The distance thing is true. 100 miles in the UK seems a long way, but it is a trip to the local store for some Americans. Likewise, we consider Victorian houses to be quite modern.
I think it depends on who you are, as with all things, I wouldn't really think twice about driving 100 miles. It's nearly 200 between where I now live and my parents, my partner and I do it every 6-8 weeks. We regularly go out for night time drives that will be a 60 or 70 mile round trip. The most off-putting part is the cost of fuel 😅
Hi Connor. I live in England in Somerset in a fairly old cottage from the 1670s. Throughout the house there are lots of beams but in my bedroom is something special. Where three beams meet there are carpenters marks on each of them, cut into the wood 350 years ago.. When I first moved here, those marks fascinated me just as you yourself was fascinated. I have lived here now for 32 years and every day I still move my hand over the marks. The feeling of history and the connection to it as so many hands over the centuries may have done the same thing, still leaves me in wonderment. Ain't history great! Love your vids by the way.😁
Hi John, I've seen a previous comment of yours that mentioned Canada and now Somerset. Please don't think I'm weird but do I send you a Christmas card ? Xx
@@janeroberts2130 Hi Jane! I must be getting old, but when I first saw your comment re Christmas cards, I didn't twig. Then suddenly it dawned on me LOL. Uncle Howell's Jane!!. After all these years of card sending (must be over 60!), we meet up like this!
I live in Worcester only a few miles away from Harvington Hall. I started visiting it in the early 1970's when only a few rooms were able to be seen, over the decades so much has been uncovered and now you could spend days enjoying it. If I remember correctly there is a Quince tree in the garden, they have a very nice tea room too. Well worth a visit plus lots of connections to Guy Fawkes too.
I had a Californian friend who was jealous of the Brits having so many ancient buildings. The US had nothing like it she said. I pointed out that several times we had driven past early settlers cabins etc which no-one had bothered to keep going 'because it was a fire hazard'. The USA could be very different if you'd kept stuff going!!!
100 miles is the sort of distance i travel once a year when i go on holiday! And yes, i don't think too much about 100 years being a particularly long time at all.
What a fascinating video. Very well presented. This guy would make a brilliant private tour guide. Thank you for your reaction. I would love to watch you react to more of this man x
See this guy at Chepstow and Goodrich castles near where I live: excellent coverage. On religous intollerance: consider the 'red dwarf' episode where there were terrible wars fighting between whether they should be wearing red hats or blue hats to enter heaven (fushal). Turns out they should have been green hats and fushal was Fiji!
Love your channel Connor, especially the diversity of stuff you react to. Thanks for your interest in our history and, as you put it yourself, your simultaneous jealousy and love of our dear old country :)
My husband was born in the village of Harvington and was baptised in the church next door to the hall. We were married there and his parents are buried in the churchyard. I have visited the hall many times and find it fascinating. My most recent visit was 2 weeks ago when I took my cousins from New Zealand. They fell in love with the place.
Thanks for this Conor. Just realised I only live 18 miles from this house. That’s a nice day out for me over the summer and only £12.50 entrance fee so double bonus. It’s in Kidderminster Worcestershire
Hi Connor, I really enjoyed your reaction to this beautiful manor house. Anytime you want to chat history, I'd be happy to. Best wishes with your channel, Kevin 👍
Its quite weird! I have been watching you channel for a little while buts its weird to find you, several thousand mikes away, reacting to a place which is a couple of miles from my home!I pass Harvington Hall regularly and remember visiting on a school trip when I was about 10. This video has prompted me to think that maybe 60 years later, as it now is, I should visit again!
Priests tended to stay on the move, not sttling in 1 specific spot for extended periods. If they were often at or in the hose for extended periods, they would need a range of hiding spots as if you were surprised by a search you need to be able to get to one asap & without moving very far. Also, considering it may be a few hours or a days ride to the next stop, there is the chance that you would have un-invited guests to go with the search. I'm sure there are many old houses/buildings in or near the origonal colony settlements which were built / modified / used for various subversive activities from smuggling to slaves and pretty much anything else you can think of... They wouldn't be very good if it were widly known info.. and these little details tend to get lost after the fact.
We’re hoping to visit Harvington on Friday. I have their booklet explaining the priest holes and it’s fascinating. I first heard about the house in a book on the Gunpowder Plot and a bit about Little Johns (Nicholas Owens nickname/code name). Brave man.
Edit. We did go on the Friday. The place is incredible and the tour guide (in costume) was extremely informative. You can’t get into the attic any more, but the others were fascinating!
It is 103 miles from where I live to the centre of London "As the Crow flies" (in a straight line) and, yes, that does seem to be a fair way. The town I used to live in has a Norman Castle dating back 952 years to 1071 so 100 years doesn't seem that long to me. 🙂
The UK is only 600 miles long, 300 miles wide, so in that context 100 miles is a long distance 😅 This place is not far from where I'm from and its been on my list of places to visit for quite some time, maybe this is a sign to visit!
