Rutland and Apethorpe Hall
I turned off
the M1 at Leicester. My daughter lives in the wilds of Norfolk, so I
made for the A47. It's a very pleasant road, not over burdened with
traffic. Suddenly I noticed a sign to Oakham. Hold on, isn't that the
county town of Rutland?
I had obviously crossed a county boundary and I was in England's
smallest county. With all my criss-crossing of England over the years I
must have missed Rutland. I turned left and drove down a small road,
past a large lake, and into the town of Oakham.
It's a small place with a
population of about 10,000. The castle is
reduced to earthworks plus the great hall. This dates from 1180—90. The
building is attractively ornamented with Romanesque architectural
details, including six carvings of musicians. The outer bailey of the
castle, still surrounded by low earthworks; it is now a park with a
bandstand. Some deep hollows in the park are the remnants of the
castle's dried-up stew ponds (fishponds).
Traditionally, members of royalty and peers of the realm who visited or
passed through the town had to pay a forfeit in the form of a
horseshoe. This unique custom has been enforced for over 500 years, but
nowadays it only happens on special occasions (such as Royal visits),
when an outsize ceremonial horseshoe, specially made and decorated, is
hung in the great hall of the castle. There are now over 200 of these
commemorative shoes on its walls. Not all are dated and some of the
earliest (which would doubtless have been ordinary horseshoes given
without ceremony by exasperated noblemen) may not have survived. The
earliest datable one is an outsize example commemorating a visit by
King Edward IV in about 1470. The horseshoes hang upside-down: while
this is generally held to be unlucky, in Rutland this was thought to
stop the Devil from sitting in the hollow. The upside-down horseshoe
motif appears in the county council's arms, and on the local Ruddles
beer labels. Recent horsehoes commemorate visits by HRH The Princess
Royal (1999), HRH The Prince of Wales (2003) and HRH Princess Alexandra
(2005).
Further along the A47 was a sign to Apethorpe. That also rang a bell.
Isn't that a very large manor house that was bought by some Middle
Eastern bigwig, and then left to rot? (Looking it up later I find it
was bought by a Libyan who wanted to found a Libyan university in the
UK. Unfortunately, there was that business of the Libyan embassy siege
a year later, which led to most of the Libyans in the UK leaving.)
I turned to the right, along a tiny country road, coming to the village
of Kings Cliffe. This is a charming place, with the houses built from
local stone. Even the new builds were of the local stone, giving the
village some character. The stone is a creamy yellow, which mellows to
a darker ochre.
The road winds through small fields, under trees, and over the
occasional brook, leading to the village of Apethorpe. The manor house
is behind the village, and quite clearly takes up some considerable
space.
It consists of buildings set around three quadrangles, one of which was
used for the filming of Porterhouse Blue. I must admit it does look
very much like an Oxbridge college quad, and brought back fond memories.
The house and manor originally belonged to Guy Wolston [circa 1491] and
later passed to Wolston's son-in-law Thomas Empson. In 1515 they were
purchased by a London grocer, Henry Keble, whose grandson was Lord
Mountjoy, who sold them to King Henry VIII.
Subsequently the property passed to Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Later, Apethorpe was to be one of queen Elizabeth's
favourite overnight stops on the Great North Road. In its prime, the
hall entertained much royalty, including Queen Elizabeth I, King James
I and Charles I who between them made some thirteen visits to the house.
I wandered around, took a few photos, and went back to the pub at Kings
Cliffe. Unfortunately, as it was 3.00 p.m. they were shutting as I
walked through the door. I had forgotten that most country pubs still
cling to the old licensing hours.
As Apethorpe Hall is for sale, I have added it to the Unique pages.
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