Literary Lectures - from out of the blue

People sometimes ask where the inspiration for the Hall's events comes from. The answer - more often than not - is out of the blue. The Literary Lectures in the Library for example, they idea for those came from a book I was reading at the time. 

I had read Sally Beauman's book Rebecca's Tale (sadly before I actually read Rebecca, but  never mind...) and enjoyed it so much I started to work my way through her other books. The Landscape of Love was the next book, and even before Chapter One began I was hooked - and not necessarily for the reasons you would expect...

Her description of "Wykenfield" and Abbey were truly uncanny:

"The Convent was founded in 1257 by Isabella de Morlaix, heiress, cousin and friend to Winifride of Ely... The Abbey, under the protection of the monastery at Deepden, flourished until the 15th century, when its influence began to decline. By the time of the Act of Suppression less than a dozen nuns remained. Their lands were then confiscated by the Crown, passing to Sir Gervaise Mortland, a henchman of Henry VIII, in recompense for his role in the vicious suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace."

Do you see what I mean? It gets better...

"The remaining buildings were occupied by tenant farmers, finally being abandoned in the mid 19th century. In 1919 they were saved from dereliction, and restored by Henry Mortland, formerly of Elde Hall."

And yet there's still more...

"(Fair state of preservation to some parts of the medieval convent structures... The Cloisters, refectory and part of the Lady Capel (13th century) still remain. The moat that surrounded the nunnery enclosure has been drained. The Squint (c. 1450) in the south corridor is quaint, and unique in the county; the reasons for its irreligious placing are unknown.) Present owner: Mr H G Mortland. Private house. Not open to visitors"

And so I was hooked - by what, on first reading, I could see so clearly as a description of Markenfield! What Sally Beauman's inspiration was I don't suppose I will ever know. The big coincidence is that she used to be one of Mr Curteis's neighbours - long before he had ever even heard of the Hall.

The book it split into two parts - then and now - and dare I say it, Then is an awful lot better than Now...

So thank you Sally - for inspiration you will never know.

Sally Beauman: 25 July 1944 - 7 July 2016

The Kindness of Strangers

It's not every day that you receive an email like this. Sometimes, out of the blue, someone says something lovely and it really, really makes your day.

My name is Matthew and I’m part of the Marketing Team at Sykes Cottages.

In April, we’ll be launching a month-long campaign celebrating all that is great and good in Yorkshire from our newly re-launched blog, rolling out across our different social media channels, which have over 100,000 followers.

I’m delighted to be able to tell you that Sykes has shortlisted Markenfield Hall as one of Yorkshire’s top 6 hidden gems and will feature in an upcoming campaign article.

I hope you’re pleased about the good news and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

And it was really true! Here we are:

 http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/blog/6-hidden-gems-to-discover-in-yorkshire/

The wording is just lovely - 

"Like in all the best fairy tales, however, the magical entrance to another world isn’t around for long and Markenfield Hall’s is no different; the gates of this unique place are only opened to the public for 30 precious days annually, so make sure you’re amongst the few each year to catch a glimpse of it!"

Thank you Sykes Cottages - you made this Administrator very happy!

The tattooed Pilgrim?

It's amazing how sometimes little snippets of information fall into your lap - watching the news last week there was an article about the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall, and a new exhibition on tattoos that they were putting on. 

The article itself was fascinating - and further information on the exhibition can be found here: https://nmmc.co.uk/whats-on/event/tattoo-british-tattoo-art-revealed/ What pricked my ears up was the mention of Mediaeval Pilgrimage tattoos.

It has long been known that Sir Thomas Markenfield (Thomas V) made a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land  in the 1560s, including a visit to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. We know this as a long list of places that he visited still exists.

At the end of his Pilgrimage Sir Thomas was admitted to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre on 14 June 1566. His citation sets out his credentials:

Lately to the most sacred Holy Land there came on pilgrimage with sincere devotion the Noble and Gentle Thomas Markynfeld of the English Nation and born of noble blood 

Lord of M[arkenfield]

The warrant was sealed with with the seal of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. To become a member of the Order was considered by Roman Catholics to be an honor worth more than any knighthood conferred by their own Sovereign.

"Accounts of crusaders visiting the Holy Land reveal that tattoos could also serve as permanent proof of pilgrimage trips. One person who has done a great deal of work on pilgrim tattoos is Dr. Anna Felicity Friedman at the Center for Tattoo History and Culture. As she notes, it is likely that  "tattoo practitioners and tattoo recipients looked at and drew from common Christian symbols and iconography around them for inspiration for their tattooed marks of faith." " Forbes.com

Was Sir Thomas Markenfield a tattooed pilgrim? We will probably never know, but the the tattoo shop he may have used still exists to this day: 
 http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/inside-the-worlds-only-surviving-tattoo-shop-for-medieval-pilgrims



With thanks to Janet Senior's book The Markenfields of Markenfield Hall for the information on Thomas V.

