Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Speaker A: The Tudor History and Travel show is a podcast that brings Tudor history to life by exploring Tudor places and artefacts in the flesh.
You will be travelling through time with Sarah Morris, the Tudor Travel Guide, uncovering the stories behind some of the most amazing Tudor locations and objects in the uk.
Because when you visit a Tudor building, it is only time and not space which separates you from the past.
And now, over to your host, Sarah Morris.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Tudor History and Travel show with me, Sarah the Tudor Travel Guide. Well, first of all, I owe you all an apology. I think for the first time since I started this podcast back in 2018, I missed a month last month and that was due to our house move. Yes, we are finally here in West Wales and loving has been a little bit of a frantic time though. And so unfortunately, as we tried to dig our way out of the boxes, the podcast had to be put on the side. But as you can see, we are back.
And over the summer I travelled up to the north west of England. It's a place that I haven't spent much time in as the Tudor Travel Guide and I felt it was absolutely my duty to go and rectify this. And so I visited a number of properties up in the northwest and in fact I'll be writing at about those for the up and coming edition of Tudor Places Magazine.
However, before we get into the meat of today's episode, I just wanted to share a little reminder of what's going on over at my sister company, Simply Tudor Tours, which of course I co founded with Adam Pennington, the Tudor Chest. Because we have recently opened the booking for our 2026 tour, the Rise and Fall of Amberlynn. This takes place between the 8th and the 14th of Sept next year and of course we've just finished this year's tour and it was an outstanding success and a great time was had by all.
If you want to read some of the testimonials of our previous guests, then be sure to head over to our website, which of course is www.simplytutortours.com. and there you can find not only those testimonials but also about the current tours that are booking. And of course, alongside the Rise and Fall of Amberly, we have our Merry Queen of Scots From Crown to Captivity tour, which is also running next year, this time in May.
So I'll leave a link to the website in the description associated with this podcast.
Now, onto the subject of today's episode. So yes, during my travels to the northwest of England, I went along to visit Horton Tower in Lancashire. This is a little known location, I think, to many Tudor history lovers, myself included. But after receiving an invite from one of its expert tour guides, Keith Stevenson, encouraging me, nay, urging me to come along and explore Horton Tower, we made arrangements and finally this summer I got to visit this extraordinary location.
In a moment you'll hear from Keith, who will introduce himself as our guide for the day. But I was also delighted to meet with Steve Spring, who's an expert in apotropaic marks. Now, if you don't know what they are, then stay tuned, my friend, because it is a fascinating story and the locations, the properties of the north west, including Horton Tower, are replete with these marks. And we'll be hearing all about them from Steve, who has made them a focus of study.
So that said, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to go time travelling. Let's go over and explore the wonderful Horton Tower.
[00:04:28] Speaker C: Welcome, dear listeners, to this episode of the Tudor History and Travel Show.
Wow. I wish you could see where I was standing. I am in the north west of England and today, as you know, we are visiting Horton Tower.
Now, there is the most spectacular view around me and in a moment we're going to be hearing from our expert guide. He's going to be telling us all about the tower, its Tudor history, why it was here.
And just stay tuned because you'll be hearing some fantastic stories of the family that once occupied this incredible castle. Now, we'll be talking more about the architecture in a moment, but I just wanted to say that I have wanted to come to the Northwest for ever since I founded the Tudor Travel Guide back in 2018. So it's taken me seven years to get up here. A bit tardy, my bad. But here we are about to set the record straight and several months ago now I was contacted by our guest expert today who said, why don't you come and see Horton Tower? Horton Tower? Never heard of it. Well, again, that clearly was my fault because what an amazing building and I can't wait to find out all about its history. So without further ado, let me introduce our guest expert or one of two guest experts today. You'll be hearing from our second expert, Steve shortly. But here we have Keith, Keith Stevenson. Hello, Keith.
[00:06:03] Speaker D: Hello. Nice to see you, Sarah.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:06:06] Speaker D: Welcome to the North.
[00:06:07] Speaker C: Yeah, indeed. Thank you for bringing me up here to the Northwest because you were pretty instrumental in me going, you know what, I've got to pull my socks up and do a visit to the North West. So I'm on a bit of a tour, but this is our first stop at Horton Tower.
So, Keith, before we start exploring Horton Tower, perhaps you could just tell us, what's your association with this place?
[00:06:28] Speaker D: Well, I've been here for three years.
I would say that I'm an amateur historian, I'm a Yorkshireman. I've looked at houses, I've worked at other buildings, such as Skipton Castle.
And when I was invited to come here, I came with great interest, which became a passion, which has become an obsession.
The research that I'm able to do here, thanks to the Trust, is taking forward many of the ideas from the past and trying to firm up on them by looking at records and the likes and doing personal research with others inside the building.
[00:07:14] Speaker C: So you've been finding out a lot of information about the place, and I understand that research is ongoing and maybe we'll hear some about that towards the end of our podcast.
[00:07:22] Speaker D: That's true. Every day brings us something new and another headache.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Brilliant. Okay, so I should say it's Horton Tower, but it's not spelt as you might expect it to be spelled.
[00:07:35] Speaker D: No, it's spelt H O G H T O N.
And there are other Houghtons, which is H O U G H T O N.
And the Horton itself means a hill settlement, so we'll get an Anglo Saxon background to this place.
However, the family themselves, the de Hortens, who are still intrinsically involved in this building, can take their roots right back to the invasion in 1066.
Their name, their ancestral name, is one of only three that is actually on the Bayeux Tapestry. So they can say that. And by the 11th century, having been gifted lands in the north for their service, they commence to take on the land around here, and because of that, they take on the name of the settlement. So they become of Horton. And Horton basically is a hill of land sticking out into the flat plains in front of us.
And what we're looking at only 20 miles away, is actually Southport.
And on an evening, you can actually see the sea from here.
We're stood on this promontory and in front of us is just this flat plain, much of the land which was owned by the Hortons.
[00:09:03] Speaker C: So we have the most spectacular view down a long avenue, as you say. It stretches off 20 miles into the distance across Lancashire. So before we go any further, we should say, where is Lancashire? And maybe you could start to paint a picture of where it is in location to the epicenter of what was going on in the Tudor area, which, of course, was the English capital.
[00:09:28] Speaker D: In London, Lancashire was always described as the dark county.
It was very isolated, it has no major cities into the Middle Ages.
It was really, at one point, technically under the control of York, because York was the largest capital and the area was very poor.
It was mostly arable. There was some elements of mining in this area and later Manchester became a textile centre. But very embryonic, and Manchester has a history of its own.
The textile industry, of course, related to what was going on in London. The merchants and the interchange between them actually meant that by the Tudor period, they were better off as true Protestants in order to deal with the Protestants in the South. While Lancashire itself remained a stronghold of the Catholic faith, just as the other.
[00:10:34] Speaker C: Side of the Pennines, Yorkshire remained very much a Catholic stronghold as well. So I always remember Henry VIII's description of the north as the Breton beastly of the north. So maybe that's one description.
Okay, so just in terms of distance from London, how far? What are we talking about in terms of miles and what might that have equated to if you were travelling from here to London?
[00:11:04] Speaker D: About 220 miles. And because of that, the distance traveled would probably take them up to a fortnight to probably get there. The roads were a bit.
There were no major roads through Lancashire and therefore it wasn't until you got further south that you're going to have anything like a decent road.
[00:11:26] Speaker C: Yeah, right. Okay.
Okay. So I'm always interested to find out about the genesis of a place you've mentioned, really early Anglo Saxon roots, certainly. And you moved us into the medieval period.
What was going on? We're going to come on, obviously, and focus on the Tudor period, but what was going on during the medieval period that we should know about, which actually, I suspect, led to the building of this building, Ultimately, the Horton, as such.
[00:11:59] Speaker D: Throughout their dynasty and building upon their estates, had many other estates.
Their major estate was southwest of Preston, at a hall known as Leah L E a and Leah. The family had married into the family of Sybylla Delia, and they obtained the estates.
Sybilla was an ancestor of Lady Godiva.
As far as we know, Sybylla did not ride around here naked. It's too cold in the north.
But because of that, we know that at points the Hortons are referred to as of Leah, and it was a medieval hall, so they married circa 1312.
The 1300s are a great change here. One of our big threats here, of course, and to England are the Scots.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: How far away are you from Scotland here?
[00:13:00] Speaker D: Depending on where the border was at the time we could be looking at about 70 to 80 miles away. So no, no great distance. And by the 1320s, we even have Robert the Bruce only three miles away from here, with the Scottish army at a church at Samsbury, pillaging it. So they're very, very close.
And it's around the 1300s that we start to see the construction of defensive towers.
And in this area we have a number that have disappeared.
And Horton, which is known as Horton Tower, is in fact one of the largest and the most prominent being sat on this hill. So in the 1300s, we believe that what happens is that this promontory takes on a new position.
We have here a large park that he was granted by royal license, one beginning in the early 1300s. And by the end of the 1300s, it's been vastly expanded. But it was from this point, we believe that the building that we're actually standing within now in the gateway of, is the entrance in the 1300s leading into a courtyard in which there was a Peel Tower of such.
[00:14:21] Speaker C: So there was a tower on this site called a Peel Tower, and that's spelled P E L E or P.
[00:14:28] Speaker D: E L. It depends upon it.
In this area we have certain other ones. We have Turton Tower, which still exists.
We had one near Manchester, Radcliffe Tower, which is in ruins, and in Preston we had Broughton Tower.
So these towers were dotted around. They were more as a place where you could retreat to, but they're also. And particularly this one, if you were to stand on that tower, the view that you have both to the north particularly and to the west is immense.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Yes. I can well imagine you could see anybody coming for literally miles around.
So why then is there a whole kind of castle here now? Because it kind of looks a bit castle like.
Tell us about the genesis of the actual building here.
