The 1632 Rampton tapestry map - Is the first Watnall Hall pictured on it?

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This exquisite hand-woven tapestry map of south Nottinghamshire from 1632 shows a tantalisingly different-looking Watnall Hall. The building shown may be a depiction of the original Tudor/Elizabethan hall built before the later Queen Anne style hall familiar from photographs. This expertly custom-woven map offers a detailed and unique insight into the county’s medieval landscape and architecture. But how accurate is it and who actually made them? 

Mistress Mary Eyre's 1632 tapestry map of south Notts

To see the full size map right click it above and choose "Open link in new window" then zoom in. 


The tapestry maps on display at Nottingham Castle
With its north Notts partner, they are the only 2 tapestry maps thought to have been woven in the county (although that is disputed below) and are in remarkably good condition. They are on permanent display at Nottingham Castle's new Rebellion Gallery and to see them close up is stunning. Their sheer size, their condition after so many years, the quality and bravado of the workmanship and detail of the towns and villages portrayed is breath-taking. Judith Edgar, Curator of the Lace, Costume and Textiles Collection says... "These map tapestries of Nottinghamshire are not only huge; they are extremely attractive and endlessly fascinating offering a bird’s eye view of early 17th century Nottinghamshire. The detail is astounding, with virtually every settlement in Nottinghamshire represented by buildings and landmarks. Market towns are shown with red crosses, there are beacons, a water mill, deer, waterways – but no roads - and even gallows just north of Nottingham." The Castle Museum has done a great job on the interactive display too which lets you zoom in for information on specific hotspots. 

The Elizabethan Watnall Hall with chapel
The map was made around 1632 but largely derived from earlier maps which were surveyed and published in the 1570's. It shows Watnall Hall with a church tower and we know that the original hall did have a chapel attached to it. The Bingham family were lords of the manor in the 15th century and their documents make the first mention of a "manor house" in Watnall. Within the manor house is an oratory, a small chapel for private worship, where Richard Bingham's parents John Bingham and Elizabeth Charnells were married sometime in the 1490's. Estate surveys of the time made by the most skilled practitioners often drew the manor house along with other prominent buildings⁶ so this fits for the depiction of "Watnal". 
Watnall Hall in the c.1920's
As often happened with old manors, the old part of the house was kept when Watnall Hall's new Queen Anne/Williamite¹⁷ period additions were made. It can be seen on the left in the picture of the modern house shown here. Leonard Jacks visiting in 1881 describes them... "There are a number of bed rooms in the older part of the house, the formation of which is both peculiar and picturesque. The windows are small, and set in deep recesses. The plaster ceiling, of a pinkish colour and sloping at the sides, is extremely curious and old-fashioned. There are numbers of these rooms upstairs, and there is also a curious panelled apartment of Elizabethan date." 

Accuracy of the maps
The map also shows Greasley Castle and church although by this time the castle was quite neglected so some of the depictions are probably a little stylised. Greasley's lease in 1595 states...

"Greseley Castell...is nowe in some decay for defaults of coveringe and other necessary reparacions and so was in decaye longe tyme before... And cannot be repayred w'thowt great Chargs and expense..."

and by 1797 the castle⁴ "is totally destroyed, except a plain old wall or two”. Archaeological evidence from the 1930's also found the base of a round tower rather than the square ones shown on the map.

Nottingham with the gallows on the hill behind
However it does show vaguely recognisable versions of newly built Wollaton Hall (built 1580-87) in a circular enclosed park (but omits its name) and Hardwick Hall (built 1590-97) both built by genius Elizabethan architect Robert Smythson, even though Hardwick looks more accurately like the old Hardwick Hall. Southwell Minster looks correct as does Nottingham Castle as the original medieval version. We even have the gallows that were on Mansfield Road correctly shown as 2 uprights and a cross beam on the hill behind the city. 
Calverton church in c.1632 and 1834
Most churches are correctly shown with their respective tower or spire. Many churches are altered or rebuilt through the centuries but where a church has not been altered since 1632, the tapestry is shown to be fairly accurate representation. Calverton is a good example. The church at Sutton Bonnington looks like it has a dome but could plausibly be the gable end bell tower of St. Annes. Elsewhere on the tapestry however, the various abbeys present a less plausible appearance. Felley Priory, called "Felley Abbey", in particular looks nothing like the original although Newstead with its crenellations and central arch could pass. Other county map tapestries went to considerable trouble to be accurate. Tapestry expert Dr. Hilary Turner's extensive analysis of the Oxfordshire Sheldon map⁶ shows many examples of accurate depictions as well as a few howlers. BBC Radio 4's Making History programme¹ compared the Sheldon tapestry maps to buildings that survive today and they show largely accurate depictions.

Wollaton Hall c.1858
The original Nottinghamshire tapestry has 2 panels, one of north Notts and this one showing south Notts. The 2 panels are woven in multi-coloured wools on linen warps (vertical threads). The tapestry of the northern half of the county bears the rather Yoda-like² inscription... 

"At Rampton Made Wee Were By Mistress Mary Eyre, 1632, Nottinghamshire"

It was long thought to have been made by the well-known Flemish tapestry making family, the Hyckes, who worked for the Sheldon family tapestry weaving business based at Barcheston in Warwickshire, to the order of Mary Eyre of Rampton and Grove, Nottinghamshire. However, I have found evidence that the Hyckes and Sheldon business was finished by 1611 and Hyckes and his son were dead by 1632. This disproved version of  history is even perpetuated on Nottingham Castle Transformation website (but thankfully not on the maps' fabulous new display), so there is a mystery here to solve⁵.  Who really made them? 

