Hampton Court Palace

On the second day of our visit to Hampton Court, we had two things on our agenda – to photograph John Newbery’s houses (we had worked our which were his from the will) and to visit Hampton Court Palace.

Elizabeth was keen to see the Georgian apartments, to get some idea of how a Georgian house may have been furnished – allowing of course, for the increased wealth and grandeur that a royal suite of rooms would display. And we were both keen to see something of how the Tudors lived in their royal apartments. So we entered the palace, through a gate that took us into its spacious grounds.

We began our tour with the Tiltyard Tearooms (a cold morning needs a hot cup of coffee) we set out to explore Henry the VIII’s domains. The Tiltyard was so named as it was where jousting took place in the time of Henry VIII. There still remains one viewing tower, where visiting dignitaries watched the jousting tournaments from a vantage point.

From the tearooms, we bought our tickets and headed towards the palace. On the way, we noticed that there was an ice rink set up in the garden, and it was obviously well patronised by young and old.



Our first impressions of the palace were that is was a very grand building indeed, with ornate towers, chimneys and imposing façade.

From there we entered through the gateway to the first courtyard, to be greeted by a gigantic painted figure of Henry VIII himself.

Entrance to the next part of the palace could only be gained by walking through those gigantic legs. Fortunately, we did not have to look up his tunic!

Our first stop was the Georgian suite of rooms. These were quite interesting, and not as ornate as we thought they might have been. The rooms here surrounded a grassy courtyard, which was built in the style of a cloister. There was a fountain in the centre.

Our next stop was the Royal Chapel, which apart from a wooden reredos being placed over the glass windows, is very much as it was in Henry VIII’s time.

[the above photo is from http://www.shipoffools.com/Mystery/2000/194Mystery.html
accessed 26/12/07].

We spent some time there admiring the elaborate frescos and woodwork, and the ornate ceiling. It was here that another one of Elizabeth’s ancestors came to mind – Anthony Lowe, whose tomb we had discovered in Wirksworth, Derbyshire (as pictured below).

As he had been one of King Henry’s Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, and as this was one of Henry’s favourite royal residences, it seemed not unlikely that Anthony Lowe had spent a good part of his time here serving the king.



(The above photo shows the royal arms and the inscription which describes Anthony's service of four Tudor monarchs.)

Bearing this in mind, we headed next for the Tudor State Apartments. We first watched a short video on the Tudor part of the palace, that explained what each room was used for, and by whom it was used. We then examined the guardsmen’s garderobe, apparently a necessity to stop dozens of guardsmen from relieving themselves at random in the hall. We then ventured into the great hall, where the aforesaid guardsmen were to be found.

[the above photo is from http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/countries/uk/hampton-court-palace-state-apartments.htm
accessed 26/12/07]

One of the interesting things about this room was the stained glass windows, which contained the family tree and coats of arms of each of Henry’s wives. They are apparently a modern addition to the room. The room also contained some enormous, quite magnificent tapestries, and an area for minstrels.

With Anthony Lowe in mind, Elizabeth asked the warden of duty in this room exactly what a Gentleman of the Bedchamber did. Apparently one of his more ‘pleasant’ duties was to take the king to the toilet! This position was considered to be reasonably prestigious, and a stepping stone to greater things. The Gentleman slept in the King’s chamber, and therefore was privy to some of the more intimate details of the King’s private life – and if favoured by the monarch, could also command the king’s ear. Some men in this position exploited it, and became unofficial ‘patrons’ of those who wished to bring something to the attention of the king. Presumably Anthony Lowe was faithful and discrete when occupying this position, as he managed to serve 3 male Tudor monarchs in this capacity and still keep his head.

After telling the warden why we wanted to know, he recommended that we speak to another warden in the Queen’s State Apartments, who he told us would be interested in the story. We continued our way through the Tudor rooms, including other rooms occupied by various servants and guardsmen. Unfortunately, the private apartments of Henry had been demolished by one of his descendants and replaced by more modern apartments.

