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
Tag: Spode
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
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.
Occupations
When researching a person the occupation begins to tell something of that person’s story although it is always more interesting when an unusual occupation is encountered. As you might expect, there is not much in the way of written information about occupations in medieval times but records of court cases provide some information. After the… Continue reading Occupations