A tapestry loom in action
How were they made?
The Sheldon family owned four enormous map tapestries of their own, unique in the country, so it's an easy but flawed assumption that the Notts maps came from the same source. So where were they really made? If the inscription on them is to be taken literally, "At Rampton made wee were", then the looms would have been set up at Rampton and the tapestries made there. This is also the narrative from the Castle museum but the tapestries are huge (9'6"x7'6" and 9'5"x9'8") so this raises questions about transporting looms to Rampton or making looms there big enough to weave the maps. Both are feasible as even large looms are not especially sophisticated and a carpenter could make one quite easily and they could be dismantled for transport or storage. If they were not made at Rampton then where else? One large scale tapestry business operating in 1632 with enough expertise to handle large and sophisticated tapestries was at Mortlake in London, set up by Sir Francis Crane with the backing of King James I. Since there was no effective pool of labour in England, some 50 Flemish workers were brought in great secrecy, mainly from Brussels and the Low Countries (Belgium) where tapestry weaving was a major industry. The Mortlake weavers are known to have made 2 copies of the large Sheldon tapestry maps so we know they had the capability⁶. 

John Speed's 1616 map
Another theory is that Mary Eyre, perhaps inspired by the Sheldon maps, found and commissioned weavers of her own who built a loom at Rampton and got on with it. According to Dr. Hilary Turner, even "a cloth weaver can do the job if he takes it slowly enough at the beginning. The techniques are not so different and the tapestry is not skilled work". Mary Eyre's family were wealthy enough to employ perhaps some of the Flemish émigré weavers  from Mortlake. Maybe setting up a small craft weaving workshop. Maybe Mistress Mary really did them herself as the inscription tells us. Compared to the Sheldon maps, the Notts do have a slightly less professional feel. Dr. Hilary Turner says "There is no stylistic connection between ‘Sheldon’ work and the Rampton weaving... For example, they never used linen warps. And, from memory, the colour ‘scheme’ isn’t that similar". Educated speculation is mostly all we have and the maps leave more questions than answers.

Who was "Mistress Mary Eyre" whose name is woven for perpetuity into the Notts tapestry? There are two Marys at Rampton Hall in 1632, the 50-something wife of Anthony Eyre, Mary (nee Neville) - who actually died in 1632 - and her step daughter from Anthony's first marriage, the unmarried 34-year-old Mary (she actually marries in 1633). "Mistress" probably indicates the younger Mary or perhaps the tapestry-making stress was enough to kill off the older Mary? Who knows? Where did the inspiration come from to create a map on a huge tapestry? Surely Mary must have heard of the Sheldon maps and after some detective work there is a family link¹². Young Mary's mother Anne was from the Markham family of Sedgebrook, Lincs., a distant but familiar cousin of Elizabeth Markham who married Edward Sheldon, son of Ralph of the tapestries, in 1580. Elizabeth's father, Thomas Markham "Black Markham" of Ollerton and Kirky Bellars, was made trustee of the Sedgebrook estate when Anne's father, Sir John Markham of Sedgebrook, died in 1594. He left Sedgebrook in trust, to receive the rents and use them for the benefit of his children until they came of age. The 20-year-old Anne and her siblings had not yet reached their majority so Thomas would have been a familiar figure of authority who perhaps also acted in a step-fatherly role meaning Anne and Elizabeth would be step-cousins of a sort. They were also of the same generation, born with 8 years of each other. The Markham/Sheldon marriage would also have established the Sheldon tapestries in that generation of Markham's family consciousness. Dr. Hilary Turner says "I’m quite happy with the suggestion that the Sheldon’s tapestry maps might be the inspiration across the decades by folk memory."

North Notts tapestry map
Origin of the maps
One thing we do know about the Notts tapestry maps is that they are based on Christopher Saxton's map of 1576⁸ and John Speed's updated map of 1616. These pioneering maps caused great excitement when they were published. Perhaps Mary used the maps as her "cartoon", that's the picture mounted behind the loom to work the design from. A side-by-side comparison though, shows that Mary's maps have plenty of their own embellishments and enhanced topographical details. The published maps used standard symbols for towns, villages and churches so who researched the unique depictions on Mary's tapestry maps? It's another unknown although I like to think of young Mary riding out around the county on sketching missions, perhaps with a surveyor in tow, to capture the idiosyncrasies of the towns and villages. That was also the speculation of Muriel Clayton who wrote a 1934 article¹³ on the tapestry maps for Nottinghamshire's historical Thoroton Society...

"The local knowledge displayed in the accurate representation of the towers and spires of churches, the appearance of castles and manors, the situation of parks and woods, is far beyond anything shown in the engraved maps and can only have been obtained from personal observations, Whether Mary Eyre sent out men to check the shape of the church spires throughout Nottingham, or relied on information provided by her friends, or as one likes to imagine, spent the long days of summer in ambling on horseback from place to place and tracking down the information for herself, is immaterial. The result is excellent, and gives an unrivalled representation of the county as it was before the havoc of the Civil War."

Grove Hall c.1900, the Notts tapestries are in there!
History of the maps and their custodians
The Notts tapestries appear to have stayed with Eyre family for the next 300 years until c.1930 when they went on loan to the Victoria and Albert museum. They were were owned at the time by Major Granville Charles FitzHerbert Harcourt-Vernon, a descendant of Mary Eyre⁹ and the owner of Grove Hall. There is a description of them in situ at Grove Hall in 1881 by our old friend Leonard Jacks, roving Victorian reporter on Notts's great houses⁷... "On the main staircase there hangs a piece of curious tapestry work, upon which an immense amount of labour has been expended, and upon which wonderful geographical knowledge is displayed. This is a complete map of Nottinghamshire, worked by Miss Mary Eyre, in 1632. The work is still perfect, and the name of every place in the county is marked with accuracy, and in the deftest manner." 
Grove Hall's panoramic views, ranging from the North Sea and Lincoln Cathedral in the east to Kinder Scout and the Derbyshire moors in the west, made it a fitting location for such a magnificent map¹¹. 
In a curious historical twist of fate, the Harcourt-Vernon family also ended up owning the only other comparable tapestry maps that exist in the country, the famous Sheldon Tapestry maps of the shires of Warwick, Worcester, Gloucester and Oxford⁹. 
Evacuating the V&A in WW2

