After breakfast we said adieu but not goodbye to the Cotford Hotel. We will be back.

We headed off to Croft Castle stopping briefly at the Hop Pocket for me to purchase the other colour cardi that I loved from the day before. Mr C and mum stayrd in the car. As I was purchasing the cardi I had a lovely chat with the sales assistant about the type of cardigan and a special broach to wear with it that he said they used to sell them but for some reason they weren’t available anymore.

Croft Castle was a little sparse inside compared to our previous visit, however I enjoyed the explanation of the two dragon statues outside the house. I learned that one is a Wyvern, a Welsh Dragon (black dragon), that has only two legs.

Whilst there we looked inside the medieval church of St Michael and All Angels and the walled garden which was especially spectacular due to it being allowed to grow more naturally without over pruning.

The café looked very busy so we continued on our journey eventually stopping in Ludlow for a takeaway lunch. Mum and I were told to find a suitable bench for an outdoor picnic, which we did. Twenty minutes later neither Mr C or the sandwiches had emerged from the café. Mum and I were left wondering where he had got to. When he emerged with drinks but no food he informed us that the café was rather busy and they would get around to our order when they could which would take some time. After waiting a further twenty minutes Mr C arrived with some food, although his sandwich had not arrived. He told them to forget it, luckily the sandwiches, when they arrived were large and mum and I were quite happy to donate a triangle of sandwich each to him.

After our slightly stressful lunch we unwound in the local bookshop. Mum picked up a couple of non-book items and I purchased Places of Pilgrimage by Ian Scott Massie which has given me ideas for future adventures (and blog posts).

We took a leisurely drive home and later Mr C and I enjoyed ‘Fine Dining’ at Chez Nous, Jamie’s Breaded Chicken with Rocket which takes moments to prepare. A fitting conclusion to a lovely few days away.

We were a little bit late setting off and picking mum up for her holiday adventure. This led us to have lunch at Stokesay Castle tearoom before continuing our journey to Hampton Court Castle. We enjoyed lunch sitting outside with views over the fields and the occasional train passing by.

In addition to the gardens, the Hampton Court castle is now open on a self guided tour basis. To our delight the maze was also open. It had been closed on our between lockdowns visit last year. Mum was a little bit nonplussed by the maze and especially the delightful surprise exit into the sunken garden.

After our garden visit, we continued on our journey to the Cotford Hotel, booked in and chilled out in the room until it was time for a pre-dinner drink in the residents lounge. We enjoyed our evening meal, in my case Brie and Walnut Tart and then retired to the residents lounge for a nightcap.

The Cotford Hotel, situated at the foot of the Malvern Hills was built in 1851 as a summer residence for the Bishop of Worcester.

Mr C woke up at 7.17, precisely two minutes after the alarm was due to go off! When we opened the curtains sunshine blazed through the windows and the Malvern hills were layered in soft mist. Breakfast was freshly cooked to order and lived up to our expectations.

We settled our bill and, before departing took a walk around the hotel’s garden which was delightful in the sunshine. We had hoped to visit the nearby Grade I listed St. Leonard’s Church to see the frescoes. However when we arrived the church was closed and there was no indication of opening times. So we headed off in the direction of Croome where the Shutterchance meetup was taking place later in the day.

On the way, we stopped off at a viewpoint showing the positions of the the armies during the battle of Worcester. Trees were obscuring some of the locations making them difficult to see. We got to Croome early so we took a slight detour down country lanes to Defford before returning.

At Croome our first port of call was a drink in the cafe before venturing into the grounds. The sunny weather showed off the grounds in a favourable light unlike our previous visit when it poured down. The field in front of the house contained several large hay bales which enhanced the scene.

We returned to the cafe for lunch and to find some of the Shutterchancers had arrived so we joined them for a chat until the rest of the group arrived. We all headed off into the grounds, cameras at the ready.

At the house we were able to join one of the attic guided tours which was very interesting because the attic is being used to store items until the property’s various rooms are sufficiently restored to be able to display them. We were shown paintings of former owners and residents of the house and given a brief history about them. Some of the rooms also held restored and partially restored furniture.

