Saturday night (June 28th) saw the medieval heavens descend with a downpour of rain to mark the opening of our new Medieval Pavilion on the moat at Upton Cressett. To mark the occasion, I hosted an Elizabethan costume party with authentic Elizabethan dancing for my wife Laura’s 30th Birthday.
Friends of Laura came from as far as Normandy and Siciliy, along with local figures and family members. My father in law came dressed as a medieval executioner – with a small axe borrowed from the tool shed – which was picked up on by the Daily Mail, who ran a comical Diary story the next day entitled ‘When Father In Law Comes As An Axeman” which we all thought absurd but amusing.
The party was to celebrate the birthday of my wife Laura as well as to celebrate the recent knighthood of his father Sir Bill Cash (left, dressed as Caravaggio in cloak, next to Viven Cathcart and Ivan Lindsay). There were fifty guests, mainly old friends of Laura and her family.
Elizabeth Hurley stayed the night in The Thatcher Suite in the Gatehouse at Upton Cressett, where Baroness Thatcher stayed for two nights with Sir Denis Thatcher in 1994. ‘I love Upton Cressett as it is so untouched by the industrial age – it is a magical step back in time’ said Hurley, who lives near Ledbury in Herefordshire.
There were many reasons to celebrate last weekend. We have been wanting to do an Elizabethan themed party for many years and the news last week that the wind turbine application that has threatened the historic setting of Upton Cressett had been withdrawn was an extra reason to raise glasses this weekend.
Another reason to celebrate was that we are also looking forward to the imminent return (from Monkhopton church) of the ‘Cressett Brass’ to the grade 1 church of St. Michael where the Elizabethan supper was hosted.
The church of St. Michael (see images at the bottom of the dinner) is owned and maintained by the wonderful Churches Conservation Trust who gave us permission to host the event in the church which is no longer used for services.
I thanked the CCT in my speech and told everybody about the great work the CCT are doing in conserving churches such as St Michael’s. I am a huge supporter of the Churches Conservation Trust and have become involved with the CCT’s s national fundraising arm as it is a cause that urgently needs money being yet another casualty of the govenment cutting of arts and conservation grants.
One of the reasons for hosting the Elizabethan supper in the church of St Michael was to raise awareness for the work of the CCT and show how such beautiful Grade 1 CCT churches can be used for local events exactly like the Elizabethan themed dinner at Upton Cressett. This way we can get local people to see how the buildings can actually be USED today as opposed to just sitting empty. That these architectural gems can once again be enjoyed by the local community is very much part of the raison d’etre of the CCT.
The problem is that many local people are generally not even aware of the beautiful CCT churches in their area, and secondly, that they can be used for hosting events – from lectures to concerts to dinners. Following the dinner , we had a complaint from somebody who saw a photo of the Elizabethan supper at St Michael’s in the local Shropshire Star paper, without possibly realising that St Michael’s is no longer used for services today.
The publicity surrounding the private supper and poetry evening can only – in my view at least – help realise awareness in the local community that a former church like St Michael’s is available for use by the local community if they are only aware that the CCT actively promotes such ‘appropriate’ usage. We were thrilled it was such a success and look forward to hosting more events in the church in the future which help raise awareness of the CCT’s work and the beauty of their buildings.
Earlier in the week, the Jerwood Prize winning artist Adam Dant, whose mural work was included in the Grade 1 status of the Hall, visited Upton Cressett to paint the Cressett sea dragon motif onto the new Bosworth Pavilion that I commissioned three months ago from the specialist Nottingham based heritage tent company George Mudford & Sons who have been making tents since 1832.
‘Mudford & Sons are known as the Rolls Royce of heritage tents, used for re-enacting battles including the Battle of Bosworth. The tent chosen is an exact replica of the sort of field pavilion used by Henry Tudor at Bosworth in 1385.
Round marquees, called Pavilions, were common in the days of the English longbowmen. The Pavilions were often decorated with woven, striped cloth, embroidery and applied motifs – from the Cloths of Gold to Agincourt and the fields of Bosworth these tents created a varied and colourful camp scene.
The costumes added to the festivities. I dressed as the 17th century poet troubadour John Cash whose family sailed to America and whose later ancestor included the late country singer Johnny Cash.
Earlier this year we were invited by Johnny Cash’s daughter Roseanne Cash to attend a concert at the Barbican in London at which she had invited all her Cash relations. It was wonderful to know that we are related to the great Johnny Cash and we are talking about inviting Roseanne Cash to Upton Cressett for a visit, or perhaps even a concert on the moat next year.
My favourite costume, however, was worn by Henry Dent Brocklehurst, (in Gucci white jacket right) owner with sister Mollie of Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire – where Catherine Parr is buried. Henry had forgotten to go to a fancy dress store to get a Tudor costume so decided to pay a visit to Sudeley castle ‘s famous 16th century Tudor museum where he picked out a black felt hat with a feather from the 16th century actually belonging to Lord Seymour (Thomas) who married Catherine Parr after she was widowed by Henry VIII – she was the sixth wife who ‘survived”.
I was so impressed by this authentic Tudor detail that I wore Thomas Seymour’s hat during the birthday speech (right) I gave from the podium of the church of St Michael before toasting Laura inside the grade 1 church where the dinner took place.
As I spoke, the Tudor feather attached to the 16th century hat nearly caught fire as it dallianced with a candle placed close to the podium. There was some light singeing before I realised the Seymour headpiece was about to go up in flames during my speech.
The toast was followed – in true Elizabethan style – with the historic costume dance group called Courtesie entering the candle-lit church and dancing a processional dance known as a Pavane – which is a 16th century Italian word meaning ‘To Peacock’. We certainly peacocked all night.