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From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>Subject: EPISODE 57 EYWOOD REVISITED 1960…SAD SIGHT TO SEEDate: June 2, 2020 at 11:04:00 AM EDT
EPISODE 57 EYWOOD REVISITED 1960…SAD SIGHT TO SEEalan skeochJune 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 hisway of looking. Oatcroft was 500 cree in size. Lower Wooten farmwas 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 deepimpact. Hopeful, purposeful, human. I was quite willing to delay the visit toEywood even though my time in England was very limited. Actually I feared thevisit.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 thata national treasure was about to disappear? Not in the least. A country housewas being demolished every five days by 1955. Some of them far more impressivethan 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 plusthe fact that many of the aristocratic owners had been killed in the two WorldWars of the 20th century meant that country houses were doomed. The largenumber of servants and workers that once depended upon the largesse ofthe wealthy class had found better pay and real independence elsewhere.The result was that the owners of hundreds of country houses could notafford the maintenance of these once semi-palatial homes. Demolitionwas the answer.In England alone 1,998 of these large beautiful country houses havebeen demolished. The records are there. The weeping was notthere. In the 1950’s England was trying to survive after the devastationof World War II. Sympathy for the problems of the wealthy class thatowned 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 fromthen? It came from those hand carved picture frames hanging in the onewarm room in Grandma and Grandpa Freeman’s farm house. Andhad I looked closely I should have noticed the feeling for Eywoodwas really a feeling of fellowship for those who made Eywood function…the people that worked there. In each of those picture frameswas a picture of a person. Not one picture frame included apicture 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) 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) 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) 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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