The Notts maps were apparently loaned to the V&A sometime before 1934 where they came into the care of the textiles curator Muriel Clayton. They obviously cast their spell on her as she wrote the entertaining article for Thoroton mentioned above¹³. During WW2 Grove Hall was used by the military and left in such a state that the Harcourt-Vernons never moved back in. It was sold in 1946 and soon after demolished. We don't know the wartime whereabouts of the tapestries. Hopefully they remained with Miss Clayton who heroically evacuated the V&A's priceless antiquities from London to Montacute House in Somerset for safe keeping¹³. Much better than risking Nazi bombs or abuse by bored squaddies at Grove. After the war, the tapestries went back to Major Granville Harcourt-Vernon at his house in Crickhowell, Wales. He died in 1974 with no direct heir. Sadly the tapestries had to be sold to pay death duties. They'd been in the same family since 1632, that's 342 years. They reappear in the 1990's in the care of the Nottingham Museum of Costume and Textiles on Castlegate, then after it closed in 2003 in storage at Newstead Abbey, old abode of Lord Byron, which is owned by the county council. They were photographed there by Sarah Seaton, historian at Greasley Castle in Notts., when they were brought out every few years for cleaning/conservation. They are now in a fabulous new display at the Nottingham Castle museum. It will cost your an eye-watering £13 to get in to see them though. 
Update July 2022 - Nottingham City Council just emailed me with new information. The maps were purchased in 1975 by Nottingham City Museums – it appears that they had been on loan to the V&A since 1935. Their internal records state...
"TAPESTRY MAPS OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. After lengthy negotiations with the Trustees of the Harcourt-Vernon Estate, Sotheby & Co. as their agents, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the two tapestry maps of Nottinghamshire have been acquired for £7,950. Through an operation of the Treasury provisions for remission of estate duty, the purchase figure is very much lower than the original asking price on the open market (£14,000). A 50% grant has been made available through the fund administered by the Victoria and Albert Museum so that the net cost of this important acquisition is £3,975..." (Leisure Services Committee, 31/7/1975). They were then Stored for eighteen years, until in 2021 they were placed on display at Nottingham Castle."
In July 2022 the family of Major Harcourt Vernon were also in touch with their own history of the maps in the 20th century...
"The maps were at Grove Hall till the sale of the hall and estate in 1945. When he vacated the Hall Tessa’s uncle Lt Col Granville Harcourt Vernon took the maps to his house, Argos Hill Manor in Sussex where Tessa saw them, and indeed we have photos that show them in situ there. Granville’s wife died in 1949 and in 1955 he moved to Gwernvale Cottage, Crickhowell on the estate of his old friend Lord Glanusk¹⁶. Mrs Duncan, Col HV’s sister joined him at Crickhowell where we visited on several occasions. Col HV died in 1974, his sister the following year 1975. They hung in the hall of the house at Crickhowell until they went to Nottingham. Perhaps there was an interim storage. We cannot find a record of a loan, either then, or at an earlier date. One possibility is that they were loaned to the V&A around the time of the article in the Thoroton Society Transactions in 1934."
Dr. Hilary Turner saw them on display and photographed them in the 1990's at the Nottingham Museum of Costumes and Textiles on Castlegate under the care of curator Jeremy Farrell¹⁵. He was Keeper of the Collection since 1970 so was no doubt instrumental in the acquisition of the maps from the Harcourt Vernon family. The museum closed in 2003 when the maps appear to have gone into storage at Newstead. Jeremy died in 2008.

The original Worcestershire Sheldon tapestry maps
Links to the Sheldon Tapestry Maps
The other set of tapestry maps owned by the Harcourt-Vernon family were the original and renowned Sheldon Tapestries, thought to have been produced at Britain's first large tapestry works in Barcheston, Warwickshire envisioned by William Sheldon around 1570. In his will he left ample provision for his son Ralph (1537–1613) and exiled Flemish weaver Richard Hyckes to develop the business applying the mechanics of continental weaving and the skills needed to produce tapestry work of the finest quality³. William had made his fortune in the wool trade and was looking for a new business to offer future employment for his workers. Tapestry weaving was to be it. Or was it? No firm evidence exists to prove the Barcheston tapestry business ever got started and it remains a controversial subject amongst tapestry experts today.  Tapestries were great status items in Tudor times and hitherto had commanded extraordinarily high prices. Flemish tapestries in particular were regarded as the finest in Europe. In 1529 Henry VIII paid £1,500 – a sum comparable to the cost of a fully-rigged battleship for the Royal Navy – for a set of imported tapestries to decorate Hampton Court Palace. Tapestries were produced in large numbers and were the height of fashion in the great Elizabethan houses of the day. And it wasn’t long before demand began to filter down into the homes of the wealthy middle classes, the merchants and bankers who were driving forward the national economy. 

In the 1920's many of these Elizabethan tapestries were attributed to the supposed Sheldon tapestry works and became known as the Sheldon Tapestries. Made from only the finest materials – silk, wool, silver and silver-gilt thread – the Sheldon Tapestries featured as wall hangings, cushion covers and bed valances, but were also sold as simpler, more personal items such as book covers, pin cushions and gloves. The most famous of the Sheldon Tapestries were four huge tapestry maps illustrating the counties of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

Original colours and detail on the restored map
The four maps were commissioned in the late 1580s by Ralph Sheldon. The designer of the tapestries and the names of the weavers are unknown. Ralph’s father William had allowed Richard Hyckes, the use of the family manor house at Barcheston, Warwickshire, in the hope Hyckes could train young men in a skill not previously practised in England. Hyckes’ name is woven into the Worcestershire tapestry, indicating his involvement as a master weaver. Experts in the analysis of dyes and mordants from the Oxford Bodleian Library conservation project will be aiming to answer technical questions that could bring them closer to understanding the true provenance of the tapestries. 
They were based on the county surveys of Christopher Saxton but with much greater detail and more accurate depictions of places. The tapestries illustrated the counties where the Sheldons had most power and influence - Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire - with each tapestry portraying one county. Designed to hang together in Ralph Sheldon's new home in Weston, near Long Compton, Warwickshire, they would have presented a panoramic view across central England, from the Bristol Channel to London, covering the counties where Sheldon’s family, friends and patrons held land. The maps are important in showing the landscape of central England in the 16th century, at a time when modern map making was in early development. 

