The chancel of St. John the Baptist forms a marked contrast with the heavy Romanesque character of the nave beyond. Although much of the present fabric dates from Henry Ward’s rebuilding of the 1840s, the space still preserves the impression of a later medieval Gothic chancel developing eastward from an earlier Norman church. The… Continue reading A closer look at the chancel
Category: Miscellaneous
A Closer Examination of the Nave
Although rebuilt between 1844 and 1847, the nave of St. John the Baptist still gives a strong impression of the Norman or Romanesque character, with its round arches and zig-zag carving of the earlier medieval church described by Stebbing Shaw in the 1790s. Henry Ward’s rebuilding reused the scale, round arches and zig-zag carving of… Continue reading A Closer Examination of the Nave
St. John the Baptist Church
As St. John the Baptist church was largely rebuilt in the 1840s, and little documentary evidence survives from before that time, it is necessary to turn to alternative sources to reconstruct the form and chronology of the earlier building. Stebbing Shaw, writing in the 1790s, provides a detailed and informative description of the church, including… Continue reading St. John the Baptist Church
Not a summerhouse at all
In Historic England’s listing, this Grade II structure is officially described as a “summerhouse”, a term suggesting a light, ornamental building intended for leisure. In reality, it was something very different. Built in the 1840s, it formed part of an extensive glasshouse range stretching for over 100 yards along the hillside. Its alignment—running east to… Continue reading Not a summerhouse at all
A Victorian show garden
By 1853 Hawkesyard, then still known as Armitage Park, was already being noticed as a place of unusual horticultural ambition. A visitor writing in the Cottage Gardener described it as “curious, interesting, and beautiful”, with undulating ground and wide views from the house. His main interest was the remarkable range of gardens and glasshouses created… Continue reading A Victorian show garden
The tunnels
The Tunnels Ask almost anyone who grew up in Armitage about Hawkesyard and the first thing they mention is not the house. It is the tunnels. Dark, cool and slightly forbidding, their stone entrances half-hidden by ivy and bramble, they have long stirred the imagination. Stories have travelled with them for generations. One tunnel, it… Continue reading The tunnels
Hawkesyard: a house, a family, and a place in history
Hawkesyard is more than a country house. It is a site where architecture, belief, literature, and local life intersect across seven centuries. This series of articles explores Hawkesyard and the people connected with it, placing the house firmly within both the history of Armitage and wider national themes. From its medieval origins to its Victorian… Continue reading Hawkesyard: a house, a family, and a place in history
A House of Two Gothics: Hawkesyard Explained
Hawkesyard did not arrive fully formed. It grew by addition and adaptation, shaped by changing taste, belief, and circumstance. From Lister’s ordered Georgian Gothick to Spode’s confident Victorian Gothic, the house records how architecture, like family history, is built in layers rather than moments, across generations and acts of ambition
Inside Hawkesyard in 1839
The 1839 sale catalogue of Hawkesyard (Armitage Park) reveals a finely ordered country house shaped by intellect, social ambition, and service. Read through Thomas Henry Lister’s life, it exposes a household balancing fashionable gentility, bureaucratic modernity, and the practical labour of estate life.
A Window of Faith and Craft: The Lost Stained Glass Commissioned by Josiah Spode IV
A lost chapter of Armitage-with-Handsacre’s heritage survives only in a 1988 video: two stained-glass windows commissioned by Josiah Spode IV for his private octagonal chapel. The Marian and narrative windows formed a rich devotional scheme, now vanished, yet still revealing Spode’s faith, craftsmanship, and late-Victorian Catholic identity.