2015

SU8921 : Cowdray - Ceiling of the Porch of Honour

taken 9 years ago, near to Midhurst, West Sussex, England

Cowdray - Ceiling of the Porch of Honour
Cowdray - Ceiling of the Porch of Honour
This fine ceiling adorns the Porch of Honour and features the ostrich-feather motif of the Prince of Wales - in this instance celebrating King Henry VIII's son, the later Edward VI. Both kings visited Cowdray during their reigns.
Despite being a Catholic, Sir William FitzWilliam managed to remain a lifelong friend of Henry VIII, and an important man of state, mainly by concealing his continued allegiance to the Pope. He was undoubtedly loyal to Henry however, and his successors at Cowdray, his relations, the Browne family, though also Catholic, were also staunch Royalists - a balancing act that was not without its difficulties over the centuries. See also SU8921 : Cowdray - Porch of Honour ceiling and SU8921 : Cowdray - Porch of Honour and East Wing and the shared description below:
Cowdray (Ruined Mansion)

Cowdray is a ruined mansion set within the 16,500 acre Cowdray Estate to the east of Midhurst. It is open to the public on weekend (& BH) afternoons in the summer - see LinkExternal link
The original site was called Coudreye and a mediaeval house existed here in at least 1284. King Edward I and his son, the Prince of Wales (later to become the ill-fated Edward II) visited Coudreye in 1305. However nothing of this original house survives as Sir David Owen - who had acquired the estate in 1496 on the death of his wife, Mary de Bohun - demolished it and built the current mansion between 1520 & 1529, renaming it (or at least changing its spelling) to Cowdray.
Sir David's son, Henry managed to sell the house (illegally) to Sir William FitzWilliam in 1529 - but the old man lived there until his death six years later, when Sir William took ownership. In 1537 Sir William - a friend and ally of Henry VIII - was ennobled as the Earl of Southampton; he was later made Lord High Admiral and subsequently Lord Privy Seal. King Henry visited Cowdray three times - in 1538,1539 and 1545; his son Edward VI visited in 1552, a year before his death at the age of 15. By then the house had passed to Sir William's half-brother, Anthony Browne, and it remained in the Browne family (who became ennobled as the Viscounts Montague) from 1542 until the early C19th.
However disaster befell both the estate and the family in 1793. On the 24th September a fire ripped through the mansion all but destroying it, and leaving it the ruin we see today. In the same week, the 8th Viscount (George Browne) was drowned (with his friend Charles Sedley Burdett and George's dog) in a reckless attempt to shoot the Rhine Falls - the largest plain waterfall in Europe.
Ironically the only part of the mansion to survive the fire pretty-much unscathed was the kitchen tower; the irony being that in many such fires at great houses, it is the kitchen where they start. In this instance however, the fire broke out due to the carelessness of workmen who were refurbishing the mansion. Smouldering charcoal was allowed to fall onto wood shavings and sawdust in the carpenters' workshop which was situated in the North wing of the house. Most unfortunately this North Gallery was also where the majority of the house's treasures were being kept during the restoration work on the house, so almost the entire contents of the house were engulfed and destroyed along with the fabric of the mansion itself.

On George's drowning, the Viscountancy passed to a distant Browne relation, a descendant of the 2nd Viscount; but this 9th Viscount died childless and the Viscountancy became extinct. Cowdray then passed to George the 8th Viscount's sister who married Colonel Poyntz ( see Link ); they had two sons and three daughters, but sadly both sons were killed in a boating accident off Bognor in 1815. The three daughters then jointly inherited Cowdray, but could not agree on how to divide the estate, so it was sold in 1843 to the 6th Earl of Egremont.
The estate remained with the Egremonts until 1908 when it was sold to Sir Weetman Dickinson Pearson who in 1917 became the first Viscount Cowdray.
The estate is still owned by this family, though in 1996 a year after the current (4th) Viscount inherited, the Cowdray Heritage Trust was created to manage the estate.
Between 2006 & 2007 major conservation work was carried out on the ruins of the fine old house, and on 31st March 2007 it was opened to the public.
For more information on Cowdray's history see LinkExternal link

Although the fire sadly destroyed most of this splendid house - and with it many priceless paintings etc. - it has left us with the skeleton of a Tudor mansion pretty-much unaltered in its form unlike most other such buildings which have been modified over the intervening centuries; it is therefore of great architectural and historical interest. Unsurprisingly it is listed Grade I by English Heritage LinkExternal link
Other parts of the estate are also separately listed as follows:
Gates - Grade II - LinkExternal link
Former Stables - Grade II - LinkExternal link
Granary - Grade II - LinkExternal link
Round / Water Tower - Grade II - LinkExternal link
The Park - Grade II* - LinkExternal link
Estate cottages (possibly a former farm) - Grade II - LinkExternal link
Two items are also listed as Scheduled Ancient Monuments:
Motte & Bailey Castle - LinkExternal link
Fortified Mediaeval House - LinkExternal link


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Rob Farrow and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Historic sites and artefacts Suburb, Urban fringe Ruin: Mansion Place: Cowdray Midhurst other tags: Ceiling Ruined Mansion Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
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SU8921, 93 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Rob Farrow   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Saturday, 29 August, 2015   (more nearby)
Submitted
Sunday, 6 September, 2015
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SU 8913 2166 [10m precision]
WGS84: 50:59.2471N 0:43.8914W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SU 8913 2166
View Direction
East-southeast (about 112 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Supplemental image
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