Holbeche House

Holbeche House is a private nursing home.

Holbeche House , also Holbeach House or Holbeache House , is a country house about 1.6 km north of Kingswinford , now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley , but historically in the English county of Staffordshire . Some of the protagonists of the Gunpowder Plot were either killed or captured at Holbeche House in 1605.

Architecture and history

The country house was built around 1600. The original house had a central block three bays wide with two full storeys and an attic with dormers, as well as side wings with volute gables at each end. Part of the original wood paneling inside has been preserved to this day. At the beginning of the 19th century the facades were redesigned and the house was later expanded.

In 1951 it was named "Holbeache House" by English Heritage as a historical building II *. Grade listed. Today it is a private nursing home operated by Four Seasons Health Care .

Gunpowder plot

Main article: Gunpowder plot

Explosion at Holbeche House, drawing by George Cruikshank (1792–1878)

The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt by a small group of Catholic insurgents in England to blow up the House of Lords during the opening of Parliament in 1605 , killing King James I and his court. It was to be the prelude to a revolt that would bring the Catholic monarchy back to the English throne.

After the rebellion was put down, the fleeing assassins sought refuge in Holbeche House, which then belonged to Stephen Lyttelton . They had stolen supplies from Warwick Castle on November 6 and guns and gunpowder from Hewell Grange on November 7 , but the gunpowder got damp in the rain. After arriving at Holbeche House at about ten o'clock that evening, several were mutilated in an explosion that occurred when the gunpowder was left to dry in front of the house and ignited by a stray spark.

Around noon the following day, November 8, 1605, the manor was surrounded by a contingent led by Richard Walsh , the High Sheriff of Worcestershire . They had originally looked for those responsible for the attack on Warwick Castle. Most of the conspirators were either killed on the spot or wounded as the battle unfolded. Some of the walls of Holbeche House still bear holes from the musket ammunition that was created when it was stormed in 1605. The surviving conspirators were taken to London , where they were later tried and executed.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Holbeche House, Staffordshire . britannia.com. ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 23, 2016. 
2. ^ ^{A b} Lucy Aikin: Memoirs of the Court of King James the First . 1822. p. 244.
3. ↑ Holbeache House . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved June 23, 2016.

swell

• Lucy Aikin: Memoirs of the Court of King James the First . 1822.
• Katherine Thomson: Recollections of Literary Characters and Celebrated Places . 1854.
• John Bond: The Hazards of Life and All That: A Look at Some Accidents and Safety Curiosities, Past and Present . CRC Press, 1996. ISBN 0-7503-0360-3 .

Web links

• Holbeche (Holbeach) House . Gunpowder Plot Society.
• Holbeche House Care Home in Kingswinford . Four Seasons Health Care.
• Holbeache House, Kingswinford . British Listed Buildings.
• Holbeache House . Historic England. English Heritage.

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '44 "  N , 2 ° 10' 17"  W.