~Over The Hill & Still Travelling~

Sherbourne Castle was an unexpected treat. The Castle is at the heart of a 12,000-acre traditional family run estate, which comprises predominantly agricultural land (dairy and arable, farmed by tenanted farms and in-hand by the estate).

It was still raining, that soft sweeping rain that drenches everything in its path and makes for uncomfortable exploring.
I decided to head off into the castle first for the tour. A bit pricey at £9, I approached with anticipation, camera at the ready, only to be told that I was not allowed to use my camera inside the castle. What!!!! I was really annoyed at this and was so peeved that it kinda spoilt the tour for me. However that aside, the parts of the castle open to the public are fantastic and I did enjoy seeing all the wonderful old furniture and fittings.
First up was the library; just brilliant, the walls lined with books bought and read by the wingfield Digby family over the aeons.
The history of the house was intriguing and I was delighted to discover that it was built onto and owned by Sir Walter Raleigh! Awesome. There is a section of the very first house still remaining and on display behind glass panelling from when Raleigh first renovated.

A bit of history: sir Walter Raleigh erected his new house in 1594, which he called ‘Sherbourne Lodge’ to distinguish it from the Old Castle (which is visible across the lake and a good 10 minute walk away). This house is a rectangular four-storey house with hexagonal corner turrets and forms the core of the present castle. Raleigh used his influence as a favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1st to acquire the estate, which he did in 1592. shortly thereafter he was thrown into the Tower of London for displeasing the Queen. When he was released from the Tower he was banished to the estate and thence proceeded to rebuild. His half brother laid out gardens in the valley between the ‘new’ castle and the Old, which included pools. Canals, waterfalls and planted with rare plants brought back from foreign expeditions. Raleigh’s stone seat still survives, overlooking the garden in one direction and the then busy road (now a lane) on the other side.
He lived there until in 1603 King James 1st arrested him on charges of treason and he was sent to the Tower again till his execution in 1618. The Digby family who were supporters of the new King acquired the estate. (The upper English classes with their holier than thou attitudes are often descended from less than perfect ancestors).
There is a whole load of history about the Digby family which I wo’nt go into now, except to say that after 400 odd years they still own the estate.

The tour of the Castle takes you through the Library (one of 4 wings added to Sir Walter Raleigh’s house in the 1630s), remodelled in Strawberry Hill Gothic style and boasts an ornately decorated ceiling, beautifully panelled bookcases and the books date from the 1500s through to the 19th century. The furniture is Georgian or Regency and includes a George 2 mahogany tripod pole screen with floral needlework (these were used to protect the ladies’ wax-based make-up from the heat of the fire.)

Next up is The Solarium. In Sir Walter Raleigh’s time this room was the Great Parlour where he received visitors. The plaster ceiling still has the Tudor rose, amid acorns and oak leaves. The room was remodelled in 1859 when it was panelled in Austrian oak and a marble fireplace installed. This fireplace is one of the most magnificent I have seen and is so ornate it defies description. Suffice to say, it is magnificent. From there you enter the Red Drawing Room, built in the 1630s and boasts a two-tiered classical columns fireplace bearing the Digby coat of arms over the mantelpiece. The ornate plaster ceiling is also original and contains the Digby fleur-de-lys and the ostrich as well as fish, dolphins and many kinds of flowers. The room contains some fabulous original furnishings hundreds of years old and is quite splendid.

From there you step into the Porcelain Room, originally Gwendolen Wingfield Digby’s room in the 1930s, it is now a display case for porcelain collected over the centuries by the W-D family, some of which are Japanese and Chinese pieces, Meissen, Chelsea, Bow and Worcester pieces.
From there you enter the Green Drawing room. This was Sir Walter Raleigh’s great chamber and the principal room of the house. The plaster ceiling bears his coat of arms, a shield with 5 lozenges. Again there is a magnificent fireplace that features the 1st Earl of Bristol’s motto and the Digby device of silver fleur-de-lys on a blue ground. The room has a triple aspect with views over the lake to the ruins of the Old Castle, over the East Lawn to the Deer Park and Jerusalem Hill, and southwards across the courtyard to Gainsborough Hill. The magnificent curtains are Victorian (c.1859) and are a rare survival, as are the hand-blocked wallpaper and papier-mache borders. This room contains some fabulous old pieces of furniture all in beautiful condition. The room is quite magnificent.

