17th Century History of A Haunted House - Borwick Hall

Just up the road from where I live is a massive gatehouse and high walls and a tantalising view of crenellated stone and high roofs. Walking all around the wall it becomes apparent that behind the walls lies  a wonderful old house, not open to the public, but a gorgeous stately stone building which has obviously stood for many generations. Enquiries revealed this building to be Borwick Hall.

This gateway was built by Robert Bindloss, the third Robert of his family, in 1650. He had been created a Baronet by Charles I. The Bindloss family had amassed a fortune from their business as clothiers. Robert was elected as the Member for Parliament for the Borough of Lancaster (aged 16) in 1640 and the following year he was knighted by Charles I. In London there was a saying "As rich as Sir Robert in the north." Nowadays it is hard to imagine anyone of 16 becoming an MP.

During the English Civil Wars however, he did not fight for his King - he was afraid to take sides in case his property was requisitioned by one side or the other. He was appointed a High Sherriff for Parliament as well as serving the Crown.

When the young Prince Charles (to be CharlesII ) fled in 1651 he insisted on a safe house at Borwick but Sir Robert himself was nowhere to be found, having taken refuge at a safe house himself away from the possible embarrassment of his two-faced position.

According to local legend, the young King Charles wasted no time in using his considerable charm to take advantage of the warm August night and a first floor bedroom at Borwick Hall to father a child with a young local woman, Lady Dashwood, arranged for his convenience. Afterwards he did honour his obligations though and made provision for the child. Rents from certain properties were made over to Lady Dashwood and were still paid right up until the last century.

After the young Charles's visit, Robert Bindloss stole quietly home. He was by all accounts an extravagant man who took to living beyond his means. He was also not well liked for his persecution of the Quakers at Yealand who were associated with the then radical George Fox. Sir Robert often sent armed guards to break up their meetings, egged on by his personal chaplain Dr Sherlock, a zealot who applied what he regarded as God's will with sinister enthusiasm.

Borwick Hall is said to be haunted by a starving girl who fought against her parents who had arranged her wedding - as punishment she was locked in the tower and forgotten about and starved to death, but her ghost still walks the corridors looking for vengeance.

There is also a story that an old lady knocked on the door in a blizzard one New Years Eve looking for some place to stay. Sir Robert put her up and made sure she was well fed. The next day she gave him a ripe apple and said if he kept it high up above the fireplace all year he would have good fortune that year. If he took it down then disaster would happen. It is still a tradition for someone to knock on the door and hand over an apple to this day.

Sir Robert died without a male heir in 1664 leaving Borwick Hall and his estate to his daughter, Cecilia. She married a Standish, a local prominent Lancashire Catholic family.

As for the Hall, it was used by the military in World War II, then sold off for the sum of £8,800. An amount of £650 was paid by the war department for dilapidations.Later it became a holiday camp and now it belongs to the Lancashire Youth Clubs Association who remain the present owners.

More information on the Hall

A great resource on secret Royal hiding places in old English houses

My books are 

The Lady's Slipper - An artist, a wild orchid and early Quakers  in the years following the English Civil War. 

The Gilded Lily - Beauty, desire, danger and redemption in Restoration London

Portrait of a 17th century English Village House

Following on from Sandra's post about domestic interiors in Holland, I am lucky enough to live in an English village which has many houses still in existence dating from the 17^th century. The evidence for this is written above the doorways in “datestones”, the initials of the original occupier and his wife, thoughtfully carved in stone along with the date. 

In North Lancashire most houses were built of cruck (oak arch) frames with wattle and daub infill, and thatched with straw, or even bracken if you were poor. The average house consisted of four bays (the space between the cruck arches), but some as few as one. Chimneys slowly appeared in the 17^th century, at first as a mere projection from the gable end to keep smoke and fire from the thatch. 

Cruck buildings survived until the Victorian Era -
The Blacksmith's 

The Mourholme Local History Society has done much work to uncover the history of the village and has trawled through Wills and probate inventories, and in my research for The Gilded Lily I referred often to their book “How it was – A North Lancashire Parish in the 17^th Century” which gives details of these bequests.

In the first half of the century the position of rooms in a house was defined by their relationship to the main room, known as the firehouse or the bodystead. In the second half of the century side-rooms are defined by name as buttery (a place for keeping, not making, butter) kitchen, bed-chamber, wash-house. The main room was later described as the parlour or bower. The increase in this standard of living had come earlier in the south but was much slower to spread northwards.

Most village houses were furnished simply. Items mentioned in inventories include

Bedstocks or beadsteads with chaff or feather mattresses.These were mostly 'tester' beds with curtains that could be drawn to provide warmth and privacy.

Tables – surprisingly these feature only in 21% of inventories in the first half of the century, rising to 60% in the second. There were however “trests” – a trestle with a board that could be erected and removed to save space. (The idea of the board survives in the English language as the expression "Bed and Board" or 'boarding house' and even 'boarding school.')

Tableware – from pewter or wood, with wood or horn spoons.

Chairs, stools and ‘formes’ – simple wooden furniture. When I say simple, the construction was simple, but often decoration was added afterwards by the householder resulting in quite elaborately carved items.

An Ark storage box

A man's chair, women's chairs had no arms
so they could knit and sew

Arks – mentioned in half of the inventories were bins made of split wood and pegged together.They were used for storing flour or meal, and could be taken apart for cleaning.

Almeryes – a type of cupboard with a pierced door. Thomas Greenwood who lived in the village had what he called a ‘Cat Mallison’ to keep meat and cheese in. As a maleson meant a curse, we assume it was to keep the cat from the meat!

Brandreth and cauldron – a brandreth was an iron trivet to set over the fire. The cauldron could be set on this, or on rackencrooks (an adjustable hanger from the ceiling).The fires burned peat turves cut from the local marshes, most inventories include stocks of peat for burning.

Quishons (cushions) and other soft furnishings are mentioned frequently; beds were usually draped four posters with bolsters and pillows, though very few inventories mention curtains – I can only assume shutters were employed against the weather.

From these simple rural surroundings in rural Westmorland Ella and Sadie Appleby, the two sisters in The Gilded Lily, are on the run. They set off for London, with only vague ideas that it might be some sort of promised land of milk and honey, that there would be glamour and fortune awaiting them there. For Charles II had returned to the throne and London was at its most glittering and fashionable. What better way to see 17th century London than through their amazed eyes. As a writer I wanted to know how they would cope, and even more intriguingly, how London would change them.

The Lady’s Slipper is out now. The Gilded Lily will be released in the UK Sept 13^th and the US Nov 26^th 2012. www.deborahswift.blogspot.com

furniture pictures from www.periodoakantiques.com and www.onlinegalleries.com