Ightham Mote
Ightham Mote (pronounced like "item moot" ) is a medieval mansion with a moat near the village of Ightham near Sevenoaks in the English county of Kent .
Ightham Mote and the surrounding gardens are now managed by the National Trust and are open to the public. English Heritage has listed the mansion as a Grade I Historic Building and parts of it are a Scheduled Monument .
description
The real significance of the building, which was originally built around 1320, lies in the minor changes that subsequent owners made to the basic structure after the completion of the four-sided building with a new chapel in the 16th century. Nikolaus Pevsner called it "(...) the most complete small medieval manor house in the country." It still shows today how such houses looked in the Middle Ages . Unlike most other courtyard houses of this type, parts of which have been torn down over time so that the house is oriented outwards, Ightham Mote still owns all four sides of the building around the courtyard and is thus oriented inwards. Outwardly, it shows little details and information.
There are more than 70 rooms in the house, all arranged around the courtyard in the middle. A ditch with a square cross-section surrounds the building on all sides. Three bridges cross it. The earliest documented mention of a house at this point dates back to the beginning of the 14th century. It had a knight's hall with a chapel , a crypt and two solar panels attached to the upper end . The courtyard was then completely enclosed by additions in its limited, trench-reinforced location and the crenellated tower in the 15th century. After the renovations in the 15th and 16th centuries, little has been preserved from the 14th century until today.
The framework contains unusual and unique elements such as: B. the porter spy, a narrow slit in the wall that allowed the gatekeeper to check a visitor's credentials before letting them in. An open loggia with a gallery from the 15th century above connects the main living rooms with the gatehouse tract. A large dog house from the end of the 19th century for a Saint Bernard named Dido is the only one listed as a Grade I Historic Building.
Find the skeleton
It is said that in the 19th century a female skeleton was found walled up behind an unused side door. This door can be seen in special program No. 21 of the archaeological television series Time Team . In fact, it is a storage room. There are no records of the discovery of a skeleton, so the rumor was not included in the 2004 published guide.
In the historical novel A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith , who plays in the 15th century, Ightham Mote is often mentioned. The amendment Green Darkness by Anya Seton plays mainly in Ightham Mote. The legend of the walled-in skeleton plays an essential role in this.
The Selbys
The house remained in the hands of the Selby family for almost 300 years . Sir William Selby bought it from Charles Allen in 1591 . He was followed by his nephew, also William Selby , who is known to hand over the keys to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed to James I when he was on his way south to take the throne. This William Selby married Dorothy Bonham of West Malling , but the couple remained childless. Still, the estate remained in the family's hands until that line ended in the mid-19th century with Elizabeth Selby , widow of Thomas Selby , who disinherited his only son. The property passed to a cousin, Prideaux John Selby , a proven naturalist, athlete and scientist. After his death in 1867 he bequeathed Ightham House to his daughter, Mrs. Lewis Marianne Bigge . Their second husband, Robert Luard , changed his name to Luard-Selby . She died in 1889, and her son Charles Selby-Bigge , a Shropshire realtor , put the estate up for sale in July 1889.
The Colyer-Fergussons
Ightham Mote was acquired by Thomas Colyer-Fergusson , who raised his six children in the manor. In the years 1890-1891 he had extensive repair and restoration work carried out and so the house has been preserved to this day despite centuries of neglect. He had the junk room converted into a billiard room, installed the bathroom and central heating, rearranged the kitchen and dining room and had countless repairs carried out. In the early 20th century, Ightham Mote was opened to the public one afternoon a week.
Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson's third son, Riversdale , died in 1917 at the age of 21 in the third Battle of Flanders . He was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross . A wooden cross in the new chapel commemorates him. The eldest brother, Max , died in 1940 at the age of 49 in a bombing raid on an Army Driving School near Tidworth . One of the three daughters, Mary (also called "Polly"), married Walter Monckton .
During the Second World War , the decimated servants slept in the crypt, which offered protection from air raids. A German pilot who parachuted to the property after his plane was shot down was locked up there for one night.
After the death of Sir Thomas in 1951, the property and the title of barons fell to Max's son James , who never married. The cost of maintaining and repairing the mansion forced him to sell the house and auction off most of the inventory. The auction took place in October 1951 and lasted three days. It was suggested that the house be demolished and the lead on the roof recycled or that the house be divided into apartments. Three local men came together to save the mansion because they loved it: William Durling, John Goodwin, and John Baldock . They paid £ 5,500 for the property rights and hoped other, richer benefactors would join.
Charles Henry Robinson
In 1953, the unmarried Charles Henry Robinson from Portland , Maine bought the house. For tax reasons, he was only able to live in the house for 14 weeks a year. He had many urgent repairs carried out and partly furnished the interior with English pieces from the 17th century. In 1965 he announced that he would leave Ightham Mote and its contents to the National Trust. He died in 1985 and his ashes were walled up on the outside of the crypt. In the same year the National Trust took over the property.
Restoration by the National Trust
In 1989, the National Trust began an ambitious maintenance project that also included extensive dismantling of the buildings in order to incorporate their construction principle. After that, they were restored. The project ended in 2004 after the discovery of numerous structural and ornamental details that were obscured by later renovations. The cost of this work is estimated at more than £ 10 million.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nicholas Cooper: Houses of the Gentry 1480-1680 . 1999. p. 65.
- ↑ a b c Ightham Mote (Guidebook) . National Trust. 2005.
literature
- Christopher Simon Sykes: Ancient English Houses 1240-1612 . Chatto & Windus, London 1988.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 30.4 ″ N , 0 ° 16 ′ 10.6 ″ E