Worcestershire Photos by Hetty
10th October 2018 Harvington Hall website – a member of Historic Houses Association
It began as a medieval house, which was enlarged in the late 1500s for a Roman Catholic family in Protestant times, and has 7 priest hides . It once had an estate of 6,000 acres. It has not been used as a family home for over 200 years, so was never modernised. By 1923 it was very neglected and in need of restoration.
Surrounding the house is a wide moat, which once a had a drawbridge
There are carp, and ducks
It had its own malt house to prepare the barley, for the brew-house near the kitchen
A farm building was made into a chapel in the 1700s, which was later used as a schoolroom
The formal herb garden
A guide showed us around and gave us an idea of life in Elizabethan times
The kitchen has 2 fireplaces and a well
A model of the house at its biggest, some was demolished a long time ago
Originally all the panelling was decorated like this door. It would have been much brighter 400 years ago
The main staircase, with a painted shadow staircase and decorated wall
In the Elizabethan nursery – a crib and baby walker. They did not encourage crawling, as the floor would have been covered with straw, with its wildlife. The straw (= thresh) would have been 5 inches deep, so needed a deep threshold to contain it in the room – that’s why you have high thresholds for the rooms of ancient houses
400 year old wall paintings
Many floors slope a lot
This fireplace has no chimney – it leads to priest hides above. We saw where various other hides were secreted – all very small, dark and unpleasant places for priests to stay for days on end if necessary, while the house was being searched
A very interesting house