The main difference, back than at least, between the church of England and Catholicism is that the Church of England has the head of state as the leader of the church, the church staff had bit more freedom in their personal lives, purgatory doesn't exist, tithes were abolished and they don't believe in transubstantiation. The Church of England tended to be low church and Catholicism was high church. Part of the trigger for the Civil Wars in the 1600's was because Charles I followed the Armenian faith and had a catholic wife. It was considered too high church and 'popish' for the monarch to be so close to these practices and a risk of plunging the country back into religious contention. Parliament which had lots of extremist low church puritans, most of which ended up in the states, was trying to infringe on Charles' religious freedom and went after his Bishop, who was eventually executed. Charles' reaction was the final trigger for the war. He eventually lost his head and the Interregnum began.
My Mum's sister and husband have lived in the village of Harvington all their married life of 57 years so I have visited the ares often and their cottage :D
My house isn't considered old being built in the 1930's! Travelling 100 miles can be a long way depending on the roads. Straight on the motorway is easy, going cross country where the roads are higgledly piggledly, then it seems much further!!
Remember that the Spanish Armada sailed under the papal flag, and the pope declared that anyone who removed Elizabeth from power or even killed her would be free of sin.
Elizabeth's older (Half) sister Queen Mary lived at Woodham Walter, a now lost house near Maldon in Essex. Whilst still a Princess she was allowed to practice her faith in private. She allowed other local catholics to attend her "private" services till the Council (ruling on behalf of young King Edward VI) ordered her to stop, something she ignored.
27:47 I think btw…they had so many places because they didn’t want someone poor who would be easily bribed to give up the Priest so I imagine you’d have many people in these types of Manors.
stupendous building, england has the most beautiful castles together with france and germany, and i say this as an italian, used to beauty, i live in a small town of a small kingdom that no longer exists, but every time i pass in front of the building royal with its 300 rooms and nearby castle, I understand your interest in Europe
Nicholas Owen was canonized in 1970 as a martyr. His priest holes were atill being found after WW2. Were not sure we've found them all yet. In one of them there is priest hole underneath a priest hole accessed from within it. Harvington is great ,so is Coughton Court which was a major house involved in the Ginpowder plot of 1605.
There are core differences, the communion/mass wine, the confessional....lots more. If you saw the recent Coronation, Charles has to swear an oath to continue The Church of England, and be its Head as King. All sorts of things. Wars were fought. Northern Ireland, Glasgow an may others still need sensitivity on it all.
They wouldn't have several priests in the house at the same time. If someone came to the house to search for a priest, it would take too long to take a him from one side of the house to the other if there was only one priest hole. That's why there is more than one priest hole in this house so that they could hide him quickly.
There were instances of priests dying of thirst and starvation in priest holes. Presumably from time to time an entire household could be arrested or denied entry back into their own property and so the priest would be forfeit.
The early Protestants denied the authority of the Pope & banned all images of saints & statues. They removed the hierarchy of Bishops etc. So 'idols' & pictures & stained glass images were destroyed. They also replaced the Catholic Mass with a simpler communion service. Protestant ministers replaced priests, & the traditional robes of the priesthood were also banned. Charles 1st returned the Anglican church to a form nearer to Catholic , allowing some decoration, saints images. This was opposed by the Puritan element, but remains in some areas & parishes, known now as High Church Anglicanism. Nowadays the Church of England is more relaxed about such things, so that some churches, & priests, seem much more Catholic in feel than others, which remain 'low church'. In the highest ranks of society, & Royal places, the High Church style remained, as the destruction was much less, to maintain appearance & authority.
11:43 one priest, but you might want more than one place to hide in a big house if the house is raided. It depends where he is when it's raided. And if they find one and it's empty they might leave thinking they have found the hiding place.
12:23 I suspect that hide was to make them think the priest had run out through the passageway 13:26 I said that to you…it was 200 but yeah basically. In the USA 🇺🇸 200 years is a long time, in the UK 🇬🇧 200 Miles is a long distance
Thought you'd enjoy this One, house so full of mysteries! I really want to explore that house, it's as higglety piggledy as I always dreamed of having a house as a kid (yes I'm weird). All those hides wouldn't have been filled with priests... It was a case of they could go into the closest one to them when someone arrived at the house they needed to hide from. I mean yes they may have had more than one priest there at a time, but I really doubt they'd have all been full.
These wealthy Catholic families would have had a resident priest to conduct regular services. There may have been others visiting or on the run from the searchers. Several priest hides may have been made, so that if any were found, other more secret ones might not be found. They would have to be used also to hide the priests clothing & mass equipment. Some hides may have been created to be fairly easy to find, so that the searchers would stop looking after finding these.