The original Oxfordshire map damaged during the Civil War
Of the original four tapestries, three survive in part under restoration at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and only the Warwickshire one is still complete, now displayed at Market Hall Museum, Warwick. It shows the Warwickshire that Shakespeare would have known including the now disappeared Forest of Arden. During restoration in 2011 the lining was removed from the back where some fragments of the Elizabethan original were found. The original colours could also be seen on the back, bright green and yellow, though on the front of the tapestry these have now faded to blue. Cleaning also highlighted previously hidden details like the many cottages hidden among the trees of the Forest of Arden and the stone circle near Great Rollright, possibly the earliest depiction of the Rollright Stones, Neolithic and Bronze Age megaliths on the Oxford and Warwickshire border. They had also been repaired in 1897 by the ladies of the marvellously titled Sloane Street Decorative Needlework Society¹⁰.

C17th copy of the Oxford map with backwards letter N's
The original maps did not fare well during the Civil War perhaps because they had been damaged in attacks on the Royalist Sheldon family's properties and large sections are missing today. Some sections of map were cut out to make smaller ornaments or in one case a fireguard or have fallen victim to moths or the general ravages of time. After the war in around 1690, Ralph Sheldon's great grandson had copies of the Oxfordshire and Worcestershire maps made. One amusing detail from the copies that reveals how these tapestries were made is that all the letter N's on the Oxfordshire map are reversed. The tapestries are woven from the back so the weavers need to master mirror writing to get the front side to read correctly. Evidently one weaver got it wrong!

The poor condition of the original Sheldon maps shows just how remarkable and rare the Nottinghamshire tapestry maps are. Not only are they beautiful objects in themselves but they also provide a fascinating and unique picture of Nottinghamshire before the civil war. They are truly one of our county's greatest treasures. 

If you're interested in more Tales from Watnall Hall, its surprising array of characters and historical connections, click here...

https://watnallhall.blogspot.com/


Image copyright and source: https://nottinghammuseums.org.uk/tapestry-maps/; Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_tapestries; Saxton's Atlas of England and Wales https://www.rct.uk/collection/1046848/atlas-of-england-and-wales; https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/libraries/our-work/sheldon-tapestry-map-conservation; Emails with Dr. Hilary Turner, tapestry scholar http://tapestriescalledsheldon.info/index.html; Captain Reginald James Young (1893–1919), Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment), Winning the Military Cross during the Battle of the Somme, 1916 by Stanley Llewelyn Wood (1867–1928), c.1916, from National Army Museum

Notes:

1 - "These map tapestries of Nottinghamshire are not only huge; they are extremely attractive and endlessly fascinating offering a bird’s eye view of early 17th century Nottinghamshire. The detail is astounding, with virtually every settlement in Nottinghamshire represented by buildings and landmarks. Market towns are shown with red crosses, there are beacons, a water mill, deer, waterways – but no roads - and even gallows just north of Nottingham." (Judith Edgar, Curator of Lace, Costume and Textiles Collection)  https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKNCC/bulletins/1833beb

BBC Radio 4 Making History https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00n0z4l

Sheldon Chronicles https://thesheldonchronicles.net/the-sheldon-tapestries/

The Weston Tapestry Maps, W. K. R. Bedford,The Geographical Journal,Vol. 9, No. 2 (Feb., 1897), pp. 210-214 (5 pages)

2 - Yoda - character from the Star Wars films known for his odd speech pattern. North Notts map shown below. To see the full size map right click it above and choose "Open link in new window" then zoom in. 

3 - What is a tapestry and how is it woven?  https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2014/making-a-tapestry

4 - Robert Thoroton's History of Nottingham 1697, edited by John Thorsby 1797 Vol II page 242 "Greyseley"

5 -  The Tapestries called Sheldon by Hilary L. Turner  MA  DPhil - "Only 12 men are known to have worked at Barcheston in the forty years it is thought to have functioned, 1570-1611"  http://www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info/p23_views_hyckes_sucess.htm

6 - Oxfordshire in Wool and Silk by Hilary Turner "In the later C17, Ralph Sheldon ‘the Great’, of Beoley and Weston, ordered copies of two of four woven tapestry maps first commissioned by his great grandfather around 1590 to decorate his new house at Weston in Long Compton, Warwickshire. Each of the original set had at its centre one of the four counties in which the family lived, held land and had friends, Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick and Oxford. They bore the arms of successive generations of the family. When the Oxfordshire and Worcestershire maps were woven a second time, perhaps because they had been damaged in attacks on the Royalist family's properties during the Civil War, the map was copied almost exactly by weavers at Mortlake, while the borders, the heraldry and the original decorative elements were updated...

...Oxford city, almost at the centre of the tapestry, is shown from the south, the tallest spire intended to be that of the University church, St Mary the Virgin, the clearest feature the castle to the west of the town, a view now obscured. Far from being an imaginary representation, it is suspiciously similar to the drawing in the unpublished manuscript of William Smith's A Particuler Description of England. Two moderately accurate depictions might have been commisioned, those of the houses at Rotherfield Greys and Holton, while a rather confused rendering of Eynsham may have been intended to indicate the abbey. Comparison of the two last with later prints shows a certain resemblance;® the towers of Rotherfield Greys were mentioned by John Leland. The individuality of the depictions is noticeable, if not outstanding, and is not unparalleled. Estate surveys made by the most skilled practitioners, for example John Norden, often drew the manor house along with other prominent buildings; in Oxfordshire for example, John Blagrave depicted Harpsden. Elsewhere on the tapestry however, other residences present a less plausible appearance. North of Oxford, owing much to the imagination of the designer, stands the royal palace of Woodstock, with fairytale turrets unlikely ever to have existed; Rycote too owes much to fancy. Sarsden and the royal hunting lodge at Langley are formalised depictions, as is the un-named cluster of buildings at Thame Park, enclosed by palings. Twin towers, clearly a conventional symbol, indicated Minster Lovell, Wytham and Besselsleigh. The two last, now in Oxfordshire, but then in Berkshire, may have been additions introduced in the seventeenth century. The common link between these places is a connection between their owners and the Sheldon family of the later C16, either by friendship or by marriage. Other sizeable dwellings which one might expect to see, for example Mapledurham, Stonor, Broughton and Hanwell are therefore absent. Some of the smaller towns were also delineated with considerable exactitude. Banbury, with its castle, Burford, Witney, Thame, Henley, Faringdon, Wantage, Wallingford and Abingdon..."  

