Marple and the Chartists10

Joseph Chun, who is the farm manager at Marple Hall but also deals with the carriage and horses pulled up at the door promptly at nine on Tuesday, and we started off on what was going to be the journey of a lifetime. I had made some time when I was free the last evening and went to the library to look in books about stately homes to see what sort of place it was that we were going to.

I found out that Erddig Hall was built between 1684 and 1687 during the reign of James II. The North and South wings were added during the 1720s. The owners when it was built were called the Wynne family, but the hall has belonged to the York family since 1733 and up to the current time.

Our trip took us two days. Mrs. Isherwood explained to me that if we had gone by a conventional coach, it would have been much faster, as they would have exchanged horses at various coaching inns along the way. But we are travelling with our coach, and don’t want to exhaust the horses, so we are taking it slowly and having many rest stops. I was so excited by each and every new town and city we traversed that it could have lasted a week and I wouldn’t have complained. We went south from Marple avoiding Stockport and Manchester. We went to High Lane, and then west through a part of Hazel Grove before turning again south to Poynton, and eventually Macclesfield, where we stopped for our first break. From there we went south to Congleton, and then turned southwest through Sandbach to Crewe and then Nantwich where we had our evening meal and stayed the night. As Matilda was still with us, she dealt with helping Mrs. Isherwood for the night and morning. Soon after eight we went almost due west to Wrexham, arriving at our destination about lunch time. Although the ground was very flat, it wasn’t boring and we covered an enormous area.

When we got to Erddig Hall, I was most surprised, as I think Joseph was, and being directed to the servants’ entrance. But Mrs. Isherwood laughed and said some people even called it The Servants Hall due to the fact that the owners, the York family value their servants so highly, even to the extent of having their portraits painted and displayed. Everyone enters the Hall via the servants’ entrance. 

I was very impressed as we drove through the grounds. Although it was only February there were some signs of spring. Mrs. Isherwood pointed out to us that they have a parterre and a yew walk, which of course are just as impressive in the winter, being evergreens. They also have a wonderful collection of ivies. There is also a formal 18^thcentury garden which I know Mrs. Isherwood was keen to have a walk in, and I hoped to be allowed to do so as well. She told us, “The gardens contain rare fruit trees, a canal, and a pond.”

We were welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. York, and as we walked down the long corridor I noticed that what Mrs. Isherwood had said was true. All along the corridor were portraits of the cook, the governess, the gardener,  the laundry maid even. And the building felt so warm. I couldn’t help but comment on it.

“Oh, my dear,” said Mrs. York, “I'm so glad you noticed that and feel that it is an asset for a house such as ours. We have installed a Haden warm air furnace. It was constructed 15 years ago now, in 1826 to be exact, and it was erected by James Haden of the firm George and James Haden in Trowbridge. Poor man had to bring all the bits by horse drawn wagon all the way from there, as of course there were no railways in those days. It comprises a brickwork furnace built into the space under the stairway on this floor, and of course these lower rooms get the benefit as much as those upstairs. Our friends at Penrys Castle have now followed our example and installed one of their own. The warm air goes through a duct from the stove which then goes into the space under the ground floor. As we go upstairs, notice the outlet gratings at the entrance of all the doorways on the ground floor rooms. That is partly why we have everyone enter from the servants’ entrance, you know,” she said, “to keep our heat in. It mostly goes to the central and south end of the house. We are intending to install another stove for the other areas of the house soon. However, Mr. York is hoping to see if a furnace made by their competitors will suit us as well or better. So he has ordered that from Musgraves of Belfast. As we walked along, she opened the door next to the still room and said, “Here it is, our wonderful heat maker itself,” and we all were duly impressed.

As we went through the house I saw the series of bell pulls, mainly for the nurseries it seemed, and there was a poem written on the wood below them.

May Heaven Protect our Home From Flame

Or Hurt or Harm of Various Name

And May no Evil Luck Betide

To anyone Who Therin Abide.

On Any Acre of its Ground,

And Also Who their Homes have Found

Or Who from Home have found our Gate

Bestow Their Toil on This estate. P.Y.

(I presume this was one of the York’s initials)

I was to find other verses written and posted in other parts of the hall as we went around during our stay.

As we entered the parlour, Mrs. York said she would have her man take Matilda to the station where she would be able to find when she could get a coach to her sister’s home in Llangollon. If there wasn’t a convenient one, she was to return to the Hall and stay the night.

Before Mrs. Isherwood went to her room, she was given a much welcome cup of tea. Mrs. Isherwood commented on the fine collection of furniture and other treasures and Mrs. York said, “I am afraid I cannot throw anything away. I am a terrible hoarder and I don’t just keep the rare and magnificent things, but also the ordinary and everyday ones.”

