Swinfen Hall photos on Flickr

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Taken close to the shortest day of the year, the wintry sun throws the trees into silhouette and forms a ring of light around the sheep grazing in the parkland at Swinfen Hall, Staffordshire.

For many years an elegant hotel within a mile or two of Lichfield, we were sorry to hear it closed earlier this year.

Best viewed full-screen.

19th December 2005

Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire by Ken Barley

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Lovat Bank, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, 13 May 2022

The Historic England listing for this property says:

House. 1877, by Edward Swinfen Harris, for F J Taylor, mineral water and mustard manufacturer. Domestic Revival style. Red brick, English bond, with some limestone dressings and some timberframed upper floors with brick noggings and gables with plaster infill impressed with sunflower designs. Tiled roofs. Two storeys and attics. Entrance on north to reception/stair hall, with reception rooms on south and service wing on left beyond service stair in tower. Front elevation has brick and stone gothic porch with stone strings and hood, and inner order on carved stone capitals. Recessed glazed timber door. First floor has timberframed bay, and simple sash windows under near-flush pointed brick arches in manner of Butterfield. Gabled dormers. Stair tower rises from multiple chamfered brick offset courses, and is octagonal with decorative brick panels, returning to circular before multiple outsetting courses below eaves. Conical slate tower with decorative ironwork. Rear elevation has stone mullioned and dressed windows, and two gables, one framed, the other tile hung. Interior has staircase with carved newels and turned balusters and similar turned baluster gallery overlooking hall from first floor. Some original fireplaces. Various window box-seats. Panelled doors. Gilded timber cornice in dining room and panelled ceiling on carved wall posts and corbels. Fine stained and painted glass, especially in dining room, where four panels representing the Seasons are possibly by N Westlake, a close associate of the architect.

National Memorial Arboretum Millennium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness, Alrewas by j9ksf

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The Chapel is the only place within the United Kingdom where the Act of Remembrance is observed on every day of the year. The altar, pulpit and lectern were all carved by the inmates of Swinfen Hall Young Offenders Institute, just a few miles from the Arboretum.

Circa 1883 - Gatehouse at Bletchley Park - Bletchley - 13Sep21 - grade II listed by Kerry Taylor

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Circa 1883 - The gatehouse at Bletchley Park - Bletchley, Buckinghamshire on 13 September 2021.

Grade II listed.

The following is from the Historic England website.

Name: Gatehouse and attached south range

Designation Type: Listing

Grade: II

List UID: 1246848

The south side of the stable yard consists of the gateway, flanked by single storey ranges to the east and west, that to the west originally slightly detached, each having a half-hipped roof and forming the south return of the west stable range (q.v.). Built in c.1883-88 for H.S Leon following his purchase of the property in 1883, as a store for apples, pears and plums produced on the estate. Altered and extended by Edward Swinfen Harris in c.1890. Converted in 1938-39 to provide accommodation for Government Code and Cypher School (CG&CS) by Hubert Faulkner, a local builder.

PLAN: a long range, aligned east-west and enclosing the south side of the stable yard; it adjoins the south end of the west range, now The Bungalow and attached stables range (qv).

EXTERIOR: One and a half storeys. The gatehouse, which faces across the rear of Bletchley Park (qv), is built of timber, raised on four-in brick pilasters on flanking walls, the posts rising from stone pads, and having trefoil-pierced arched braces to a high horizontal lintel each side. Boarded soffit with access trap for a vertical iron stair. The superstructure containing the clock mechanism is gabled on the north and south faces. Framed with square panel decorative framing, and having pebbledashed infill. Two keyed bronze clocks face the yard and rear of the house. Bargeboards carved with stepped arcading rise to meet at a dropped pendant. Plain tile roof with crested ridge tiles. Two smaller gables of similar construction face east and west over the linked buildings. At the centre of the roof, standing on a tiled octagonal base below ridge level, is an octagonal louvred belltower with a lead-covered ogee cap carrying a wind vane with a wyvern crest.