https://oxoniensia.org/volumes/2006/turner.pdf

7- L Jacks, The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families, (1881) http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Jacks1881/grove.htm

8 - The Weston Tapestry Maps, W. K. R. Bedford, The Geographical Journal Vol. 9, No. 2 (Feb., 1897), pp. 210-214 (5 pages). Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) "I think that the most interesting part of the subject to which Mr. Bedford has alluded, is the question respecting the survey on which the tapestry maps are based. I agree with him that the tapestry maps and the maps of counties forming Saxton’s atlas were, in all probability, based on the same survey; but we should like to know more about it. Saxton’s beautifully engraved maps were published in 1579, and the date of the tapestry map before us is 1588. We have a few details of the life of Saxton, and we know the name of his principal patron. We are also told that he was occupied for nine years in making the survey of England, on which his maps were based. I cannot help thinking that it must have taken a much longer time, unless he had numerous assistants. The discovery of the original surveys would be of great geographical interest, nor do I think that such a discovery is beyond hope, for I find, from Ralph Thoresby’s diary, that, in June, 1710, he rode to Sir Henry Goodrick’s house at Ribston, and saw there “the autograph and some original surveys of Christopher Saxton’s". It would be a worthy undertaking for a young geographer, who also has a taste for antiquarian research, to give us a history of the maps of England."

9 - By happy historical accident, the Harcourt-Vernon family have owned both sets of tapestry maps, the Notts and the Sheldons and at roughly the same time but not quite concurrently. The only 2 sets of, incredibly rare, tapestry maps ever produced in the country! The 1632 Notts maps made at the old Rampton Manor were passed down through the Eyre family until 1836 on the death of Anthony Hardolph Eyre (1757-1836) when they passed into Harcourt Vernon ownership after the 1814 marriage of the Eyre's heiress, Frances Julia Eyre, to Mr.Granville Harcourt Vernon, 6th son of the Archbishop of York (from 1807-47) the Most Rev. Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt. 

Meanwhile, the Archbishop himself had recently, around 1830, inherited the Sheldon family tapestry maps of Weston Hall. The hall's contents had been auctioned off by auction house Christie and Ansell in 1781, and the surviving maps (the original Warwickshire and the Oxford and Worcester copies) were bought for 30 guineas by Horace Walpole who gifted them in 1783 to his friend George Harcourt, 2nd Earl Harcourt. The Archbishop's cousin William Harcourt, 3rd Earl Harcourt inherited in 1809 and died in 1830 when the Archbishop inherited the family estates incl. Nuneham Courtenay where a special Tapestry Room had been built in 1787 by George to accommodate the tapestries. The Archbishop was born Edward Venables-Vernon and added the Harcourt name on his inheritance. His 16 children used their own variations of the triple barrelled name often dropping the Venables. The Archbishop may have had the tapestries as early as 1808 perhaps when his cousin inherited, as in 1827 he lent them to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society who put them on display. In 1897 the 3 are in the "Museum at York" according to WKR Bedford's talk to the Royal Geographical Society while "fragments of the other 2" are at the Bodleian at Oxford.. The Worcester copy was then loaned to the V and A until 1960 when the museum bought it. Oxfordshire is on long loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Both were versions of the Elizabethan tapestries, their details simplified and often omitted. Warwickshire, the Elizabethan original, now hangs at Warwick Museum. 

Meanwhile, the Notts maps, now owned by the Archbishop's son, stayed at Grove Hall, now the family home of a subsidiary branch of the Harcourt-Vernons, for another hundred years until c.1930 when Major Granville Charles FitzHerbert Harcourt-Vernon DSO (1891-1974)¹⁴ loaned them to the V and A. The Eyres had owned them for 303 years. Grove Hall was sold in 1946 and demolished by 1952. Grove was not always owned by the Eyres and the Notts tapestries were well travelled by the time they got there in 1762. The Eyres also held an estate at Laughton en le Morthen in south Yorkshire, to which Anthony Eyre (c.1691-1748) moved after demolishing the old manor house at Rampton. He also bought an estate at Adwick le Street near Doncaster in 1733 and lived there until his death. His son Anthony (1727-1788) increased his holdings in Nottinghamshire with his marriage in 1755 to Judith Laetitia Bury, great-niece and heiress of Sir Hardolph Wasteneys, 4th Baronet. This brought the manor of Headon into the family, and also lands around Bilsby in eastern Lincolnshire, inherited from the Johnson family. In 1762, Anthony moved back to Nottinghamshire when he purchased the manor of Grove near East Retford. He sold the Adwick estate in 1762 and the Laughton estate in 1767. It's probably safe to assume the family took the high value, prominently displayed tapestries with them on their house moves. Or perhaps Mary, who married William Blyth of Stroxton in Lincolnshire in 1633, took them to her new home. Hopefully the walls were big enough!

10 - The Weston Tapestry Maps - The Geographical Journal Vol. 9, No. 2 (Feb., 1897), pp. 210-214 (5 pages) Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) https://www.jstor.org/stable/1773507?seq=3

11 - Notts County Archives "The situation of Grove Hall, is said to be the most elevated and picturesque in the county; on all sides, the views are pleasing and extensive: to the east the levels of Lincolnshire appear beautifully tinted with variety, the view of which, is backed with the noble promontory on which part of the city of Lincoln stands, whilst the minster rears its venerable head, and overlooks the vast Plains which extend themselves until the ocean terminates their bounds. To the west the view is equally extensive, the ancient forest of Sherwood, from the numerous woods and plantations which rear their heads in every direction, reminds the beholder of ancient days, when the famous oaks displayed their towering boughs; this very interesting view is only terminated by the hills of Kinderskout in Derbyshire. To the north and south, numerous objects are distinguishable, to enumerate which, would exceed my limits, and the place must he visited ere the beautiful scenery can be properly appreciated." Date: 1900-1920 Organisation Reference: NCCN001299 https://www.inspirepicturearchive.org.uk/image/14892/Grove_Hall_Near_Retford

12 - Markham family branches interconnection. What's the link between the Mary Eyre's Markham mother and the Markham that married Ralph Sheldon's son? Young Mary Eyre's mother Anne was from the Markham family of Sedgebrook, Lincs., a (possible?) cousin of Elizabeth Markham of Ollerton, Notts who married Edward Sheldon, son of Ralph of the tapestries, in 1586-87. Dr. Hilary Turner says "I’m quite happy with the suggestion that the Sheldon’s tapestry maps might be the inspiration across the decades by folk memory." 

