More information : [SP 08316060] COUGHTON COURT [G.T.]. (1)
Coughton Court, the home of the Throckmorton family since it was
built early in the 16th.c., was restored after being damaged
during the Civil War. Later alterations took place in 1780 and
1795 when the moat was filled in. In 1945 the house and grounds
where transferred to the National Trust.
See attached pamphlet. (2)
The house is occupied, open to the public and in good condition. (3)
COUGHTON COURT
WARWICKSHIRE
A Property of The National Trust
1967
London Country Life Limited
for THE NATIONAL TRUST
COUGHTON COURT
Coughton Court is situated on the skirts of the old Forest of Arden,
between Ickneild Street and the little river Arrow, a tributary of
Shakespear'e Avon, about two miles from Alcester and eighteen from
Birmingham. The house lies back from the village and the main road,
at the end of a wide elm avenue, and with the ancient church (until
the Reformation the only place of worship for the parish) and the
more recent Roman Catholic Church (built by the Throckmorton family
in 1860) forms a group of unusual local interest. The conjunction
of the three reminds us of the long chequered history in politics
and religion of the Throckmorton family who have lived here for
five and a half centuries.
HISTORY OF COUGHTON
Coughton Court as it now stands was begun by Sir George
Throckmorton probably at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The estate had originally belonged to the family of de Cocton,
from whom it derives its name. It went, by marriage of an heiress
to the de Spinetos or Spineys, and passed again, by the marriage
of the heiress of this family to the Throckmortons of Throckmorton
in Worcestershire in 1409. They came to live at Coughton and soon
after proceeded to build themselves a larger house than the one
then existing. The fact that a house previously existed is indicated
by a stone shield impaling the de Cocton and Spiney arms over the
door of an outbuilding.The history of the Throckmortons is one of
intermarriage throughout the centuries with other leading families,
resulting in an accumulation of numerous estates in Worcestershire,
Warwickshire, Berkshire and Devon, and above all in a tenacious
allegiance to Roman Catholicism. Consequently we find Throckmortons
suffering those recurrent penalties and disabilities to which
leading Catholic families were liable after the Reformation. We
read, for instance, of the Throckmorton Plot in 1583 to murder
Elizabeth and make Mary of Scots Queen in her stead. The only result
of this abortive attempt was strong statutes passed by Parliament
against the Jesuits who were expelled from the country and a
tightening of defences against possible Spanish invasion. In 1605 came the Gunpowder Plot in which the Throckmortons themselves were not directly implicated although Coughton played an indirect part in the grim tragedy. Mr Throckmorton prudently absented himself abroad. But he lent the house at this time to Sir Everard Digby, his brother-in-law, and from the gatehouse on that famous 5th November,
Lady Digby and other ladies, together with the Jesuit Fathers
Gardfen and Tesimond, anxiously awaited the news. This was brought
to them at dead of night by Thomas Bates, Catesby's servant,
whereupon the disappointed party made their escape to Holbeach Hall
near Kingswinford which belonged to the Digby family.
During the Great Rebellion, Sir Robert Throckmorton, upon whom Charles I had conferred a baronetcy in 1642, suffered grievously. In October 1643 Coughton was occupied by Parliamentary forces, and
in January 1644 submitted by Royalist troops to an artillery
bombardment which the inhabitants vainly attempted to parry by
hanging their bed-clothes out of the windows as a form of protection.
Nevertheless, the house was sacked, set on fire and badly damaged,
but to what extent it is not possible to determine.
PHOTOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL OMITTED
After the Restoration the damaged parts were repaired by Sir
Francis Throckmorton, who at the same time made considerable
alterations in the disposition of the buildings and the internal
planning. But troubled times were yet again in store for Coughton.
In 1688 when James II fled the country, the house was pillaged by a
Protestant mob from Alcester on a December day known as 'Running
Thursday'. What was called 'the newly erected Catholic Church' was
destroyed and with it the entire east wing of the house which has
never been replaced. The ruined remains were not finally cleared away
until 1780 by Sir Robert Throckmorton. In 1795 Sir John Throckmorton
drained and filled up the moat, which, until that date, completely
surrounded the quadrangle and gateway. It is said that the walls rose
straight out of the water and that ladies of the house were wont
to fish leaning from their bedroom windows.