Running east from the gatehouse, a single storey range of eight bays with three single bay two-storey gables facing south, with deep bargeboarded eaves, plain Dreadnaught nib-tiled roof (probably dating from a re-roofing), half-hipped at the gatehouse end, with crested ridges. The first and third gables from the gatehouse originally had wide brick-arched openings and double doors for access to the fruit stores, now infilled. Two original two-light timber casement windows survive in the gables. Also a single door and various replaced paned timber windows on the ground floor. The eighth bay was apparently added in the late 1880s or early 1890s by E.S Harris, and has a door and windows in the gable end.

The yard elevation, facing north, has a high chamfered plinth, later rendered and colourwashed, and various replaced windows, with the added end bay returned by 1/2 bay under a hipped roof carried on four chamfered posts. This covers an entrance and window from the yard at the east end. Two small side windows with coloured leaded glass. Beyond the end gable, a short crenellated wall running east from the south face of the building has a two-centred gateway arch with a framed and panelled door with decorative ironwork on the south face.

West of the gatehouse. is a two-bay single-storey returned end of the west range of the former garage, the front now infilled with wire-cut Flettons when the building was converted to a dwelling for the site surveyor[ PW1]. Similar tiled roof half-hipped against the gatehouse. It appears to have been built independently of the gatehouse and linked later.

INTERIOR: The range east of the gatehouse is subdivided by plastered brick partitions, with a stud wall forming a corridor on the south side. Boarded floors. Two chimney stacks, with stepped tile, and brick fireplaces. The single purlin roof is on king-post trusses and intermediate studs above and below the collar.

HISTORICAL NOTE: during the Second World War, the section east of the gatehouse, known then as the 'bungalow' was re-partitioned to accommodate the [PW2] Enigma Attack section of CG&CS.

The group of buildings intimately associated with. and lying to the north of the listed Bletchley Park consists of two ranges of buildings forming the south and west side of the former stable yard, a row of three cottages. now forming the north side of the yard. and two estate buildings, now private dwelling houses known as The Bungalow and Fenella (not included), continuing the west range further to the north beyond the north gate. The range of eight loose boxes enclosing the stable yard on the east was demolished in 1937.

Bletchley Park is the successor to Water Hall, a fine mansion built in 1711 by the eminent historian Dr Browne Willis. co-founder of the Society of Antiquaries of London. on land purchased by his ancestor from the second Duke of Buckingham in 1694. The house was demolished in 1798 by Thomas Harrison. steward to Earl Spencer, the then owner. The estate was split up and was bought in 1865 by a descendent. Spencer Harrison, who sold it in 1870s to a Mr Coleman, who erected a new house, which now forms the rear part of the house now known as Bletchley Park. This was enlarged by a succeeding owner, Samuel Beckham in 1881 who had bought it with 430 acres. The estate however was again sold in 1883 to Herbert Samuel Leon. an eminent stockbroker. financier, company director, later a county councillor, liberal MP for North Division of Buckinghamshire (1891-1895), newspaper proprietor, successful farmer and a good friend of the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who frequently stayed at the house. He was created baronet in 1911, and through his local interest and beneficence, the town benefited considerably. Sir Herbert considerably enlarged the house immediately following his purchase, adding an opulent new south front range. The identity of his architect is not known. He also developed ancillary accommodation to the north around a stable yard and his extensive nursery gardens, which included a walled garden and orchid houses. Further buildings on the estate, which at one time had about 200 staff, including the Lodge, built in 1886, Dauphin House (for M & E engineer) 1886. the Laundry 1888. Lodge and Pavilion on Buckingham Road. 1896-7, a house in School Lane, 1899 and the eight Noel Cottages on Church Green Road, of 1904. He died in 1926 and Lady Fanny Leon continued to live there and actively support the community until her death in 1938. The estate was then further split up and sold.

After March 1938. with the tensions in Europe rising fast following the Austrian Anschluss, the property. then vacant, was identified from a list of available properties by 'Commander' Alastair [PW3] Denniston of the Ministry of Works as a new dispersal location for the Foreign Office's Code and Cypher School, GC & CS, later renamed GCHQ. The first elements of the organisation, known flippantly as Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party', moved in in August 1939. The accommodation in the house was soon insufficient for the rapidly growing organisation, and personnel spilled over into all outbuildings, and a range of hastily erected prefabricated huts.

