The Women Featured in my Upcoming Book

Dunham Massey in Cheshire

If you have read some of my previous blog posts you may know that I am currently writing a non-fiction book about women in the English Country House. I thought I would introduce the historical female characters who I am writing about in my book. These women were incredible characters, their strength in the face of tragedy and their desire to make an impact on the world around them, provide stories which are begging to be told.

My book is focused on the 19th century as a whole, with my oldest woman born in 1780 and my youngest dying in 1905 although there will be some historical context from the 18th and 20th centuries as we trace the world they were born into and the world they left behind.

So, with no further ado, lets meet my four incredible women, who, as I get to know them more, feel like friends . . .

Lady Mary Isham
b.1787 - d.1878

Mary was born at Elm Park in Co. Armagh in Ireland to Deborah de Robillard Champagne and Samuel Close. She met Col. Justinian Isham of Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire who was stationed in Ireland at the time as captain of the militia. They were married in 1812 and in 1818 they moved to Lamport Hall when Justinian inherited the estate and his baronetcy. Throughout their time at Lamport, Justinian was known as 'the silent baronet' due to the fact he was more interested in his library and Mary was more interested in developing the Hall. She was a strong woman, confident in her beliefs and opinions, but she was also an incredibly generous woman, giving thousands of pounds to local charities and acting as patron to charities and societies. During her time at Lamport Hall she managed the rebuild of the Hall, estate and parkland, she ensured their tenants were well looked after and she also raised a family. We will follow Mary's entire life, looking at her achievements and the incredible tragedy she suffered.

Lady Mary Isham of Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire 

(reproduced with permission of Lamport Hall Preservation Trust)

Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville
b.1785 - d.1862

Harriet is probably one of the most well-known women in my book, or rather her mother was. Born in 1785 at Devonshire House in London to Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire and William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, she was the second daughter and was supposed to have been a boy. She was raised in the curious household of the Devonshire's, observing the odd relationship between her mother, father and Lady Elizabeth Foster, her father's mistress. She married in 1809, aged 24 to Granville Leveson Gower who had been a friend of the family for many years and who for almost a decade had been the lover of Harriet's Aunt, Lady Bessborough. This seems like an unusual set up, but considering the upbringing Harriet had, it's unlikely that she would have thought too much about it. She even welcomed her Aunt and husbands two illegitimate children into her home. I am exploring the nature of Harriet's upbringing and her unusual marriage, looking at how this influenced her later life and her position as a wife and mother.

Katherine Grey, Countess of Stamford and Warrington
b.1826 - d.1905

Katherine is my youngest woman and one of the least known, but her story is remarkable. She was born into a circus family in London and grew to become one of the most famous circus performers in London by the 1850's. She performed as a bare-back horse rider with her sister at Astley's Circus and she was spotted by the eligible George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford and Warrington who, captivated by her incredible beauty, whisked her out of her circus life, married her, and took her away to Dunham Massey, his principal estate in Cheshire. However, not everyone thought that the marriage was appropriate and the young couple found themselves having to defend their marriage, although, as a young Earl with no immediate family to control him, George Harry was used to doing whatever he wanted. They were snubbed by the gentry and even Queen Victoria before deciding they would move to Enville Hall in Staffordshire, another of the Earl's properties, where they lived happily for twenty years. In my book we look at George Harry's upbringing, his marriage to Katherine and the early years of their marriage at Dunham Massey.

Elizabeth Manners, Duchess of Rutland of Belvoir Castle

(reproduced with permission of Her Grace, Duchess of Rutland)

Elizabeth Manners, Duchess of Rutland
b.1780 - d.1825

Elizabeth is one of my favourite characters that I am writing about - although I have to admit I love them all! She was born at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire to the 5th Earl and Countess of Carlisle. She was vaguely related through marriage to Harriet whose sister Georgiana was married to Elizabeth's eldest brother George. Elizabeth married John Henry Manners, the 5th Duke of Rutlnd in 1799 when she was just 19 and moved to Belvoir Castle in Rutland. She was hugely disappointed when she arrived at the Castle, finding an outdated and dilapidated house in need of renovation and money. She took it as her mission to improve the Castle and throughout her relatively short life she worked continuously to develop the Castle that you see today. She was also unfortunately the recipient of several tragic events - losing three of her children, her eldest daughter and two baby boys, as well as a fire in 1816 which ravaged the Castle, burning away lots of her hard work. She is an incredible woman - probably the strongest of the bunch, and I can't wait for you to get to know her more.

So that's it! These are the four main women in my book. I will be making references to other women throughout the book to lend context to the period but these four women will form the bulk of the story. We will be looking at upbringing, marriage, home life, children and tragedy - following their lives and challenging our stereotypes of women of the period.