In 1945 by special provision under The National Trust 1939 Act to
enable settled estates to be transferred to the Trust, Coughton
Court and 148 acres were handed over as the result of the judge in
Chancery approving a scheme submitted by counsel as being in the
interests of the family. In accordance with that Act the house has
been leased back to Sir Robert Throckmorton, the eleventh and
present baronet, and to his heirs over a long term of years. The
contents of the house, with the exception of the portrait of
Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Bart, by Nicolas de Largilliere, which
hangs in the Green Drawing room, belong to the Throckmorton family,
and it is owing to the courtesy of Sir Robert Throckmorton that they
are shown to the public.
EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE
The Gate-house. The chief and nuclear feature of Coughton Court is
the great gate-house. This magnificent structure, facing east and
west, was built, probably by Sir George Throckmorton, only a few
years after Henry VIII became king in 1509. It must originally
have been approached by a bridge over the moat. Whether Sir George
intended it to stand detached, in the forefront of his reconstituted
dwelling, in the usual medieval fashion, we do not know. It and
some minor dwellings in the rear are all that Sir George may have
seen completed, or at least all that have come down to us of his
work.
For imposing proportions, height and excellence of design, the
gate-house stands out among the very first examples of its class
in England. Dugdale, the seventeenth-century historian of
Warwickshire, refers to it as 'that stately castle-like gate-house of
freestone', and he takes it upon himself to say that it had been
Sir George Throckmorton's intention 'to have made the rest of his
house suitable thereto'. The west, or entrance front, and the east
front facing the quadrangle or courtyard, are of the same
elevation, but with minor points of difference. The leading features
of both are the archway, through which originally vehicles and horses
would pass: the octagonal angle-turrets; and the beautiful
double-storeyed oriel, in between which and the angle-turrets other
windows are pierced, giving a lantern-like appearance to the
composition. Battle-menting crowns the whole tower as well as the
turrets. On the aprons of the oriels are recessed panels, the upper
of Renaissance, the lower of Gothic design, enclosing respectively
the Royal Arms of Henry VIII, with the dragon and greyhound
supporters, the portcullis and rose, and the arms of Throckmorton
with their crest of an elephant's head over an heraldic casque
flanked by mantling. The stone shield of the family's arms on the
west side, by a sad coincidence, fell and was broken on the day when
the present baronet's father was killed while fighting in the
Mesopotamia in 1916. In the spandrels of the great arch on both
sides are other shields displayed the family quarterings set in
conventional foliage of rose branches. On the east side the carving
has never been quite finished, and there is a shaft with capital
and base to the inner order of the arch, the mouldings of which
on the west face are continuous.
The West Wings. The stone wings to the gate-house are not inharmonious additions in 1780 Gothic, probably masking older work. The recessed balancing faces on either side of the wings with their ogival-headed windows are likewise Georgian, but the Roman cement
of the walls gives an air of impermanency, and the loss of the
Jacobean gables about 1835 has deprived this front of the dignity it
needs. The northern end of the west front was extended in 1835 in
order to give a symmetry to the whole.
The Courtyard. Passing through the gateway we emerge into the
courtyard, with a fine view across the garden now that the east wing
no longer completes the quadrangle. On either side of us stretch the
north and south wings, the latter retaining its peculiarly
elegant barge-boarding on two of the gables.
The gables and the first storey of thse wings are of typical erarly
sixteenth century half-timber work, the ground floors of brick and
stone dressings having been concealed until recently by roughcast.
The north wing has a deep plastered cove under the gables and a
slight overhang above the lower storey. The south wing was widened
and altered in the late sixteenth century.
INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE
Front Hall. The ground storey of the gate-house is now called the
front hall and was so transformed in the early nineteenth century.
The ceiling is vaulted with fan tracery and angle shafts. On the walls hang two seventeenth century flemish tapestries, that on the right depicting Romulus and Remus.
In the door passing on the north side of the hall is a panal giving
access to a hiding place which was entered from the tower room
above. A speaking whole is connected with another hole on the wall
outside.
The Staircase. In 1956 the staircase walls were painted red and the
Georgian Gothic plaster cornice left white. At the foot of the stairs
the very first picture we see is of Judith Tracey, wife of Francis
Throckmorton of Ullenhall. Immediately facing the entrance is an oil
painting showing the house as it looked before 1835. Among the
pictures here are several of the Haseley branch of the family.
