Author Archives: raesquiggles
Keeping track of the family #familysagas — Rachel Walkley
I created a family. It began with a name, one that I discovered using census data. The website provides details of the popular surnames of English counties. I picked two – one for each of the families that feature in my book, The Women of Heachley Hall. Dates became crucial to plotting the story. Who […] […]
Zimbabwe House – where art and architecture combine #atozchallenge
And so here we are at Z. Except not quite. I need to go back a little in time before we come to Z properly. Many of my posts have been about houses in rural settings – manor houses and great halls. So for my last post, I’m in London because I feel I’ve neglected […]
Yeldersley Hall – so Mr Bond … #atozchallenge
Houses are homes first and foremost, which means they are as much about the people who live in them as they are bricks and mortar. And then there are the people who come and visit. Yeldersley Hall in Derbyshire is an unassuming, Georgian mansion built in 1800 for Edmund Evans, whose family owned a mill. […]
Wigfair Hall and the wandering architect #atozchallenge
I’m starting at Wigfair Hall in Wales, but I am going to wander off to somewhere else by the end of the blog, just to warn you. But first, Wigfair. The Reverend Howard built this large country house on the River Elwy in 1884. Part of the house is a tower, which was originally a […]
Voewood House – a publisher’s legacy #atozchallenge
Most of my posts have been about old, really old houses, so it’s nice to choose one that is more recent (relatively speaking). Voewood House, near Holt in Norfolk, was built for the Reverend Percy Lloyd, the son of the publisher, Edward Lloyd. Lloyd’s publication, Lloyd’s Weekly, was the only newspaper in the 19th century […]
The tale of two Uffords #atozchallenge
For the letter M I told the sad tale of six houses called Montagu. This time I have two Ufford Halls and thankfully, they are still intact. The youngest Ufford is a Georgian mansion near Peterborough. The house was built in 1734 by the Duke of Rutland’s younger son, Charles Manner. His son enlarged the […]
Traquair House – Scotland’s oldest house #atozchallenge
My family and I visited Traquair House just outside Peebles in Scotland when I was in my teens and two things stick in my head – it’s very white and tall, and for some reason, we nicknamed the place Traquack and that also has stuck in my mind. In England, old manor houses were centred […]
Snowshill Manor – let nothing perish #atozchallenge
The point of having a house is to live in it. Isn’t that its purpose? For Charles Paget Wade that wasn’t the case. In 1919, he bought the Tudor manor house of Snowshill in the Cotswold village Snowshill and restored the property. From 821, Snowshill was a monastic building and under the control of Winchcombe […]
Ruffold Old Hall – a guided tour #atozchallenge
Would you like to join me on a guided tour? Please follow me as we enter Old Ruffold Hall, a timber framed manor house in Lancashire. The Hesketh family had been lords of the manor since 1520 and Sir William needed money, so he and his son managed through marriage to acquire sufficient money to […]
