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This is a picture looking through the ruins to the famous fountains at Witley Court in Great Witley, which is literally a stone’s throw away from our village in Worcestershire.
I took the picture a few weeks ago on one of our many visits there which we enjoy as part of our English Heritage membership.
Frankly, it’s easy to get to the garden, the walks are lovely and is always worth a visit. I have, in a previous article, mentioned about the famous fountain’s which are one of the highest in Europe however I wanted to show the effect of the great fire which has left such a grand building in such a terrible state.
For background:
Witley Court, in Great Witley, Worcestershire, England, is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the architect John Nash for Thomas Foley, 3rd Baron Foley. The estate was later sold to the Earls of Dudley, who undertook a second massive reconstruction in the mid-19th century, employing the architect Samuel Daukes to create one of the great palaces of Victorian and Edwardian England.
The declining fortune of the Dudley’s saw the sale of the court after the First World War to a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer. In 1937 a major fire caused great damage to the court, the estate was broken up and sold and the house was subsequently stripped of its fittings and furnishings. Forty years of decay followed before the house and grounds were taken into the care of The Department of the Environment in 1972. Since that point, significant restoration and stabilisation have secured the house as a spectacular ruin.
The relevant part of the story is how multiple families/businesses that did very well eventually hit the buffers, the result being they couldn’t serve the building when it needed help.
Recently the press has reported several stories of well-known business going to the wall and I can’t help thinking that in most cases the foundations of the business and the people within (usually families) have been shook to the core. They will need help.
I know from personal experience that when life is tough it’s the basic foundations of the individual that will see things through so long as they are strong of heart and mind. Strong enough to stay standing just as the old walls at Witley Court are still standing.
But also, perhaps with a little help.
In my case it was friends and family.
If you know a business that needs a hand now offer some help if you can.
Or let us know - you know where we are.
Until the next time…
Peter
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