The organisation, under Rear-Admiral Sinclair, who was later referred to simply as 'C', was equipped with and developed the Enigma electro-mechanical deciphering machines originally designed in the 1920s. The enemy coded messages deciphered here by the 7,000-plus staff were greatly instrumental in the prosecution and successful outcome of the Second World War. The accommodation was soon expanded into a series of huts, a further expansion occurring in response to German expansion into the Balkans and North Africa. The Station was responsible for developing methods to penetrate up to 58 German Enigma codes, and to sift the intelligence, termed top secret ULTRA, for direct transmission to the Prime Minister, Whitehall and to operational field stations, the special liason Units. One of its most significant early successes was the interception of the German Knickebein beam guidance system in June 1940. later, it became the hub of the Battle of the Atlantic and was able to forewarn accurately the disposition of German defences prior to Operation Overlord. It also identified secret work at Peenemunde and forewarned the V-weapon attacks.

Circa 1890 - Cottages 1,2 & 3 at Bletchley Park - Bletchley - 13Sep21 - grade II listed by Kerry Taylor

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Circa 1890 - Cottages 1,2 & 3 at Bletchley Park - Bletchley, Buckinghamshire on 13 September 2021.

Grade II listed.

The following is from the Historic England website.

ame: Cottages 1, 2 and 3

Designation Type: Listing

Grade: II

List UID: 1246849

A row of three cottages, now two dwellings and an exhibition area, forming the north side of the former stable yard of Bletchley Park (qv), and probably originally an alteration and extension of an earlier north range undertaken c.1890 by Edward Swinfen Harris, architect of London and Stony Stratford, for Leon's Head Groom, Cottage (No 1), a feed store with hay loft over (No 2), and, at the east end (No 3), a tack room with accommodation for stable lads over. Converted in 1938-39 to provide accommodation for Government Code and Cypher School (CG&CS) by Hubert Faulkner, a local builder.

PLAN: east-west aligned range enclosing north of stable yard.

EXTERIOR: Head Groom's cottage, now No 1, of two-storey, 'l'-plan, red brick, with shaped tile hanging to the south-facing upper storey and the half-hipped gable at the rear. Plain red tiled roof with crested ridges. Entrance in the angle of the 'l' under a forward extension of the roof, facing south; a recessed porch with a two-bay timber arcaded front on turned columns, covering a five-panelled door and two-light hall window with diamond lattice lead glazing. The main living room in the south gable has a canted bay window with PVCu glazing and hipped tiled roof. Above, on the first floor, a four-light window, later altered. To the rear two segmental-headed plate glass sash windows on the ground floor, and two two-light windows on the first floor. large brick stack with brick string and outsetting head, carrying four clayware pots. The west side- the upper floor is tile hung above a double chamfered brick course, and attached at right angles, a low service outbuilding providing a covered lobby for the side door, a fuel store and door to the rear garden. A short two-storey service wing to the east with a rear entrance extends to meet the rear of Cottage No 2.

Cottage No 2 stands forward of the Groom's Cottage, attached by an angled rendered brick wall [PW1] flanked by offsetting brick buttresses, now infilled with two four-paned windows, probably an alteration of c.1910. The cottage is of one storey and attics, and consists of two parallel ranges with a central valley gutter, roofed with plain red tiles with crested ridges. Beyond the forward buttress, a panelled door with six-pane light, and, to the right, a further sash window, followed by a projecting one and a half storey brick stair tower with canted angles rising from a high chamfered plinth to a hipped roof with open eaves. Two-light windows directly under the eaves around the southwest angle. Six-flue brick chimney between Cottages No 2 and No 3.

Cottage No 3, now a private dwelling, continues the double banked building past the stair tower, the roof returning at a slightly higher level at the east end forming a small louvred gablet above the front ridge. Similar window details and white painted front. Large dormer on the return end. Brick stack with red clayware pots. Four-light window and a long lean-to against the gable end. To the rear, paired four-light sash windows under a painted lintel, four-light window with segmental head, and two dormers, one four-light and one two-light, with tile hung gables.