[00:15:25] Speaker D: So the building itself, what happens is that although they have a hall at Leir, it would appear that they then decide, due to the fact that they have become so wealthy in the Tudor period, as was happening throughout there, every member of the gentry is trying to show off their wealth. And these are one of the wealthiest people in the area. And because of that, what we are looking at is basically moving from what was probably a timber frame building at Leer.
He has a hill that is actually formed from what we would call grit stone. He doesn't have to pay for any stone. If he needs timber, he's got an entire forest around him. The slate on the roof comes from the same quarries and therefore all the building materials, with the exception of Glass are available and he's going to show off and so he's going to extend the tower.
The tower indicates that they are an ancient family. Look at us, we are an ancient family. Look how rich and wealthy we are and powerful. And not only that, they're looking down on everybody because they're on this top of the hill. The driveway that we see before us now with this immense lane which is just over, just under half a mile long, leading out to the flat plains on either side, banked up onto there are trees, an avenue. And an avenue in the Tudor period was a tree lined approach to a house.
We know that those trees were there in 1736.
But this is not the access point to this tower. The access point came from the east and it came across from the small village of Riley Green and it came across about 200 meters in front of us there and then down to the village. The lane that leads to the tower as it is now wasn't constructed till 1900.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: So the Hortons, you mentioned the word gentry. They were. I just want to be clear on that. They're gentry as opposed to nobility.
[00:17:46] Speaker D: That's correct.
They've got their wealth and many of them through that period have been knighted.
So what has been happening is as they've expanded, we can say that not only did they expand by building this house, but they were also just prior to that, constructing houses within Preston, renting them out. They're described as new buildings and they were actually on land which had been seized from Catholic establishments, despite the fact that the Hortons and basically all of Lancashire remained strictly Catholic.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: And we're going to come into that because it's a really important, that the whole religious piece is quite an important part of the story of this place.
But I was wondering therefore, who would have been the nobility, the overlord for this whole area?
[00:18:44] Speaker D: If we're looking at the Prince of the north, we can talk about the Stanley family.
Now the Stanleys are the Tudors favorite and the reason for that is back in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, Richard III is standing waiting for the second half of his army to come, led by the Earl of Derby.
In front of him. He has the Tudor army. And at that point along comes the Earl of Stanley with his army of the north, probably including men from this very area and possibly with the Horton there as well as a member of gentry.
And the Earl of Derby looks at it and changes sides. He then goes on the side of the Tudors and because of that the Battle of Bosworth is won and he is the hero. And because of that, an establishment is made that he is now in charge of the Palatine of Cheshire and of Lancashire. A Palatine is identified as a separate area, not under the control of Parliament, but at that time under the Duchy of Lancaster, which has become the sitting sovereign.
So therefore they're not answerable, they can make up their own laws, they control everything. And it's the Earl of Stanley's job to control the northern area. He is responsible for its security. He's responsible to help the King and to raise armies and he is the one who appoints people there. And unfortunately his premise at Latham, which was described as a palace, is no longer there.
[00:20:30] Speaker C: Yeah, there is a sort of a black and white line drawing, isn't there? I think of. And it looks incredible. What a building to have lost. And maybe, dear listeners, this is a good time for me to say there will as ever be a show notes page associated with the podcast. And since I mentioned that picture, I'll try and find it. But there will be lots of of other pictures of Horton Tower for you to refer to as you listen to this podcast. So do make sure that you check the link associated with the podcast to view that page.
Okay, so the Stanley's would have. The Hortons would have been answerable to the Stanleys and obviously would have known them well. And we should mention, of course, just to just to close the loop, that Margaret Beaufort was married to the Stanley who pitched up Bosworth. So there was a familial connection there. So I think a lot of people would be interested in the Stanleys and know of them and maybe be as disappointed as me to find out that Latham House has long gone.
[00:21:32] Speaker D: Their stories in the Tudor period are full of mystery surrounding the Stanleys and they were very, very much involved. There is quite clear connection between the Hortons and the Stanleys. These people were visiting each other on a regular basis.
They were entertaining at all the halls, halls such as this.
By the time of its construction in 1565, many of these gentry also had their own actors and players and Stanleys had their own and therefore Lord Strange as they were at the time, Lord Strange's men were traveling around and it is Lord Strange's men who give the first performance of Shakespeare's plays to Elizabeth. Wonderful. So it's a northern connection.
[00:22:25] Speaker C: And I know we've got a very controversial story about Shakespeare and we'll definitely make sure to include that later on. So stay tuned if you. You love your Shakespeare, right? I think that's probably Enough scene setting. Maybe we could just talk about the building that we are looking at.
What do we have here? Describe it as vividly as you can for us, please.
[00:22:51] Speaker D: When you arrive at Horton Tower along the long road, which wasn't constructed till 1900 and wasn't the access point, as you drive up the tree line, drive, you will see in front of you three towers, a central gatehouse, and then you will see two towers, one on either side. There is a third tower further to the south, however, that wasn't there until the 1880s.
So the principal area is coming up and seeing this walled area with its access point, and from there you enter this stronghold. It isn't a fortified manor house, it isn't a castle, it is a place of residence. Any strength is there to show the public, the people of Lancashire, how strong they are. If I wanted to attack this in the Tudor period, I just go around the back and come in through the back window. It is all about show.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Yeah. I must admit, when I first arrived, one of the comments was, oh, it reminds me a bit of Haddon Hall. It's kind of similar stone. Well, I don't want to simmer stone, but it's stone built and you've got the double courtyard arrangement here.
[00:24:11] Speaker D: Yes, it is very similar to Haddon.
Here we have again, sometimes described as a little bit antiquated in its period.
However, Haddon is about the same anyway, so we know the construction starts in around 1560.
We know it takes five years and we are a little bit behind the styles of London and the likes. However, we do not have architects at that point. It is simply by them saying, oh, we'll have it the same as. Did they visit Haddon? Did Hadden visit us? We don't know. But yes, you're right. Here we have a gritstone building, extremely strong. You go through the gatehouse and you enter a lower courtyard and in front of you, at a slightly elevated height, we see the beginnings of the second and the more residential and gentry end in the upper courtyard.
[00:25:15] Speaker C: Well, we're going to go in in a minute, but before then, there's a coat of armour just above the gatehouse. It's a rather unusual one.
It did catch my eye as I came in.
[00:25:26] Speaker D: Yes, the entablature that's above there is a very much a Renaissance carving. It has. The central feature is Samson killing a lion. It's a very small piece within the Bible.
Behind it you can see the initials Thomas Horton, the builder of this premise. Above it we see a series of heads, but if you look very carefully, those heads are actually angels and every one of those upper five heads have angels behind them. Very quietly away.
However, here's a question.
Does the symbolism in that refer to the fact that the Catholic faith with all its strength, will conquer the lion? And who is the lion? The lion is England.
And was it not Elizabeth who changed her symbol from the dragon to the lion, secretly saying Catholic faith will overcome any Protestants who come. Anybody who is in search of recusants can point to it. And he goes, it's just a piece on there. But whilst he and any of the Catholics can be giggling behind their hands at the way that they are showing their faith.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: Interesting.
[00:26:52] Speaker D: Very good.
[00:26:52] Speaker C: I like it, I love it. I love the story.
Okay, so we're going to go through the gatehouse now. So there's a couple of enormous wooden doors here.
Lovely. Oh, that's lovely. And this brings us into that outer courtyard that you were talking about. So maybe again you could just describe to us what we have here.
And would this have been pretty much what it looked like when it was built?
[00:27:24] Speaker D: Unfortunately, Sarah, like many buildings that are over 600 years old, there have been changes and there is a mix of buildings within the courtyard. But first of all, once you enter the cobbled courtyard in front of you, the land begins to rise in front of you towards the upper courtyard which stands in front with a huge gateway going through and passing through the building and leading you into the upper courtyard. Now the buildings to our right which appear as a three storey terrace is in fact 1700.
The building behind that, that goes on is Victorian.
In front of you we're looking at pur Tudor and then to our left we're looking at some early parts of the building and then again late Victorian.
However, had you come here in the Tudor period, All research at the moment is strongly suggesting the Tower, the Peel Tower actually stood in the upper left hand corner of here, probably four stories high and it would have dominated the area.
Why it's not there?
It was blown up in 1643 by accident by parliamentary forces who had taken the house which at that time had been royalist. So we lose the tower and yet we keep the name Horton Tower. So the tower does not exist now.
[00:29:10] Speaker C: Yeah, right, okay, well it's not, it's good to hear. In a way it was an accident and well, they weren't trying to, they weren't trying to dismantle. In fact, I'm quite surprised the house then survived. If it was a royalist house and it was taken over by parliamentarians.
[00:29:23] Speaker D: In 1643, the family had actually gone to Preston nearby with his troops to defend it against the attack of the parliamentarians.
Unfortunately, the royalist lost.
He ran.
He moved away from Preston quite rapidly, leaving his wife behind, who was taken prisoner. On February 14, 300 soldiers turn up outside the gates. There are 30 soldiers inside and they are asked whether they want to stay and fight. They don't. And that night there appears to be a gathering inside. When it explodes, 60 were killed, 120 supposedly seriously injured.
But because it was a peel tower, solidly blown, my interpretation is that when the explosion takes place, if it had wooden floors, the explosion goes up, it comes out at the top and therefore little damage is caused to the main building.
[00:30:28] Speaker C: I see. Right, okay, very good. Now, I do notice we've been lucky so far with the weather. There's been some very broody, brooding grey clouds and rain was promised and it's just starting to rain on us. So I think it might be a good idea to head inside side.
[00:30:42] Speaker D: That's fine with us.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Let's do that.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Sam.
[00:31:59] Speaker C: So we're just come up the stairs you were mentioning. There's a gradual climb up and there's a rather lovely kind of inner gate house that leads us into this fine inner courtyard, which of course I presume by the normal layout of a double courtyard manor house. This was where the private apartments of the Horton family were.
