King Edward I became Hartlebury Castle's first royal visitor in 1282, when he was on the way to Wales.[6]Queen Elizabeth stayed on 12 August 1575 with the Bishop Nicholas Bullingham, while on a journey to Worcester.[7]
In 1646, during the First English Civil War, Hartlebury Castle was strongly fortified and held for King Charles I by Captain Sandys and Lord Windsor, with 120 foot soldiers and 20 horse (cavalry troopers), and provisions for twelve months. However, when summoned by Colonel Thomas Morgan for Parliament, it surrendered in two days without a shot being fired.[5] The Castle was slighted,[3] and the Parliamentary Commissioners seized it and the manor estate, which were sold to Thomas Westrowe for £3,133 6s. 8d. They were returned to the Bishop of Worcester after the Restoration of 1660.[5] The remains of the Civil War-era bastion ditch were first identified from cropmarks in July 2022, and were excavated in 2023. The ditch was found to be 3.4m deep, and produced 17th-century finds including a coin of James I and lead pistol shot.[9]
The Hurd Library was built by Bishop Hurd in 1782 and still contains his extensive collection of books, including works from the libraries of Alexander Pope and William Warburton. Among them is the copy of the Iliad from which Pope's translation was made.
Bishop Hurd was visited by King George III, Queen Charlotte, three of the princesses and the Duke of York in 1788.[10]
The avenue of limes in the park was planted by Bishop Stillingfleet. Bishop Pepys presented Queen Victoria with the herd of deer kept at Hartlebury since time immemorial.[5] An idea of how a bishop's family lived in the mid-19th century can be gained from the vivid diary of ten-year-old Emily Pepys, daughter of Bishop Pepys, which covers a six-month period in 1844–1845.[11]
By 1890 some of the Castle moats had been filled and laid out as flower gardens.[5]
In the First World War, Hartlebury Castle became a Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) Hospital. There are scrapbooks left by soldiers who were cared for at the Castle, available to see online or onsite.
In 2010, BBC Midlands News reported that Hartlebury Castle was up for sale and local people were running a campaign to stop it falling into private hands. Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust (HCPT), a registered charity,[12] was formed to preserve Hartlebury Castle for education and public enjoyment and allow the Hurd Library to remain intact there.
Campaigners were given until April 2011 to raise £2 million to prevent the house being put on the open market. It was reported on 17 August 2012 that HCPT had agreed to pay its owners, the Church of England, £2.45 million for the freehold of the buildings, gardens and parks. Moves to raise the purchase price from the Heritage Lottery Fund and from private donors were in progress.[13]
The Chapel at Hartlebury CastleThe rear of the house and the moatThe Cider Mill onsite at Hartlebury Castle.
In April 2013 HCPT was successful in its initial Heritage Lottery funding application. This provided funds to develop a Business Plan for the future of Hartlebury Castle. In October 2014 HCPT, with partners Worcestershire County Council and Museums Worcestershire, gained £5M from the Heritage Lottery Fund to preserve it, along with its estate and assets, including the Hurd Library.
In March 2015 HCPT bought Hartlebury Castle and its 43-acre estate, intending to turn it into a visitor attraction with accessible state rooms and a County Museum. In May 2016 a virtual reality tour of the Hurd Library was devised.[14]
In April 2018 renovations were completed and the Castle opened to visitors. The Bishops Palace can be explored with audio guides, talking portraits and interactive displays. The grounds are open with a nature trail. There is a Worcestershire County Museum and a café.[15] The Castle relies on the income from ticket sales, shop purchases and donations to remain open and continue to share its history with the public.[16] The Castle has received financial aid from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the form of the Culture Recovery Fund, given to heritage attractions during the lull in visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hartlebury Castle today
Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust was able to purchase the Castle in 2015 with the help of a £5m grant from The Lottery Heritage Fund and renovation began.[17] A concept was developed to tell its story through the Pepys family, with digital portraits, an audio-guide and interactive displays of its history.[18] The Nature Trail takes visitors round the grounds and the Moat Walk, past a sunken garden, orchard terrace, boardwalk and carriage circle.[19] The café is open all day.[20] The adjacent Worcestershire County Museum has been located on the site for over 50 years. The intention is to make the Castle financially self-sufficient.[21] The Castle can also be privately hired.[22]
Worcestershire County Museum
The Worcestershire County Museum in the former servants' quarters of Hartlebury Castle focuses on local history, toys, archaeology, costumes, crafts by the Bromsgrove Guild, local industry and transportation, area geology and natural history. There are period room displays including a schoolroom, nursery and scullery, and Victorian, Georgian and Civil War rooms.
↑ "Hartlebury Castle, Hartlebury". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 16 September 2011. (The listing text provides a full architectural description).