From "History of the Markham family" by the REV. DAVID F. MARKHAM. It's a secondary source but the best I have so far. Page 93 "Thomas Markham of Beskwood (Ollerton and Kirby Bellers) in 1594 became trustee for the estates of Sedgebrook during the minority of the children, under the will of his distant cousin, Sir John Markham of Sedgebrook." The introduction cites its sources from parish records in the Sedgebrook area. http://www.cdbooks-r-us.com/freebies/mm.pdf

The Ollerton branch of the Markhams and the Cotham branch were just a generation apart during this period and also linked by marriage to John Harington, inventor of the flush toilet and lewd courtier to Elizabeth I. His risque letters and Catholic sympathy would see him in and out of favour with the Queen. In 1596, Harington, under the pseudonym Misacmos, wrote a book called A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorphosis of Ajax about his invention.The book made political allusions to the Earl of Leicester, which angered Elizabeth. It was a coded attack on the stercus or excrement that was poisoning society with torture and state-sponsored "libels" against his relatives Thomas Markham and Ralph Sheldon. After its publication, he was again banished from the court. Elizabeth's mixed feelings for him may have been the only thing that saved Harington from being tried at the Star Chamber. There is also an, as yet unsubstantiated, link placing Ralph and Edward Sheldon at the manor of Gamston just outside Nottingham in 1611. It's a year after the death of Edward Sheldon's father in law Sir Thomas Markham. If correct (and I have no current substantiation) maybe Edward and his wife moved into the manor of his brother in law, Sir Griffin who had just sold it. So it makes sense that a general redeployment of the family residences was happening. That is a link substantially closer to Rampton and during young Mary Eyre's lifetime. Another Griffin Markham was famously exiled for treasonous Catholic activity a few years earlier. 

13 - Muriel Clayton's article on the Notts tapestries is in the Thoroton index as : Clayton, Muriel, 'A tapestry map of Nottinghamshire', 38, 65-80.  Transactions of the Thoroton Society 1934 vol xxxviii  
Copy of the article here 
This version of the article (annotated by Hilary Turner) does a good job of comparing the map's depictions of places compared to the known reality at the time. She was one of the first female curators of the Victoria and Albert museum, starting in 1926. She was in charge of the textile collection and during WW2 was responsible for the museum's evacuation of its treasures to Montacute House... 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/v-and-a-at-war-1939-45/

"Elsewhere, female curators, who had only been permitted to take up professional roles in the previous 10 or 15 years, were able to prove themselves when their male counterparts were called up or transferred to secret duties. For instance, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, academic spinster Muriel Clayton, recruited in 1926 as one of its first professional female curators, found herself in charge of the museum’s evacuation to Montacute House in Somerset."

https://theartssociety.org/arts-news-features/become-instant-expert-wartime-evacuation-londons-precious-artworks

"He [Director, Sir Eric Maclagan] wrote to the keeper of textiles, Muriel Clayton, who was running Montecute House: 'Some of the textile cases containing works of art have been smashed. I noticed one with a Greek Island costume in particular. But although there is a lot of broken glass lying on top of the costumes and embroideries, I do not think they have been damaged.' "

It was not until the Second World War that a woman was appointed into the Department of Textiles, and even then only on a temporary basis. In 1938 at the start of the Second World War, to fill the voids left by senior male staff called up for military service, wo women were promoted for the first time to the level of Acting Keeper: Margaret Longhurst in Sculpture and Muriel Clayton, who was moved from the Print department into Textiles for the duration of the war. Margaret Longhurst had published her catalogue on ivory carvings in 1927, having started work, according to Anthony Burton, in 1926, in the Department of Architecture and Sculpture

She features in Caroline Shenton's book "National Treasures: Saving the Nation’s Art in World War II (John Murray, 2021)". "In it, I tell the extraordinary and sometimes hilarious story of how the band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians from London’s major galleries, museums, archives and libraries saved the capital’s collections during World War II." 

V and A museum update on wartime location of the maps - Sept 2022:

Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2022 at 10:25:42 BST
Subject: RT46008 Partial answer
Victoria and Albert Museum - RT46008 partial answer
Partial answer regarding your question RT46008
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your most interesting enquiry. You are most correct that many museum objects, textiles amongst them, were stored in Montacute House in Somerset and Westwood Quarry in Bradford on Avon during the war. Whilst we do have records relating to the move and storage of objects at these locations, we unfortunately do not have comprehensive lists of the objects stored there, and it seems there is no mention of the tapestry map. This does not mean the map was not stored at either of these locations; we simply do not have definitive proof either way.
 However, I was able to find information about the tapestry map in Harcourt Vernon's nominal file, MA/1/V210, which includes large amounts of correspondence prior to and just following the agreement to loan the tapestry map to the V&A, touching on the provenance of the map and the history of the Eyre family. There is a gap in correspondence in the file between 1936 and 1946, so it seems that the V&A did not communicate directly with Harcourt Vernon regarding the location of the map during the war - or if they did, the correspondence does not survive. There are references to the tapestry having been stored 'in a place of safety' during the war, and the map hung in the Central Court directly following the war, but unfortunately I am unable to pinpoint its location during the war.
 If you wish to come in to see the Harcourt Vernon file, or indeed the wartime files (ED84/264-265; ED84/267-269), I would be happy to make you an appointment in the National Art Library reading room at our South Kensington site. The reading room is open Tuesday-Thursday from 11am to 5pm, and we have good availability throughout September.
Kind regards,
Vannis
Vannis Jones Rahi, Archivist
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL

14 - London Gazette 14th November 1916
CAPT. GRANVILLE CHARLES FITZHERBERT HARCOURT-VERNON,GRENADIER GUARDS.
The act for which Captain Granville C.F. Harcourt Vernon, eldest son of Mr. E.E. Harcourt
Vernon, Grove Hall, was awarded the D.S.O is officially recorded as follows: -
For conspicuous gallantry in action. Captains Harcourt-Vernon and Bailey led company out of the trench with great dash. They themselves led by at least 50 yards, and shot many of the enemy with their revolvers. About 60 of the enemy were accounted for, mainly with the bayonet, and 42 made prisoners.

