In July 2023 I was privileged and lucky to be able to attend the reunion of the Ligon/Lygon family at the astounding Madresfield Court, in Worcestershire, England. As described in last month’s column, this reunion links the American descendants of Lt. Col. Thomas Ligon (my great-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-grandfather), who emigrated to Jamestowne, Virginia in 1641, with the British branch of the family, who still remain at Madresfield Court after 400 years of Atlantic separation.
The reunion lasted three days and included a welcome from Lucy Chenevix-Trench (the current chatelaine and great-grand-daughter of William Lygon, 7th Earl of Beauchamp), expert speakers, a tour of Madresfield, a feast in the grounds of the manor house, a visit to St. Leonard’s Chapel of the Beauchamp Community, and free time to explore the lovely spa and resort town of Great Malvern and its surrounding Malvern Hills. About 120 Americans attended the reunion, joined by 70 British descendants. The reunion was expertly organized by Whitney Eller of the Ligon Family and Kinsmen Association (LFKA; lfka.org). It was a triumph over Covid, which had caused three successive cancellations of the planned 2020 reunion.
Madresfield was the seat of the Earls of Beauchamp (pronounced “Beecham”) whose title died out in 1979 on the death of the 8th Earl. Lucy Chenevix-Trench is the great niece of the 8th Earl and she and her children by husband Jonathan are the 29th and 30th generations of the same family to live in Madresfield Court.
Naturally, the biggest attraction at the reunion was Madresfield Court itself. This moated stately home has been the residence of the Lygon family for nearly 900 years, and has never been sold. The first known house on the site was recorded in 1120, in a charter issued by King Henry I. The estate includes a small garden within the moated area, a larger garden outside the moat, and 4000 acres of agricultural land. Long oak and elm avenues with tall trees planted in 1660 celebrate the restoration of the British monarchy.
Madresfield was substantially rebuilt and enlarged in Tudor times and then again in the Victorian era under the renowned architect Philip Hardwick, FRS. He was a co-founder of the Royal Institute of British Architects, winner of the Gold Medal for Architecture, and designer of the Birmingham Curzon Street Station, the oldest standing rail terminus in the world.
The current rambling building at Madresfield has 160 rooms, including a baronial great hall with minstrels’ gallery, library with over 8000 leather-bound volumes, an Edwardian drawing room, Arts and Crafts chapel, a long gallery, bell tower, central interior staircase hall lit by three glass domes, 60 bedrooms, various other rooms, a wine cellar, cider cellar and a dairy and cheese room. The Chapel and Library are rated as some of the finest expressions of the Arts and Crafts movement in England.
As described by Christopher Stocks in Condé Nast in 2014, “Everywhere you look there are miniatures, marble busts, paintings, books, inscriptions, glassware, carvings, chests, cabinets, tapestries, silver, cases of Limoges porcelain, rugs, William Morris tiles and wallpaper, carved fireplaces, Chinese lamp bases, bowls, inlaid boxes, stained glass, vases, swords and daggers, all of the highest quality.”
In 900 years, you can acquire a lot of stuff!
The house was refurbished from 2012 to 2014, when the current Lygon descendant Lucy Chenevix-Trench took over stewardship of the home from her mother, Lady Rosalind Morrison, the former High Sheriff of Worcestershire. Lucy and Jonathan worked to make the home warm and watertight. They installed a biomass boiler and replaced antiquated plumbing and wiring. Since no children had lived in the house for over 100 years, and Lucy has four children, adjustments had to be made. A “house within a manor house” was created with an adjacent modern kitchen to allow for informal living, hundreds of chairs and sofas were resprung and recovered, public rooms were repainted, paintings cleaned, and 18 new bedrooms created from what were numerous small, dark servants’ bedrooms. Lucy says that, “Fortunately, Madresfield is not really grand. It’s charismatic, a bit whacky, certainly unusual, and full of surprises – but in many ways an easy house to fit into. You don’t feel you need to live up to something.”
Hmmmm…. If I lived at Madresfield, I’m not sure I would find that to be true, with 900 years of family history to live up to!
Madresfield Court is usually open for public tours for about 40 days per year during the summer. Contact: tours@madresfieldestate.co.uk for specific dates and times in 2024.
Photos courtesy Lew Toulmin
-
- 1. Image of Madresfield Court with the motto of the Ligon Family and Kinsmen Association: “It’s Great to be a Ligon!” (Which would be “Ligon magnum esse” in Latin!)
-
- 2. A view of Madresfield Court from the side, showing the stone access bridge crossing the moat. A smaller covered bridge provides access from the rear.
-
- 3. An unusual shot of Madresfield Court from the air.
-
- 4. The main interior living room at Madresfield Court, with the massive Italian marble fireplace, surrounding stairs and balconies, and the family including four children: May, Jack, Evie and Max.
-
- 5. The ceiling of the main living space at Madresfield, showing two of the three huge dome skylights.
-
- 6. Lucy Chenevix-Trench, 29th generation Lygon family resident at Madresfield Court, says the manor house is “charismatic, a bit whacky, certainly unusual, and full of surprises.”
-
- 7. The Madresfield Court Chapel is a terrific expression of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and is exactly as described in the famous novel Brideshead Revisited.
-
- 8. The nearby St. Leonard’s Chapel Newland is an amazing, highly decorated private chapel of the Beauchamp Almshouses (now called the Beauchamp Community) and was built in 1864 by the 3rd Earl Beauchamp. The Grade 1 listed building is described as “the finest example of the Gambier Parry fresco technique in the country” (this refers to an 1862 substantial improvement in the fresco technique used in medieval times and the Renaissance).
-
- 9. Members of the Ligon Family and Kinsmen Association attending a family reunion at Madresfield Court in July 2023.