In one of the rooms the guide pointed out some markings on the floor that had mostly been covered over with shelving (for now) partially protecting them. The guide advised that this was the place where exorcisms took place when the hall was the headquarters for The International Society for Krishna Consciousness in the late 70s and early 80s.

After the tour, we made our way back to the cafe where everyone was congregating to celebrate a 70th birthday. Yes, there was cake and very colourful it was too. All too soon it was time for us to begin our journey home.

We set off on our travels, late morning, taking my car out for a spin for a change. Our destination was Malvern where we were stopping overnight ahead of meetup with photography friends.

We had intended to have lunch in The Firs, Elgar’s birthplace however we spotted a sign to a village cafe and took the slight detour. We found the cafe to be a quaint delight, it was a burger bar with a chalet attached to its side. The weather was glorious so we opted to sit outside on one of the conveniently placed picnic benches to eat our freshly made sandwich along with a cup of tea.

The Firs has only recently been taken over by the National Trust and is a work in progress. The house was interesting and we listened to a talk about the mystery of ‘the …..’, but it is not a place I would rush back to. We had afternoon tea and shared a piece of lemon courgette cake which was tasty.

When we arrived at The Cotford Hotel in Malvern, we were informed that we had been given a complimentary upgrade to the ‘Bishops Room’. This was a lovely surprise because it was the room we had wanted to stay in but which wasn’t available when we booked.

We took our cases to the room before having a relaxing drink in the Piano Lounge (in my case I chose Rose wine). We then returned to the room to freshen up before dining in the hotel’s restaurant, L’amuse Bouche. The food was as good as I remembered it from the previous occasion we dined there.

One of our fellow diners (connected with the local boarding school) and his guests were rather loud and effusive, in their conversation which made it difficult to think and stifled the conversation of the other diners, but overall it was a pleasant experience. In the garden there is relaxing cascade of water tinkling down the waterfall adding to the ambience of the restaurant.

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2018/09/13/malvern-day-one/feed/ 14 http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2018/09/09/cheries-place-thought-for-the-week-475/ http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2018/09/09/cheries-place-thought-for-the-week-475/#comments Sun, 09 Sep 2018 22:45:08 +0000 CherryPie http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/?p=21195 Ultimately we have just one moral duty:

to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.

Etty Hillesum

Little Malvern Court is a 14th century Prior’s Hall once attached to a 12th century Benedictine Priory with Victorian additions. The house, home to the Berington family by descent since the Dissolution of the Monasteries displays paintings and furniture along with a collection of 18th and 19th century and needlework.

Doubtless, the preservation of this notable medieval hall can be ascribed to the fact that since the dissolution of the Monasteries  in the 1530s by order of King Henry VIII, the property has passed by descent from John Russell in the early 16th Century to the Berington family, the present owners.

The Benedictine Priory of Little Malvern was founded by Bishop Simon of Worcester in the first half of the 12th Century. A small monastery (never having more than a dozen monks at any one time), it was subject to the See of Worcester. On his Visitation in 1480, Bishop Alcock of Worcester was most displeased at ‘the great ruin of the church and place’ at Little Malvern. Bishop Alcock set about a major restoration work of the Church and Monastery, having despatched the monks to Gloucester for two years as a punishment. The walls of the Prior’s Hall bear traces of his repair work. *

Our guided tour of Little Malvern Court revealed to us that there was more to its history than the was initially apparent from the advertising literature. We learned that the Russells were a recusant family from Strensham and that the house was a safe place for Catholics that did not wish to renounce their faith in favour of the Church of England.

The house had a resident priest and a secret chapel in the eaves of the house. On our way up to the chapel we were shown black marks on the wooden beams which are thought to be marks warding off evil spirits. We were also shown an access point in the ceiling that could have been an escape route for the priests and worshipers, although it is not known where the exit led to. The chapel is accessed by staircase which is more ladder than stair. From the chapel we were shown where a landing had been cut away. The landing when intact would have connected the chapel to a spiral staircase on the opposite side of the building.

When we returned downstairs we were shown the access to the spiral staircase, which still exists. After looking at the wall I was convinced that there would have been a secret panel in the wall concealing the staircase access.

*From A brief history of Little Malvern Court Worcestershire