A Grade I listed building,[1] Littlecote House is now a hotel and leisure centre.
History
Early house
The first Littlecote House was built during the 13th century and was the home of the de Calstone family from around 1290. In 1415 Elizabeth de Calstone married William Darrell and the Darrell family inherited the estate.
In the mid-1530s, King Henry VIII is said to have courted his third wife Jane Seymour at Littlecote; the reason seems to be that Jane's grandmother was Elizabeth Darrell.
The last of the Darrell owners is connected with several scandals and the house's resident ghost story. William Darrell's father had left the house to his mistress Mary Danyell, but Darrell was able to recover it when he came of age in 1560. He spent lavishly, left his debts unpaid, and went to law with most of his neighbours, acquiring enemies in the process. Sir John Popham was his relative and lawyer.[citation needed]
Darrell had an affair with Anne Hungerford, the wife of Sir Walter Hungerford (Knight of Farley), his neighbour; when Sir Walter sued for divorce, she was acquitted and Sir Walter was sent to prison. Some years later, Mother Barnes, a midwife from Great Shefford, recalled being brought in 1575 to the childbed of a lady, with a gentleman standing by who commanded her to save the life of the mother, but who (as soon as the child was born) threw it into the fire. Barnes did not name or indicate either Darrell or Littlecote, but his enemies quickly ascribed this murder to him.[2]
Darrell's financial troubles increased, and he mortgaged Littlecote, first to Sir Thomas Bromley, and then to Popham. He moved to London and spent some time in a debtors' prison, but died suddenly in 1589 on a visit to Littlecote. Legend has it that whilst hunting, the ghost of the murdered newborn appeared to him, causing his horse to shy and throw him. Darrell is said to haunt the site of his death, known as Darrell's stile (or Style, as well as the church at Ramsbury, two miles away), although one famed clairvoyant, Tom Corbett, detected nothing of the sort. But he reported to the author Peter Underwood that he did see "a ghost in the garden, a beautiful woman whom he later recognised from a portrait in the house as Mrs Leyborne Popham",[3] and another ghost in the Chinese bedroom he termed a "busybody", a word Mrs. Wills, wife of the then owner Major George Wills, agreed described the presence in that room. Another possible ghost is that of a past tenant, Gerard Lee Bevan, who lived at Littlecote after World War I and later served time for embezzlement. His presence has been felt in the Long Gallery.[4]
John Aubrey tells that Littlecote was a bribe to Popham as his judge in a criminal case, which is impossible: Darrell was not charged or tried, and Popham was not yet a judge.[5] Nevertheless, this story was borrowed by Sir Walter Scott, in Rokeby, and by Charles Dickens, in A Tale of Two Cities.[6]
The present house
Sir John Popham bought the reversion of Littlecote, and succeeded to it on Darrell's death in 1589; he then built the present Elizabethan brick mansion, which was completed in 1592.
A unique room that can still be seen today is the so-called "Dutch Parlour". A plaque in the corridor outside states that this was decorated with paintings by Dutch seamen who were captured in about 1666 in a war between England and the Dutch; these paintings cover the walls and the ceiling.
Paintings in the "Dutch Parlour"
Walls and ceiling
A corner
Detail
The Popham family owned the estate until 1805. In the mid-1600s the family played a role in the history of deaf education in which John Wallis and William Holder taught Sir John's great-grandson, Alexander Popham (born 1648), to overcome his disability and be able to speak.[7] Sir John (1531–1600) was Speaker of the House of Commons, and five of his descendants were also Members of Parliament: Sir Francis (1573–1644; elected on nine occasions), John (1603–c.1638), Alexander (1605–1669), Sir Francis (1646–1674), and Alexander (c.1670–1705).
In 1805 the family name became Leyborne Popham, under whom much of the house was refurbished in 1810. The Leyborne Popham family owned the estate until 1929, when it was purchased by Sir Ernest Salter Wills Bt, who was a member of the well-known Wills tobacco dynasty founded by Henry Overton Wills I as W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd, in 1787. Sir Ernest was a major shareholder and a director of the Imperial Tobacco company, which also owned the nearby Ramsbury Manor.
Second World War
Pond and avenue of trees, north of the main houseRose garden NW of main houseThe west end of the main house
During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned by the Government for use by the military.
In September 1943, the US 101st Airborne Division took over part of the house, and it became home to regimental staff, regimental headquarters company, and headquarters company of the 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The house provided office space and sleeping quarters for officers of the 506th, with the best rooms being allocated to Col. Robert F. Sink, regimental commander, and Lt. Col. Charles H. Chase, his executive officer.[8] The colonel used the library as his office, and a memorial plaque can be seen today in this room.
From airfields in this area, including Ramsbury just to the west, the Airborne Division took off during the night of 5/6 June 1944 as part of the invasion of Normandy. Easy Company from this regiment have become famous through the book and TV mini-series Band of Brothers.[9] All other ranks lived in Nissen huts built alongside the main drive between the house and the east lodge.