INTERIORS: modernised. Through corridor in No 1, with door to the former sitting room on the left, and dog-leg stair on the right. In No 2, the corridor runs at an angle. The stair has a high match boarded dado and a pole handrail supported on square chamfered balusters. Rooms plastered. Half-storey in attic.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Following the acquisition of Bletchley Park by GC&CS, Cottage No 1 was occupied by Lt. Commander Dunn, head of Naval Intelligence, with his two A TS drivers billeted on ground floor. Cottage No 2 was occupied by the Head Storeman, and No 3 by the Catering Officer responsible for feeding the very numerous staff of Bletchley Park.

The group of buildings intimately associated with, and lying to the north of the listed Bletchley Park consists of two ranges of buildings forming the south and west side of the former stable yard, a row of three cottages, now forming the north side of the yard, and two estate buildings, now private dwelling houses known as The Bungalow and Fenella (not included), continuing the west range further to the north beyond the north gate. The range of eight loose boxes enclosing the stable yard on the east was demolished in 1937.

Bletchley Park is the successor to Water Hall, a fine mansion built in 1711 by the eminent historian Dr Browne Willis, co-founder of the Society of Antiquaries of London, on land purchased by his ancestor from the second Duke of Buckingham in 1694. The house was demolished in 1798 by Thomas Harrison, steward to Earl Spencer, the then owner. The estate was split up and was bought in 1865 by a descendent, Spencer Harrison, who sold it in 1870s to a Mr Coleman, who erected a new house, which now forms the rear part of the house now known as Bletchley Park. This was enlarged by a succeeding owner, Samuel Beckham in 1881 who had bought it with 430 acres. The estate however was again sold in 1883 to Herbert Samuel Leon, an eminent stockbroker, financier, company director, later a county councillor, Liberal MP for, North Division of Buckinghamshire (1891-1895), newspaper proprietor, successful farmer and a good friend of the Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who frequently stayed at the house. He was created baronet in 1911, and through his local interest and beneficence, the town benefited considerably. Sir Herbert considerably enlarged the house immediately following his purchase, adding an opulent new south front range. The identity of his architect is not known. He also developed ancillary accommodation to the north around a stable yard and his extensive nursery gardens, which included a walled garden and orchid houses. Further buildings on the estate, which at one time had about 200 staff, including the Lodge, built in 1886, Dauphin House (for M & E engineer) 1886, the Laundry 1888, Lodge and Pavilion on Buckingham Road, 1896-7, a house in School Lane, 1899 and the eight Noel Cottages on Church Green Road, of 1904. He died in 1926 and Lady Fanny Leon continued to live there and actively support the community until her death in 1938. The estate was then further split up and sold.

After March 1938, with the tensions in Europe rising fast following the Austrian Anschluss, the property, then vacant, was identified from a list of available properties by 'Commander' Alastair [PW2] Denniston of the Ministry of Works as a new dispersal location for the Foreign Office's Code and Cypher School, GC&CS, later renamed GCHQ. The first elements of the organisation, known flippantly as Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party', moved in in August 1939. The accommodation in the house was soon insufficient for the rapidly growing organisation, and personnel spilled over into all outbuildings, and a range of hastily erected prefabricated huts.

Following the acquisition of Bletchley Park by GC&CS, Cottage No 1 was occupied by Lt. Commander Dunn, head of Naval Intelligence, with his two A TS drivers billeted on ground floor. Cottage No 2 was occupied by the Head Storeman, and No 3 by the Catering Officer responsible for feeding the very numerous staff of Bletchley Park. The organisation, under Rear-Admiral Sinclair, who was later referred to simply as 'C', was equipped with and developed the Enigma electro-mechanical deciphering machines originally designed in the 1920s. The enemy coded messages deciphered here by the 7,000-plus staff were greatly instrumental in the prosecution and successful outcome of the Second World War. The accommodation was soon expanded into a series of huts, a further expansion occurring in response to German expansion into the Balkans and North Africa. The Station was responsible for developing methods to penetrate up to 58 German Enigma codes, and to sift the intelligence, termed top secret ULTRA, for direct transmission to the Prime Minister, Whitehall and to operational field stations, the Special Liason Units. One of its most significant early successes was the interception of the German Knickebein beam guidance system in June 1940. Later, it became the hub of the Battle of the Atlantic and was able to forewarn accurately the disposition of German defences prior to Operation Overlord. It also identified secret work at Peenemunde and forewarned the V-weapon attacks.