[00:32:18] Speaker D: Yes, the domestics and the domestic service wing appear to have been in the south mainly. And what we're looking at now is as you say, a typical courtyard.
But they put in some of the modern features of the Tudor period. The first feature that dominates the courtyard is the bay window with four transom light going almost to the roof.
It has a twin on the other side and that side is the banqueting hall.
On the left hand side again leading to the banqueting hall is the main entrance.
Now we don't use the main entrance now to access it, but you can quite clearly see there is a semicircular rise of steps taking it to a height of. You would almost say that it's almost a first floor.
It's a half a floor higher than everywhere else in the building.
It dominates. It has a long line of three other windows, all providing light by glass. And of course the glass is the most expensive feature for the Hortons to put in. Everything else basically is local, with the exception of lime. Lime was being brought in from Clitheroe, another small town with its own castle.
[00:33:47] Speaker C: I mean, I must admit, you know, you've got the bank of windows. I think that's the other thing that really does strike you.
They've not been stingy on their. On their lighting.
[00:33:58] Speaker D: No.
The amount of windows we have here is that clear statement that they're making about how rich they are. It's one of the few things that cannot be got from nature. And therefore we look at places like Hardwick hall and best of Hardwick, providing so much so many windows that it was described as almost being able to be seen through. And in parts of ours, you can literally see through one window and out through the building on the other side. So that formation of glass is the biggest statement. But that statement is within the upper courtyard mainly, and therefore it is to show their status to the gentry and to their invited guests.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: Yeah, lovely. Right, let's head inside. Are we heading to the banqueting hall now?
[00:34:48] Speaker D: No, we're going to go through the residential parts of the building first.
[00:34:52] Speaker C: Right. All right, lead the way.
[00:35:02] Speaker D: We've entered now through the general visitors access.
This was not a normal means of access in the Tudor period, and in fact, the staircase and everything, and this area is very much a bit closer. Victorian makeover. So we're going to rise up.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: Okay, let's go. Lead the way.
[00:35:23] Speaker D: Now we're at the first floor now and the first floor that we're standing on, again, we're looking at the well of the stairs in front of us and along to my left. Now we're looking down a narrow passageway to a small room at the bottom, which is lit in the Tudor period when this house was originally built.
We're now standing in the long gallery.
Now, the long gallery would have stretched from the inner wall to the outer wall.
It stretches 20 meters in to my right and stretched all the way down the passage, which is another 20 meters and down to the small room at the bottom.
During the Victorian period, we know that what happened was it was infilled with rooms, so we lose the grand space that they would have used for entertaining.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: What a shame. But it does happen.
Not the first time I've encountered that.
[00:36:28] Speaker D: Yes.
I'd just like to point out that at the top of the stairs is a coat of arms.
The coat of arms that we're looking at is a central shield and it is black and white stripes.
There are seven of them that would have been referred to silver rather than white.
The shield is supported on either side by large white bulls.
Underneath is the motto of the family. This is the coat of arms of the Horton family.
And above it is an open helmet. And above that, once Again, another one of the white bulls.
So the black and white stripes, the older the family, the more simple it is.
The two white bulls supporting are the emblems of the family.
These are wild white cattle. They roamed openly in the parkland around here.
The only herd that I'm aware of are at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, where they can actually be seen.
Now, they can't be kept in fields, they literally will just burst out. But this is their symbol. So when they are.
When they are in their livery, their family, their servants would have somehow displayed this symbol.
The motto at the bottom is Malag la tod and it is French, which we use to Latin inscriptions. But malag le tod means despite the wrong.
Speaking to Sir Bernard, the 14th Baronet, he has interpreted it to mean that when the family arrived with William I, he gave them the land.
His son didn't like the two brothers and took it all off them, and the following king gave them it back. So despite wrongly having land returned, they continue.
There is one more symbol on the shield and that is in the upper right hand corner, a small white rectangle containing a red hand that denotes that the family are baronets.
They were one of the first baronets ever to be brought into the aristocracy. As such, in 1611, James I, short of money, decided that he needed money, and to do that, he. If you were gentry, with an annual turnover of more than £1,000, if you could pay for 30 soldiers for three years at £1 a day, you could become a baronet.
[00:39:29] Speaker C: So that was when the family became elevated from the gentry to the aristocracy or the nobility. I see. Very interesting. That's lovely. I'd love to know more about heraldry. It's such a specialist subject, but that was that. That was fantastic. Thank you.
I was just thinking, actually, while you were talking about the Tudor family, were they involved in any of the great events that we might know about in the Tudor period? I mean, you mentioned they were probably at the Battle of Bosworth, for example.
Do we know their presence of any of the other sort of. Whether weddings, coronations, christenings, field of cloth of gold, anything?
[00:40:07] Speaker D: We have no knowledge of any connections. Records are quite scarce in that period and how much involvement there was is unknown. What we do know is that they were high sheriffs, lord lieutenants, and that was a position usually for one year, and it was under the control of the Earls of Derby, who is, as I said, he's in a position to do that, but as a high sheriff, he has to be signed off by the sovereign. So the sovereign would have known his name.
We don't know whether he went up and down to London. There were certain he is an mp and therefore the way that it worked was when Parliament was called, he would have been expected to go there.
We know very little about what was going on at the hierarchy and we know that they're heavily involved in. In the Lancashire controls.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Yes. So very prominent locally, essentially, but almost certainly going to and from London if he was as an mp, as you point out, at least for some of those sessions.
[00:41:19] Speaker D: One of the later members of the family is Sir Richard, and Sir Richard actually goes and fights in Ireland and this is where he gets knighted. So he was involved in many of the courtship features and he did go to court and he was certainly at court from 1603 and was well known down there. So that is Sir Richard Horton a little bit later.
[00:41:48] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. So where do we need to go next?
[00:41:52] Speaker D: We're going to head down here and we're going to go into what is the first Tudor room.
[00:41:58] Speaker C: Okay. So we're essentially heading down what was the long gallery back in the day.
Oh, the smell of wood. I love the smell of. I love the smell.
[00:42:12] Speaker D: The smell of polish.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: Oh. So we've come into a. A bed chamber. So talk to us about this room then, Keith.
[00:42:21] Speaker D: The room itself is known as the Buckingham Room.
In 1617, James the First of England, James VI of Scotland, visited the house with the entire court for three days.
And so a lot of the stories and the memories of what went on and that are related to rooms as we go through.
So the rooms again have been refashioned. So what we can say is the room itself has one small room off to the rear and that is always believed to be a guard robe. So we have an intrinsic toilet there. One of the other important things that you note in Tudor buildings, with a few exceptions, is that you walk from room to room. There are no corridors generally in Tudor buildings, and therefore you do have this open passageway for which servants and anybody else to get to the next room have to pass through.
It has a central fireplace on the south wall above which is a fine portrait known as the Dutch Lady.
Now, her dress suggests 1600ish, with her wide white ruff around her neck, the dark clothes, the ruffs around the pieces.
Now, she is said to have been come here in order to marry into the family. However, we don't know her name. We cannot find anything at this time that directly links them. But it is believed that she brought with her at that time a table that table still exists and we'll see it as we go through.
All the rest of the accoutrements. And the furniture in here are not Tudor.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:24] Speaker C: And would this have been. Because obviously in Tudor ranges there was a sequence of rooms, as you point out, usually going from the public to the private.
[00:44:33] Speaker D: I think that we're actually working in a reverse, reverse way. So, yes, as I pointed out, when we go into the courtyard, the main entrance is through the large door and that would have been the entrance. Now, if you go through that door and you take the stairs to your left, it brings you to the end of the long gallery and therefore that's still a public area, something to take guests up into.
Now we seem to be more into the bedrooms and the private areas along here.
[00:45:08] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Please lead the way. And while we go, I can ask you a question.
[00:45:13] Speaker B: So.
[00:45:16] Speaker C: As far as I know, there were no. You talked about the royal visit from James I, but you never had any royal visits from the, from any of the Tudor monarchs here, did you? No.
[00:45:26] Speaker D: If they did, they came in secret and didn't tell us.
[00:45:31] Speaker C: I think Elizabeth I only got as far north as Norwich. I think that was her most northerly, her most northerly progress.
And Henry only Henry vii, only to York.
Henry VII was a big traveler, but I don't know whether he came over into Lancashire.
What a lovely room this is.
[00:45:50] Speaker D: Yeah, this is what we would call the state bedroom. And the room is extremely large. It's rectangular in its features, the walls are paneled, the light comes in from the courtyard and in the most dominant feature that there is in the room is a large timber carved four poster bed.
However, the room would appear to have been two separate rooms. In front of us are two doors. Those doors lead to a separate wing, but they both go onto the same landing, so they don't make any sense otherwise. And therefore the likelihood is that between them ran another.
So we have a large, a very large room followed by a smaller room, the larger of the two rooms at the moment, as I said, the thing with all properties of this nature are that furniture comes, goes, and we never know how long it's been anywhere. However, the table, which has two separate leaves at either end as extenders, is believed to be the table that the Dutch lady actually brought. Whether it was part of a dowry and that things didn't go quite to plan, we don't know.
But it is a fine 16th, early.
[00:47:22] Speaker C: 17Th century piece of furniture. Oak, I take. Take it.
Yeah, absolutely. Now, I can't help but noticing a Couple of portraits upon the wall over there, some handsome bearded gentlemen. Who do we have? They look distinctly Tudor.
[00:47:38] Speaker D: The two portraits above the two doors are the most significant Tudor portraits that we have.
Unfortunately the family have had a number of disastrous fires which have destroyed many of the portraits. So these are our prize. On the right hand side is the portrait of the builder. This is Thomas Horton.
He had been a high sheriff.
