Author: nick_xylas

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Wessex Attractions: Sudeley Castle

Sudeley Castle, near Winchcombe, is one of the Cotswolds’ premier attractions. It is known to have been the site of a manor since Saxon times, when Ethelred Unrede gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter Goda. It was fortified during the Anarchy, when its then-owner, John de Sudeley, sided with the Empress Matilda (or Maud). However, it was seized by King Stephen and turned into a royal garrison.

The oldest parts of the present building date back to 1442, built by Ralph Boteler and funded by spoils obtained from the Hundred Years’ War. It is the only private residence in England to house the grave of a queen, Katherine Parr. After Henry VIII’s death, Parr married Thomas Seymour, the owner of the castle, with whom she had been having a long-running affair,

Today, set in a magnificent 1200-acre estate, Sudeley Castle is home to 10 different gardens, each with its own unique character. It also contains a collection of rare and exotic pheasants, an adventure playground, and its own cafeteria.

The postcode, for satnav purposes, is GL54 5LP. Stagecoach West service W (Cheltenham to Winchcombe) stops at the War Memorial, about ¾ of a mile from the castle.

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Wessex in Fiction: Here Be Monsters!

Here Be Monsters! is a 2005 steampunk fantasy novel for children, written and illustrated by Alan Snow, and set in the fictional Wiltshire town of Ratbridge, based on Trowbridge.

The story tells of a boy named Arthur who lives in the tunnels beneath Ratbridge, and who was raised by trolls. Arthur witnesses an illegal cheese hunt, and his efforts to investigate it soon bring him into conflict with the powerful Cheese Guild.

The novel was filmed in 2014 as The Boxtrolls.

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The Hour Has Come

For some time now, I have been trying to set up a formal membership structure for Wessex Society via this site. Now, I think I have finally figured out how to do it. As of next week, there will be a small charge for reading future blog posts of £1 per month. We feel this charge should not be too onerous, and it does solve two problems. The first is that we had zero income apart from a handful of sales of flags, lapel badges and Christmas cards. The second is that as an informal network, there was no definitive answer to the question of who gets invited to meetings etc. There will also be a premium option for £2 per month, which entitles you to a quarterly print digest of blog posts.

None of us are entirely happy with the idea of hiding content behind a paywall, but it is the only way the Society can survive in the long run. Access to past blog posts and static pages will continue to be free. We hope you understand.

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Wessex Attractions: Sandham Memorial Chapel

Sandham Memorial Chapel was constructed in the town of Burghclere in order to house the paintings of Stanley Spencer, whose work we have covered here previously. It was built between 1926 and 1932 from a design by Spencer himself, with work being delayed by the 1926 general strike.

The chapel was largely funded by Spencer’s patrons Louis and Mary Behrend, who also purchased the meadow to the south in order to preserve the view of nearby Watership Down from the chapel.

The chapel was gifted to the National Trust in 1947, and the meadow in 1960. The chapel was awarded listed building status in 1984.

The chapel is currently closed due to the national lockdown. The postcode, for when it reopens, is RG20 9JT. The nearest station is Newbury, approximately 4 miles away, Buses are infrequent.

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Wessex Worthies: Thomas Young

Andrew Robinson’s biography of Milverton-born polymath Thomas Young (1773–1829) is entitled The Last Man Who Knew Everything. It seems like an apt description of a man who made notable contributions to the fields of medicine, physics, music theory and Egyptology.

Young was born to a Quaker family, the eldest of ten children, though he converted to the Church of England in 1804 in order to marry Eliza Maxwell. By the age of 15, he already knew Latin and Greek. He studied medicine in London and Edinburgh before finally obtaining his doctorate from the University of Göttingen in Lower Saxony. He became both a Fellow of the Royal Society and an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

His achievements in medicine include deriving formulae for determining the wave speed of the pulse, and a child’s dose of medicine.

In physics, he was an early proponent of the wave theory of light, as opposed to the particle theory favoured by Isaac Newton and others.

Young was one of the translators of the Rosetta Stone, which constituted a major advance in the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Young died of complications from asthma at the age of just 55., and is buried at Westminster Abbey. His name lives on in the Thomas Young Centre at the University of London, and at Young Sound in Greenland.