From there you step into the Blue Drawing room, re-decorated in Victorian times with panels of pale blue paper set in gold and white borders giving the room an oriental feel. The white marble fireplace is Georgian. This room too, contains some fabulous pieces of Georgian and Regency furniture as well as cabinets in Chinese and Japanese lacquer.
The Boudoir in the hexagonal turret has a plaster ceiling that dates from the 1630s, the Louis XIV Boulle armoire is ebony inlaid with brass and scarlet tortoiseshell and other pieces of George III furniture.

Lady Bristol’s bedroom, once the great bedroom of Sir Walter Raleigh’s house boasts a plaster ceiling, in which his device of the Buck (deer) appears. This also appears on documents relating to his ownership of Sherbourne Castle. The four-poster bed with its silk damask upholstery is attributed to Ince and Mayhew and dates from the reign of George III. The bed is quite magnificent and as you can imagine the silk damask has deteriorated quite badly. The room is beautifully preserved and the two bedside cabinets and secretaire are Georgian, as is the yew-wood dressing table. The sofa and the easy chairs are Victorian. The ceiling is white and the walls a pale yellow, the carpet (very new) is a pale cream making this a lovely bright and airy room in comparison to the formal lounges.

The staircase in Sir Walter Raleigh’s house probably led up to the roof level, and the present stairs were put in by the Digby family in 1775.
The main entrance to Sir Walter Raleigh’s house was from the southwest turret in the corner of the entrance hall. This room is vastly different to the other rooms and is more austere and sparsely furnished. The floor is of yellow-grey flagstone, the fireplace retains some of its original Tudor stonework. Heavy wooden furniture; chairs, oak coffer and refrectory table are 17th century.
Besides the other rooms I visited the Oak Room is quite splendid, very dark and filled with heavy wooden furniture and a 20seat refrectory table, in two parts is nearly 24feet long and made of elm. The room occupies one of the wings added by Sir John Digby in the 1630s. There are two interior oak porches also from 1630 and were put in to prevent draughts. The prehistoric antlers over the mantelpiece were discovered in a bog in Ireland and the fireplace is an early iron ‘jack’. The Oak Room was used as the servants’ hall in the Victorian period, and in the First World War it was part of Sherbourne Castle Hospital for wounded soldiers. The ceiling is criss-crossed with lovely oaken beams, the floor with wooden slats.

Going down a series of stairs and along stone passageways you enter Raleigh’s kitchen and cellars.
The kitchen with its great stone fireplace house was in use until the end of the 18th century. In the turret is the Bakehouse, the ovens heated by fires underneath and the reddened stones show signs of the intense heat in the ovens. In a room off this; the basement area used in the 18th century as a brew house, the stone doorways widened to enable barrels to be rolled past.
One of the downstairs rooms is chock-a-block with bric-a-brac; display cases filled with finds excavated from Sherbourne Old Castle. Most of the pieces date from the late Norman period, about 1130, and include some amazing carved beak-heads, which came from the ornate ceiling of the castle chapel. The cellar is now used to house an exhibition of curios collected in the 1930s, including family mementoes, relics from the Civil War, coins and pots found on the estate. On the walls is a display of documents from the castle archives and in the turret beyond is an exhibition of fossils found in the quarry. Local stone gives Sherbourne its delightful character, and the exhibition explains how the stone was formed and why it is so full of fossils. Some amazing fossils are on display, and their significance in relation to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast is described.

I was itching to go exploring through the whole house and up and down the stairs. I felt really peeved that I could not take photos!