During the most severe period of persecution, anything that smacked of distinctively Catholic custom or practice would have to be concealed. Important to remember, however, that England's new found "Protestantism" went through several phases before it rfinaly settled down. Henry VIII's church was, except for loya;lty to the Pope in Rome, was almost indistinguishable from Catholicism. When he died, his son Edward VI's church under Thomas Cranmer went beyond Martin Luther almost to the point of Calvinism and, thus, was very repressive. Mary tried to bring back traditional Catholicism, but did not live to see it through. Finally, Elizabeth I introduced the so-called "third way," which in theory was less repressive and would unite the nation under a regularized, less viral Protestant settlement.
It's not the number of priests, it's the number of places a priest can hide. What if the searchers come unexpectedly and the priest is on the wrong side of the house and can't get to the hole/hide? You need many holes/hides that are easily accessible.
They would not have known when the home was going to be raided, so the priest could have been any where in the house when they burst in. Some times the priest was found and he with the family was hung drawn and quartered. The favourite place for that was Tyburn in London The C of E banned all statues and art but in the 1800s and half became like the catholic church just with out the Pope. They call them selves High church of England or Anglicans. The American version is Episcopalian church
I know this house very well, and have visited many times. It is very near to where I live today and when I was young my Dad's company used to do a lot of the maintenance work there so he used to take me to work with him in the School Holidays and I remember well helping him on some work in the mermaid passage. It was fantastic to be able to explore in there and there is some very cool old graffiti in the loft area which is not open to the public. I guess it's hard to understand from a modern perspective but Elizabeth the first had to be constantly on her guard against any Catholic plot to overthrow her and install a Catholic Monarch so things like the death penalty seem pretty severe but it was less about religion as such and more to do with the Politics of the times. Remember it was only during her Father's reign that England broke away from Rome and many people were still Catholic by birth even those that had gone along with the new church. In those early years there were still many similarities in services between the Catholic and Protestant Churches so many things would have been familiar to both religions.
I often wonder why American build in block block block. Does someone know ? Even the streets are in straight line and they are just numbered. Quite an experience for Europeans. It is like trying to spot someone in a crowd with the same face.
Hearing your comment it struck me that the migrants seem to have forgotten where they came from, including their history. So for the them settling in America is day 0. ??
Pope Paul III sent specially trained jesuit priests to England in 1580. Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, a catholic, was overthrown by her Scottish nobles, and had escaped to England. The Pope and Catholics thought Mary ought to be the rightful Queen of England. The Pope ordered catholics not to obey Elizabeth. 1581 Parliament passed law against catholic recusants. 1583 Englishman, Sir Francis Throckmorton organised a plan for the French Army to invade England and put Mary on the English Throne. A plot paid for by the Pope and King Philip of Spain. Discovered, Throckmorton put to death and Mary, Queen on Scots moved to another castle and isolated. 1584 William of Orange, Leader of the Dutch protestants was murdered by catholics. 1585 War broke out between England and Spain. Parliament ordered all jesuit priests to leave England within 40 days or be executed. 1586 Sir Anthony Babington, another catholic Englishman, planned to rescue Queen Mary and murder the English Queen, Elizabeth I. The plot was discovered and resulted in both Babington and Mary Queen of Scots being executed. So the manor house you reacted to today was indeed, a manor house of great intrigue.
You now know a lot more of our strange words .It is raining all over the U.K.right now with thunder and lightning because we have had some unusual hot weather .
He keeps going about the priest meny have been found out of abusing children .you should check out what the French Catholics did to the French huguenots.
I know this place well. It's near me now, but I was first taken here from school. I think it's in Worcestershire. To be honest, I'm not too sympathetic to some of the Catholics of the time. You're right about fanaticism, but in this case they were often persecuted for political reasons. Our country was in great danger from them. Remember, that when the Catholic Queen Mary I was in power for five years, she got nearly 300 Protestants burnt at the stake. The Protestant Kings and Elizabeth I executed just over 300 Catholics over 150 years. Remember the Roman Catholic Kings of Spain were trying to invade us and take us over. If they had, we would have had the Spanish Inquisition. The year before Nicholas Owen was executed, the Gunpowder Plot - which included a Throckmorton - was a serious plot which would have blown up our entire Parliament, with the King. Chasing this sort of Catholic would have been like chasing Islamic terrorists today. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham saved this property from ruin about 1929. I think they still own it, and Catholic ladies used to provide excellent cakes for the tearoom!
Christianity in England, originally, WAS Catholic. Henry 8th killed some 72,000 people during his reign, significantly more than Mary. It was also his fault that we split with Rome, all so he could marry AB.