He is there. You can see the coat of arms behind him. Now the coat of arms you see in the background there above which are the letters TH are very similar to what I described at the top of the stairs. So we have a shield in the centre. However in this case the shield is slightly different. It's quartered and in the upper quarter and lower quarter we have the black and white stripes but the other is a dark star on a white background. And that is the family of his mother.
But he himself with his great Tudor like beard with the open roof around his neck is circa 1567. It's after the build here.
[00:49:00] Speaker C: So he builds his house and then he has himself painted so he can put his portrait upon the wall of his newly built house and show us. First, I wonder whether now is a good time to start to dive into the religious history. You've already mentioned that this area remained after the, after the Reformation remained essentially Catholic and the Hortons were a Catholic family. But there's some really interesting stories around that, aren't there? Perhaps you could tell us about them.
[00:51:29] Speaker D: Thomas himself is a devout Catholic as as I said was many members of the gentry of Lancashire, as were the Lord, the Earls of Derby. So there is very little worry to the usual populace that they are going to be punished in any way for not following the rules of the Protestant religion. So they're quite happy to continue in Lancashire because the gentry aren't going to take any action because they too are Catholic. And it is a great annoyance to Elizabeth certainly of the number of recusant Catholics, Catholics who are pretending to be Protestant in London, Catholic in Lancashire, as was said, and they were quite happy to pay their fines. She was quite happy for them to continue as long as they didn't interfere with politics.
Thomas himself is a close associate of another Lancashire man.
William Allen is a lower gentry man. He comes from a family at Rossall which is just south of Fleetwood on the west coast, probably about 30 miles from here. And he is said to be a close friend and a regular visitor here. Now William Allen has had to leave his profession as a professor at Oxford and he, because he is A Catholic, as did anybody with Catholic backgrounds in the universities. He goes to York.
He is engaged at the Minster there, but then he really gets involved and he ends up becoming and being anointed as Cardinal William Allen. He is the Pope's representative of the Catholic faith of the English, and they are close friends.
Now, in 1565, he's finished this grand building. His possessions are massive.
He holds land throughout Lancashire. He owns many, many buildings, his rents are high. And yet, four years later, overnight, Thomas Horton goes to his old property at Leer, which is alongside the Ribble, and takes a boat, which takes him out to see where he takes a ship and goes to Antwerp.
[00:54:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:54:06] Speaker D: A little bit desperate, yeah. Antwerp at that time appears to have been the center of Europe. If you wanted to raise a mercenary army, you went to Antwerp. If you wanted illegal printing, you went to Antwerp.
Antwerp is under the control of the Spanish King.
The Low Countries at that time are very, very controlled. The Protestants in Germany and around are putting pressure on them, but it still hangs out that they aren't particularly bothered.
When he goes to Antwerp, he joins William Allen and William Allen is engaged in forming an English college to teach gentry youth the Catholic way and if they so wish, to become priests and then to be smuggled back into this country to continue the faith of the Catholics. Under fear of the most horrendous death, Thomas own son becomes one of those priests.
He comes to England and is captured within a very short time and held in prison for almost two years.
When he dies, he wasn't martyred because he wasn't executed and he wasn't, to the best of our knowledge, tortured. So he loses his son, his elder son, Thomas, Thomas the elder, because he also has Thomas the younger.
[00:55:42] Speaker C: I never could get. I could never get my head around the fact that they used to name their children, some of them the same name.
[00:55:50] Speaker D: It is a trait, and it is a historian's nightmare, in trying to figure out who was who.
Thomas himself, having left the country, is under a duty to have told the Queen, you cannot leave the country for more than six months without her permission. He didn't have her permission. A search starts. There are people looking for him and there are other people going, oh, no, he was in Bath last week. Oh, no, I think he went to Newcastle. So there's a lot of covering up done.
His own brother, Richard Horton, from another house further south, is in contact with him. And the Queen finds out and he is summoned to court and he is told that he will go to Antwerp with a letter from the Queen and that, but he will take it and then come back. He only has three months in which to do it. The letter which basically says, my beloved Thomas, missing you greatly. Come back, we'll have a chat.
He doesn't want to. He liked his head and I think I would have done exactly the same. So Thomas remains there and evidence is showing that whilst he was there, he was raising funds to assist and to pay large amounts of sum. In one letter, it refers to £1,000 being required.
And the link appears to be basically bribes.
[00:57:20] Speaker C: So he knew basically if he came back that I guess the likes of Lord Burleigh would have had his head marked for arrest, detention, potential execution.
[00:57:33] Speaker D: For Lord Burleigh very much knew Thomas Houghton. In Burleigh's map, which marks out properties in Lancashire, he puts crosses next to those that he believes are Catholics.
And if you look on the map, it shows Horton Tower and beneath it says fugitive.
[00:57:56] Speaker C: Really?
[00:57:57] Speaker D: So we know that he was a marked man. We know that one of Burleigh's spies named Dingle was in this area and his or her tower was to watch the Heskeths of Rufford, to watch the Shyburnes of Stonyhurst and the Hortons.
Not just Thomas, but also Richard.
[00:58:16] Speaker C: Right, right. Okay. Interesting. Gosh.
So he died, you say he died in Antwerp of natural causes. In the Antwerp.
[00:58:25] Speaker D: He died natural causes in Antwerp. The property then comes under the control of our second gentleman in the portrait.
[00:58:35] Speaker C: Ah, the one to his left.
[00:58:37] Speaker D: The one to his again, the nice bearded chap. His clothing is a little bit more dour.
He's very thoughtful.
And this is Alexander. Now, Alexander is a little bit more fun loving, despite the portrait.
And Alexander himself appears to have had his own actors to perform.
[00:59:01] Speaker C: Ah, right, I see. So this I'm feeling. We are. I'm sensing we are looping back to our story that we started outside about the connections potentially with certain William Shakespeare. Maybe you could. Now, I think now is the appropriate time to tell us about that very controversial story, 1581.
[00:59:25] Speaker D: When he dies, he leaves a will.
And the will states that he wishes his musical instruments to be left to his brother or to the Heskes, if they don't want them.
Also his play clothes, which again suggests that we have actors here.
And he asks specially for two people to be taken care of them. And one of them is named as William Shakeshaft. And if Richard cannot look after them, to find a place that can.
Now, around 1935, somebody read the will and starts to interpret William Shakeschaft as William Shakespeare. Now, the connections are said to be this, the lost years of Shakespeare, when nobody knows where he is.
There's a possibility that he came to Horton. He came to Horton, possibly with Edmund Campion, the other Catholic leader.
And he came.
Edmund Campion, we know, goes to Stratford.
We know that he was carrying special secret books for which you would be executed if you were caught in possession with them.
One of those books is later, many, many centuries later, found in the roof of the grandfather of William Shakespeare.
Did William Shakespeare come north?
His tutor came from Garstang, and Garstang is only a few miles north and believed to have known the Hortons.
So did Edmund Campion bring the young Shakespeare as a tutor to the children?
He's well educated, can't go to university, he's a Catholic, can't do any civil job, and therefore he arrives here in the dark north.
Now, Shake Shaft is a common name in Lancashire.
Shakespeare, which means basically the same, is the common name in the West Midlands around Stratford.
So it said that this was a possible cause to it. And if you went to Rufford, which is a National Trust building, they will tell you that Shakespeare went there.
So did he go to the Heskers instead of Richard?
And the possibility that the Earl of Derby, Lord Strange, who has his own special actors, Lord Strange's Men, goes to visit the Heskeths, and there he sees a performance in which there is Shakespeare. And does he sort of say to the Hesketh, I can do with that chap. He plays a good woman, you know, and then he joins them and off they go. The theatre group, Stranger's Men travel up the north, but they are eventually in London and they perform the first of Shakespeare's plays before Queen Elizabeth.
Did it happen?
Toss a coin in Lancashire? There were so many shafts that you could have said, well, why is this one singled out?
So it's an academic question which we have no answer for at this time.
It is a story.
You take your choice. And until we find, scribbled on the back of one of the walls, Billy Shakespeare was here 1581. We'll pass on that one.
[01:03:04] Speaker C: There are a lot of coincidences in that story, though, aren't there?
It's quite interesting. What's your gut feeling? Go on, put your money on the line.
[01:03:13] Speaker D: Keith, I'm a historian. I'm waiting for the evidence.
[01:03:20] Speaker C: That's what we call a grand case of sitting on the fence.
Well, dear listeners, what do you think? Perhaps you can let me know. Do you think that there's any connection with Shakespeare And Horton Hall. Are you convinced by the story? I love a good story like this. Thank you for telling us it. Okay, great. So before we leave this lovely room, is there anything else that we need to know about?
[01:03:43] Speaker D: Well, we've talked about Alexander, but it is Thomas, the younger son of Thomas the builder, who then inherits the properties.
So in 1581, young Thomas takes over the properties, but in 1583 there's a bit of. A.
Bit of a affray, shall we say?
I've mentioned that they had another property and that is Leir. Now Leir was basically being used as a farm area.
And what happens is that some cows belonging to Thomasina Singleton, who is a tenant of the Baron of Walton Le Dale, has the cow stray onto Leah property and they're seized.
And so she goes to her baron and says, Hortons have got my cows and they won't let me have them back.
And he has obviously had a problem with the Hortons because he's not having any of this.
So he gathers together 80 men.
[01:04:58] Speaker A: On.
[01:04:58] Speaker D: The Fens outside Preston at 11 o' clock at night and the parties set off. Thomasina Singleton herself leads one side.
Both sides.
Sorry, the sides that are going have a password. Remember, they don't have uniforms, their clothes are similar. It's pitch black. So how do you know who you're fighting with?
So the Baron's password is the crow is white.
So off they go to get the cows. So they approach the hall and they split into two sections, one led by Thomasina and one by the Baron. And they go around.