Next was a visit to the tea-room for an typical English tea: scones, jam and Cornish clotted cream with a pot of tea. Stepping through the door I was delighted to see a section marked off with rope; the old dairy, built in 1753 to provide cheese and butter for the house. The floor was a treat to behold: an old roman mosaic dating from the 4th century, depicting Apollo playing the lyre and Marsyas the double flute. All the original urns and jugs, bowls and plates from the 18th century are on display. It feels lovely and cool and spacious.

After tea I braved the rain and set off to take photos of the outside of the castle and the nearby surrounds. The numerous trees, some really ancient, are enormous and prolific. The lake is seen from just about all angles and spreads like a sheet of glass as far as the eye can see, home to a multitude of wildfowl. Whilst exploring the outside of the castle I found an old ice-house and 2 game larders where game was left to hang before being taken into the house.

I could see the Old Castle from various points of the garden so hopped into the car to go and explore. As I was leaving via the gate, I stopped to take photos of the elaborate decorations and spoke briefly to the guy manning the ticket office, and found to my dismay that I would have to fork out more money to see the castle. He suggested that the castle could be viewed from inside the grounds and gardens of Sherbourne so I hopped back into the car and returned from whence I had come, stopping only to photograph the impressive Stables, between the entrance lodge and the lake, and a fabulous cannon (Turkish Field gun) that guards the entrance.

Grabbing my brolly I set off down a winding path, lined with herbaceous borders and a multitude of shrubs and flowers beneath towering trees. Sir Walter Raleigh laid out elaborate gardens between the Old Castle and the new. Of these little remains, except his stone seat built into the outer walls. Legend has it that the giant cedars (Cedrus libanii) were planted from seed brought back from the New World by Sir Raleigh. A ring-count of one tree felled after storm damage gave an age of 250years.

In 1753 ‘Capability’ Brown was called in to create the 50-acre Lake, as well as an ornamental waterfall feature where the river narrows naturally. The ruins of the Old Castle became a backdrop to the lake and were ‘improved’ by the Digby family by the addition of a mock-ruined tower (folly) and a crenellated wall, built in 1755-6 and deliberately planted with ivy to create a romantic view.

The gardens are a treat, winding paths and trails lead through lush shrubbery, lots of lovely tress, statues, streams providing views of lake and parklands, and a cascading waterfall flowing downhill towards a double arched bridge. I discovered Raleigh’s seat quite by accident when I spied a plaque on the wall. On closer inspection I read the tale! Wow! Awesome to think that I sat in the same place a Raleigh did over 400 years ago, gave me goosebumps (and a wet bum – the seat was wet from the rain). I wandered further along down a gravel pathway and under a grapevine arbour overlooking the river. Further on I noticed a small crenellated shelter that turned out to be ‘Pope’s Seat’, and again on closer inspection the plaque mentioned that The Alcove was put up in 1780 and named after the poet Alexander Pope who visited Sherbourne in 1724.

During the last war parts of the park were ploughed up for food production and are still farmed today.

I walked really far and finally reached the limits of the public walkways, turned left and walked up to the ramparts of the wall from where I could see the Old Castle ruins. It was not accessible from the property and I had to be satisfied with glimpses of these from where I was standing. I found a seat with a fabulous view; the Claire-Voie offers a vista of breathtaking scenery for as far as the eye can see. I sat there in the rain and just listened to the quiet, the water rustling through the trees and the birds.

After this I followed the wall back to where it met the wall from the opposite direction and then retraced my steps back along the pathways to the exit from the gardens. Altogether a wonderful hour was enjoyed meandering about the gardens. I retuned to the car soaked to the skin, yet entirely happy with all my discoveries.
On my way out I was held up in a traffic jam: a group of ducks were waddling about on the road so I had to stop the car and wait for them to move along J. My final stop; once again to take photos of the tiny lodge at the gates and to say thank you to the ticket man for his sound advice.

I then followed the road back through the town and made my way home via a lovely country road that took me through a marvellous village that bears exploring at a later date (like next week).