Timber!

At the beginning of last year it was decided that the large Sycamore trees that lined the side of the moat were beginning to look rather worse for wear. A closer inspection revealed that they were suffering from various stages of Honey Fungus. The trees at the north end were in a worse state than the trees to the north as can be seen in this quite fascinating picture:

The trees to the north have spent the last couple of winters with their roots in substantial amounts of water after some of the wettest winters in memory. This had weakened them considerably and made them more susceptible to the disease.

After a lot of planning, the day dawned and the trees were brought down...

Last one standing... this one wanted to stay!

The last one was a bit of a struggle! It was the healthiest, but was by no means a healthy tree and would have started to die off like the others if left.

Once they were down we were able to get a better look at them - you can see the dark inner colour, which is where the fungus is attacking the inside of the tree. A quick count of the rings put the trees at around 200 years old, which puts them feasibly within the period of the Victorian restoration of the Hall carried out by 3rd Lord Grantley when he worked with local architect JR Walbran. 

During this time a few internal changes were made, but more striking was the exterior works - which we now know to include the park land. The 3rd Lord Grantley extended the Tudor long low farm buildings (extreme east and west buildings and still in use today) were extended to create two small courtyards either side of the central aisle that visitors see today.

The Friends of Markenfield have been busy fundraising and the new trees will be planted alongside the moat this spring.

Those who measure wealth in money alone...

It was a seemingly innocuous envelope that landed last December on the doormat. What it contained was not so.

It contained maps and plans outlining a proposal for the "Markenfield New Village Settlement" a development of hundreds of new houses covering the farmland from The Old Mediaeval Road down to the A61. 

Accompanying the alarming maps was a letter offering to make the owners "millionaires".

Needless to say, a letter was sent back explaining that the land they were proposing to build upon was worth more to the owners as it was, on an emotional level, than having millions of pounds in the bank and having to drive through something akin to Milton Keynes each and every time they wanted to leave home.

And so life went back to normal - peaceful, quiet and happily un-rich.

Until the Developer turned up at the door one day armed with a clipboard and pamphlets...

...needless to say he was not welcomed with open arms and was in fact threatened with the police should he return!

Markenfield is special - and it will stay that way.

Seek and ye shall find...

Research can be a thankless task - especially online. You can spend hours looking through lists of searches containing the word Markenfield (now bear in mind the the Archive & Research Group have identified over 16 possible spellings of Markenfield over the years) and some days the most exciting thing that pops up is a pair of Markenfield Lounge Pants - I kid you not!

But not last week... last week contained one of those rare days when you click on that link and you're transported back precisely 116 year in time to a Great Hall hung as a portrait gallery and faces from the past stare out of the screen at you.

Fast forward to today and a visit from three Volunteers from the Pennine Heritage Digital Archive, who have been lovingly taking care of a collection of photographs taken in 1900 by a Mr George Hepworth. 

Mr Hepworth seemingly worked his way around Yorkshire, photographing historic houses - and how glad are we that he did?!

He donated the glass negatives to the Hebden Bridge Local History Society in 1916 and they were digitised and put online by the lovely people we met today.

We now have 11 (yes 11!) images from 1900 that show the Hall pre-restoration, but as a quite-obviously much-loved and very much cared for family home - home of the Foster family, tenant farmers of the day... and still tenant farmers to this day, living just across the Courtyard in the Farmhouse Wing.

Shhhh... it's Quiet Week!

One of the most-commented upon things in the Hall's Visitor Book is the atmosphere at Markenfield - benign, tranquil - spiritual even.

One of the hardest things to do is to maintain that atmosphere for all to enjoy.

The Hall isn't just a visitor attraction - it is first and foremost a family home, and much-loved family home at that. It isn't Chatsworth, or Harewood, where the family can take to a a private wing of the house for some peace and quiet - the family live in the rooms that the public see, and this quite often turns them into a visitor attraction too!

Don't get me wrong... the family very much enjoy welcoming visitors into their home. But as you may have read in the latest newsletter, the number of guided tours has sky-rocketed over the past 12 years and there hasn't been a week since the beginning of April when we haven't had a tour or a wedding.

Weddings involve an awful lot of preparation and furniture moving - setting up on the Friday and putting back the following Monday. We don't have a Function Room - we use the Drawing Room, or the Great Hall - imagine someone getting married in your Living Room...

And so we have introduced the idea of Quiet Weeks... one week a month where we have no groups, no weddings and no upheaval. The furniture stays where it should be, the tea urn is switched off and the house get to recharge its atmosphere ready for its visitors the following week.

Shhhhh.... it's quiet week....