They say you can’t tell a book by its cover….

Knightstone Manor in Devon is a 14th-century house with connections to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, among others. You can read about it here. Well, it may indeed be 14th century, but to me it’s been so “got at” that it now looks modern. Externally, anyway. On the other hand, beautiful Haselbech Hill House…

Beautiful Collyweston….

The ten best villages in England are listed here and Collyweston in Northamptonshire makes the grade. I can only say that it does so entirely on its own merit and in spite of having once been the lair of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.

Ancient Secrets of Althorp

This fascinating Channel Four documentary, featuring Earl Spencer at his family seat since 1508, included a team of archaelogists led by Gone Mediaeval‘s Cat Jarman. They set out to rediscover a lost mediaeval village that was mentioned in the Domesday Book, for which there was some evidence in the cellars of Althorp House. Investigations in…

The outstanding exception in the “Cambridgeshire” six….!

Well, it’s true, I don’t know many of the six Cambridgeshire castles that are listed in this article . Many of them disappeared very early on in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and hill forts aren’t something about which I know a great deal anyway. Poor old Cambridge Castle suffered the ignominy of having a Shire…

The bones of 2,500 people under a Northamptonshire church….

“….The Holy Trinity Church in the small town of Rothwell [Northamptonshire] houses the corpses of 2,500 ancient men, women and children in a mysterious “hall of bones….” I, um, hate the thought of being in a church with all those bones under it, but it is a mystery, all the same. Nothing would persuade me…

THE PALACE OF COLLYWESTON–NEW EXCAVATIONS

Collyweston is a small village in Northamptonshire, approximately three miles from the town of Stamford. It was not always so unassuming, however. In the 15th century there was a large fortified manor house that dominated Collyweston, of which today no trace remains above ground. The manor, sometimes known as ‘The Palace’ was first purchased by…

My, my, some families really do not change their spots….!

While researching fourteenth-century Northamptonshire, I happened upon Sir John Stanley (1350-1414). “Stanley’s father was Master-Forester of the Forest of Wirral, notorious for his repressive activities. Both Stanley and his older brother, William (who succeeded their father as Master-Forester), were involved in criminal cases which charged them with a forced entry in 1369 and in the…

Tales of a Ricardian Traveler: A Visit to King’s Cliffe Church and its Fotheringhay Artifacts

Originally posted on RICARDIAN LOONS:
Lady on Horseback, mid-15th c., British Museum My husband and I had the good fortune to spend two weeks in England and Wales in October, 2017. I had been asked to moderate a conference about Richard III and 15th century warfare at the Leicester Guildhall, sponsored by the Richard III…

George Washington’s England, especially Sulgrave Manor….

  I had never looked into the English origins of George Washington’s family, although I did know that his ancestors were associated with Washington Old Hall, Washington, Tyne & Wear. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/washington-old-hall So I am surprised to discover that the family was also associated with other places, including Purleigh in Essex  (http://www.kenmore.org/genealogy/washington/descendants.html)  and Sulgrave Manor in…