Fwd: EPISODE 57 EYWOOD REVISITED 1960…SAD SIGHT TO SEE



Begin forwarded message:


From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Subject: EPISODE 57 EYWOOD REVISITED 1960…SAD SIGHT TO SEE
Date: June 2, 2020 at 11:04:00 AM EDT


EPISODE 57   EYWOOD REVISITED 1960…SAD  SIGHT TO SEE

alan skeoch
June 2020

“Well, Alan,  I expect you would like to see Eywood?”
“Any time you are ready.”
“Few chores to do first.”
“No problem.  Do you miss he Eywood Estate farm of Oatcroft?”

(Cyril did not answer…just looked at me….perhaps pain in his
way of looking.  Oatcroft was  500 cree in size.  Lower Wooten farm
was about 40 acres.  I should not have asked that question.)



“Let’s round up the sheep  before we go, Alan.”
“Sure thing.”
 (And strangely, this photograph of Cyril , his rented farm, his sheep, has a deep
impact.  Hopeful, purposeful, human.  I was quite willing to delay the visit to
Eywood even though my time in England was very limited.  Actually I feared the 
visit.

Demolitions were happening all over England…big houses  becoming piles of rubble.


Was the demolition of Eywood in1954 startling to the British people?   Was there a feeling that
a national treasure was  about to disappear?  Not in the least.  A country house
was being demolished every five days by 1955.  Some of them far more impressive
than Eywood.  What made matters worse is  that no one seemed  concerned.
The social life of the country houses was dead.   In many cases, like Eywood,
the building faced succession dues as high as 65% of value.  This cost plus
the fact that many of the aristocratic owners  had  been killed in the two World
Wars of the 20th century meant that country houses were doomed.  The large 
number of servants and workers that once depended upon the largesse of
the wealthy class had found better pay and real independence elsewhere.
The result was  that the owners of hundreds of country houses  could not
afford the maintenance of  these once  semi-palatial homes.  Demolition 
was the answer.

In England  alone 1,998 of these large beautiful country houses have
been demolished.  The records are there.  The weeping was not
there.  In the 1950’s England was trying to survive after the devastation
of World War II.   Sympathy for the problems of the wealthy class that
owned these large country houses was lacking.



The strange thing to me was the fact I had a feeling of loss.  Why?
I did  not know Eywood at all.  Where did this feeling of loss come from
then?   It came from those hand carved picture frames hanging in the one
warm room in Grandma and Grandpa Freeman’s farm house.  And
had I looked closely I should have noticed the feeling for Eywood
was really a feeling of fellowship for those who made Eywood function
…the people that worked there.  In each of those picture frames
was a picture of a person.  Not one picture  frame included a
picture of the stately estate country house called  Eywood.

Listed below are the country houses demolished  in Herefordshire alone.
The contents  kept  several auction houses in business.   





Herefordshire
Allensmore Court Allensmore Herefordshire 1958
Aramstone House King’s Caple Herefordshire 1959 N Image(s) [Link to an external site]
Bromtrees Hall Bishop’s Frome Herefordshire c.1945 De, N
Broxwood Court Broxwood Herefordshire 1955 N Image(s)
Cheyney Court Bishop’s Frome Herefordshire 1888 B
Cowarne Court Much Cowarne Herefordshire 1960s Image(s)
Croft Castle Croft Herefordshire 1937 P
Eardisley Park Eardisley Herefordshire 1999 B, N Image(s) [Link to an external site]
Eywood Titley Herefordshire 1954 Su Info + Image(s)
Foxley Yazor Herefordshire 1948 Dw Image(s)
Freens Court Sutton Herefordshire 1953 De
Garnons Mansell Gamage Herefordshire 1957 P Image(s)
Garnstone Castle Weobley Herefordshire 1959 Image(s)
Gayton Hall Upton Bishop Herefordshire 1955
Goodrich Court Goodrich Herefordshire 1950 Image(s)
Harewood Park Harewood Herefordshire 1959 Dw, Su, N Info + Image(s)
Hatfield Court Hatfield Herefordshire P
Hope End House Ledbury Herefordshire 1873 N
Huntingdon Park Huntingdon Herefordshire 1966 De
Knill Court Knill Herefordshire 1943 B, N Info + Image(s)
Letton Court [I] Letton Herefordshire 1863 N
Letton Court [II] Letton Herefordshire 1925 B, N
Moor Court Pembridge Herefordshire 1950s
Moor [The] Clifford Herefordshire 1952
Moreton Court Moreton-on-Lugg Herefordshire 1950s Info + Image(s) [Link to an external site]
Perrystone Court Foy Herefordshire 1959 B, N
Rotherwas Dinedor Herefordshire 1925
Saltmarshe Castle Bromyard Herefordshire 1955 Image(s)
Sarnesfield Court Sarnesfield Herefordshire 1955 Image(s)
Shobdon Court Shobdon Herefordshire 1933 Su Image(s)
Staunton Park Staunton-on-Arrow Herefordshire 1921 N Image(s)
Stoke Edith Tarrington Herefordshire 1927 B Image(s)
Thinghill Withington Herefordshire c.1929/30
Tyberton Court Tyberton Herefordshire 1952 Image(s)
Urishay Castle Peterchurch Herefordshire 1921 S
Whitfield Wormbridge Herefordshire c.1949-53 P Image(s)
Whittern [The] Lyonshall Herefordshire 1930s N
Wistaston Court Herefordshire c.1910 B
Wormbridge House Wormbridge Herefordshire 1798
Hertfordshire
So Cyril Griffiths was going to take me to Eywood.   He seemed in no rush to do so.
His  family were really happy that I  had come.  A descendent of the Eywood family.
Not the blood family.  But the working family.

What would I find when we got to the estate?

I expected ruin.  Expected piles of bricks and broken mortar.
That is not what i found.   What I found was, and remains, quite remarkable.

COMING NEXT.

EPISODE 58:  FINALLY, A VISIT TO EYWOOD…A GRAND SURPRISE…COMING NEXT EPISODE




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