWI was not going to gather information on its soldiers who had died. The compilation of comprehensive Remembrance Albums (on show) was down to one lady Susannah Knight. Good on her. The Album was compiled between 1919 and 1921 and comprises 777 entries of men of Chorley and District that were killed in the Great War. It provides a uniquely printed biography for each individual and groups them by the church they belonged to. 495 of the entries are accompanied by a photograph. Susannah was a primary school teacher who taught some basic French to the local recruits to the East Lancashire and Loyal North Lancashire Regiments before they went to the front line. This is why my Grandad sometimes dropped a little French into his talk. It never occurred to me that he might have been taught it before he went. There is also a moving collage of all Chorley personnel who have died serving their country in the Twentieth Century. My favourite bedroom by far is the fanciful Stucco Room rather Strawberry Hill Gothick. Lovely. Recently there has been interest in local houses (including Hoghton) in noting so-called witches' marks thought to be used as charms against witchcraft and evil spirits. These marks here were deliberately made by a tallow candle as it has been estimated the flame would have to have been held close for at least fifteen minutes. Today was more of a day for walking in the grounds rather than the Long Gallery.......... We came across the lovely play area called the Royalists Retreat, very well done. And we were interested to see a new Elm tree one of ten planted by Chorley with hopefully protection against Dutch Elm Disease.
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August 2023
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