They know where the cows are, so she's going towards the cows. What they aren't aware of is that earlier that evening, Thomas the Younger has been told what's happening. So he's gathered 40 odd men in that area. They are armed, both sides with Welsh hooks on sticks, guns, pistols, daggers, swords, you name it, they're fighting with it. And he has put a password forward and that is black is black.
So as they approach and suddenly they're confronted with the Horton team, you can imagine the shouts that are going up of the crow is white, black, black, bang, wallop. So after the first raid, nothing happens. They retreat and they come back again.
And then after that, as they retreat the second time, Thomas Horton lies dead in the courtyard of the house.
Also one other person, one from the other side, A great hue and cry goes up. Who's in charge of the county is Lord Strange. The Earl of Derby gets involved. They arrest the Baron of Walton at Broughton Tower.
Seriously injured in his bed. He is arrested, many of the others are arrested and they're held in prison.
So now we're going to try them for murder.
But Lancashire being Lancashire and families being families, both sides have strong relationships with everybody. So he calls for the jury and only a few people turn up, so he can't have the court. He does this for nearly three years.
Elizabeth herself gets involved and orders him to hold the court. And his response was, if you put a fire in the centre of your palm, the fingers would cry, Lancashire would rise. So they then bring in the star chamber. Thomas, wife or widow as she now is, goes to the star Chamber. The baron is brought in. The threat is he will be executed.
A deal is done.
The baron gives up the estates of Walton Ladale to the widow. We're all happy and that's the end of the story. And how they enlarged their estates into Walton. Adele.
[01:08:02] Speaker C: I see. Great story. Three and a half years of trying. Crikey, Good one. Right, let's move on.
[01:08:15] Speaker D: I think, although there are many other rooms on this floor, many of them do not relate directly within the Tudor stories. But what I'd like to do is take you downstairs now and we're heading down to an area which we think was much more involved with the family.
[01:08:30] Speaker C: Yeah, let's go. That'd be great.
[01:08:42] Speaker D: Sarah. While I was talking about Thomas the Builder, I also mentioned that Lord Burleigh had his eyes closely on Lancashire. We have a copy of the map I mentioned, the Burghley map in what we call the King's Entrance. And you can quite clearly see on it that where it says Horton Tower. It also mentions underneath Fugitive.
There are other buildings on there marked with an X. These are the ones that he suspected of being strict Catholic recusants. The map is unusual in the sense of the sea on the west side. The Irish Sea is actually at the top, which you have to orientate yourself to that to understand Lancashire, then.
[01:09:33] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it's a fantastic map and you can actually. You can actually read it, which is interesting.
And I'll see if I get. Dear listeners, I'll see if I can find a copy of this map online that I can include in the show notes. So watch this space, Sarah.
[01:09:50] Speaker D: We're going to move on and we're going to pass through here and see if we can find somebody who can give you a little bit more detail about different parts.
[01:09:59] Speaker B: Okay, great.
[01:10:00] Speaker C: Thank you.
[01:10:24] Speaker A: Sam.
Sa Sat.
[01:11:42] Speaker C: Right, so we've come into another gallery type space and I'm going to introduce you to our next Expert for today. Steve is with me here. Hello, Steve.
[01:11:53] Speaker A: Hi, Sarah.
[01:11:54] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us today.
Now, I understand that you wanted to tell us a little bit about the chapel because this is an area of interest to you. But before you do, tell us, just like Keith, who are you and what's.
[01:12:09] Speaker A: Your relationship at Horton Tower? So I'm Steve Spencer. I've been a volunteer at Horton Tower now for nine years.
My previous background was in project management and engineering.
So to get the chance to come to a wonderful place like this really sparked off my interest. And certainly since 2018, I've been involved in lots of research work that because this is a charitable trust, we get to do lots and lots of things that I'm sure we wouldn't get to do elsewhere.
[01:12:42] Speaker C: Brilliant.
[01:12:42] Speaker A: It's an absolute joy being here.
[01:12:44] Speaker C: Fantastic. Well, thank you for that. And so tell me about the chapel, because this certainly isn't the chapel.
[01:12:51] Speaker A: Okay. Right.
What we think is before this Tudor edifice was here, Keith mentioned the Peel Tower, we also think there was a medieval chapel as well.
And where we are now, this is actually the north entrance. And if you were to look at a plan view of the buildings at Horton Tower, you'd see everything was at nice right angles and roughly but not quite orientated north, south.
The room that we're in now is canted over slightly and it is precisely aligned east west, which is what you'd expect for a religious building. And what we think is this archway here is a beautiful circular topped arch, not of a style that we find anywhere else around Horton Tower. And what we think is that this actually came from a different building, potentially nearby abbey. And what we think is that when the abbey was sacked, the Catholic Thomas would have been able to squirrel away an artifact like this. And when he came to construct Horton Tower, he actually used this archway to form an entrance into where we think the medieval chapel was.
[01:14:14] Speaker C: Oh, I see, so. So the medieval chapel would have extended beyond this room.
[01:14:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. So what we have here is obviously a Victorian addition and you can see by the symmetry of it, we've got doors going off, but probably extending about 6 meters to where there's currently a tree planted. We think this is where the chapel was.
Last year we got a small grant from the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society and it's enabled us to do more research work about the history of the family, their religion. But also we carried out some geophysical work and with magnetic and resistivity equipment, we think we found evidence of some foundations.
So what we desperately want to do is to see if we can do a small archaeological dig, perhaps dig one test pit for a start and then expand from there. All the documentation that we found absolutely points to there being a chapel in this area.
And then as spin offs, we're currently investigating into an ancient bell where that was founded and the inscription on that.
So from really my involvement, from absolutely knowing nothing, all of a sudden I'm involved in this wonderful story.
[01:15:44] Speaker C: Yeah. What are the records like then for the, for the Horton Tower in general? Have many survived or have most been lost?
[01:15:54] Speaker A: Unfortunately an awful lot have been lost and the research work that we're doing, we're just using things that are available to everyone really.
We're pooling our knowledge. The work that Keith's doing is just marvellous.
It's surprising that we're not absolutely sure where the tower was. And if you think this is Horton tower, back in 2019 we got a grant from the Castle Studies Trust and we carried out an archaeological dig. Working with the Applied Archaeology Department at Salford University, guided by them and trained by them, we did a week long archaeological dig in an area that is probably about 20 meters from where we are now, on a plateau area that's probably probably about 10 metres by 20 meters.
The geophysical investigations pointed out that there was some interesting potential structures hidden underneath the grass.
We carried out the dig and found the infill from two substantial walls.
We found some massive foundation stones. We found artifacts that were going back to certainly the 1600s. But what we were really trying to do was to get back beyond this 1565 site and thankfully we had the experts with us because four insignificant pieces of stone that if you found them in your garden you'd ignore them.
These were pieces of medieval roof tile.
So we'd got back, we got some super articles from the 1600s but potentially we've got back to the 13 and 1400s.
So what we found was evidence of a substantial building that nobody knew about before.
We had in amongst the experts, we had the Peel Tower experts with us as well.
We don't think we found the Peel Tower because as Keith said, we think that was off the lower courtyard. But what we did find was something that nobody knew was there and it was wonderful.
[01:18:20] Speaker C: Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. So thrilling when that, that, you know.
[01:18:24] Speaker A: And my wife was. Wife was involved as well and she, she dug up pieces of clay pipe bowl which took away, logged it all, cleaned it all up. A month later in the Fynes workshop, they gave her the clay pipe bowl dating book and she's flipped through 1640-60. You've dug that up.
[01:18:48] Speaker D: Brilliant.
[01:18:49] Speaker A: Amazing.
[01:18:49] Speaker C: It's brilliant, isn't it?
[01:18:50] Speaker A: Absolutely super brilliant.
[01:18:52] Speaker C: Now I can't help but notice through this open doorway at the far end of this sort of gallery area, a rather magnificent hall. And I'm being drawn both by the door. The door's fantastic. Is that door, is that Victorian or is that.
[01:19:09] Speaker A: We think that's original. And if we look at it, we can see there's the big outer door and there's a smaller inner door.
[01:19:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I love those.
[01:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah. We refer to this as a summer winter door and the story goes that in the hot summers that we have, that Lancashire is famed for, you use the big door and when it gets a bit colder, you'd use the small door as well.
[01:19:36] Speaker C: Oh, it's lovely.
[01:19:37] Speaker A: Let me, if I may introduce something to you.
See on the door there's what looks like the carving of two V's.
And up until 2018 we'd have been saying, oh, they are witch marks and these are protective, calling for the protection of the Virgin Mary. And that would have been the end of our discussion on protective apotropaic marks.
A school Tour back in 2018, in the well house where we were be going shortly, a seven year old girl in the corner of the well house pointed out something to me and said, what's this, Steve? And that has prompted a huge amount of research work. We've had lots of academics come to see the burn marks and the other features that we have here. That one absolute amazing piece of coincidence and look has really opened up certainly my eyes and led to a huge amount of research work that we've been done here.
[01:20:53] Speaker C: Well, I can't wait to get to the well house and you're going to tell me all about them because it's not something we've talked about on the Tudor history and travel show before. So I think the first instance, discerning the difference between which mark and A, go and say that word apotropaic.
[01:21:09] Speaker A: Okay, so apotropaic comes from, I believe it's a Greek word which means to fend away or to force off evil.
We're now in the realms of lots of experts. They all have their interpretations. And whereas we're absolutely sure, James, I came here in 1617. The things that we're going to be talking about, people's interpretations. How were people thinking 400, 500 years ago? We don't absolutely know, but we can put an interpretation on it. And so the witch marks, this was a term that tended to be used for any of these apotropaic marks on buildings, on panels, on pieces of furniture. But arguably a witch mark was a blemish, a mole, a birthmark on a person that if that mark was pricked, if it didn't bleed, you were a witch. So that mark, or it could also show that you perhaps suckled an imp or the devil, so that marks you out as being a witch.
