Chapter 9: Post Middle Age History

Following the division of the manor of Holt in 1420, over 150 years passed before the manor was recombined following a series of complex transactions between the likes of Sir John Bourne, Anthony Bourne, Thomas Fortescue, John and Martin Crofts, and Sir Thomas Bromley.

Sir Thomas Bromley, was the Lord Chancellor (1579-1587) to Queen Elizabeth, who had presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. He bought one of the parts in 1576 from Anthony Bourne. Bourne was the son of Sir John Bourne who had purchased Holt Caste in 1559 from John Croft’s heir, Martin, when he was the Secretary of State under Queen Mary. Bromley acquired the final part of the manor on his marriage to Elizabeth Fortescue in 1578.

Sir Thomas Bromley

Sir Thomas’ eldest son, Sir Henry Bromley was born in Holt Castle. Sir Henry inherited all his father's lands except the family seat at Holt Castle, which was held by his widowed mother for her life.

In February 1601 Sir Henry was implicated for his involvement with the Essex Rebellion, and his lands, including Holt Castle, were forfeited and he was briefly imprisoned. He was amongst the fourth category of offenders in the Essex Rebellion, those heavily fined and "reserved to her Majesty's use". Upon the accession of James I in 1603 these lands were returned to him, and he proceeded to show King James his full loyalty. Evidently Bromley found favour at court for on 8 February 1604 he received a grant in fee-farm of land in the Duchy of Lancaster, and in September, a further grant of lands in Essex and Suffolk. Both grants were worth substantial annual incomes. Nine years later, and no doubt enabled by his large income, Henry reunited the final portion of Holt manor when he bought it from Ezechiel Evans. As a magistrate Henry Bromley had rounded up the Jesuit priests Henry Garnet and Edward Oldcorne, the last wanted men in the Gunpowder Plot, at Hindlip on the outskirts of Worcester in 1606.

Hindlip Hall was well fitted out with priest hides and secret rooms of all kinds. Father Garnet arrived there with others on 4 December 1605; a month after the Gunpowder Plot had failed. He was used to being on the run; he had been so for about 20 years. He probably stayed at Coughton until the search let up a bit and then headed directly to the safer place, Hindlip Hall, three miles north east of Worcester. Sir Henry Bromley arriving early on 20 January 1606 and found the beds still warm- four more warm beds than people! A hundred or more armed men surrounded the house. As the men knocked on the gate servants rushed to hide religious articles as well as the Jesuits. The man of the house, Thomas Habington, was away but the women employed delaying tactics, sending servants to talk back and forth.

Bromley eventually broke down the gates, but this process was time consuming and the Jesuits were safely hidden away along with the religious articles. Thomas Habingdon returned to find his house being torn apart. Floors were ripped up and oak panelling was taken down. Walls were removed and ceilings prodded. After three days Bromley was about to give up, but just then a number of Popish items were found hidden under the floor boards and the trail became fresh again. All kinds of secret hides were discovered, all unused and dusty.

Fearing that the search was a waste Bromley had left, but the search at the house continued. Seven days after the search had begun the secret chamber tucked away in an angle of the chimney-breast was discovered. In order to survive the priests had sucked broth and other drinks and a mixture of wine and eggs through a straw through a wall into another room. At the same time Garnet and Oldcorne were being taken out of their hiding place, the other main conspirators; Fawkes, The Winters, Digby, Rookwood, Keyes, Grant and Bates, were being taken from the Tower to the Star Chamber for their treason trial. They had been all condemned to death by the time news reached London of the capture from Bromley. The transportation of the prisoners was delayed so they would not meet at the hearing.

