THE HOUSE OF SECRETS

Picture-perfect Harvington Hall hosts many surprises. Claire Saul visits this unique Worcestershire treasure to discover some of them

- Claire Saul

Dr Dodd’s Library is one of the smallest rooms at Harvington Hall but it holds one of its biggest secrets. Visitors stand in this room of the beautiful, moated Elizabethan manor, having learned it was the home of the recusant Pakington family, who had been fined for failing to conform to the laws requiring them to attend Sunday Church of England services. Harsher laws, driven by the Catholic threat to Elizabeth I in the late 16th century, denied the presence of Catholic priests in the country – the death penalty threatened them and those harbouring them. Devout families such as the Pakingtons turned to devious solutions to continue to practice their faith.

Priest hides were built, secret spaces which protected fugitives while the tenacious pursuivants (priest hunters) scrutinised the house under suspicion. Harvington Hall boasts seven remaining hides, more than any other in England. Its visitors have been astounded to learn about the hide tucked above the bread oven in the kitchen. They have also viewed one under the floorboards of a narrow passageway. But where is the one in this library?

The answer is nothing short of ingenious, as one might expect from the hand of the famed Jesuit priest hide master builder Nicholas Owen, so much so, that it was only rediscovered two centuries later. A firm push on the top of one of the aged wall beams, and it pivots outwards. It reveals what is known as the “swinging beam hide”, a narrow space which Harvington Hall’s manager Phil Downing came to know rather intimately in November 2021.