During the Second World War (and during Sir Ernest Wills's tenure as HM's Lord Lieutenant for the County of Wiltshire, 1930–1942) King George VI paid a visit to Littlecote in 1943. The King was acquainted with Sir Ernest since his great nephew, Major John Lycett Wills of the Lifeguards, had married King George's niece, the Hon. Jean Constance Elphinstone.
Post-War
After the war, ownership reverted to the Wills family. Sir Ernest's younger son, Major George Seton Wills, inherited the estate in 1958 and gifted it to his only son and heir, David Seton Wills, in 1966. Following the latter's succession to the Baronetcy in 1983, he sold the house to the entrepreneur Peter de Savary in 1985. In the same year, the house's collection of Civil War weaponry and armour – begun by Parliamentary colonel Alexander Popham – was offered for auction, and bought in its entirety by Royal Armouries.[10]
In 1996 De Savary sold the estate to Warner Holidays, who now operate it as a country house hotel and resort.
Sir John Popham of Wellington, Somerset, was Speaker of the House of Commons, Attorney General and Lord Chief Justice of England.
Chilton Foliat is a village and civil parish on the River Kennet in Wiltshire, England. The parish is in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is on the county boundary with West Berkshire and is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the Berkshire market town of Hungerford.
Alexander Popham of Littlecote, Wiltshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1669. He was patron of the philosopher John Locke.
Bourne House, East Woodhay, lies at the northwestern tip of the parish of Widehaye in the Evingar hundred, in Hampshire, England.
This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Wiltshire.
Sir Ernest Salter Wills, 3rd Baronet of Hazelwood & Clapton in-Gordano, Laird of Meggernie Castle CStJ JP was Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire from 1930 to 1942. He played tennis at Wimbledon in the early 1900s.
Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway PC, FRS, of Ragley Hall, Alcester, in Warwickshire, was an English peer and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department between 1681 and 1683.
Sir Francis Popham (1573–1644) of Wellington, Somerset, was an English soldier and landowner who was elected a Member of Parliament nine times, namely for Somerset (1597), Wiltshire (1604), Marlborough (1614), Great Bedwin (1621), Chippenham 1624, 1625, 1626, 1628–29), and for Minehead (1640–1644).
Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, 5th Baronet of Bradley House, Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire was an English landowner and Tory politician.
Henry Howard was a British Member of Parliament.
Anne, Lady Hungerford was an English lady of the royal court during the reign of Queen Mary I, and poet.
Ramsbury Manor is a Grade I listed country house at Ramsbury, Wiltshire, on the River Kennet between Hungerford and Marlborough, in the south of England.
Wild Dayrell (1852–1870) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from October 1854 to September 1855 he ran four times and won three races including The Derby. He was an unusual Derby winner, as neither his owner nor his trainer had any previous experience of Thoroughbred racing. Wild Dayrell was retired to stud at the end of his three-year-old season, and had some success as a stallion, siring several good winners.
John Popham was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629.
Edward Hungerford was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1554.
Francis Leyborne Popham was an English barrister and cricketer. He was associated with Oxford University Cricket Club and made his first-class debut in 1829.
William Darrell of Littlecote House, Wiltshire, later of Warwick Lane, London; was an English Member of Parliament for the constituency of Downton in 1572.
Sir Edward Darrell, of Littlecote, Wiltshire, was an English politician. He is chiefly remembered as the father of Elizabeth Darrell, who was a maid of honour to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Elizabeth had a notorious affair with the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, by whom she had several children, and was later rumoured to have planned to become the sixth Queen of Henry VIII.
William Leyborne Leyborne was a British colonial administrator who served as governor of the Windward Islands from 1771 to 1775.
↑ Rice, Douglas Walthew (2005). The Life and Achievements of Sir John Popham, 1531-1607. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p.83. ISBN9780838640609.
↑ Underwood, Peter (1971). Gazetteer of British Ghosts. London: Souvenir Press. p.125. ISBN978-0285620124.
↑ Norman, Diana (1970). Tom Corbett's Stately Ghosts of England. Taplinger. p.39.
↑ Aubrey, John (1982). Brief Lives: A Modern English Version. Boydell & Brewer. p.252. ISBN9780851152066.
↑ Rice, Douglas Walthew. The life and achievements of Sir John Popham, 1531-1607: leading to the establishment of the first English colony in New England. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp.83-90; Oxford DNBsub Popham calls Aubrey "demonstrably inaccurate", but suggests the mortgage was a fiction. Falconer, J. A. (January 1921). "The Sources of a Tale of Two Cities". Modern Language Notes. 36 (1): 1. doi:10.2307/2914815. JSTOR2914815. p.8 of 1-10.
Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.1830-1, pedigree of Leyborne Popham of Hunstrete late of Littlecote
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage: Wills of Hazelwood, Baronet, Wills of Blagdon, Baronet; Wills of Northmoor, Baronet; Sir William Wills, Baron Winterstoke; Sir Gilbert Hamilton-Wills, Dulverton, Baron; Elphinstone, Baron
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Walls and ceiling
A corner
Detail