Bromley was to write the official letter of the capture and date it several days later on the 30th of January. First Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne were moved to the jail at Worcester on the 27th. Then they were taken to Holt Castle where they were treated like royalty. The time delay in the transport of the prisoners was such that the eight men who could have cleared them of complicity in the plot were silent. Bromley though highly of his prisoner, stating that he "... had never in his life met the like man to Mr. Garnet either for modesty, wisdom, or learning," and describing him as "a learned man and a worthy priest". Garnet and Oldcorne were shown no brutality in their stay at Holt Castle. This is an interesting display of mixed loyalty by Bromley, after all the current consensus of opinion was that the priests were behind the Gunpowder Plot, and the Sheriff of Worcester had two of the leading Jesuits in his hands.

On January 30, three days after word of the capture of the two priests reached London, Robert Winter, Sir Everard Digby, John Grant and Thomas Bates met a horrible end by being were hanged, drawn and quartered in St. Paul's Churchyard. The following day at Old Palace Yard, Thomas Winter, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes and Guy Fawkes met the same fate. Garnet, Oldcorne and others that had been discovered at Hindlip took three days to travel to London. Following imprisonment, during which he was placed on the rack for five days, and trial, Oldcorne and some other lesser conspirators were transported back to Worcester for their execution. On 7 April they were hanged, drawn and quartered at Red Hill just outside the city. The person convicted was usually drawn on a sledge to the place of execution; there he was hung by the neck from a scaffold, being cut down and disembowelled while still alive; his head then was cut from his body and his corpse divided into four quarters.Garnet was executed in London on 3 May.

Sir Henry Bromley married four times, lastly to Anne Beswicke who erected a monument in the chancel of Holt Church to her husband. He died in 1615 and was succeeded by his son Thomas from his second marriage. Thomas, who was knighted, died in 1629 leaving the estates to his son Henry who was also Sheriff of Worcestershire, and took the Royalist side in the Civil War. When the Royalist lost to the Parliamentarians he was finded £4000 (one sixth of his property) in 1646, this in addition to the £30,000 that he is said to have given in support of the Royalist cause. Two years later a warrant was issued for his arrest for non-payment. He capitulated and paid his fines. Henry Bromley was in turn succeeded by his son Henry, Henry’s son William and William’s son Henry. Henry sold Holt manor to Thomas Lord Foley of Great Witley in 1750.

The English Civil War (1642-1651)

The Russell family consolidated the manorial rights. During the turbulent times following the Civil War of 1642-1651, the Manor passed out of the hands of land owners and into the possession of industrialists. Thomas Foley, an ironmaster from Stourbridge in Worcestershire bought the estate in 1655. It was the Foleys who rebuilt St. Michael and All Angels, the famous baroque style church adjacent to Witley Court. Previously a sandstone medieval church stood to the west of the current site. His grandson Thomas III decided to build a new church but died in 1732 before work started. It was left to his widow Mary and son Thomas IV, the second baron Foley, to pay for the new church, which was built closer to the court, was of similar size and had access to the court through a door in the east transept. The church was completed in 2 years probably to designs of James Gibbs. It was plain with a brick exterior and stone dressings matching the facade of the court at that time.

Lady Foley died in December 1735, before the church was opened for worship, but had already commissioned the huge monument to her late husband which stands in the south transept. The memorial, sculpted by John Michael Rysbrack commemorates Lord and Lady Foley and the five children who predeceased them. It was completed in 1735 at a cost of £2000 and is the tallest funerary monument in the country. The interior of the church was plain with a flat ceiling, plain windows and walls, box pews and a high pulpit that had a sounding board above. The reredos panels were wood with the Lord's prayer, ten commandments and the creed.

The Foley Memorial

The Georgian church was transformed in 1747 when the second baron Foley acquired at auction the windows, ceiling paintings and organ from the chapel of the great house of Canons, Little Stanmore, near Edgeware, Middlesex. The stained and painted windows were by Joshua Price in 1719 and 1721 from designs by an Italian artist. The original openings were 9 inches shorter than those at Witley Church so a border had to be added at the bottom of each. The ceiling paintings are the work of the Italian artist Antonio Bellucci.