Granville Charles F H Harcourt-Vernon DSO MC  Grenadier Guards 
Born 30 May 1891 Died Mar 1974 Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, Wales Age 82 years 
Father EDWARD EVELYN Harcourt-Vernon,  b.1853, Grove, Nottinghamshire, England  d.1932, East Retford, Nottinghamshire, England  (Age 79 years) 
Mother FRANCES THERESA Fitzherbert, b. Abt 1858, Somersal Herbert, Derbyshire, England  d. Mar 1937, Kensington, London, England (Age ~ 79 years) 
Wife CELINE Van Hecke, b. Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium d. 1949 Married 1925 


15 - Jeremy Farrell obituary. He was the single-handed creator of the Nottingham Costume and Textiles Museum and oversaw the purchase of the Notts tapestry maps from the Harcourt Vernon family (for a bargain price too) 

16 - This is none other than Wilfred Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk, the very same old friend and comrade in arms who as humble "Captain Bailey" was cited on Col HV's DSO in the trenches of the Somme. Bailey and HV were both born in 1891 and look remarkably alike too. His bio below adds a little more information about the remarkable and extremely brave action that both men undertook.
Lord Glanusk AKA Capt. Bailey
Capt Granville Harcourt Vernon





















Wilfred Russell Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk of Glanusk Park was born on 27 June 1891. He was the son of Joseph Henry Russell Bailey, 2nd Baron Glanusk and Editha Elma Sergison. He was educated at Eton and went to Sandhurst in 1910. On 4 Feb 1911 he held the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards and was promoted to Lieutenant on 8 Nov 1912. In Oct 1914 he was a lieutenant in No.1 Company 2nd Battalion at the 1st Battle of Ypres and in November he was appointed adjutant. He was then promoted to Captain in Sep 1915 at which time the battalion was fighting at Loos. He was still adjutant during the battle of The Somme in 1916. In a bayonet attack on a German trench at the Somme on 15 Sep 1916 Captain Vernon-Harcourt and Captain Bailey led their men against the enemy who were throwing grenades. They led by at least 50 yards and shot many of the enemy with their revolvers. About 60 of the enemy were accounted for mainly with the bayonet and 42 made prisoners: 'Captain Vernon-Harcourt himself, on arrival at the enemy's trench, was confronted by a stalwart German who immediately held up both hands and was made a prisoner, but Captain Bailey's man proved a fighter although happily a bad shot. Captain Bailey missed him with the first three shots of his automatic pistol but dispatched him with the fourth.'

He was awarded the DSO and promoted to temporary major on 10 Oct 1916 with the appointment of second in command of the 2nd Battalion. In Jan 1918 he had temporary command of the battalion for a month while Lt-Col Rasch was on leave. In July 1918 he transferred to the 1st Battalion to be second-in-command under Viscount Gort. He was temporarily commanding the 1st Battalion in August 1918 when he was wounded in the operations of 23 - 25 Aug. He recovered and arrived to take command of the 1st Battalion at the beginning of October 1918 and led further operations near Quievy from 11-14 Oct and at St Vaast from 20-22 Oct. His rank during Oct-Nov 1918 is quoted as Lieutenant-Colonel in the regimental history although it does not say that this is a temporary rank. He retired with the rank of major on 17 Feb 1924. He succeeded to the tile of Lord Glanusk on 11 Jan 1928. He was Lord-Lieutenant of Breconshire from 1928 until his death in 1948. In Sep 1939 he transferred from the Grenadier Guards to the Welsh Guards as commanding officer of the training battalion.

He married, firstly, Victoria Mary Enid Ann Dugdale, daughter of Colonel Frank Dugdale and Eva Sarah Louise Greville, on 27 Feb 1919. But he and Victoria were divorced in 1939. He married, secondly, Margaret Eldrydd Shoubridge, daughter of Maj-Gen Thomas Herbert Shoubridge and Constance Gladys Dugdale, on 17 Mar 1942. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, born on 10 Sep 1943. He died of heart failure on 12 Jan 1848. The Times obituary was published on 13 Jan 1948:

'Lord Glanusk, Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, died suddenly of heart failure yesterday at the age of 56 at his home near Crickhowell, Breconshire, one day more than 20 years after his father died in the act of opening the Brecon County War Memorial Hospital. Because he had a daughter and no son the family honours descend to his cousin, Lieutenant David Russell Bailey, R.N., son of the Hon. Herbert Crawshay Bailey, fourth son of the first Lord Glanusk.

The Right Hon. Sir Wilfred Russell Bailey, D.S.O., third Baron Glanusk, of Glanusk Park, in the County of Brecon in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and a baronet, was the eldest son of the second Baron Glanusk and was born on June 27, 1891. Educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards and served throughout the 1914-18 was with his regiment. He was mentioned six times in dispatches, was twice wounded, and received the D.S.O. in 1916, to which a bar was added later. In 1918 he rose to the command of the first battalion of the Grenadier Guards, and retired from the Army in 1924 with the rank of major.

He took a keen interest in the Boy Scout movement for many years and played a prominent part in local government in South Wales, having served on the Brecon County Council and as Chairman of the Brecon Standing Joint Committee. During the 1939-45 war he was re-employed and commanded for a time the training battalion of the Welsh Guards. He had been Lord Lieutenant of the county since 1928 and was appointed honorary colonel of the third battalion of The Monmouthshire Regiment in 1934 and of the Brecknock Battalion of The South Wales Borderers in 1939.

In February 1942 he was appointed Commander of Auxiliary Units (taking over from Col. Major). He took up his post arriving in his Rolls Royce. Most of the officers were from the Guards Brigade and it did not take long before drill was added to the training schedule. He used his influence with GHQ Home forces to improve the SDS establishment. On 13 Oct 1943 Lt Col Lord Glanusk ceased to belong to the Reserve of Officers due to ill health. He was given the Honorary rank of Colonel.'

