DEEP in rural Herefordshire lies a small, 13th-century church. Accessed by a quiet road and surrounded by fields, you would never guess that, for hundreds of years, it housed one of the most precious treasures of the Tudor age—an exquisite piece of embroidery, now believed to be the only known surviving fragment of Elizabeth I’s wardrobe.
For generations, the 16th-century fabric had been used as the altar cloth for St Faith’s Bacton. It had originated from Blanche Perry, a local noblewoman who had been a personal attendant and close confidant of Elizabeth I. Although Blanche was buried in Westminster, she had intended Bacton to be her final resting place and commissioned an effigy of herself kneeling beside her queen, which can still be seen today. It clearly shows a connection, via Blanche, between the monarch and this little church.
The parishioners who had carefully preserved their extraordinary altar cloth had long speculated about its origins. It’s easy to see why it was held in such high esteem by its keepers—exquisitely stitched birds, animals, insects and flowers twine their way across a background of precious metal, making it mesmerising to behold.
However, it wasn’t until 2015 that Eleri Lynn, the curator of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, happened across a photograph of this curious relic when she was researching Welsh connections to the Tudor Court.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin September 25, 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin September 25, 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