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Witley Church

The organ had been used at Canons by Handel who was music director to the Duke of Chandos. The gilded stucco mouldings were originally created by Giovanni Bagutti who also worked at Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Instead of transporting all the plasterwork to Witley, papier mache moulds were taken from the original designs. The barrel-vaulted ceiling was suspended below the original flat ceiling, so the lightness of using papier mache was very important.

Additions to the Court in the early 1800s were designed by John Nash. It was during the Foley era that the estate flourished through sound investment both in the new agricultural and industrial technology. However by the beginning of the 19th century successive Foley inheritors had lost the family fortune through over extravagance and gambling. In 1837 the court and estate were sold for £890,000, to 18 years old William, 11th Baron Ward (who later became the first Earl of Dudley in 1860). The Wards had made their fortune from the mining of mineral deposits in the Black Country. Their title survived from early times by a series of financial deals and arranged marriages.

At first William lived in the family home, thus in 1843 Witley Court was lent to Queen Adelaide, the widow of King William IV, who required the pianos to be tuned. A local man, who had recently moved from London to set up his own music dealership and piano-tuning business, was recommended. That man was William Elgar (Edward Elgar's father), and was able to display the royal warrant on his business stationery. Subsequently, when the house was re-occupied by the Dudley family, Elgar senior continued to tune the pianos at the Court as he did in a number of similar grand country houses in the area. The young Edward Elgar was a frequent visitor to the house whilst accompanying his father on his rounds. In later life, as a distinguished composer, Elgar would also be a guest in the house as well.

In 1846 at the age of 28 Lord Ward started to transform both the court and the church. He employed architect Samuel Whitfield Daukes to enlarge the court and transform it based upon the 16th and 17th Italian designs which had become more fashionable after Osborne House on the Isle of Wight had been constructed for Queen Victoria between 1845 and 1848. The outside of the court and church were covered in Bath stone. James and William Forsyth were sculptors who worked on the house, fountains in the gardens and in the church.

Witley Court

As a result of foreign competition the Dudley wealth was on the wane. Between 1889 and 1913 the Earl mortgaged the estate and sold paintings to fund his extravagant entertaining. Changing world markets and the onset of the First World War meant that the second Earl, William Humble Ward, also had to plough increasing sums of money into his industrial businesses in the Black Country. His wife, Rachel 2nd Countess of Dudley, was a great niece of Elizabeth Fry. She had a nursing background, and became president of Kidderminster District Nurses' Society in 1912. The mosaic panels of the reredos in Witley Court Church were brought from Venice by the Countess in 1913. In June 1920 she was drowned in a swimming accident in Ireland.

The estate was broken up and sold off in 1920. Unfortunately in the post war period the great depression was starting, and people were unwilling or unable to invest in land. This was reflected in the number of estate farms that were withdrawn from auction, having failed to attract sufficiently high bids. The court and 800 acres of parkland were sold to Herbert Smith, a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer, later to become Sir Herbert. Staff numbers were reduced over the years and when the fire broke out in the court in 1937 only a few servants were in the house. Fortunately the fire did not reach the church. The insurance was only enough to cover a quarter of the cost of rebuilding. Sir Herbert decided to sell.

The remains of the building were difficult to sell in what was again a pre-war period. They were eventually bought by a succession of scrap dealers and demolition contractors who removed the floors and roofs. Their efforts resulted in the shell of a building that stands today amidst farmland that was once one of the England's finest deer parks in which kings and royal princes hunted. The court eventually fell in to the hands of the Ministry of Works (now English Heritage). Following much work to make the structure safe and provide visitor facilities the court is now open to the public and host to various events throughout the year.

Witley Court church had always had it's heating supplied by the coal fired boilers at the court, so after the fire the church was rarely heated, neglected and damp and decay set in. In 1965 a restoration programme was begun. Extensive renovation has already been carried out on the roof, tower and cupola, but these and the whole of the external stonework required comprehensive work to rectify some of the deterioration due to natural weathering and corrosion.