Upton Cressett Hall - May 11Bill Cash who owns the hall endeared himself to us immediately by saying he thought Richard III should be reburied in a tomb to honour his status as a King of England. He also seems to have sensible views on the EU!
A group of us met at The Down Inn for an excellent carvery dinner before the tour. We shared cars for the short drive down a very winding lane to the hall. As we parked the heavens opened and hailstones bounced off the cars!
Mrs Cash first took us to the Gatehouse, which is now a holiday home. There are beautiful plasterwork ceilings featuring the Tudor rose, portcullis and Beaufort feathers. The bricks were made from the clay soil of the grounds.
Then Mr Cash gave us a potted history of the Cressett family and a tour of parts of his lovely home, rescued from decay by him and his wife and now owned by his son.
We started in the lounge which was part of the great hall, now divided into two floors to give a bedroom above the lounge, still showing the oak construction of the roof. The fifteenth century timbered hall house built around 1430 by Hugh Cressett was encased in brick in Elizabethan times when the gatehouse was built.
Hugh Cressett was a Lancastrian and was sheriff and MP for Shropshire. His son Robert was a Yorkist, frequently mentioned in commissions of array. He was pardoned for supporting the losing Yorkists at Ludford and became sheriff of Shropshire in 1468 for Edward IV and again in 1484 - 5 for Richard III. He was replaced by Sir Gilbert Talbot after the battle of Bosworth, but the family were eventually reconciled with the Tudors, and in 1588 they were major contributors to the Armada fund.
Documents in the Cressett archive support the claim that Edward V stayed at the manor in April 1483 on his journey to London from Ludlow Castle. According to Peter Hancock, the most compelling evidence that young King Edward V stayed at Upton Cressett is that the royal party would have had to cross the River Seven at Bridgnorth - just a few miles from Upton Cressett.
In the 15th century, the only bridges in the county to cross the river were at Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth, with Bridgnorth being a much faster route to London. The new findings will feature in a follow up book to Professor Hancock's 'Richard III and the Murder in the Tower'.
Mr Cash mentioned a Jocosa Talbot from Atcham who was in the Tower with Edward and his brother, but could give no more information and I can’t find anything on the Internet.
From the lower part of the great hall we went into the drawing room, with Elizabethan panelling. Then into the dining room with a modern kitchen off, and up the stairs to the bedroom which is the upper part of the great hall. Finally back to the dining room where we had cups of tea and delicious slices of sponge cake.
Bill and I tried to find the loos signposted from the car park but failed and got wet as another heavy shower drenched the area. By the time it had stopped the others had all looked round the church, now owned by the Churches Conservation Trust, so I nipped in quickly before we headed back to the Down Inn. There is a lovely carved chancel arch, some fragments of wall painting and a Norman font.
This was a wonderful outing to a fascinating house.