They were noted Roundheads, and the 'Martin Mar-Prelate Tracts'
were printed at their home at Haseley, near Warwick. The printing
press was the first movable one used in England and travelled round
the country in a farm cart under a load of hay.
The Drawing Room. In 1956 the great west oriel, which has been
blocked up some hundred and thirty years previously was opened
up. The original stone chimneypiece was revaled. At the same time the
walls were hung with a green striped flock paper. In the
lattice-paned windows are roundels and shields of heraldic glass. In
the left turret window are displayed the arms of the chief Gunpowder
Plotters, namely Tresham, Sheldon, Arderne and Catesby. Tradition
has it that in this room Lady Digby and her ladies sat and awaited theoutcome of the Gunpowder Plot. In the report of his examination, under torture, of Catesby's servant, Bates, we are told how he galloped up to the door, told them of the downfall of their hopes, waited to feed his horse and then rode away to rejoin his unfortunate master.
Notable pieces of frniture in this room are the set of six walnut
veneered and inlaid Dutch chairs of the late seventeenth century,
and a double Chippendale chair convertible into library steps.
The pictures include a fine portrait by Nicolas de Largilliere of Sir
Robert Throckmorton 4th Bart. (1702-91) in a splendid rococo frame
over the fireplace, his second wife Catherine Collingwood attributed
to Knapton hanging opposite him, and, also by Largilliere, three
nuns, all members of the family. There are two framed pictures in
silk work, one of flowers by Lady Acton, mother of the 8th
Baronet's wife, the other of the Legend of St. Clare by Lilian,
Lady Throckmorton, mother of the present Baronet. Of the many
miniatures several are of members of the Acton family and include
Lady Acton and her husband Sir John Acton 6th Bart, who also
happened to be her uncle. She married him by special papal
dispensation in 1799 when she was aged 14 and he 63. He had been
Commander-in-Chief of the land and sea forces of Naples and was for
several years Neapolitan Prime Minister. He died in 1811 and his
widow, who spent much of her late life at Coughton, lived until
1873.
In the show cases are some illuminated fifteenth century missals.
The Little Drawing Room. The walls of his room have recently been
hung with a yellow damask paper. On the wall ooposite the entrance
part of a dessert service of Worcester porcelain has been arranged.
It is of blue and gold on a while ground. On the wall facing
the window is a Rockingham service on the places of which the
counties of England are painted. In a glass case are a twelfth
century pax plate and a thirteenth century pyx of Limoges enamel.
The portraits include Mrs Pakington by Cornelius Jonson and Apollonia
Yate by Sir Peter Lely.
The Tower Room. A winding stair in the south-east turret leads to
the Tower Room. This chamber was for a time used as a chapel. By
means of the north-east turret a passage was contrived for
recusant priests or members of the household in times of trouble.
It is connected with the exit close to the front hall on the ground
floor. It was opened up in 1870 and at the foot of the shaft, reached
by rope ladder, a palliasse bed, three altar stones and a holding
leather altar were discovered. The latter was given by Sir William
Throckmorton to a convent on Bradford.
The ceiling of the Tower Room was in 1956 repaired in cedar wood.
On the south wall hangs the hird of the seventeenth century flemish
tapestries (of which two are in the Front Hall). Next to it is a
painted canvas known as the Tabula Eliensis. It is dated 1596 and
tells that in the reign of William the Conqueror, forty knights and
gentlemen were quartered on the monks of Ely and a garrison was left
there until the Reformation when it was withdrawn, apparently to the
great reget of the monks, celebrations being held in honour of its
departure. These are described on the canvas on either side of the
painting of Ely Abbey, as it then stood with its spire. Below are
depicted the heads of the original forty knights and gentlement
with their arms, and the heads of the sovereigns of England from
William Rufus to Elizabeth. Beneath these are the arms of all the
Catholic gentry who were imprisoned for recusancy during her reign.
They are grouped under the headings of their various places of
imprisonment. This canvas was found by the 9th Baronet quite carefully packed away in the roof and had doubtless been placed their during the times of persecution.