So that. So it's usually given to a mark on a person.
When we're talking about historic graffiti, which is the whole terminology really, we've got, I guess, three, three sort of categories. The first is what we would accept as graffiti now, where somebody scrawled their name and hopefully put a date or something within it. You then go on to marks made by, say, tradesmen, carpenter's marks, in some instances, perhaps glazier's marks, but also masons or bankers marks as well.
And then finally we come to what I find is the most intriguing one, and I think the, the press has got hold of this as well. If you put magical protection or superstition into a description, you've instantly grabbed people's potential.
So then we are looking at marks that have been added either by travelling, I guess, craftsmen that would do it for you, or where members of the family have put their own marks on. And the idea is broadly to attract good luck or to ward off bad luck. And then you come to the individual marks where interpretations have been put on them and I'll gladly give my interpretation of what those are.
[01:23:55] Speaker C: So, Steve, I think it might be good to go to the well house because I've got a feeling you're going to be able to illustrate some of these things in more detail for us.
[01:24:01] Speaker A: Yes, please come this way.
[01:24:03] Speaker C: Okay.
Okay, we're heading through this path, nice magnificent doorway and into the banqueting hall. But I'm not looking because we're going to come back here.
[01:24:16] Speaker A: Just take care going down the stairs.
[01:24:18] Speaker C: Okay, now we're descending down some stone steps.
Okay.
Right. Bring bowels to the house.
The well house clearly suggests the house had its own water supply or has its own water supply.
Oh, it's noticeably chillier, isn't it?
Oh, my goodness.
[01:24:48] Speaker A: So we're now entering into the well house and this is a very, very important resource to the house.
The well, its itself is 120ft deep and at the bottom of it there is perfectly clean water. There's about six to eight feet of water. So we've got a very, very important resource, but we've Dug a big hole. So if we're not careful, we're digging towards perhaps Hades and who knows what might be coming out to us. So think that the builders at the time may have been a little bit torn in that. I want to protect a resource, but I don't want anything nasty coming out. So let me just show you.
So what I'm pointing to now is a pair of overlapping V's which has just been cut off by the wooden door. Door frame. Now, this symbol was used by mason, so it could have been a mason's mark. But my interpretation is because we are going into an area with a very important resource in it, it's protected. So I would interpret this overlapping B as a reference to perhaps the Virgin Mary. Virgin of Virgins. We are protecting this entrance into this very important building.
[01:26:24] Speaker C: Look at this. Wow. Can you just, first of all, just describe what we're seeing?
[01:26:31] Speaker A: This beautiful building.
It's probably about four and a half meters square, considered as quite a low station building because of the amount of reused timber that there is.
We have a well.
The well shaft itself is about 2 meters in diameter. It's hewn through solid rock. And I'd like to think that at one time some people came into this area and said, do you know, it'd be really good idea to dig through solid rock using the tools that we've got until we eventually reach water. And that was exactly what they did.
[01:27:15] Speaker C: What an incredible feat.
[01:27:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. And this is so where we are now. This is in the general area where we think the Peel Tower was.
[01:27:23] Speaker C: I see.
[01:27:24] Speaker A: As well.
[01:27:25] Speaker C: And you've got these fabulous wheels, obviously, that you know that you wheel the bucket down to get your warm.
[01:27:30] Speaker A: What we can see, you can imagine, with a heavy bucket, once this wheel got going, it's going to be going very fast by the time it reaches the water. We think that these marks here, these heavy gouges into the wheel, were almost used as a brake to slow it all down.
You can see that there's 42 teeth on this bigger wheel, there's only seven on that one. So you've got a mechanical advantage there.
And it would probably take about 20 minutes to lower the bucket down, fill it, wind it back up.
Once you'd done that, the bucket of water will be emptied into that stone trough.
So that's where all the water would have come come from. Later on in the Victorian time, they added a closed loop pumping system using a horse or a donkey to drive a capstan.
A flywheel comes through the side of the well. And that's how the Victorians extracted water.
[01:28:40] Speaker C: But otherwise it would have been manual and they would have used these huge.
[01:28:43] Speaker A: So just imagine all the water for cooking, for washing, everything came from this.
[01:28:50] Speaker C: Well, this is unique. I don't think I've. It's unique to me. When I say it's unique, I'm saying I don't think I've been into a house and seen this setup before. It's really. Yeah, it's great.
[01:29:01] Speaker A: And if I can take you, if I can take you back, take you back to 2018.
Myself and a colleague were taking a school tour round of seven year olds. And although we've got lights on now, this corner was completely unlit. We were trying to get the, the group of children back onto their bus because it was time for them to go. And one little girl stayed in this corner and she said, steve, what's this? And I thought she'd found half a dead spider or something. So I came over and had a look at what is referred to as a hexafoil. So what we've got is a 7 inch diameter circle in front of us. And imagine you've got your compass, you step off around the circumference of the circle and you construct a five, sorry, a six petaled daisy, or these are sometimes called daisy wheels as well.
[01:30:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:30:04] Speaker A: But what you've also got, it's within concentric circles as well. One of the interpretation of these multifoils or hexafoils is that if you were an evil spirit coming along, you would view this and you'd be transfixed almost a little bit like a cobweb. And you would watch trying to find the end of a circle, which of course there isn't. So you'd be transfixed, fixed here.
That one discovery led to us. Nobody had seen this before, the family weren't aware of it. So we invited academics.
We joined the Northwest Historic Graffiti Survey.
And from here, all of a sudden our eyes were open. So we hadn't seen this before. But then we started to look very, very carefully around and so then we started to notice the carpenter's marks and we noticed the. So what we've got is effectively a grid pattern that goes around the large winding wheel and that simply marks out where the teeth are. And then if we look as well, we can see there are Roman numerals on the spokes and around the circumference as well. So that's like an assembly aid.
[01:31:33] Speaker C: Do we. This is original then?
[01:31:35] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Yeah, it's awesome, isn't it. It is absolutely awesome. It's absolutely wonderful. But then we can see there's a score mark, so a bird mark, probably 3 inches, and it's upside down, so. And on the other side, diametrically opposite, there are another two burn marks. And just here we have the truncated bottom half of another burn mark, which went originally across a mortise and tenon joint just there.
And if we look over here, we've got more burn marks just here and around here.
[01:32:22] Speaker C: So, yes, so what about. I mean, I've seen lots and lots of burn marks in my time.
What's this all about?
[01:32:29] Speaker A: So again, we're right in the realms of trying to interpret how people thought initially the burn marks. We've got burn marks around the house as well. And originally it was thought that this was carelessness, it was a misplaced candle.
And really until some work was carried out by Hill and Dean and the Vernacular Architecture Society, they proved that if you wanted to make a burn mark like this, you got yourself a taper or a candle, held it up 45 degrees, you start this scorch mark, but once the charcoal forms, it stops burning. So then you've actually got to make an effort to remove the charcoal to make a deeper hole. There's an item of furniture that we have upstairs, date I think is 1667. It's a beautiful piece of furniture, but right in the middle of it, somebody has put an intentional burn mark.
If these marks were intentionally made, because had there been a candle or candlestick here, it would have burnt all the way down. So these have been intentionally added. So what we've got is one interpretation is that these are seen as apotropaic marks.
The idea of warding off bad luck, attracting good luck. If we look, not only have we got the daisy wheel hexafoil over there, we've got lots of burn marks. We've also got an intriguing grid just here.
So it's a 4 by 4 dot grid. The dots probably look like they've been made with a wooden punch of some sort. They're probably about 4 or 5 millimeters in diameter, each one. We've also, as part of the fact that this is a reused timber, we've got a marking here which we think is Roman 32, which would have denoted where in the building this particular piece of timber was. So in this, this very small space, We've got over 30 burn marks, we've got carpenter's marks, we've got a beautiful hexafoil as well. And on the way into the room, we've also got the overlapping everything.
[01:35:09] Speaker C: Beautiful house.
[01:35:10] Speaker A: Okay. And so the, the protective marks tended to, to be put in places where say air could move or the people of the day thought spirits could come in. So particularly opposite, opposite windows, fireplaces, doors, and also where you wanted to protect say precious animals or food preparation areas or a very important resource like this.
[01:35:38] Speaker C: So I've got a question for you because I, I can completely get the logic of the hexafoil and the kind of mesmerizing effect.
Has anybody postulated why burn marks?
[01:35:50] Speaker B: What.
[01:35:53] Speaker C: I can't really, you know, I've never really understood the logic of just because I burn a bit of wood that's going to.
[01:36:00] Speaker A: So again, there are many experts and I'm sure if you got them all in same room, they would completely disagree with each other. But amongst the theories are if you say, went to a church service, say for instance, something like Candlemas, if you could take the power of that flame and either a candle that was lit there, or if you could somehow transport that flame away with you, you could perhaps use some of the Christian protection inherent in that flame and you could then burn something with it.
What we didn't see on the bed that's upstairs in the main bedroom that Keith described with the two doors in it, on the footboard of the bed, there are two, possibly three burn marks. So again you come back to the fact that these burn marks are deliberately made. Nobody is going to have a candle in a candlestick at the bottom of their bed. And the idea is during darkness is when you are most vulnerable to attack, particularly from the devil and other spirits as well. So the idea that perhaps, perhaps you've somehow imparted that protection onto your bed to protect you when you're asleep. So there is that. But there is then another theory I've heard is that these buildings are obviously full of wood. And so perhaps by putting a burn mark onto something, if I've deliberately tried to set fire to this piece of wood, if I. It doesn't catch fire, I've inoculated it so that piece of wood can't possibly catch fire again. And an extension of that, where we've got lovely groups of very, very deep burn marks on that piece of timber there are we coming back periodically and giving the well house a booster jab. So there is, we don't know. What we do know is people have intentionally made these burn marks. And when you, and when you think of high status pieces of furniture where somebody's gone out of the way to deface that Beautiful piece of furniture.