Worcestershire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands county to the north, Warwickshire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, and Herefordshire to the west. The city of Worcester is the largest settlement and the county town.
Kidderminster is a market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, 17 miles (27 km) south-west of Birmingham and 15 miles (24 km) north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2021 census, it had a population of 57,400. The town is twinned with Husum, Germany.
Worcester is a cathedral city in Worcestershire, England, of which it is the county town. It is 30 mi (48 km) south-west of Birmingham, 27 mi (43 km) north of Gloucester and 23 mi (37 km) north-east of Hereford. The population was 103,872 in the 2021 census.
Richard Hurd was an English divine and writer, and bishop of Worcester.
Evesham is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesham, an area comprising the flood plain of the River Avon, which has been renowned for market gardening. The town centre, situated within a meander of the river, is subjected regularly to flooding. The 2007 floods were the most severe in recorded history.
Hartlebury is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Kidderminster. The village had a population of 2,549 in the 2001 Census.
The area now known as Worcestershire has had human presence for over half a million years. Interrupted by two ice ages, Worcestershire has had continuous settlement since roughly 10,000 years ago. In the Iron Age, the area was dominated by a series of hill forts, and the beginnings of industrial activity including pottery and salt mining can be found. It seems to have been relatively unimportant during the Roman era, with the exception of the salt workings.
Weoley Castle is a residential suburban district in south-west Birmingham, England. The area is part of the Weoley local authority electoral ward, and also comes under the Northfield local council constituency. The suburb of Weoley Castle is bordered by Selly Oak to the east, Harborne to the north, Bartley Green to the west, and Weoley Hill and Shenley Fields to the south.
Mid Worcestershire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Nigel Huddleston, a Conservative.
Llancaiach Fawr Manor is a Tudor manor house near the village of Nelson, located just to the north of the site of the former Llancaiach Colliery in the heart of the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. The semi-fortified house was built on the site of an earlier medieval structure, either on top of the previous dwelling or possibly incorporated within the eastern end of that building. It is a Grade I listed building and is now best known as the home of Colonel Edward Prichard, who hosted a visit by King Charles I of England in 1645.
Longtown Castle, also termed Ewias Lacey Castle in early accounts, is a ruined Norman motte-and-bailey fortification in Longtown, Herefordshire. It was established in the 11th century by Walter de Lacy, reusing former Roman earthworks. The castle was then rebuilt in stone by Gilbert de Lacy after 1148, who also established the adjacent town to help pay for the work. By the 14th century, Longtown Castle had fallen into decline. Despite being pressed back into use during the Owain Glyndŵr rising in 1403, it fell into ruin. In the 21st century the castle is maintained by English Heritage and operated as a tourist attraction.
The Bishop of Worcester is the head of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England.
Welland is a village and civil parish in the administrative district of Malvern Hills in the county of Worcestershire, England. It has a combined parish council with Little Malvern, with 9 of the 11 councillors. It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) from the town of Malvern, 15 miles from the city of Worcester, and 18 miles from the city of Gloucester. It is surrounded by farms and common land, and is part of the informal region referred to as The Malverns.
Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for the 6th Earl of Coventry, and they were Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the mansion's rooms were designed by Robert Adam. St Mary Magdalene's Church, Croome D'Abitot that sits within the grounds of the park is now owned and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.
Hartlebury Common is an area of lowland heath in north Worcestershire, England, situated just outside the town of Stourport-on-Severn. Hartlebury Common and Hillditch Coppice are a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest which covers an area of 90.2 hectares . The common supports many varieties of wild plants and insects, especially butterflies and moths. Hartlebury Common and Hillditch Pool are a Local Nature Reserve.
Worcestershire County Museum is a local museum located within Hartlebury Castle in Hartlebury, Worcestershire, England, near the City of Worcester. The Museum is one of three sites run by Museums Worcestershire, a Museums Service run in partnership between Worcester City Council and Worcestershire County Council.
Emily Pepys was an English child diarist, whose account of six months of her life provides a vivid insight into a wealthy bishop's family. She was a collateral descendant of the diarist Samuel Pepys.
Worcester's early importance is partly due to its position on trade routes, but also because it was a centre of Church learning and wealth, due to the very large possessions of the See and Priory accumulated in the Anglo-Saxon period. After the reformation, Worcester continued as a centre of learning, with two early grammar schools with strong links to Oxford University.
Isaac Henry Gosset (1713–1799) was an 18th-century sculptor and wax-modeller.
The Worcestershire Archaeological Society, founded in 1854, is a local historical, antiquarian, and archaeological society and registered charity covering Worcestershire.
References
Avery, Gillian (1984). "Introduction". The Journal of Emily Pepys. London: Prospect Books. ISBN0-907325-24-6.
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