Friday 7 October 2011

Visitors.











This has been a very busy week for me - friends in for tea and coffee, days out, visitors staying - a lovely, enjoyable week but no time to blog. However, things are now back to 'normal' - so I will tell you about one outing we had.

My visitor S, a friend W and I all went to Thorpe Perrow Arboretum, which I have featured several times before. We were hoping for the Autumn colours of the Acer grove but we were too early and apart from one Acer turning colour the rest have some way to go.

At the entrance there is an avenue of horse chestnut trees and underneath the ground was littered with bright shiny conkers - very tempting - I wonder why they have such fascination.

After our walk round the Arboretum, where the staff were busy putting Hallowe'en lanterns in the trees (they always have Hallowe'en festivities for children) we had a walk through the bog garden, which is already kitted out with scary creatures, and then it was into the cafe for a bowl of hearty cabbage, ham and puy lentil soup. It was delicious and I shall try it shortly.

From the car park you can see Snape Castle, so we decided to have a short trip to look at it. It is only a ruin and it is not possible to go round it as it is attached to a private house. But you can go into the chapel, which has been carefully restored (apart from the celing, which I am sure would once have been splendid) and seems to be the parish church of the village now.

But the history of Snape Castle is fascinating. Until late in the seventeenth century it belonged to the Nevilles of Middleham (who owned the castle there too) and so has an association with Richard III - with both his mother and his wife.

But perhaps the most poignant connection is that it was the home of Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, who lived there when she was married to John Neville, the third Baron Latymer - this was before her marriage to Henry.

Catherine was only 20 when she married Henry and he was her third husband - her first marriage was when she was just fourteen.

By the time Catherine married Henry he was a very large, ugly old man - hardly the sort of chap one would chose for one's twenty year old daughter. But of course in those days women were mere commodities to be married off so that the money and the prestige was kept in a tight little circle.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice, interesting post..thankyou for sharing x

Vickyx

Jinksy said...

The post is as busy as you've been! LOL

The Solitary Walker said...

Have been catching up on your posts after my return, Pat - lovely as ever! Love - Robert

Elisabeth said...

Halloween and Henry the eighth and all those images in between: beauty and the beast you might say. Wonderful, Pat.

angryparsnip said...

Wonderful photo trip and the history behind Snape Castle. So much history is around you, even the ground you walk on.
The chapel looks lovely. It must be very special to have that as your village church.
And the lunch looks great

cheers, parsnip

Pondside said...

Always something of interest in your posts, Pat. Poor Catherine Parr - what a life...but at least she kept her head!

ChrisJ said...

I've only recently realized fully that the 'arranged' marriages and ones that seem unsuitable by today's standards were often about breeding and suitable breeding producing suitable offspring -- producing a 'classy'person who would behave and act suitably because they had the right breeding. I used to think it was all about money. Puts an interesting light on the remnants of the class system in Britain. Sadly, something my family struggled with. The two World Wars did a lot of leveling.

Cloudia said...

"Keeping the money and prestige in a small circle' sounds disturbingly contemporary!


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Heather said...

A fascinating and beautiful post Pat - a lovely day out in every sense. I'm pleased that the chapel is still in use, even if the castle couldn't be saved. Poor Catherine - I wonder what her mother felt about her daughter's third husband. I suppose she was a dutiful wife too.
That soup looks delicious and perfect for this time of year.

Arija said...

What a fun day out but I am not that sure i would have liked to be any one of Henry VIII'ths wives.

Now this is going too far in verification words : condom!!!!

Gerry Snape said...

you must know how excited I am!!!....we have often thought that we must get to Snape Castle...Snapes you see! and to think that there is still some sort of existence happening around it is wonderful. thankyou so much Pat. We will make it one day. We have already seen McClelland Castle in Dumfriesshire and that is still occupied since the 1100's...I was a McClelland.

Dave King said...

I think Jinksy's summed it up very well: a post that has a bit of most things one could want.

H said...

Stunning colours on that acer. What a pity the rest weren't also turning.

Titus said...

History and reflections lovely Weaver, but my heart's with the Hallowe'en installations! Got some ideas there...

The Solitary Walker said...

Condom! Lord protect us, Arija! (Did you know that's actually the name of a French town on the Camino?)

Bovey Belle said...

Great post. Lovely photos. As for Catherine Parr, I'm so glad I got to choose my husband! Poor woman, she might have married for love (or more power?) in the end, but she didn't live long enough to enjoy it did she?

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for commenting. Pleased to be able to supply information on Snape for Gerry of the same name.