My interpretation would be whatever was inside there was very, very precious.
When we've, like I said before, we're very, very privileged to be allowed to do the research work that we do.
I've been into the roof space above the banqueting hall a couple of times in the area where just before you're going into the banqueting hall, there's probably what's a four foot square doorway and immediately above it there is a pentagram. Now, pentagrams seem as deeply religious, but also protective.
So there's just the one pentagram that we've found. And a couple of months ago, when myself and Keith were exploring in the roof space, we found the most beautiful multifoil. So a hexafoil that's been expanded out. So this is something that isn't visible when you're walking roundhouse. So we've got pentagrams and multifoils and overlapping V's up there as well. So my interpretation is you are protecting the area where your most important guests are and they've put a lot of protection in it.
[01:39:52] Speaker C: And what were these marks associated more with Catholicism and the Catholic faith and the kind of superstition associated with the Catholic Church, or did it endure well into sort of the Puritan Protestant period?
[01:40:07] Speaker A: Absolutely.
There's instances of these protective marks certainly all over England. So it wasn't just Catholic.
I think you're almost getting back into folklore and you're getting into usually into paganism and even there's. Some of these marks have even been found all the way back into Roman times. So I think you're deep within your psyche and these marks. There's a piece of furniture that we've got upstairs dated from the 1700s and that's actually got a hexafoil that's been used as part of the decoration on it. So the carpenter, the craftsman has actually included that. And if we open the door on the inside, probably someone from the family has actually started to construct their own mini hexafoil inside it. So the idea of protecting a resource like this, protecting important visitors and also say protecting important commodities inside cupboards, it was so deep folklore. It's what you did. It's what you did.
[01:41:24] Speaker C: But folklore is good. Now, before we leave, I'm just going to try and peer into this well, which makes me slightly giddy.
[01:41:32] Speaker A: If I shine my torch straight.
[01:41:33] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. It makes much look straight down.
[01:41:37] Speaker A: You can see my torch glinting on the wall water.
[01:41:40] Speaker C: Oh, yes, you can.
[01:41:41] Speaker D: Got it?
[01:41:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, gosh. That makes mine.
[01:41:44] Speaker A: So there's been cavers and potholes have gone down.
[01:41:49] Speaker D: Really? Yeah.
[01:41:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:41:50] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness.
I'll leave that to them.
I can't think of many things I'd least like to do.
[01:42:01] Speaker A: I'd get. I'd get too much claustrophobia. One thing I did forget, say. Yes. This being a Catholic household, halfway down the well, there's a priest hole.
[01:42:12] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[01:42:12] Speaker C: I meant to ask you because I know there are three priest holes in the house. Right?
[01:42:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[01:42:17] Speaker C: How so? The potholes, did they find it when they were going down and.
[01:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they, they so about.
[01:42:25] Speaker C: Oh, here I go again.
[01:42:26] Speaker A: Imagine. Just. Just imagine you've got a hole. I don't want to muddle 60ft deep. Sorry, sorry. You've got a hole 120ft deep.
Halfway down 60ft, you've got a cleft area where. Just imagine you're the priest.
The priest hunters are here. Quick.
The entrance to the hiding places were as far away from the main gate as you could get them. You come here.
This safety cover isn't here. You climb into that, it's wobbly. You get lowered down until you half. Yeah, that's it. Stop there for me. You're in a wobbling bucket. You then step out, you force yourself back into this niche that's been. Then they leave the bucket up the bucket goes. You then look up and it's a circle of light 60ft above you down. It's the same distance. You're not there for half an hour.
[01:43:26] Speaker C: No.
[01:43:27] Speaker A: Imagine though, if somebody comes up and says, it's okay, they've gone. What are you going to do? They must have had like a safe word or something because you'd have been petrified. It would have been horrendous and you'd have to be.
[01:43:38] Speaker C: You'd like be so reliant on somebody turning up to come and lower the.
[01:43:43] Speaker A: Bucket back down utterly. Because I was horrified.
[01:43:47] Speaker C: I think I'd rather. Rather get caught at.
[01:43:48] Speaker A: Lord, no, I don't think so.
[01:43:51] Speaker C: Oh, my good. And of course, we don't know if they were ever used, I suspect.
[01:43:55] Speaker A: No, we don't. But. But it's that. That room is super.
[01:43:59] Speaker C: It's brilliant, isn't it? What a treasure trove of. Of stories and legends and. Yeah, it's brilliant.
Right, lead the way. We're going. We're going back towards the back, up into the main house, backing towards the banqueting hall.
[01:44:16] Speaker A: I mentioned the archaeological dig.
So these are some of the items. Like I said, it was the best fun ever Some of the pipe bowls that my wife found, lots of other bits and pieces. A musket ball there, that's got its impact scar. And if you look around the circle circumference of it, you can see the, the point at which the, the mould split, where they put the lead in. All that was great.
But none of this was getting us beyond this 1565 site until we found these insignificant pieces of which, thank heavens we have the experts because they were able to say this is these a piece of medieval rich rooftop. So 40, we're back potentially to the 1300s. So. So there was a layer of rubble. We don't know where these have come from. And like I say, we found evidence of a substantial building that nobody knew was there and we're still not absolutely sure what it was.
So we desperately, we're desperately trying to raise more money.
[01:45:29] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:45:31] Speaker C: Well, that's a lovely door.
[01:45:32] Speaker A: Oh, yes, as well. So this is the.
[01:45:35] Speaker C: Is this the kitchen?
[01:45:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:45:36] Speaker A: So this is the end. So it's all modern nowadays. Yeah. This is the entrance to your kitchen? Yeah, Very, very, very important area. So we need to put some protection on it.
[01:45:48] Speaker C: Ah.
[01:45:49] Speaker A: So we put, all right, a deep burn mark on it.
So I can't see why would put a candlestick in front of a door. So people have deliberately done that because somewhere in their psyche they know I need to protect that area.
[01:46:05] Speaker C: Great.
Right, lead the way back.
[01:46:08] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:47:15] Speaker C: Right, so we've come back up into the banqueting hall and we've rejoined. Keith, I believe you've got another treasure to show us before we conclude our.
[01:47:26] Speaker D: Yes. Visit here, I think we'll show you something rather unique, certainly in Lancashire, in respect to the architecture of the Tudor period.
So we're going to take you out of the room we're in, in the moment and return via the arched door towards the chapel that Steve talked about earlier. And then we're going to leave by the Victorian northern entrance, which isn't the normal route for visitors.
So visitors who come to Horton and they go around the house, also access to the gardens.
But what I found was that was one section of the building that was overseen by everybody and, and it became of an interest to me. In fact, again, it was another obsession.
So we're at the eastern end of the Tudor building.
We're walking on the outside of the banqueting hall, which we'll return to.
But as we pass the northern bay window in front of us, we have a two story, single roomed brick outshot from there. Now, the thing that interested Me was the fact that it's the only part of the exterior of the building that has any decoration on it and yet it isn't somewhere that anybody could see. So why did Thomas appear to put his decoration on the northern end?
So the first thing we had was that it is two story or two and a half story because it has a cellar underneath now and we're on a slope.
We are looking at a building that has got a series of pilasters, pilasters being pillars actually attached to the stonework.
Now we're at the eastern side of it and on the eastern side we do have, on the lower ground floor we can see a blocked up doorway with an arch over the top.
Above it we have a first floor fire stack that's coming out and a well lit room up above. But the interesting part is the lower part, the northern elevation of it has three pilasters and in the centre of the pilasters are two round headed windows. They're glazed, they're quite small, but it's quite clear and clear on the right hand one more than the other, that initially they actually were full height windows or arched exits.
So what was going on here? Because it just doesn't make any sense in relation to anywhere else. The pilasters for a start off are so weather worn that we didn't know what the designs were.
But by taking various photographs from the bits that did exist, we did end up with a clear picture of what each pilaster has on it.
Now the main one that you can see on the right hand or the western one is that clearly on the large column upright there is a geometric pattern. Now the geometric pattern here is standing out from the stone and would be described as strap work.
And because of that, that again is very much an English term at that time. However, with the rest of the pilaster, the decoration and the design of it is much more in the Renaissance style. We have dentin and we have cornicine and because of that it seems to be on that cusp of the Tudor Renaissance.
So it's a very, very elaborate section of pilasters.
And then right at the very top each one curves out and the central one is the one that is the clearest.
On that is carved a large central heart and below it two hearts, smaller hearts pointing up and above it two hearts down.
What is Thomas showing? Is it just a pretty decoration or does it have another meaning?
Is it the five wounds of Christ, significant amongst the Catholic faith and if he is challenged by a pursuivant, by somebody who's trying to seek out how Catholic he is he turns and says, but this is just the love I have for my family.
So, again, like on the front, is Thomas strengthening his.
His endeavors in which he is going to continue.
So they are unusual as far as I'm aware. There's nothing in Lancashire that is similar to them. But what is the broom itself used for? If you take away the glass, you take away that lower section and then put a banister in. Is this a loggia? Is this. That's the new term that is being introduced into England within garden design, that it is a loggia. And what are you going to see from the loggia? Well, in those days, when you leaned out of those windows to look across, there were no trees behind us on the Norse elevation. Now both Sarah and I are staring into rhododendron bushes with vast trees below. But come autumn, you'd also be able to see that the hillside drops rapidly, several hundred feet. And in front of us, you will be able to see to the east, we would be seeing as far as the trough of Boland, and to the west, we'd be looking out as far as the lower lake hills. So here we have God's creation in front of us that we're looking for. But was there a possible garden in front of the Tudor garden? Often with its planting and its parterres, but sometimes using coloured sands, coloured materials with patterns in them, they're intended to be looked at from above.
