Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
Filed under Crookham 2011, Heritage, Holidays
The spectacular Pillar Hall occupies the centre of the house.
It is meant to evoke the open-roofed atrium, or central courtyard, of a classical villa – a Roman architectural precedent rather than a Greek one. The Northumberland climate meant that it had to be roofed, with natural lighting being provided by roof lights and a [...]
14 Comments CherryPie on Jun 30th 2011
Filed under Crookham 2011, Heritage, Holidays
Belsay Hall was a modern villa with a comfortable library, drawing room and dining room built to overlook a romantic prospect to the south. But its owner, Sir Charles Monck, was obsessed by ancient Greece and owned every book published on Greek architecture. So the details inside and out were derived from the [...]
4 Comments CherryPie on Jun 29th 2011
Filed under Anecdotes, Crookham 2011, Heritage, Holidays
This was my first visit to Belsay and it has a bit of everything and comprises of three different elements. A hall inspired by the architecture of ancient Greece, a medieval castle with rare wall paintings and magnificent gardens. The hall was enlarged in the early 17th century and subsequently superseded by a Greek Revival [...]
6 Comments CherryPie on Jun 28th 2011
Filed under Crookham 2011, Heritage, Holidays
At the bottom of the photo you can see the foundations of a church laid out in a cruciform.
12 Comments CherryPie on Jun 27th 2011
Filed under Crookham 2011, Holidays
The Little Stair Tower has a rather distinctive spire. The tower was a secondary porch to the fourth earl’s residence in the bailey:
It served the great chamber much as the Lion Tower served the great hall. It was heavily reconsolidated and partly rebuilt in the 1920s.*
*From the English Heritage guide book.
6 Comments CherryPie on Jun 25th 2011
Filed under Crookham 2011, Heritage, Holidays
The great tower was commissioned by Henry Percy after he was made the first earl of Northumberland in 1377. The building is styled in the shape of a Greek cross, with four polygonal wings radiating from a central block. *
*Information from the English Heritage guidebook.
6 Comments CherryPie on Jun 23rd 2011
Filed under Crookham 2011, Heritage, Holidays
The Lion Tower was built by the fourth earl of Northumberland in about 1480 and was the main porch to the new bailey residence.
Its spectacular display of heraldic sculpture celebrated his dynastic prowess. Symbolic of the Percy family is the great lion over the door. Above this helm with a ‘cap of estate’ and crest, [...]
15 Comments CherryPie on Jun 22nd 2011
