Yesterday, Anna and I went to visit Harvington Hall in Worcestershire, near Kidderminster (and fairly near Birmingham).A fascinating Elizabethan moated manor house, it is particularly important to Catholics as a testament to our fore-fathers' commitment to their Faith.
The Pakington family, who lived there, clung to their Faith at a time when it was considered treasonous to do so. Not only that, they set the house up as a Mass centre and safe-house for Catholic Priests. Any priest found would have been executed, and anyone found hiding a priest would also have been executed.
Therefore, the Pakingtons had several priest hiding holes built ingeniously into the structure of the building, and it is these which are of course the highlight of any visit. Some are up chimneys, some under floorboards, one under a staircase (two of the stairs lift away) and the most ingenious was behind a bookcase, and then behind a pivoted beam (which could be bolted from the inside when the hole was occupied).
The house now belongs to the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and a couple of Archbishops, recognising its importance, have invested in restoring it.
It is well worth making a considerable journey to see.
We were particularly delighted to meet there, quite by chance (or Grace, I suppose in Catholic theology) our old friends Jack and Nuala Scarisbrick, the founders and mainstays of Life.
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