We attended a 40 minute introductory talk that outlined the history of the house and its inhabitants. A lot of the history of the house can be traced by looking at the additions and changes to the house that were made over the years. Personally, I was glad the tour took place outside the house rather than in it. The outside is beautiful, but the inside is exactly what you would expect - a warren of small, dark, low-ceilinged rooms. Hardly inspiring. Anyway, the architecture itself is the where the true history of the house lies. The interior is as it was when the Walker/Ferrers people lived there in the 20th century so there is even a modern bathroom (hideous and shower-less).
You can just barely see in this picture that the house still has its original moat, which is fed by a spring. The drawbridge was eventually replaced by permanent bridge when moats became less of a necessity and more of a status symbol. Some of the stone blocks of the house are beginning to crumble so the original quarry (which we passed on our way up the drive) has been reopened to provide replacement stone. The crenellation over the entrance was not added until the end of the 18th century. Before that time, one had a pay a hefty fee to the crown for the privilege of having that particular architectural feature.
I really don't understand how that chimney at the end of the house is still standing. It looks like a strong gust of wind would be enough to topple it.
The house is quite famous for having three priest "holes" or hides. The Ferrers family was Roman Catholic and during the Reformation, when it was even illegal to hear a Catholic mass, they sheltered Catholic priests. The house was regularly searched by local authorities and during those times the priests would hide in one of these secret places. "Local authorities" were actually just local village people and the Ferrers had to pay them to have their house searched. I'm pretty sure they weren't interested in actually finding any priests because who would pay them to search their house if the Ferrers were hung? No priest was ever discovered at the house. Apparently, the local authorities were quite happy to overlook all sorts of religious trappings, including vestments and chalices and whatnot, so I can't imagine seeing an actual priest would have surprised them much.
The floor of the sacristy led to a hide in the sewers below the house. The hide was only 4 feet tall and held 8 people with standing room only. I'm still confused about this whole searching thing - I'm gonna guess that trap door would have been PRETTY OBVIOUS had anyone thought to look under the dang rug. I mean, if they didn't look under the rug, where did they look? They didn't even have closets back then! Give me a break.
Also, there was a narwhal tusk in the house. I have no idea what it had to do with Baddesley Clinton, or the Ferrers, or anything, but it was so cool! Ignore the seriously terrible, blurry picture - but look how long that thing is!
After all this touring nonsense, we hurried over to the cafe to have lunch. We missed it by 15 minutes. They were only serving tea so we had cake (the hugest square of cake ever) and it was pretty delicious. I also had ice cream. And then I wondered why I felt a bit nauseous.
