Ufton Court
Encyclopedia
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
at Ufton Nervet
Ufton Nervet
Ufton Nervet is a village and civil parish about southwest of Reading, Berkshire, England.-Location:Ufton Nervet village is in hills south of the River Kennet, and its parish stretches down into the valley to the north as far as the A4 road. Two narrow lanes connect the village to the A4, crossing...
in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
county of Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. Today is it used by an educational charity, The Ufton Court Educational Trust. Other than historical education, the site hosts creative projects too including theatre and music courses.
Parts of the house date from the 15th century. In 1567 it was modified by Richard Perkins and his family who were Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
. The house is notable for its priest hole
Priest hole
"Priest hole" is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558....
s where Recusant Catholics could hide priests and vestments and could hear mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
in the house.
Early history
The history of Ufton Court can be tracked back to the Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, where it is referred to as 'Offetone', with land for five ploughs, forty acres of meadow and wood for one hog. The house was originally a small medieval manor called Ufton Pole and was one of the minor manors belonging to Lord Lovell. Parts of this building remain, including the great hall crossway with the original pantry and buttery doors. Lovell was made a Viscount by Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
and then was in Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
’s inner circle. A well known doggerel of the time refers to Lovell in less than complimentary terms;
The cat, the rat and Lovell the dog,
Rule all England under the hog.
The writer of this, Collingwood, was hanged, drawn and quartered for his efforts. Lovell fell from grace after the battle of Bosworth and the death of Richard III. Lovell was accused of high treason by Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
and Ufton Pole was confiscated by the crown. Twenty three years later Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
gave Ufton Pole to Sir Richard Weston, one of his pages.
In 1568 Pole Manor was bought by Lady Marvyn, the widow of Richard Perkins of Ufton Robert Manor at Ufton Green. She enlarged the house significantly, completing it in 1576, and moved her family from Ufton Robert to Ufton Court, as it then became known. Some of the decorative beams in the house today are thought to have come from Ufton Robert. Lady Marvyn began a tradition that is continued to the present day. In thanks to the villagers who rescued her when she got lost in the extensive local woods, she left money in her will for an annual dole to be handed out to the villagers every Maundy Thursday. It is said there is a curse on the landlord who breaks the tradition, whether this is true or not, no landlord has risked it and Sir William Benyon
William Benyon
Sir William Richard Benyon is a retired British Conservative Party politician, Berkshire landowner and former High Sheriff...
, the current landlord, can be found on Maundy Thursday handing out bread and sheets to the parishioners of Ufton Nervet. Lady Marvyn left the house to her nephew, Francis Perkins, it then remained in the Perkins family until 1769.
The Perkins were persecuted in the 16th century for being Catholics. They were obliged to pay fines for non-attentance at church, and, at least twice, Ufton Court was raided by local magistrates looking for hidden priests. In 1599, Sir Francis Knollys
Francis Knollys (admiral)
Sir Francis Knollys was an English privateer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1575 and 1648....
discovered both priest holes and much gold plate there, but the priests were not in residence. There is still a secret chapel in the roof of the court and traces of a tunnel for escape into the surrounding woods. In the 18th century, Bonnie Prince Charlie is supposed to have visited the family there.
The Rape of the Lock
In 1715, Francis Perkins married Arabella Fermor, the daughter of Henry Fermor of Tusmore in Oxfordshire and a well known society figure. Painters and poets celebrated her charms and her beauty. In the early 18th century, she was the belle of London society. Despite the world's admiration she enjoyed at the time, it is unlikely that she would have been remembered had she not inspired Alexander PopeAlexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
in his most successful work, 'The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712 in two cantos , but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version...
'. The poem was inspired by a London scandal when Lord Petre, a young man of twenty, cut off and stole a lock of her hair without her knowledge. Arabella was extremely angry and a fierce quarrel broke out between the families. John Caryll, Pope's friend, suggested Pope write some amusing lines concerning the event in order to settle this ill-feeling.
The poem he produced was ideal, but not being personally acquainted with the lady, Pope published his work again without permission asking her leave. He appended a motto which implied she had asked for its composition. Pope therefore only made them worse and found himself obliged to publish again. He replaced the motto with a dedicatory letter assuring Arabella that subject matter was "as fabulous as the vision at the beginning, except the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence; . . . the character of Belinda as it is now managed resembles you in nothing but beauty....It will be vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece since I dedicate it to you....If it had as many graces as there are in your Person or in your Mind; yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so uncensured as you have done." Miss Fermor was apparently pacified and, the two may even even become friends.
Though it is unlikely they were aware of the fact, Francis Perkins and Arabella were 9th cousins. Pope wrote her an affectionate letter on the occasion of their marriage: "It may be expected, perhaps, that one who has the title of poet should say something more polite on this occasion, but I am, really, more a well-wisher to your felicity than a celebrator of your beauty. Besides, you are now a married woman, & in a way to be a great many better things than a fine lady, such as an excellent wife, a faithful friend, a tender parent, & at last, as the consequence of them all, a saint in heaven."
It is traditionally said that Ufton Court was enlarged and refashioned for Arabella. Half of the facade, prior to the 1838 alterations, was certainly of the style popular when they married. Some of the interior was modernized at this time too. The dining room and the hall, retained their Elizabethan ceilings, but were entirely repanelled. Arabella and Francis had six children who all died childless and the house fell into neglect and virtual abandonment.
Victorian times
It was advertised for sale in 1837 as ‘unfit for a gentleman's residence.’ It was finally bought by Mr Benyon de BeauvoirRichard Benyon De Beauvoir
Richard Benyon De Beauvoir MP was a 19th century British landowner, philanthropist and High Sheriff of Berkshire.-Background:He was born Richard Benyon in Westminster on 28 April 1769, the son of Richard Benyon of Gidea Hall in Essex and his wife, Hannah the eldest daughter of Sir Edward Hulse,...
of the neighbouring estate of Englefield
Englefield, Berkshire
Englefield is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is mostly within the bounds of the private walled estate of Englefield House....
, who repaired the house and turned it into tenements for his labourers.
Various tenants lived in the house over the next 100 years. The most notable were Mary Sharp, whose detailed history of the house provides us with much valuable information, and Mr and Mrs Harry Benyon
Henry Benyon
Sir Henry Arthur Benyon, 1st Baronet JP was the immediate post-War Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.Born Henry Arthur Fellowes, the son of James Herbert Fellowes of Kingston Maurward House near Dorchester, Dorset. His father changed his name to Benyon after inheriting the Englefield House estate in...
. During this time the house was restored into a gentleman's residence again and there are pictures of the gardens resplendent with herbaceous borders and roses.