Pirton Court, not far away, has not been plastered over like many
houses with elaborate wooden "magpie" work beneath, and the
ornamental timber in circular design is unimpaired. But the quaintest
timber gables were those at Severn End
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, the ancient seat of the Lechmeres, some five miles to the south-
west. Alas! that this ancient mansion should have been destroyed by
fire,—a loss as great as that of Clevedon or Ingestre, greater,
perhaps, as its architecture was so quaint: a delightful mixture of the
Tudor and Stuart periods to which it was no easy matter to fix a date,
for the timber portions looked much older than the seventeenth
century, when they were built by Sir Nicholas Lechmere, a nephew of
Sir Thomas Overbury, a worthy and learned judge whose
manuscripts give a very realistic peep into the domestic life of the
times and the orderly way in which his establishment was conducted.
Both front and back of the house were strikingly picturesque, but the
front was the most curious, half black and white angular gables and
half curved and rounded red-brick Jacobean gables. On either side of
the entrance porch were two great chimney-stacks, and in the
corners where the wings abutted, small square towers, one of which
was sharpened to a point like a lead pencil. At the back, facing
smooth lawns (where the judge used to sit and study), attached to the
main building was what looked like a distinct structure, the sort of
overhanging half-timbered house with carved barge-boards,
pendants, and hip-knobs that are familiar objects at Shrewsbury or
Tewkesbury. The lower part of this was of red-brick, and beside it on
the right was a smaller abutting
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half-timber gable. The great oak staircases had fantastic newels and
balusters, and around the panelled hall was a fixed oak settle, and
armour on the walls: carved oak cabinets and chairs, and tables. The
room in which Charles I. slept was pointed out, and that of Major-
General Massey, for Severn End was that great soldier's
headquarters before the battle of Worcester.
A few miles to the south-west, within the boundary of the once wild
district, Malvern Chase, is another remarkable old house, Birtsmorton
Court, a moated and fortified manor-house in a singularly good state
of preservation. Though quiet and peaceful enough, its embattled
gateway has a formidable look, showing the teeth of its portcullis, like
a bull-dog on the alert for intruders. The drawbridge is also there, and
walls of immense thickness, both speaking of the insecurity of the
days when it was built. The "parlour," with windows looking out upon
the moat, is richly panelled with the various quarterings of the ancient
lords, the Nanfans, executed in colours around the cornice. The arms
and crest also occur upon the elaborately carved oak fireplace. On
the left-hand side of this fireplace there was formerly the entrance to
a hiding-place concealed in the wainscoting, but there is nothing now
but a very visible cupboard which leads nowhere. Tradition asserts
that Henry V.'s old associate, Sir John Oldcastle, sought refuge here
before he was capt
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ured and burned as a Lollard. But as that happened in 1417, the date
does not tally with the period to which the room belongs, namely, a
century later. But the original apartments have been divided (some
are dilapidated chambers, now used as a storeroom for Gloucester
cheeses), so that it is difficult to trace how they were placed. There is
also a story of a passage running beneath the moat into the adjacent
woods; but whether Sir John got so far, or whether after his escape
from the Tower he even got farther than his own castle of Cowling in
Kent, when he was hunted down by orders of his former boon
companions, we cannot say. By local report Edward IV. and Margaret
of Anjou as well as the little Lancastrian Prince of Wales sought
shelter at Birtsmorton. But for Margaret another house nearer
Tewkesbury claims the honour of offering a refuge from the
battlefield. This is an old timber-framed building with carved barge-
boards, near the village of Bushley, called Payne's Place, or Yew
Tree Farm, which once belonged to Thomas Payne and Ursula his
wife, whose brasses may be seen in the church. In the eastern wing
of this old house Queen Margaret's bedroom is pointed out. The hall
with open timber roof is still intact but divided, and upon the oak
beams a century after the battle of Tewkesbury the following lines
were painted on a frieze:
"To lyve as wee shoulde alwayes dye it were a goodly trade, To
change lowe Death for Lyfe so hye, no better change is made; For
all our worldly thynges are vayne, in them is there no truste,
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Wee see all states awhyle remayne, and then they turn to duste."
Had the lines existed then, would the poor queen have derived
comfort when the news reached her of her son's death on the
battlefield?
Birtsmorton is associated with the early career of Cardinal Wolsey, for
here he acted as chaplain during the retirement of Sir Richard Nanfan
from service to the State. Through Sir Richard's Court influence
Wolsey was promoted to the service of Henry VIII.
The "Bloody Meadow" near Birtsmorton must not be confused with that near Tewkesbury, the scene of the last battle between the
Houses of York and Lancaster. This one was the scene of a single
combat between a Nanfan and his sister's lover, in which the latter
was slain. The heart-broken lady left a sum of money that a sermon
should be annually preached at Berrow church (the burial-place of the
Nanfans) against duelling; and this we believe is done to this day.
The cruciform church has been painfully restored, but contains a fine
altar-tomb to Sir John, Sir Richard Nanfan's grandfather, Squire of
the Body to King Henry VI.; but beyond a leper's window and a queer
old alms-box ther
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e is nothing else remarkable.