An Afternoon at Audley End

The back of Audley End, Library 2nd floor of left wing. The utility wing with Kitchen, Laundry and servant quarters right

 M and I decided to make use of our English Heritage card and visit a big house on the London to Cambridge Rd. We had driven past a few months ago on the scenic route(rather than the M11) back to Cambridge from Standsted airport. The wide green lawns at the front of the house are split in two by the Cam river which attracts water birds and cricketers.

From the front of the house: Left - Adam's bridge over the Cam  Right- Rotunda memorial on the tree line at the back,
Cam River mid shot; then the road that Brown had dug down between two of his Haha walls to hide traffic from the house.

On the bridge on the exit half of the driveway. The entry gatehouse behind right, the Polish Urn left of M's shoulder.

Audley End is a big place. It was once Walden Abbey, Henry VIII gave it to his chancellor, Lord Audley who converted it into a house. His grandson became the 1st Earl of Suffolk and Lord Treasurer to James I. He spent  a fortune or three on the place which made it one of the greatest houses in Jacobean England. When the King visited he must have wondered if some of the crown jewels had funded it, jokingly commenting that Treasurers shouldn't live in palaces greater than their King's. Suffolk fell from grace soon after the royal visit and over the next couple of generations the family struggled to maintain the 'palace'. Charles II bought it in 1667 then William III gave it back to the family again in 1701.

No photography allowed inside - image taken from the English Heritage site.  The Great Hall where James I questioned the source of his Treasurer's resources. Staircases lead to the Victorian reception rooms, the ground floor door leads to the Adams wing the first Baron added to the floor plan. Apparently in winter they light the fire in the giant fire place.

Eventually the very wealthy Countess of Portsmouth  bought it and bequeathed it to her nephew who became the 1st Baron Braybrooke in 1788. It would seem that a house can make the man! He also received immense wealth with this inheritance so was able to restore and renovate the property. He hired Capability Brown to get rid of the Tudor gardens and modernise the landscape. He hired Robert Adams to design the bridge over the Cam river and to reverse the Audley family's reductions by rebuilding the closed wing with new reception rooms. Although these became 'unfashionable' in later years and were butchered by the Victorians, a beautiful fireplace or two still remain.

The Baron had fought with the Prussians against the French in the Seven Years War and his on going hatred of the Frenchies meant that there wasn't a single French painting in the huge collection of art. So many masterpieces jostled for space in the drawing room that they somehow became invisible. He had a copper domed rotunda built across the road near the top of the opposite hill that celebrates this military victory. Mr Brown had the road sunken between two of his Haha walls so the unsightly traffic from London to the Newmarket races and Cambridge didn't ruin the vista,  "The images that Brown created are as deeply embedded in the English character as the paintings of Turner and the poetry of Wordsworth." http://www.capabilitybrown.org/lancelot-capability-brown The poor Baron produced no offspring although he married twice. The house became his child and he left it to a descendant of his aunt's first husband, Richard Neville.

No photography allowed inside - image taken from the English Heritage site.  The Library, it now has a baby grand piano in it and is not roped off. In their efforts to become more 'interactive' they have also opened up the nursery on the top floor with a Victorian dolls house and dress ups for kids to play with. You are allowed to photograph in there but it was very crowded so M choose not to dress up in the little sailor suit provided!

Top step to teh path running along side
Capability Brown's Haha wall - designed to
give a barrier for people and stock without
having to block the view with a fence.

In 1820, Neville moved in. He sought to recover the Jacobean character - through a Victorian filter -and moved the reception rooms back to the first floor. The Library at the back of the house was spectacular with floor to ceiling shelves full of gilt bound books. A few were displayed on the side tables and we were allowed to sit on the sofas to read. Ahh! The large bay window looked across the parterre gardens and fountain, past another of Brown's Haha walls and up a green slope to a Roman temple folly.

A rainbow danced in the fountain.

We wandered down to the stables which were still in their original red brick and beautiful enough to be a grand house in themselves. Three horses were in residence, they're used for displays and rides on special visit days. The kitchen gardens were nine acres huge once and supplied the kitchens with everything they needed as far as fruit, vegies, herbs and flowers went. Today the extensive paths and picturesque lawn settings are full of dogs on leads, children learning to ride their bikes without trainer wheels and families trying to time family portraits without strangers walking through the setting. The gatehouse at the exit can be hired(sleeps 4) to stay in and gives the guests full use of the grounds after it is closed to the public.

One side of the stables.

Autumn vege and a willow frame for a garden bed that had been wintered in.

Large glasshouses were heated with coke boilers through the cold months.