The Tower Room is equipped with showcases, in which an exhibition
of some of the Throckmorton family monuments has been set out with
the help of the Warwick County Record Office. It is hoped to change
the exhibits yearly, so that different aspects of the family life,
such as their landholding, estate management, building,
housekeeping and religious activities may be illustrated in turn.
The Roof. The roof provides distant views of the surrounding
country. To the west can be seen the rising ground where the
Roundhead Army emplaced their guns when they beseiged and took the
house in 1643.
The Dining Room. In 1856 the ceiling, which in 1910 had been raised,
was lowered to its proper level over the cornice of the panelling.
The chief features of this room are the chimneypiece and the splendid
panelling. The former, probably dating from Charles I's reign, is
part timber and part white and coloured marbles. The shafts on either
side are in polished black 'touch' or slate. The lower pairs have
Ionic capitals and bases of Parian marble; the cornice shelf is
of the same material as are the Corinthian capitals and bases
of the upper pairs. The overmantle, frieze, entablature and cornice,
however, are in oak of feathered grain and grey tint. As for the
wainscoting round the room, the panels of the frieze, disporting
roundels, dragons and human heads, are distinctly Renaissance and
of Henry VIII's reign. The panels below this frieze enclose diamonds
of projecting mouldings and odd little bracketed shafts of turned
wood supporting a small entablature, which at irregular intervals
carries a slender baluster over the frieze to the main cornice.
These panels may date from Charles I's reign. The projecting
mouldings--intermediate with the flat ones of the Turdor and
Carolean times and the large bolection mouldings that came in
with the Restoration of Charles II--are the best clue to the earliest
date when this rare piec of work was put together in this present
form.
The table is laid with a dinner service of French porcelain and
Georgian silver plates, forks and spoons. The centre piece is a
Steward's Cup trophy of 1877. The tapestry panels on the dining
chairs were worked by Lady Acton.
The wood of the gold-coloured velvet chair is made from the bed on
which King Richard III slept the night before the Battle of Bosworth.
In this room hangs the old Dole Gate of the Convent of Denny and on
it is the name of Elizbeth Throckmorton, the last Abbess at
the time when the community was dissolved in 1539. The Dole Gate
dates from the early sixteenth century. It is made of oak with an
upper wicket used for conversation and a lower for passing out the
dole to the wayfarer. The Latin inscription may be interpreted as
'God Absolves Dame Elizabeth Throckmorton Abbess of Denny',
between devices of the Sacred Heart and the Tudor Rose, of which the
right hand lower panel is missing. The dole gate was found in a
cottage at Ombesley, Worcestershire about 1888.
From the dining room steps lead past a little closet on the left.
It was doubtless once a hiding-chamber. In it is an alabaster relief,
properly called a 'table' of the Nativity. It dates from the
fifteenth century when such 'tables' of religious subjects were
produced by the Nottinghamshire carvers. At the time of the
Reformation these subjects were frequently hidden away to avoid
mutilation.
The Tapestry Bedroom. The Abbess of Denny returned to the home
of her family after the dissolution of the convent with two of her
nuns, and they lived in this room quietly, according to the
rules of their Order, until her death, when she was buried in the
parish church.
The Tribune. The tribune adjoins the dining-room and is panelled
in the same interesting manner. High in the south wall is a sliding
panel which may originally have given the only access to the hiding
hole. In a case on the wall hands the 'Camaisia' or chemise 'of the
holy martyr, Mary Queen of Scots' (as it is styled in the
contemporary Latin inscription stituched upon it in red silk)
in which that unhappy woman was beheaded at Fotheringay. it is
supposed to be stained by drops of hr blood. In another case are a
garter ribbon of Prince Charles Edward, a glove of James III, and
locks of their hair with that of the Cardinal of York. A precious
relic is the beautiful and very perfect early sixteenth century cope
of puple velvet, ith seraphim and flowers in heavy gold embroidery.
This work is ascribed to Queen Katherine of Aragon. There is
also an alabaster carving of the fifteenth century. The subject
is St. John the Baptit's Head. The cut is made from wood of the
mulberry tree under which Shakespeare sat at New Place.
There is a picture in this room of the ambassador, Sir Nicholas
Throckmorton. He and his wife, Ann Carew, were the parents of
Bessie Throckmorton, who was a lady-in-waiting to Queen
Elizabeth, and, to the great displeasure of her royal
mistress, secretly married to Sir Walter Raleigh.
