…Priest-Hole Maker

Synopsis (from the back of the book):

During the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I it was high treason, and therefore meant death, to be a Catholic priest in England. It was consequently vital that there be somewhere to hide when the pursuivants came battering at the door. One name is prominent in the construction of priest-holes – that of Nicholas Owen. A very short and later crippled man, he built the majority of these shelters, so saving the lives of untold numbers of priests and fugitives. His early apprenticeship as joiner and his knowledge of construction served him will as he burrowed into walls and constructed near-invisible entrance holes. Although a well-know figure in Recusant studies, and almost invariably mentioned in histories of the Gunpowder Plot, this is his first detailed biography.

St Nicholas Owen was born in Oxford, the son of a carpenter. Two of his brothers were to train as Catholic priests on the continent. A third, Henry, the first apprentice at what was to become the Oxford University Press, went on to assist the Mission with the production of Catholic books and pamphlets. Nicholas was himself apprenticed to and Oxford joiner in 1577.

Acting as a servant to Fr Henry Garnet SJ for nearly twenty years, Owen had many adventures, narrowly evading capture, and assisted in the escape of the Jesuit Fr John Gerard from the Tower of London in 1597. St Nicholas was tortured at the Poultry Compter in 1594 but later released. He was finally taken in one of his own priest-holes during the rigorous pursuit of Catholics that followed the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, and died upon the rack in the Tower of London in 1606.

Evidence of St Nicholas Owen’s work is still visible in contury houses and mansions across England, and recent research has unveiled greater detail of his fascinating career assisting the English Mission aat the close of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries.

Review:

This fascinating account of both Nicholas Owen and his construction of priest-holes is well worth a read. The book also gives accounts of Jesuit priests and the Catholic families that helped and concealed them from pursuivants. The content is quite graphic at times, detailing hanging and torture procedures. We are told of Nicholas’ early life, his work in creating the hides right through to his torture, death and beyond to when he became one of the forty-martyr saints who received canonization in 1970. The book is fully illustrated with black and white photographs and diagrams of the hides, houses and some of the key players of this period in history.

Harvington Hall, a medieval and Elizabethan manor house situated on an island surrounded by a moat is in the ownership of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham.

A house full of secrets, Harvington Hall was built in the 1580s by Humphrey Pakington, who was a recusant Catholic under the Protestant rule of Elizabeth I. The hall brings to life the fascinating history of the survival of Catholic families and clergymen at a time when it was high treason for a Catholic priest to be in England. The remarkable survival of its priests’ hiding places and rare Elizabethan wall paintings, together with its unique character, make Harvington Hall an extraordinary place with a captivating story, never to be forgotten.*

In 1696 the house passed to the Throckmorton family and remained in their hands until 1923. The Throckmortons also owned and lived in the nearby Coughton Court, which led to Harvington being stripped of items and fittings to be installed in Coughton including the grand staircase. The house was left to become derelict until, in 1923, it was purchased and donated to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham. The house has now been fully restored including a replica staircase; the original of which can still be seen at Coughton Court.

Harvington Hall boasts the largest surviving collection of priests’ hiding places in the country. Built in the time of Humphrey Pakington (1555-1631), some of these hides are believed to be the work of the ingenious carpenter and hide-builder, Nicholas Owen, who was arrested in 1606 and tortured to death in the Tower of London.*

The first hide that is encountered on the guided tour of the house is situated above the bread oven within the thickness of the chimney stack. This hide was accessed by a trapdoor in the garderobe in the room above the kitchen.

On the first floor, the Withdrawing Room also hides a priest hide behind wood panelling next to the fireplace. On the opposite side of the fireplace the original 16^th century ladder for accessing the hide can be seen.

The Great Chamber, next door to the Withdrawing Room, conceals a hide above the ceiling of the Butler’s pantry in the corner of the chamber. Entry for this hide was from the top floor and the difference in levels was obscured by a panelled porch which covered the door from the Chamber to the Pantry and also from the Chamber to the Great Staircase.

A very ingenious hide was unearthed in 1894 within Dodd’s Library. Inside a space that was originally a book cupboard is a hinged wall panel that, when pushed at the top, swings up to reveal a space behind.

On the top floor of the house is a priest’s room which has a hidden space under the floor where the vestments, the church plate and other items for mass could be concealed when not in use. On this floor is another smaller chapel with walls decorated with rows of red and white drops representing the blood and water of the Passion.

Round the corner from the small chapel is the Marble Room where a false fireplace in the corner of the room gives access to the attic space and a further priest hole in the corner of the roof. The fireplace has been blackened to simulate smoke discolouring so that it appears to have been used.

Five steps, which are original, lead down to the grand staircase. Two of the steps when lifted reveal a small cavity (the back of which is now missing), where money and valuables could be hidden. Originally this drew the eye from the larger cavity that was concealed behind; a priest hide measuring 5ft 9ins by 5ft and 6ft high. This hide is above the butler’s pantry next to the Great Chamber, and as are the other hides located around the grand staircase thought to be the work of Nicholas Owen.

Owen was servant to Fr Henry Garnet, the Jesuit superior in England, who during the 1590s built up a network of houses throughout the country to which incoming priests could be directed and where they could find disguises, chapels and priest holes.

The centre of this operation for Worcestershire and the Welsh Marches was Hindlip House, the home of Humphrey’s friend Thomas Habington, where the Jesuit Edward Oldcorne arrived in 1590.It was there that Garnet, Owen and Oldcorne were all captured in 1606, just after the Gunpowder Plot.

Owen was starved out of one of his own hides on the fourth day of a twelve day search, during which he and a companion, Ralph Ashley, had nothing to eat but one apple between them. He died under torture in the Tower; Garnet, Oldcorne and Ashley were all hanged, drawn and quartered. Although Hindlip was demolished in 1814, descriptions of the hides there show a striking similarity to those that survive at Harvington.**

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• *From 2017 Harvington Hall leaflet
• ** From Harvington Hall Website
• Further source of information – Harvington Hall guidebook by Michael Hodgetts

NB: All photos including the individual photos in the mosaics can be viewed full size here.