Mrs. York told me that I would have my room in the attic, where they kept a special room just for visitor’s maids - I wouldn’t have to share - unless Matilda couldn’t get a coach that night in which case I would be sharing with her. And in the ground floor I would find the housekeeper’s room, if I needed anything to make Mrs. Isherwood’s stay more comfortable. Mrs. Isherwood was to be given one of the Chinese rooms, truly an honour as the furnishings are very valuable and rare treasures. She also indicated to us where the drawing room, dining room and the chapel were. They do keep a state bedroom, but that is special for royal visitors only. I would have my meals in the servants’ hall which was below stairs near the butler’s pantry.

She said whenever we wished, we could go through to the outbuildings and walled garden and grounds which include a blacksmith shop, saw mill, stable yard, carriages, laundry, bake house, and kitchen, and a joiner's shop as well as the usual stables.

I was very impressed, which was not surprising considering my ignorance of these things, but I could tell Mrs. Isherwood was impressed as well.

We had a comfortable night and an early breakfast. Matilda had been able to get her coach the afternoon before, so it was just me to be Mrs. Isherwood’s maid. I had no problems with her clothing or hair styling, and she said she was very pleased with me. I was to accompany her to Chester and if we were not needed at the court, we would spend our time touring the sites of this our county’s most important city.

As we drove north and west into Chester, we passed through the ancient city walls, and saw a massive stone weir as we went over the Dee Bridge. Mrs. Isherwood, who is well versed in history told me that this piece of high ground where the River Dee sweeps in a gradual curve has had strategic importance from earliest times, and around the year 907AD, the Saxons of Mercia under Aethelfleda, as part of their re-occupation of the old Roman fortress, erected a fortified base here and incorporated it into their extension to the walls, to serve as part of their defences against the Danes, who were then being driven out of Ireland and looking for new lands to occupy. I hoped we would be able to walk around the city on the stone wall.

She told me that Chester Castle (pictured above)  was the frontier base from which North Wales was attacked and eventually conquered in the 12th and 13th centuries and the exchequer, courts and prison were based here, as well as housing the garrison.

She said, “After centuries of service, Chester Castle sustained serious damage during the Civil War, which you now know so much about, Eliza, and by the 18th century had been allowed to fall into a state of advanced decay. After the war, Oliver Cromwell had ordered many castles - such as that at nearby Liverpool - to be partially or completely demolished so they could not be used to wage war again, but here at Chester the least damaged parts of the building continued in use.”

Now we had reached our goal - the court at Chester Castle. In the centre is a massive and impressive portico. Mrs. Isherwood told me the history of this too. Each of its twelve Doric columns is formed from one single stone 23 feet in height. The interior of the court was built in a semi-circle with twelve Ionic columns as supports. Originally, the jury's retiring room and the turnkey's lodge were to the left of the court, as was also the entrance to the cells, the lower level of which were occupied by the felons and the upper by the debtors.

“Architect Thomas Harrison who was responsible for making Chester Castle as it appears today,” she said, “has been praised for creating one of the most powerful monuments of the Greek Revival in the whole of England.

“In 1783, the prison reformer John Howard visited Chester. On a visit overseas, he had been captured by privateers and imprisoned in terrible conditions in France. After his release, this bitter experience led him to devote his considerable energies and fortune to campaigning for an improvement in prison conditions - he persuaded the government to order gaolers to be paid properly - formerly they were forced to live on what they could extort for the inmates - and prisons to be kept clean and their occupants decently fed.

“He described the medieval Northgate Gaol as 'insufficient, inconvenient and in want of repair' and compared it to the Black Hole of Calcutta.

“Stung by Howard's criticisms, the city authorities realised something had to be done, so, as part of the rebuilding of the Castle, a new prison was commissioned and opened in 1792. The design aimed to provide the inmates with dry and airy cells, and the sexes were separated for the first time. Different classes of prisoner were also segregated- debtors were housed in 'airy yards' on the upper level, said to 'command a delightful view of the fine ruins of Beeston Castle.'”

As we walked into Chester Castle, and the place of the Assizes we saw a list on a board in the entry hall. I found it, I found John Robinson’s name. It says he is a labourer from Manchester, which is, of course, wrong - but it says exactly the same thing of all the accused. And then on the list of witnesses I found Mrs. Isherwood’s name. There were five witnesses from Stockport from the total of 68 in all. The jury of twelve were nearly all local to this area - only two from Stockport, none from Macclesfield or any area closer to Marple.

Mrs. Isherwood was told by the Bailiff that she would not be needed for the day's proceedings as it would mostly be to swear in the jury and deal with preliminaries, but that she should come again at nine a.m. the next morning.