The Riseholme Gathering 2003

THE FIRST 'RISEHOLME' GATHERING
16^th February 2003

The Venial Critic and his wife Anna, together with Himself and I, had decided to do a spot of investigation and research concerning the possible connection between the fictional town of Riseholme and the real life one of Broadway, by arranging to meet at this latter spot. We arranged to foregather at a local hostelry - The Horse and Hounds - in the main street, with the intention of kicking off proceedings with a hearty lunch there. The plan then was - after further investigations - to finish up with an Afternoon Tea at the "Lygon Arms", a large Cotwolds stone built superior class of Hotel, now owned by the Savoy Group and supposedly the model for the "Ambermere Arms". Unfortunately, no other List Members were able to join us in this expedition on this occasion, but trying not to be too downcast, we duly assembled at said hostelry.

Unfortunately, this Inn did not quite live up to our hopeful expectations, as we found during our informal bar lunch. Lobster a la Riseholme did not feature on the menu! The day had in fact turned out to be sharply cold, and Anna sensibly decided on a cheering hot pot of tea to start with. However, we began to wonder whether we had unwittingly entered into a kind of "Fawlty Towers" establishment soon after the waitress charged over to our table with Anna's teapot, and promptly spilled a hefty dollop of scalding tea all over Anna's pretty skirt. Himself and Anna then both decided on good old English Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, etc., and Himself's portion duly arrived at our table first. However, by the time the waitress got around to serving Anna, she was sharply informed "Yorkshire Pudding's off!". To sum up, you can perhaps assess our venue better when I noticed that a rather battered stuffed horse's head, high up on a beam, under which could be deciphered the letters "Nags", was the erudite sign denoting the way to the Ladies' Powder Room! However, it was extremely pleasant to chat once more about things Bensonian with the Venial and Mrs. Critic, and by the time we'd finished lunch we eventually emerged into the main street in Broadway to do a spot of reconnoitring (interspersed with a swift bit of shop investigations by Anna and self).

The Horse and Hounds

The Group

If you wish to see more detail, please click on any of the pictures

Main St, Riseholme

The main street of this town was mostly comprised of a wide variety of ancient-looking houses and buildings, mostly built in the honey-coloured local Cotswold stone. In view of the projected trip to the "Lygon Arms", Bibelot 2 had decided on a Titum outfit of - as it turned out - totally unsuitable warmth-giving propensities, and found herself impelled to enter a wide variety of shops in an effort to keep warm (well that was her excuse).

The Ambermere Arms

Could this be "The Hurst"?

Three contiguous cottages

However, we did find quite a range of differing architecture, ranging from quite old (one building sported - most unusually - a wooden gutter, and several others had ornately decorated metal gutters and drainpipes). The Venial Critic had thoughtfully brought with him a copy of "Queen Lucia" with which to check out the scene with lay before our eyes for relevant clues. In Chapter 3 of Queen Lucia, the following description can be found of Riseholme:

"Though The Hurst was, as befitted its chatelaine, the most Elizabethanly complete abode in Riseholme, the rest of the village, in its due degrees, fell very little short of perfection. It had but its one street, some half-mile in length, but that street was a gem of mediaeval domestic architecture. For the most part the houses that lined it were blocks of contiguous cottages, which had been converted, either singly or by twos and threes, into dwellings containing the comforts demanded by the twentieth century, but externally they preserved the antiquity which, though it might be restored or even added to, presented a truly Elizabethan appearance. There were, of course, accretions, such as old inn signs above front-doors, and old bell-pulls at their sides, but the doors were uniformly of inconveniently low stature, roofs were of stone slabs or old brick, in which a surprisingly abundant crop of antirrhinums and stone-crops had anchored itself, and there was hardly a garden that did not contain a path of old paving-stones, a mulberry tree and some yews cut into shape.

Another old house

The Ambermere Arms

The Green

Nothing in the place was more blatantly mediaeval than the village green, across which Georgie took his tripping steps after leaving the presence of his Queen. Round it stood a row of great elms, and in its centre was the ducking-pond, according to Riseholme tradition, though perhaps in less classical villages it might have passed merely for a duck-pond. ……. Close by it stood a pair of stocks, about which there was no doubt whatever, for Mr. Lucas had purchased them from a neighbouring iconoclastic village, where they were on the point of being broken up, and, after having them repaired, had presented them to the village-green, and chosen their site close to the ducking-pond. Round the green were grouped the shops of the village, slightly apart from the residential street, and at the far end of it was that undoubtedly Elizabethan hostelry, the 'Ambermere Arms,' full to overflowing of ancient tables and Bible-boxes, and fire-dogs, and fire-backs, and bottles, and chests and settles."

The shops on The Green

During the course of our investigations, we did find excellent examples of 'contiguous cottages' and noted one house which sported a pub sign bracket swinging outside it, totally devoid of a relevant sign. A swift check of the history of the 'Lygon Arms' revealed it indeed to be of Elizabethan vintage:-

"An Inn on the Cotswold Road to London

The "Lygon Arms" was established as an inn in 1532 by the Whyte family, in the quiet village of Broadway. During the time of the infamous King Henry VIII it was known as the White Hart."

This certainly seemed to fit the bill. As we admired the building from the pavement outside, we noticed that, high up on the rooftop, embellishing one part of the roof was a model of an owl, upon which was a model of a pigeon. I was puzzling at the significance of this piece of sculpture, when the pigeon moved his head and started preening his feathers! However, a swift check of the prices for afternoon tea made us suddenly remember that time was running short for further investigation.

The Owl & the Pidgeon!

We then found evidence of another building further down the main street, sporting an Elizabethan black and white frontage in one part, set behind two large yew trees which the Venial Critic thought significant. At this point, the road and shops diverged to form the green ….. but no ducking-pond today!

Time had quite incredibly frittered away, and after checking out another couple of possibilities as far as 'The Hurst' was concerned, we waved fondly goodbye to the VC and Anna.

Himself, before this, had been very keen to find evidence of any kind of barn which could have formed the basis for the Museum. We'd scanned all the buildings on the fringes of the green, but none seemed quite suitable. However, after bidding farewell to our fellow List Members, we decided to undertake one last bit of detective work. We drove up and down a couple of little lanes at the far end of the village, hoping to find some clues. Alas - nothing. We turned the car round and pulled up once again at the junction of the main street just past the green. I noticed the stone building opposite, bearing a sign proclaiming it to be "Sheik's Tandoori Restaurant" and was puzzled by the fact that the frontage was interspersed with triangular shaped gaps in the wall. I asked Himself what he thought the relevance of these holes was, and he replied that they were purposefully placed in barn walls to air the contents. BARN!!! We looked again ….. and noticed that the brickwork under the main large window did not match the rest of the surrounding walls - in other words, the old barn door had been converted into a large window!!! We felt sure that we had stumbled across the Riseholme Museum!!!

The Risholme Museum

We had earlier looked at another village, called Willersley, near to Broadway which the VC had previously investigated and considered as another possible candidate for the basis of Riseholme. We took a few photos, and decided that maybe future investigation might be warranted. It did sport a village pond!!

The Ducking Pond?

THE FIRST 'RISEHOLME' GATHERING 16th February 2003

THE FIRST 'RISEHOLME' GATHERING
16^th February 2003