Another manor home visit

1. Owlpen Manor is a Tudor Manor house owned by the Mander family, situated in the village of Owlpen in the Stroud district in Gloucestershire.

   
   

   

   
   

   Marion:  I had been in touch with Sir Nicholas Mander a few years ago when he was looking for some information about the history of the Cornwall family in B.C. So I had emailed him to tell him we would be staying at Ashcroft House.  He invited us over for a cup of tea.  He was a very gracious host, showing us around his home where he and his family have lived since 1974.  The house is open for tours and has a number of "cottages" for rent as well as great gardens and facilities for weddings and special events.  "Cottages" are a bit of an understatement we discovered when we drove by them.  "Wow" is more like it.    Sir Nick and his wife have many gorgeous antique pieces and art in their home.  It was fun to see them and to learn more about the history of the house and the surrounding area.

   
   

               

   Inside Owlpen Manor House

   

Sir Nick and I looking at tiny beaded purses belonging to his grandmother in one of the bedrooms.

A very old Spanish screen belonging to Nicholas's grandparents, that uses pages from a choir hymnal from the 1500-1600's.  The pieces holding them in place are leather with studs.  The interesting thing is that Wendy has a similar page that was presented to her by the Early Music Society of the Islands when she retired from her volunteer job last year so it was very exciting to see this large collection. 

Marion and Sir Nicholas Mander

Owlpen chapel where great great grandfather Rev. A.G. Cornwall was the minister.  

He also preached at 2 other chapels -

Kingscote chapel being one and the 3rd chapel, Bagpath was decommissioned in 1974.

Wikapedia:

The Rev. Alan Gardner Cornwall of Ashcroft was rector of Bagpath in the early nineteenth century and published a standard account of life in this rural area at that time.^[2] His sons emigrated to British Columbia, Canada while it was still a British colony during the gold rush. There they founded the small town of Ashcroft (see Ashcroft, British Columbia), built for travellers in search of gold, giving them a place to stay and saddle their horses. 

A.G. Cornwall and his wife Caroline Kingscote Cornwall had 14 children, 12 surviving to adulthood.  In fact only two of his sons travelled to the new world, one being my great-grandfather, Clement Cornwall.  

And so on to Hemingford Grey near Cambridge by train.