Many varieties of apple and pear were espaliered around one of the giant vegie patches using companion planting to remain organic. A warm corner still producing lots of flowers to decorate the big house.

The laundry and kitchen areas of the house were very big and used every mod con known to the Victorians. At the top of the house was a big room full of coal with two flush toilets for staff, boilers for hot water and all the baths - labelled with their bedroom names. The entrance vestibule is called the bucket hall because of the array of leather buckets hanging from the ceiling to assist in the case of fire. A fire in the kitchen was promptly put out by the old pump fire engines kept in the stables before it had time to damage more than the servants quarters (now the public loos) above. The servant hall is now a café.  The cheese and onion pasty was great but the Victoria sponge and cinnamon swirl were left half eaten, they were so very sweet, both 'dusted' in castor sugar!

The silver lids on the platters were very heavy, the poor footmen must have had big biceps.

Left: Dairy, large shallow bowls used to let the milk cool and separate into cream for the butter and skim milk for drinking. The dairy maids would add a little carrot juice to teh churning butter when the cows ate mainly hay in winter to give it a proper yellow colour.  Right: A modern Victorian drying/ironing room, the wash room was the same size but full of tubs.

The massive Hall and unusual chapel had the feel of something far more medieval but were covered in decorative plaster, stained glass and paintings. A guide book of the numbered works lets you read a description of who they all are. There were several celebrated Hans Holbein portraits but even I flagged in reading about so many.

Huge ancient trees make the vast lawns beautiful.

A little spot to soak up the winter sun. Ladybirds covered the pillars as they choose a place for hibernation.

During WWII the property was used to secretly house and train soldiers who volunteered to join the Polish underground movement before being dropped into their German occupied home country by parachute. 316 men and one woman were dropped in, 108 died in the course of their duties, considering how their compatriots got on and how dangerous the job was, this is rather a good survival rate. There is a memorial stone urn in the garden for these brave people.

The Yew are trimmed into Dr Seuss shapes
The weather vein is attached to a chain that
runs down to the 2nd floor, controlling
a needle on a compass face.

The 7th Lord Braybrook and his two sons were killed in WWII, the title passed to a cousin who negotiated the sale of the house and grounds to the Nationals Trust's country house scheme for £30 000 (about 4 mill in today's money). With the social changes and severely reduced population after the world wars, many of Britain's big houses were being left empty because the owners could not secure or pay for the staff required to run them, let alone the  maintenance. The National trust and English Heritage have a huge army of volunteers to keep these properties and their history alive.

Front door and doorbell pull

A couple of recipes from the Audley End website - they are from the recipe book of Victorian Head Cook - Avis Crocombe c1880s.

French Pancakes

§  ½ pint whipped cream

§  4 eggs

§  12 tbsp flour

Whip the cream until thick. Beat the eggs separately then add to the cream. Lightly whip the flour in to the mixture, then pour into 6 well-buttered saucers and bake for a few minutes. Have two together with jam in between.

Chocolate Pudding

§  1/2lb plain chocolate (the better the chocolate, the better the pudding)

§  5oz breadcrumbs

§  1/2pt milk (full fat or semi-skimmed)

§  5oz butter

§  1/4lb caster sugar

§  3 eggs

Melt the chocolate with the milk and butter in a saucepan over gentle heat. Add the breadcrumbs and simmer until thick. Put aside.

Make a custard by bringing the yolks and sugar to the boil, stirring all the time until thick. Add this to the chocolate.

Whip the whites until they form soft peaks and fold into the mixture. Pour into buttered pudding basins, cover the tops with greaseproof paper and foil (or a pudding cloth) and steam until they are hard to the touch (for a 1pt basin this will take about 45mns). Alternatively, you can bake them in a roasting tin filled with water.

(If visiting the UK and intending on dropping into places like this, it is worth getting the National Trust http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ and/or English Heritage http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/ cards.)

Read recently:

The Food of Love Cookery School by Nicky Pellegrino
The author is an English lady who spent her childhoods in southern Italy with her cousins and is now living in Auckland NZ. The novel is light with frothy characters and a few great foodie moments. I love reading about new places and a dollop of cookery doesn't hurt. The characters didn't convince me but then she did try to 'expose' seven in only 200 odd pages. A relaxing read - the pictures she created of this pocket of Sicily are still bright in my mind.

"Welcome to the Food of Love Cookery School in the lovely baroque town of Favio in southern Sicily.  Here is your apron, your canatelli board, your maps and itinerary. There is no need to take notes, the recipes will be given to you at the end. Just relax and have a good time.  Your holiday is beginning...." p4

(She includes a couple of recipes from Katia Amore: www.lovesicily.com at the end)