Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
We drove through Harrogate and Ripon to Markenfield Hall which is the most unspoiled fourteenth century house in England. It is said that it would still be recognised by its original builders and how often is that the case? We reached it down a mile long drive or rather farm track. The exterior views are very atmospheric. Below, the view form the East which shows the chapel. Until fairly recently Markenfield had a pair of black swans, but unfortunately an otter took care of them. Some birds still like the moat though. This view, below, shows the modern day entry to the undercroft and great hall above. The inverted 'V' is where the porch was at the first floor with external steps the only entry. The small attachment to the left of the door was the temporary jail - now a visitors toilet. What was the medieval kitchen shown here has now been converted to the owners' modest residence. This shows one of the wings, used for farm buildings as it always was...... and here, the other wing, used for housing since medieval times..... This shows the Elizabethan gatehouse......... Lastly, externally we noted the arms of the Markenfields..... Showing what a really friendly house this is small tables were laid out in the Great Hall for us to take tea and (very nice) cake. We were on a tour by Historic Houses members. The Great Hall was built around 1280 and was probably freestanding. When John de Markenfield received licence to crenellate in 1310 he linked it to the other buildings in the courtyard. The hall, as elsewhere, survives as original because after the Rising of The North in 1569 when the estate was confiscated by Elizabeth the whole lot of buildings was rented out to tenant farmers who made no changes. The hall itself, and the chapel next door were used as a grainstore. Today it contains a limited number of portraits, a good library of books and Vietnemese pottery amongst other things. The atmosphere is palpable. From the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries the hall was owned by Markenfields who became steadily more important in the North of England from the time when John de Markenfield, a Clerk to Edward I, used family connections to advance his way through the ranks - by 1310 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer to Edward II. The Markenfields, as so many Norhern families were staunch Catholics and this was to lead to their downfall when, in 1569 Sir Thomas, along with his Uncle Sir Richard Norton who was High Sheriff of Yorkshire, were ring leaders in the unsuccessful Rising of the North. They both fled abroad to save themselves from the terrrible fate of traitors. The Hall was confiscated and for 200 years used by tenant farmers. In 1761 the Hall was bought by lawyer and MP Fletcher Norton, who went on to become Solicitor General and after being knighted became the Speaker of the House of Commons. Although he never lived in the house but at nearby Grantley Hall, he did not buy it simply as an investment but out of family loyalty, for he was a direct descendent of Sir Richard Norton, standard bearer of the Rising of the North and Uncle to Sir Thomas Markenfield. Fletcher Norton became the First Baron Grantley and the property descended to the 7th Lord Grantley who began a restoration project in 1980. I was very taken with this portrait of Caroline Norton (the original is at Chatsworth). Caroline Sheridan, grand-daughter of the great comic playwright and Whig Member of Parliament, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was born in 1808. In 1827 a disastrous marriage was made for her by her impoverished widowed mother to George Chapple Norton, whose family owned Markenfield Hall. George’s drunken violence and emotional abuse ruined the marriage. The consequence of their ill-starred union were the legal reforms made in English parliamentary law in 1839, 1857 and 1870. Caroline Norton was a poet and songwriter, a society beauty before and after her marriage. George Norton was the younger brother of 3rd Lord Grantley (whose portrait hangs in the Great Hall) who had inherited the title from an uncle. Grantley’s malign influence would prove to be the bane of Caroline’s life for 40 years. In 1831 George Norton instructed his wife to persuade the Home Secretary, later Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, to secure him a well-paid position as a police magistrate. This had far-reaching and painful consequences for Caroline. She fell madly in love with Melbourne, a handsome, charming and intelligent man – everything her husband was not. A ‘criminal conversation’ court case ensued, (the legal term for adultery) and while George Norton lost the case, Caroline – despite her innocence – lost everything. She was left with only the clothes she stood up in, but her greatest loss was that of her three sons, Fletcher, seven, Brinsley, five, and Charles aged three, into the ownership of her vengeful husband. Caroline’s desperate attempts to see her sons – whom she had no right to see as their mother was not their parent in the eyes of the law – caused her to use her pen and go to into battle with the English legal system. She campaigned for separated wives to be allowed to see their children, helped to make it easier for wives to escape bad marriages, and enabled women to retain some of their property on marriage. The three pieces of feminist legislation which changed the lives of wives and mothers for ever were the Infant Custody Act (1839), the Matrimonial Causes Act (1858) and the married Women’s Property Act of 1870. One extraordinary aspect of Caroline’s life was her knowledge that she would not benefit from the legal changes for which she fought so hard – she knew that, but did it for the cause of women. The chapel is accessed directly off the Great Hall and contains much of interest. It is an ancient Catholic one, in which Anglicans also worship by Catholic invitation. In practice, the services are alternate, roughly once a fortnight. "From an Anglican viewpoint, the Chapel (and its 600 acre parish) is classed as an Ecclesiastical Peculiar – that is, exempt from the control of the Bishop, which it has probably been since the Reformation. In practice, the Bishop is most welcome and takes occasional services here by invitation."! The view back into the Great Hall from the chapel which shows the intimate connection between the two. A portrait of the Richard Norton who was standard bearer for the Rising of the North. You can see where 'renovators' used ordinary cement instead of limestone cement. This cannot now be removed without dmage to the stone. Lesson, always keep on top of your builders! This is a photo of the banner Richard raised........the original is at Arundel Castle. A rare double piscina.....again, note the awful cement infill. One last thing of interest in the Chapel is this masonry hand found in the moat, believed to come from nearby Ripon Abbey. Research by the late Prof. Andor Gomme has shown that the earliest part of today’s house was built circa 1230 - its Undercroft consisting of the three surviving vaulted ground floor rooms. Its Great Hall was incorporated into the Chapel and Solar above. The feel of this amazing survival isn't helped by the use of one of the rooms as a storeroom/junkroom. Still, it is a family home and we all have them......... This medieval fireplace on the ground floor comes from the Great Hall above and was moved downstairs stone by stone. All in all a wonderful house well worth visiting.
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August 2023
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