I can't wait for you to be able to read this book . . . . I just hope you like it!!

p.s.:

Please do share this webpage with your friends and family if you know they like country house history or you think they would enjoy my book!

A Different Big Ben Tower?! Somerleyton Hall

(photo credit: By Evelyn Simak, CC BY-SA 2.0, https///commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14253512)

The first time I came across Somerleyton was when I watched a Most Haunted episode numerous years ago and they investigated the Hall. Having recently re-watched the episode I thought a blog post about the Hall would be interesting as one of the Hall's architectural features could have ended up atop one of London's greatest landmarks . . .

The ground itself where Somerleyton Hall now stands has had some form of homestead on its site since the Viking period. The first country mansion appeared in the Tudor period and was built by the Jernigan family who, being Catholic and fearing persecution in the reign of Elizabeth I emigrated to America. The house then passed through various families but by the middle 1800’s the house was purchased by the Victorian engineer Sir Samuel Morton Peto who spent much of his well-earned money turning Somerleyton into the mansion we see today.

(photo credit: Wikimedia)

Morton Peto had amassed his wealth through his management of the construction firm Grissell and Peto, a company he ran with his cousin, which built some of the most notable British buildings and monuments in London such as Nelson’s Column, the Houses of Parliament and the vast brick sewer system which was a major feat of Victorian engineering by Sir Joseph Bazalgette.

He also submitted a design for the Bell Tower at the top of the Elizabeth Tower (commonly referred to as Big Ben) but it was considered too elaborate and so was rejected. Instead Peto had the design made up at Somerleyton as a clock tower for the mansion and can still be seen by visitors to this day. Whilst this is a beautiful design and it fits in perfectly with Somerleyton I just cannot picture it sitting above the Elizabeth Tower and housing Big Ben, can you? 

(Both Photo's Credited to: Evelyn Simak [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http///creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

The house itself is supposedly very haunted indeed with one room in the attics being so haunted that it was closed and locked for over fifty years - that is until they were offered a large amount of money from Most Haunted to investigate and then apparently they had no problems opening the room up. . . sorry my cynical head is coming out there!

Sadly Peto's career ended with bankruptcy after a couple of investments went wrong and he had to sell Somerleyton to a Yorkshire family, the Crossley's of Halifax (shout out to Yorkshiremen 'done good!). The family still live at Somerleyton today and the house can be visited on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays from April to September. 

This house is definitely going on my 'houses I want to visit' list for when I am next in the area! Have you visited? If so let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks for reading! 

Yvoire Medieval Village and Chateau

(Photo credit: http://www.yvoire-france.com)

Last weekend I visited Yvoire with Tom. It sits about an hour from Geneva on the south side of Lac Leman and is a small 14th century walled medieval village. I had looked at it before online and my friend Becca had said that it was beautiful so it was high on my list of places to visit. You could take a boat to Yvoire from Nyon which is on the North side of the lake and just half an hours drive from our home, but the boat costs almost 30CHF per person and so it's not really an affordable short cut to driving; also Tom has been saying for a while that he wanted to drive to the other side of the lake and explore there.

So on Sunday lunchtime last week we decided to drive from Nyon along the lake to Geneva, drive through Geneva and then drive along the other side of the lake to Yvoire to explore what was there.

An hour and a half later we pulled into a carpark and got ourselves a ticket. Because Yvoire is a protected medieval village, vehicles are not permitted and so you have to park in the car park and walk to the village. It's only a couple of minutes walk so it wasn't a problem. I did wonder where the money from the carpark went though . . . does it go towards restoration of the village or is it a government carpark? Without further research I don't know but it's an interesting question.

We walked from the car and I was instantly blown away. Even from the outside, this medieval village has a quaint, Lord of the Rings beauty that captures the imagination. The outer walls of the village are made up of houses and buildings so it doesn't look imposing and the moat which originally ran around the outside of the town has been filled in and is now a small road, yet the stone gateway with it's clear markings from a previous portcullis remind you that it must at one time have been a well fortified location.

We walked under the gate way and down what I assume was once the high street. Now, it was a Sunday afternoon so it was very busy with visitors, not something I usually like, so I was keen to find a quiet spot. I fancied a glass of wine so I asked Tom if we could go somewhere for a bite to eat. He replied "I need a cash machine" . . . unsurprisingly there wasn't a 'medieval cash machine' at Yvoire so that brought an end to that plan. By this point it was after 3pm and we were aware of the light fading. I didn't fancy going home in the dark so we decided to walk around and see what the village offered and then we would go home, planning to come back another time.

There was a beautiful Chateau right on the lake and whilst I tried to do some research into who owned it, I struggled. Still sometimes that makes it even better as I can use my imagination instead!

So Yvoire is definitely somewhere we will be returning to, but in the meantime here are some pictures I took of the place so you get an idea what it's like:

(these three photographs are copyright of the author, Charlotte Furness)