Sutton Cheney Leicestershire by jmc4 - Church Explorer

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Lying on a table tomb on the north wall of the chancel is William Roberts 1554 - 1633 which he erected in his lifetime. It has been moved several times around the church and on my visit it was in pieces being restored. This enabled me to see the side normally against the wall. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/4Lb0y6

William, Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1619, lies with his head on an embroidered tasseled cushion wearing armour.

Two inscriptions record:

"Here lyeth interred the body of Sir William Roberts knight. Who in his lifetime being devoted both to Hospitality and Charity, among other memoriable he left workes out of a pious mind an Hospitale for sixe poore men adjoyning this churchyard and endowed it with thirty pounds annually in land for their maintenance forever".

"This Sir William Roberts was sonne of Thomas Roberts gent and married to his first wife Katherine daughter of Richard Elkington gent, and to his second wife Elizabeth daughter of Valentine Hartopp, gent: but by neither had issue. Hee lived 79 years and died Anno Domini 1633 February 24".

He m1 Katherine 1541 - dsp 1622 daughter of Richard Elkington of Shawell Leic

He m2 Elizabeth 1642 daughter of Valentine Hartopp 1633 of Burton Lazars & Anne heiress of William Goodman of Goadby:

Elizabeth was the widow of George Bale 1616 flic.kr/p/bx2pJ1 of Carlton Curlieu Hall, Leic, eldest son of Sir John Bale 1622 and Frances flic.kr/p/bx2pHG daughter of Bernard Brocas of Beaurepaire, Sherborne St John. Hants

Elizabeth already had 3 children

(1) Frances Bale m William Roberts of Barwell

(2) Sir John Bale (1594-c.1660) m1 Emma 1630 heiress of William Halford of Welham m2 Elizabeth ? daughter of William / John ? Bainbrigge of Lockington

(3) Valentine Bale (c.1596-1644) m Elizabeth 1672 heiress daughter of Tobias Chippingdale of Humberstone by Isabella daughter of Thomas Cave

Elizabeth died at the Humberstone home of her son Valentine in 1642

Both wives originally knelt at the east end of the tomb, they are now above him on a wall monument www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2y5fxu

The south facing base is carved with a bunches of figs. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/14YiKX The other has a bell behind which are a crossed spade and pick, both being symbols of the resurrection.

The west end of the chest has the Roberts arms (Per pale argent and gules, a lion rampant sable) with mantling and a tiger's head crest, beneath which are double doors symbolising the entry from earth to heaven. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/GhhQ73

William rebuild the Manor House opposite the church. A great benefactor of the neighbourhood, he also built alms-houses for 6 poor aged men in 1612 , which is now a restaurant, He also gave £30 out of land at Barwell to be lent yearly to 6 tradesmen of Hinckley at tenpence in the pound interest.

In 1630 he was one of the freeholders alongside Richard May, William Drakeley and John Swinfen.

In the Civil War the Roberts family supported the Royalist cause and William described as "the younger" was fined 780 shillings in September 1646 by Parliament. for his "delinquency" of "leaving his own house and residing in the enemy's garrisons"

landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2018/08/343-bale-of-carlton-c...

- Church of St James, Sutton Cheney Leicestershire

c suttoncheneyvillagehall.yolasite.com/the-battlefield-chur...

Sutton Cheney Leicestershire by jmc4 - Church Explorer

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Usually lying on a table tomb on the north wall of the chancel www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/04YG8p is William Roberts 1554 - 1633 which he erected in his lifetime. It has been moved several times around the church and on my visit it was in pieces being restored. This enabled me to see the side normally against the wall.