The Saloon. The tribune overlooks the saloon which, after the
destruction of the east wing, wa, when public opinion allowed,
fitted as a chapel, and, though never consecrated, used as such
until the present Catholic Church was built in 1855. In 1910 the
present room was formed. At the same time the staircase was brought
from Harvington Hall, near Kidderminster. It was up and
down this stair that Father Wall and many other notable Catholics
must have passed in those troubled times when Coughton and Harvington
were among the places of refuge from persecution. At the bottom
of the left flight hangs the 'Throckmorton Coat', which was made
for a wager in 1811. The record of this coat and a picture
of the proceedings hang beside it. The coat was entirely completed
between sunrise, when it was wool on the back of shto sheep,
and sunset, when it was a smart brown cutaway coat on the back
of Sir John Throckmorton.
The large portrait on the right of the fireplace is of Elizabeth
Acton, Lady Throckmorton, and her two children. There are portraits
of her father Sir John Acton, and of her brother Cardinal Acton.
Other portraits include Lilian, Lady Throckmorton, who died in
1955, and those of three eighteenth century Throckmorton brothers,
each of whom inherited the Baronetcy, Sir John, Sir George and Sir
Charles. The long oak refectory table has always been at Coughton.
In a corner of the room is a small case containing war medals and the
ornate armband and sword stick used by the Colonel at the coronation
of King George V. In the same case is the armband and sword stick
which Mr Geoffrey Throckmorton used at the coronation of George
VI--the stick is shorter and the armband of poor quality. Other
show cases contain souvenirs of the Emperior Franz Josef and
Empress Elizabeth of Austria, given to their lady-in-waiting
Miss Mary Throckmorton. AT the bottom of the stairs are two more
show cases with early printed books dating from the fifteenth
century, including a Book of Hours (Simon Vostre 1502) and the
'Method of Speaking and of remaining Silent' by Quintell,
Cologne 1491.
The Passageway under the staircase was once an old wine cellar.
Behind a panel may be seen yet another hinding-place which was
discovered by Lilian Lady Throckmorton. It contains a medieval
group in wood, The Descent from the Cross. In the passageway is a
further show case of letters.
There are many other interesting things in the house which have not
been mentioned, and the visitor will find descriptive leaflets
attached to most of them.
J. LEES-MILNE
LIST OF PICTURES
(oil paintings unless otherwise stated)
STAIRCASE HALL
1. English, 19th Century
View of Coughton from the West.
2. English, 16th Century
Judith, daughter of Richard Tracey of Stanway and Barbara Lucy of
Charlecote, wife of Francis Throckmorton of Ullenhall.
3. English, 1576
Katharine, daughter of Lord Vaux, kinswoman of Catherine Parr and
wife of Sir George Throckmorton. This relationship stood the family
in good stead in their quarrel with Thomas Cromwell concerning part
of the Coughton Estate.
STAIRS
4. English, 1564
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Kt. (1515-1571), Diplomat and
Statesman, Chamberlain of the Exchquer, Ambassador to France and
Scotland. Third son of Sir George Throckmorton.
5. English, 16th Century
Sir Robert Throckmorton, Kt., eldest son of Sir George. High
Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester.
6. English, 16th Century
Sir James Wilford, Kt. Grandfather of Agnes who married John
Throckmorton (No. 10). Governor and Defender of Haddington
against French and Scots, 1548-9. d. 1550.
7. English, 1590
Anne, daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew, wife of Sir Nicholas
Throckmorton (No. 4). Parents of Elizabeth, who married Sir
Walter Raleigh. Sir Nicholas's son assumed subsequently the name
of Carew and from him were descended the Carews of Beddington.
8. English, c. 1700
Lucy, daughter of Clement throckmorton (No. 9).
9. English, c. 1700
Clement Throckmorton of Haseley, a branch of the family descended
from Sir George Throckmorton.
10. English, 1609
John Throckmorton, son of Thomas Throckmorton, married Agnes,
daughter of Thomas Wilford.
11. Pompeo Batoni
Thomas Peter Gifford. He married secondly Barbara, daughter of
Sir robert Throckmorton, 4th Bart., by his second wife, Catherine
Collingwood. (Replica of portrait in the Gifford Coll.,
Chillington.)
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