The Somme - Bigger picture of Harcourt Vernon and Bailey's action at the Somme

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME Grenadiers and Coldstream Guards  https://erenow.net/ww/tracing-british-battalions-on-the-somme/2.php

Big Picture - Tracing the Grenadiers at the Somme...

2nd Battalion. 1st Guards Brigade, Guards Division: Arrived St Pol (30/7) and from there in motor lorries to Bouquemaison. Later marched to Neuvillette. To Sarton (1/8), Bertrancourt (10/8). Later to front line Beaumont-Hamel sector. Relieved and to Bertrancourt (14/8). To Courcelles-au-Bois (16/8), Beauval (23/8). Entrained for Méricourt (25/8) and from there to Méaulte. To Carnoy (31/8) – dug trenches in rear of the 20th Division. Relieved and to Méaulte (3/9). To Carnoy (9/9), front line Ginchy sector (12/9). Successful operation carried out at the orchard just outside Ginchy (13/9) – British line being straightened out in readiness for forthcoming attack. Relieved and to bivouacs just behind Ginchy (14/9). Attack towards Lesbœufs (15/9) – followed 2nd and 3rd Coldstream into action through heavy bombardment, shells, according to one source, said to be dropping at 1 per second. Battalion’s right on Ginchy-Lesbœufs Road – cleared enemy trenches at point of bayonet – holding first and second objective by evening. Relieved and to Citadel Camp (16/9). Casualties – 378. To Bernafay Wood (20/9), assembly trenches in front of Ginchy (24/9). Regimental historian – Sir Frederick Ponsonby records that trenches were so narrow that the men were unable to sit or lie down, and had to remain standing shoulder to shoulder. Attacked 12.35 p.m. (25/9) – with Ginchy-Lesbœufs Road on right moved forward – assault held up by uncut wire, 4 officers preceded to cut gaps by hand, Battalion then charged through to take objective. Regimental history records high losses among officers and assault on second objective almost totally led by N.C.Os. Relieved from captured line (26/9) and via Bernafay Wood to Citadel Camp. Casualties – 351. Later to Morlancourt and from there Aumont. To Citadel Camp (10/11), camp near Montauban (12/11), Trônes Wood (15/11), front line between Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt (16/11).

Harcourt Vernon and Bailey DSOs clearing the trenches with pistol and bayonet - September 15th 1916

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Grenadier_Guards_in_the_Great_War_19/8nm-BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%27Captain+Vernon-Harcourt+himself,+on+arrival+at+the+enemy%27s+trench,+was+confronted+by+a+stalwart+German+who+immediately+held+up+both+hands+and+was+made+a+prisoner,+but+Captain+Bailey%27s+man+proved+a+fighter+although+happily+a+bad+shot.+Captain+Bailey+missed+him+with+the+first+three+shots+of+his+automatic+pistol+but+dispatched+him+with+the+fourth&pg=PA63&printsec=frontcover

The orders given to the Grenadiers were to keep their right on the Ginchy—Lesbeeufs road, and this they had managed to do in spite of the barrage. Lieut.-Colonel de Crespigny knew he was in his right place, but was totally unable to understand what had happened to the Coldstream battalions.He sent a message to Gencral Pereira and received the following reply :

Your pigeon message timed 7.45 A.M. not quite clear. Irish Guards reported their Headquarters in Green line (first objective) and in touch with 41st Brigade on left at 8.45 a.m. You state no signs of Coldstream. Presume they are pushing on to next objective. Am sending bombs up.

Throughout the day it appears to have been assumed that the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers was in touch with the two Coldstream battalions, but although the Coldstream were fully aware of the position of the Grenadiers, the Grenadiers had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the Coldstream.

All available bombs were then collected, and a party began to work up the trench, but on reaching the enemy they were driven back with great loss. The situation again became critical, as the Germans were slowly driving our men back. Captain Harcourt-Vernon, finding that the supply of bombs had given out, determined not to waste any more men’s lives in what must necessarily be a one-sided contest, and organised a bayonet charge over the top.

Calling on the Adjutant, Captain Bailey, to come with him, he led the charge and took the German bombers completely by surprise. Many of them were killed before they realised what had happened, and forty to fifty more in rear all surrendered. Captain Harcourt-Vernon himself, on arrival at the enemy’s trench, was confronted by a stalwart German who immediately held up both hands and was made a prisoner, but Captain Bailey’s man proved a fighter although, happily, a bad shot. Captain Bailey missed him with the first three. shots of his automatic pistol, but despatched him with the fourth.

The Grenadier bombers, having managed to find some more bombs, now worked along the trench to the left, and the Germans who had escaped from Captain Harcourt-Vernon’s bayonet attack broke and ran across the open to their support trench. Having cleared the line for some distance, the Grenadiers began to consolidate. Two small parties of the enemy tried to return but were dealt with by Lewis guns. Lieutenant Crookshank, who was in charge of these guns, was wounded by a H.E. shell which exploded a few yards in front of him, and Captain Lord Lascelles, who was explaining to Captain Beaumont-Nesbitt what he wanted him to do, and had just sent for a runner, was hit by a bullet and had his arm broken.

17 - "Williamite" is sometimes applied to Late Stuart country house architecture built c. 1690–1710 in the conservative classicising English tradition that had been established under Charles II by Hugh May and Sir Christopher Wren, of which Belton House, Lincolnshire, and, formerly Stoke Edith, Herefordshire[1] are typical examples. Such compact houses do not fit easily within the conventions of English baroque architecture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamite

Misc notes...

Saxton's maps in hi def in the Burghley Atlas - British Museum

https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_18_d_iii_fs001r

https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_18_d_iii

"Slanford" east of Ruddington appears to be a misspelling inherited from Saxton's 1576 map via Speed's maps to the tap map. It is a typo of the lost village of Flawford so it looks like the S and N should have been F and W.

http://www.ournottinghamshire.org.uk/page/flawforth_lost_village?path=0p2p203p

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