Baddesley Clinton is a house that the National Trust runs, and there is a lot of history surrounding the place. If you want to visit the National Trust website to find out more, you can find it here. Baddesley Clinton is in the West Midlands, and it is a rural area.
Baddesley Clinton History
The house was first built in the 1400s, but very little of it survives today. The Ferrers family, particularly Edward Ferrers, constructed the manor house we see today.
The moat was created in the thirteenth century. However, it was at a later period that it was deepened and became a proper moat. There is so much history surrounding Baddesley Clinton that it will be impossible to include it all here. If you want to find out more about Baddesley Clinton’s history, you can visit the National Trust website.
Fascinating and Unexpected Stories from Baddesley Clinton
Catholic priests stayed at Baddesley Clinton in the sixteenth century because of the rural area. Persecuted Catholics, particularly priests, were hung, drawn, and quartered. The sisters that Henry Ferrers was renting the house to were strong Catholics, and they employed Nicholas Owen to create the three priest holes in the house. Owen was eventually captured in 1606 after the foiled gunpowder plot, and he was tortured and bled to death in his cell at the Tower of London.
Many Catholic priests stayed in different places, and the manor house at Baddesley Clinton was brilliant. During this time period, secret hiding places known as priest holes were constructed around the house so if any priest hunters arrived, the family could easily hide them. One of the priest holes was used when the priest hunters arrived, while the others were used as a distraction. The sisters who Henry Ferrers rented the house to hide thirteen Catholics in the one priest hole.
The priest hole they used to hide everyone was built into a stone wall. As they were solid walls, the priest hunters couldn’t knock on them to see if they were hollow or not. Once they left, the sisters didn’t use the priest holes again. As they knew the hunters would return, it would’ve been too risky to hide more Catholic priests at Baddesley Clinton.
Baddesley Clinton: The House
My visit to Baddesley Clinton started with the house. Most of Baddesley Clinton is built from stone, as most of it was built before the Tudor age. However, when you walk outside the house, you can see parts built from brick instead.
When you walk through the main entrance, you walk through the courtyard. The layout is impressive, and the courtyard took my breath away. The middle part of the courtyard is set up as a garden, and the plants there are incredible.
Inside are lots of rooms dedicated to telling the history of the house and the people who lived there. In the kitchen, you can see a priest hole that the owners used in Elizabethan England to hide thirteen people who were hiding from priest hunters. There are three priest holes in the house, but I didn’t see any more.
Most of the paintings were painted by one of the people who lived in the house, Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen. She was born in Ireland in 1829 or 1830 and married into the Ferrers family in 1867. At least seventy-eight of her paintings survives today.
We got several photos of the house, but only of the outside and the courtyard. We did not take any photos inside the house.
Baddesley Clinton: The Grounds
After we visited the house, we sat outside so I could write down one of my ideas for a later part of my fanfiction, Emma’s Six, which you can find here. We explored part of the wood and the garden when I finished writing. The garden and wood surround the house, which means it is a great place to go when the weather is nice.
While we only explored the outskirts of the wood, I still enjoyed it. After that, we walked through the garden. There are so many different plants growing there, and while the smell felt strong when we were close to the flowers, I still enjoyed the garden. We explored most of the garden, but I don’t think we explored all of it.
There are public footpaths across the grounds, and while we did not explore all of them, I certainly felt like I got a great feel for what Baddesley Clinton is like.
What I think about Baddesley Clinton
Going to Baddesley Clinton for the afternoon helped me understand what living in Tudor England was like. The house is impressive, the grounds are expansive, and there are many walks you can go on. While I did not explore all the grounds, I still loved what I saw. The National Trust property is fantastic, the location is beautiful, and I loved every moment I was there. Even though I was exhausted on the way back, it was certainly worth going.
If you want to read more about my days out, you can find the blog posts here. If you want to discover more about my special interests, you can find the posts here.
The information in this blog post has been researched, and as far as I know, it is accurate.