EVENTS
REPORTS
stalls, made by local carvers between
1489 and 1494. The misericords, or
‘mercy seats’, have ornately carved
ledges on the underside, designed
for clergy to lean against during long
services. One of these carvings
shows the image of a rabbit
disappearing down a hole, and is
thought to have inspired Lewis
Carroll, who visited Ripon during his
father's time as a canon.
From the relative bustle of Ripon
Cathedral we travelled on to the
peaceful setting of the great ruins of
Fountains Abbey. Surprisingly, this
spiritual place arose from a dispute
and riot in 1132 at the Benedictine
house of St Mary's Abbey in York,
where 13 monks were expelled
after unsuccessfully attempting to
return to the early 6th-century ‘Rule
of St Benedict’. In 1135 the monks
applied to join the Cistercian order,
and subjected themselves to
Clairvaux Abbey, in Burgundy, which
was under the rule of St Bernard.
The Abbey suffered many changes
of fortune, and although in 1535 it
was the richest Cistercian
monastery in England, in 1539 the
church was surrendered when
Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution
of the Monasteries. The Abbey’s precinct covered 70 acres, and today
it is justly famed as one of the most interesting of the ruined
Cistercian abbeys in the country. Our party had time to savour the
extent of the buildings, and the beauty of the situation by the River
Skell.
Continuing our religious theme, we visited St Mary's, Studley, a
church in the Early English style within the grounds of Studley Royal
Park, close to Fountains Abbey. Commissioned by the Marchioness of
Ripon to commemorate her brother Frederick Vyner, who had been
captured and murdered by Greek bandits in 1870, the church was
consecrated in 1878. Designed by William Burges (1827-1881), the
church was described by Pevsner as "a dream of early English glory...
Studley Royal is (Burges's) ecclesiastical masterpiece". The exterior is
of grey limestone, with a two-stage west tower topped with a
soaring spire, and a spectacular interior of richness and majesty, with
stained glass is by Saunders & Co.
Ripley Castle provided a robust return to the secular world, with
its Tudor tower and substantial crenellated walls testimony to the
changes made to the castle over 700 years by the Ingleby family,
descendents of whom still own the castle. On his progress south for
his coronation James I and VI was entertained at Ripley Castle by Sir
William Ingleby (1546-1618) with a ‘make-over’ of the Tower Room
being hastily undertaken for this visit. Despite being royal supporters
outwardly, the family were involved with the unsuccessful
Gunpowder Plot. During the Civil War the next Sir William Ingleby
(1594-1653) fought on the Royalist side at Marston Moor in 1644,
where the king's forces were routed. Escaping back to Ripley, Sir
William hid in the priest's hole whilst Oliver Cromwell billeted
himself in the castle for the night. Sir William's redoubtable sister is
reputed to have held a bemused Oliver Cromwell at gunpoint
overnight.
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THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND
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AUTUMN 2013
Castle Howard
The Chippendale family resided
in Ripley village for a number of
years and as a result, the castle
contains many examples of
Chippendale furniture.
A hidden gem
Possibly one of the favourite places
visited on the tour was Markenfield
Hall, a remarkable hidden gem,
which is believed to be the most
complete surviving medium-sized
14th century country house in
England. From 1570 to the 20th
century, it was a tenanted
farmhouse with an absentee
Rievaulx Abbey
landlord. As the current owners say,
"there was no grand family here
with the desire and means to fill in
the moat, pull down the outdated
Western range and replace it with a
‘modern’ one. The house simply
dwelt on, unchanged and largely
forgotten". Its relative isolation and
tranquillity gives it a rare and
remarkable atmosphere that many
visitors have commented on, and
which our group fully appreciated.
Today it is the private home of Ian
and Lady Deirdre Curteis, who
welcomed us to the house. She is
the widow of the 7th Lord
Grantley, thus continuing the Grantley family connection that began
in 1761 when they purchased the estate.
The present owners have done much to restore the house to its
original state, but a 16th century visitor returning to the house
would immediately recognise the moated exterior and carefully
restored great hall, chapel, solar etc.
Rivalling Markenfield Hall as one of the group's favourite venues,
was Scampston Hall, a Grade II listed country house with a
serpentine park designed by Charles Bridgeman and Capability
Brown, and a modern walled garden designed by Piet Oudolf. The
house is built in two storeys of stuccoed orange-red brick with a
slate roof and stuccoed brick chimney stacks. The frontage has seven
bays, the central three of which are bowed, the whole being of
elegant simplicity. The Hall was built in the late 1600s for William
Hustler, and in 1959 Scampston passed to the Legard, or ‘Le Gard’,
family, connected to the St Quintin family who had bought the estate
in the 1690s. Sir Charles Legard conducted a witty and informative
tour of the house, happily stating that the family had distinguished
themselves through the centuries by achieving very little of note! The
beauty of the house and the gardens rather belied that statement.
Perhaps perversely, Castle Howard, one of the greatest stately
palaces in the country, did not inspire the same admiration or, more
accurately, affection as some of the other houses. Designed by John
Vanbrugh for Charles Howard, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, construction
work commenced in 1701, and continued until 1725, with
subsequent work going on until 1811. The Baroque style meant the
inclusion of many decorative features with cherubs, festoons, urns
and statues all of which, being carved by hand, were time consuming,
costly and required great skill. On the north side the classical facade
is in the Doric order, whilst on the south it is in the Corinthian order.
The interiors were impressive, being in some respects more like a