So the loggia becomes a banqueting room and a banquet is the meal at the end of a great feast in the Tudor period.
There you're bringing in the best of the best people. You are conversing, you can have private and secret conversations, and you would be eating the jellies, the sweets and everything. And you are looking out at that, the conversation's going, and then you look down onto man's creation in front of you. You're then invited to come out through the door. It leads nowhere else. And you come down and as you come to look at the garden and turn, then you see, it's the only opportunity you get to see this again. Here we are at the back.
Anybody who's coming to visit, if you come past the banqueting hall, can come back and look at it, but research is still going on. But that appears to be a loggia. Come. Banqueting hall. Very much of the top rank of Tudor design at the time.
[01:55:02] Speaker C: Great detective work there, Keith keeps me up. And it's really. Yeah, I mean, you've got to reimagine, haven't you, the landscape well, we have.
[01:55:08] Speaker D: Suggested chopping everything down.
[01:55:10] Speaker C: It's not happened yet.
Yes, I can imagine that went down very well. But.
And of course you got. Is that a later crest of arms on the back that's been added or was that original?
[01:55:23] Speaker D: It's an additional one. It's a. It's a later one. Again, it's the Hortons.
It.
There are some significant pieces that in it sort of lend itself to James's visit here.
One we know it's after 1611 when they become baronets.
[01:55:41] Speaker C: Right.
[01:55:41] Speaker D: But the other shield on the other side appears to have. It'll either be the thistle or the rose. And that's because the Hortons claimed a direct lineage to the Stuart family.
[01:55:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:55:55] Speaker A: And as Keith said, this. This north. This north side, I think for us is the most interesting area that you. Just over to my left is where we think the medieval chapel was. Over to my right there's the plateau area where we did the archaeological dig. We've got watercolors that show how this area's developed, where the doors have been removed, we've got the Victorian porch there and of course, all the wonderful things that Keith has just described. So in this relatively small area, there is so much interest. It's wonderful.
[01:56:31] Speaker C: So much to keep you going.
Right, well, I think we're heading back to the banqueting hall to conclude our visit here today. Obviously, this is the most impactful, grandest room of the house. This is, as I think, as you were saying, Keith, this is where you would have originally entered the building, the most public space.
[01:56:50] Speaker D: This is the public space. This is the be all and end all.
Again, it has many reworkings, but standing at the east end of the banqueting hall, the high end, if you wish, we're in a large room dominated by two bay windows, one to the north and one to the south.
Full height.
The place is so well lit that panes of glass in here, there are 4,000.
I haven't counted them, this is what I'm told.
And so it is light, it is airy, and particularly the bay windows are the modern feature of a Tudor house.
[01:57:34] Speaker C: Is the glass original.
[01:57:37] Speaker A: We've done quite a bit of research work on this and the dating on the paneling is a 1876 and we know that the family were carrying out restoration work during that period.
What we found a couple of years ago were a number of glaziers marks and these. Typically the marks take a four line format where the top of the line is the glazier's name, then it's written their trade glazier. Then it's the hometown Preston, and it's the date.
All the dates that we found are in the 1870s.
We don't think there is an awful lot, if any, original glass here. There is some old glass and the only reason that we're saying it's old glass is because of the distortions in it.
Perhaps broad glass, perhaps crown glass, and also if there was a greeny hue to it, which would indicate iron impurities. But as to where the original glass came from, unlike Keith, I have counted all the panes in here and there are indeed round about 4,000. Where did that glass come from?
The English glass making at that time wasn't particularly good. It was broad glass, it was distorted and it was only when the continental glass makers came in that we started to get the much better crown glass, so. Exactly. But think about it. Where would that glass have come from? There was a glass foundry furnace about 30 kilometers away, but we've got no evidence to say that that supported this house. But just think, in here alone you've got say 4,000 panes called quarries of glass. How would you transport them? The roads, horseback, whatever. It must have been an absolute nightmare. And glass was so expensive and such a high status.
Look at what I've got. But then extend that to the rest of the house, you've got thousands. So as to where the glass came from, we don't know.
But it's stunning.
[02:00:06] Speaker C: Must admit that. I mean, these two oriel windows are particularly fine. I mean, you know, the deep oriel windows and not just one, which is quite often you would just see one. You've got this double arrangement, so very swanky.
[02:00:21] Speaker D: The glass that's there, which Tudor glass that I've seen, has always been diamond shaped.
It was easier to cut off, that we've just found, having had a visit to Stonyhurst College, which has a Tudor route which is connected with here, that the building that is built there in 1593 has the same layout as this room. It has the double bay, which I haven't found in any other Lancashire building. And because they're related, I think they copied this one. But the building itself, as I say, at the low end of the hall, the high end being where the bay windows are, we have a Minsils gallery, but the Minstrels Gallery, I believe, replaces a Tudor minstrel's gallery and is dated from the renovations done around 1700.
That would have been the way in. We have a cross passage from the outer courtyard up the steps to that Great door that would have led you in, you would have come up the stairs. If you turned left at the top of those stairs, you go into the private wing and into the long gallery.
If you are a guest, you come into here and this is the place where you would eat the great meals.
Behind us is the fixed table. That's a table that actually has legs attached to it.
This is the table that King James I sat at in 1617.
That is not to say that it is not older than that. It is made of three solid planks of oak.
It must have been built for in here, because you can't take it out through either door.
And it's significant in itself.
The panelling around, as Steve said, is Victorian. It's Gillows, it's 1876.
And the roof itself is again another Victorianization of what was here before.
There is an earlier photograph before this was done, and it does show a flat roof. So the ceiling appears not to have been open to the beams and was a simple flat roof.
On the northern side, you're dominated by a massive fire area. Now, the fire, when you look at it, you'll see that the stone is exposed, exposed above it. And you see a rather nice arch going all the way across the fire.
Many people mistake this for actually the large fire.
In fact, it's a stress arch. It prevents the roof, the building itself, putting the pressure onto the crossbar of that. And like a bridge, it takes the pressure, places it vertically down into there.
Directly underneath we have two massive stone slabs in an almost triangular abutment.
And then beneath that we have what I consider to be the earlier fireplace.
It has four creatures, mythical type creatures, within the quadrangles above it.
Beneath that was the original fire.
And that has then been infilled probably again when the minstrel's galleries done, when works were done in the 1700s, it has its bullection modeling on. It's obviously from that period. And that's simply because we are now not burning massive logs. We've reduced it, we don't use it as much and we've probably put coal in it.
Now, the question then is, is the original fireplace Tudor?
I have seen similar designs in medieval buildings. Is it relating to the previous medieval building? Is it a reused article?
The only part of it that you might consider is Tudor is at the tail of one of the beasts, there is almost a Tudor rose, but that is simply it. But that would have heated the entire room within here. So once we've had our feast in here, then we would go back to the Cross passage which leads directly into the Banqueting tower loggia and above that there is a single storey, as we said, only accessed by going across the top. Is this the master's main study? It is lit from the north, the east and the west.
Private. He can control access.
So that Sarah, is Horton Tower encapsulated?
Almost.
[02:05:22] Speaker C: We have covered some ground. There's so many.
I think what strikes me is how many different varied stories we have here. We have murder, we have intrigue, we have controversy, we have the whole religious story going on this, it's an incredible.
This whole building encapsulates some really interesting themes and then not least the architecture of course, and our lesson about. How do you pronounce them?
[02:05:50] Speaker A: Apotropaic.
[02:05:51] Speaker C: Apotropaic. I'm never going to get that right. Mark's has been really enlightening. So I just want to thank you both, Keith, Steve, for being part the of fantastic guest experts today and in time honoured fashion, all I would want to ask you is how can people find out more about you and generally when are your opening hours? Are you open all year? Are you open every day of the week? Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about that.
[02:06:18] Speaker D: We're restricted in the opening, but generally from Easter we open Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Bank Holidays.
There are many events which take place in between those times. But the general guided tours, the specialist tours, whether or not it's to do with the garden or it's to do with the markings in the building and the signs, they all intimate between whenever we're open.
The best way to keep up with us is by looking at our website that is constantly being updated with new events, changes. We are a wedding venue, so there are times when the property is closed even though it's in our open season.
So yes, we would only welcome people to come up that great driveway and come and spend a few minutes, if they ever could, with one of our volunteers up here who will just entertain.
[02:07:20] Speaker C: Us and they might meet you and.
[02:07:22] Speaker D: Steve, maybe me and Steve, they might find us digging away somewhere.
[02:07:26] Speaker C: Oh, wonderful. Well, good luck with all your ongoing research. I hope you find out lots more interesting things to continue to evolve the story here. And of course, as ever, dear listeners, I'll put links to the Horton Tower website in the description associated with the podcast so you can follow up on all the information that you need there. And so I just want to say thank em, thank you so much for having us here today.
[02:07:51] Speaker D: Thank you Sarah.
[02:07:52] Speaker A: Thank you, Sam.
[02:08:42] Speaker B: Well, as we conclude today's adventure in time. Of course. It's a massive thank you from me to all of those at Horton Tower that made this visit possible, particularly our tour guides for today, Keith and Steve.
I hope that you've learned something about apotropaic marks, which is definitely my word for the season, and you've been inspired perhaps to visit somewhere that wasn't currently or not yet on your Tudor itinerary, but it is now.
Okay, so next month we stay in the north west and we're going to perhaps a more famous Tudor property, the wonderful little Moreton hall, architecturally quite different and full of its own intriguing stories.
So sit tight and I'll see you again next month.
[02:09:32] Speaker A: Month.
[02:09:50] Speaker C: Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of the Tudor History and Travel Show. If you've loved the show, please take a moment to subscribe like and rate this podcast so that we can spread the Tudor love.
Until next time, my friends. All that remains for me to say is happy time traveling.