(If anyone reading this wants to know more about the palace, or see some better photos of it, you can go to http://www.londononline.co.uk/palaces/hampton/)

We then headed to the Queen’s State Apartments, both to look at them and to find our knowledgeable warden. The State apartments had the thrones where visitors would be received, and one had a grand canopy over it. There were also many paintings on the walls of various members of the royal family. One that intrigued Elizabeth was the Queen Mary’s state bedroom, where people could be received in state. Now why did the queen receive people in a public bedroom? She also apparently had a private bedroom where the real bedroom activities of sleeping were carried out.

[the above photo is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace%20accessed%2026/12/07]

We then met up with Ian, the warden who had been recommended to us. He had been watching for us, as the other warden had radioed ahead. Apparently being a descendant of a Gentleman of the Bedchamber carried a certain status with it.



Ian was an enthusiastic historian of both the palace itself, and the local area, particularly the village of Hampton Court. This ‘village’ officially did not exist, as it was classed as either being in the parish of Hampton or Hampton Wick. In reality however, there are houses that line the south wall of Bushy Park, and these had been known as either the village or hamlet of Hampton Court. (See photos below.) John Newbery had used both terms in his will, when referring to his property.





Ian was interested in collecting stories of former inhabitants of the palace, as he conducted the ghost tours. His interest in Anthony Lowe related to this part of his job, as he thought that there was a story in Anthony’s loyal service to no less than 4 Tudor monarchs. I assured him that I thought that as a dedicated and contented servant, Anthony no doubt returned occasionally to walk the halls of the palace that he had served his monarchs so faithfully in.



Hampton Court Palace is famous for its ghosts, and one has allegedly been captured on the CCTV cameras of the palace. For those of you who have a supernatural bent, you can see the spook on film at http://www.midiowa.com/cight/hampton_ghost_clip.htm.

Ian was also very interested in the will of John Newbery, as this contained hitherto unknown information about the inhabitants and ownership of the Hampton Court village. He kindly offered to give up part of his lunch break to show us some of the hidden parts of Hampton Court Palace, in particular the old parish boundary markers. We duly accepted, and went off to explore the kitchens and also grab some lunch of our own whilst we waited for Ian to be free.

The kitchens of the palace still retain much of their Tudor flavour, though modifications on the enormous fireplaces were obvious in some of the kitchens.

We traveled down stone passageways (see photo above), into the immense kitchen complex. There were lots of kitchens for boiling, baking and roasting. After examining these we made our way to the cellar (see photo below).

Through the cellar we found a kitchen shop, where we could purchase some Tudor ale (for John) and rhubarb wine (for Elizabeth). Lots of Tudor-style cutlery and drinkware was for sale there, and was as interesting as some of the other displays. After a quick bite to eat in the cellar kitchen, we returned to the Queen’s apartments to meet with Ian.

Whilst waiting for him to be relieved by a colleague we had a look at the rooms next door, and heard about the paintings on the walls and the state bedroom. The warden here shook Elizabeth’s hand at the end and assured her it was a privilege to meet her – another legacy of Anthony?

Ian then took us out to an alleyway behind one of the walls where the grace and favour apartments were or had been.

A fire had destroyed much of them in the 1800s, and only traces of the Tudor style can be seen here in these bricked in windows.

Here, he showed us the old boundary markers that delineated Hampton Parish (HP) from Hampton Wick Parish (HWP).

Curiously the palace and its grounds seemed to have been split between these two parishes. Ian also showed us the ‘secret garden’, where various film scenes had been made, and the indoor tennis court next to it.





After this, he went into the palace library and fetched a book (now out of print) on the Hampton Court Village and its people.




We were delighted to find John Newbery mentioned in it as owning buildings as early as 1815, "between the walls" of Bushy Park. After giving us his email, and us promising to send him wills, information and photos of tombs, we took leave of Ian and set off, across the Hampton Bridge, to East Moseley.



We hoped to find a second hand copy of the book he had shown us, and to find some afternoon tea. Sadly, a copy of the book had sold only the day before (although Elizabeth has since found another via the internet). Nevertheless, we managed to find good coffee at a warm delicatessen before beginning our journey back to Cambridge. It was the Friday before Christmas – traffic was thick along the motorways – but we made good time and settled back into our flat to prepare for Christmas.

Of course, there still remains to be told the tale of John Newbery's property at Hampton Court...but that will be the subject of the next post, still to come!