Oxburgh Hall, Eastern England

The grant of the right to fortify Oxburgh Castle is dated the 3rd of July 1482 and reads:

‘Edward IV grants to Edmund Bedingfeld Esquire the right to surround his manor of Oxburgh with walls, and towers of stone, chalk and gravel and to embattle, crenellate and machicolate the said walls and towers, and moreover pardons him for having already done so.  He also licenses him to hold a market every Friday at Oxburgh with a pie power (i.e. summary) court to be held by his steward, the said market, its court and its profits from tolls etc. To be secured to Edmund Bedingfeld and his heirs forever; provided only that the market does not injure neighbouring markets.  All previous grants to Edmund Bedingfeld are confirmed, other statutes and ordinances notwithstanding.’ 

The great seal affixed to the document read:

‘Edward, by the grace of God, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland’

 Amazingly this document still exists and is on display at Oxburgh Hall. 

Oxburgh Hall was built in the latest fashion, in the last quarter of the 15th Century, and instead of being built in stone, the latest fashionable building material of brick was used. Edmund Bedingfeld was a rising star in the court of Edward IV, and King Richard III later made him a Knight of the Bath.  He had served the House of York loyally during the Wars of the Roses. He quickly changed sides once Henry VII was on the throne, and seems to have been a loyal subject to him also. King Henry VII and his Queen, Elizabeth of York, stayed at Oxburgh Hall in 1498, and the rooms where they stayed is still called the Kings and Queens rooms today, in commemoration of their visit.

Catherine of Aragon, the divorced wife of Henry VIII, died at Kimbolton Castle on the 7th of January in 1536.  Shortly after her death, King Henry VIII wrote a letter to Lady Bedingfeld, which is also on display at Oxburgh, the letter reads:

‘Right dear and well beloved we grete you well and for as much as it has pleased Almighty God to call unto his mercy out of this transitory life the right excellent Princess Our dear Sister the Lady Catherine relict Widow and Dowager of the right excellent Prince our dear and Natural Brother Prince Arthur of famous memory deceased and that we intend to have her body interred according to her honour and Estate, at the Interment whereof and for other Ceremonies to be done at her funeral and in the Conveyance of the Crops from Kimbolton where it now remaineth to Peterborough where the same shall be buried, it is required to have the presence of a good number of Ladies of Honor You shall understand that we have appointed you to be there one of the Principal Mourners and therefore desire and pray you to put yourself in a rediness to be in anywise at Kimbolton aforesaid the 25th of this Month and so to attend upon the said Corps tyll the same shall be buried and the Ceremonies to be thereat done be finished.  Letting you further wot that for the Morning Apparell of yur own Person we send you by this bearer ~ yards of black cloth for 2 gentlewomen to wait upon you. ~ yards for 2 gentlemen ~ yards for 8 yeomen.  All which your Apparell ye must cause in the meantime to be made as shall appertain, and as concerning the Habillment of Linen for your hed and face, we shall before the Day before limited send the same unto you accordingly given under our Signet, at our Manor of Greenwich on the 10th day of January.’

This was all perfectly normal, that Ladies, especially those within the region of where the funeral would be held, were asked to attend and mourn the death of a Queen, and Queen Katherine had been placed under the care of Sir Edmund Bedingfeld at Kimbolton Castle.  What is striking however, is that King Henry VIII completely ignores the fact that Catherine of Aragon had been his wife for 18 years. This he seems to have wanted to wipe out of history, by saying she was simply the widow of his brother, whom she had been married to for 8 months, until Prince Arthur died of the Sweating Sickness.  

The Bedingfeld family were Catholics, and Sir Henry Bedingfeld, son of Sir Edmund, was a supporter of Mary I. Queen Mary rewarded him by appointing him third in command of her forces.  When Lady Jane Grey was placed upon the throne, Sir Henry gave the Queen an armed escort of 140 horsemen, to take her to safety at Framlingham castle.  Queen Mary later made him Constable of the Tower. When Elizabeth I became Queen, Sir Henry’s fortunes changed and he lost all his appointments at court.  He returned to Oxburgh, where he refused to sign the Act of Uniformity in 1559, leading to penalties, fines and a threat of imprisonment. The Act of Uniformity, in 1559, set the order of prayer to be used in the English Book of Common Prayer, and everyone had to go to church once a week or be fined 12 pence, around £20 today

Oxburgh Hall certainly has its fair share of unexpected treasures.  Embroideries exist here which were worked on by Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick. While we are not certain how they came to be here, we do know that Mary, Queen of Scots, was at one time put under the ‘protection’ of Bess of Hardwick’s fourth husband, George, Earl of Shrewsbury.  While Mary was held at Tutbury Castle, she is known to have spent time visiting Bess’s chamber, where they would do embroidery.

The embroidered panels were made by stitching coloured silk onto linen canvas, using cross stitch and tent stitch.  These techniques give the embroidery life and texture.  The colours can still be distinguished 450 years later.  Each of the embroidered panels contains some symbolism.  The panel known as the Marian Panel, was worked on by Mary Queen of Scots.  In the centre, the knife is pruning a vine, surrounded by the motto ‘Virtue flourishes with a wound’.  This has been interpreted, rightly or wrongly, to mean that the barren vine (Elizabeth I) should be cut down, and the fruitful one (Mary) allowed to grow. 

Oxburgh Hall might not be the first place you would think of, if you wanted to study 18th & 19th Century wallpaper, but it does have some very early examples.  The quality of wallpaper made in the mid 18th Century certainly surpassed what we think of as wallpaper today, as some of it has been moved, from one room to another, and still remained intact. During the Gothic Revival period (1850-1918), there were attempts to resurrect the late medieval manor in the new Gothic Revival fashion. New printing machines in the 19th Century, began to allow for the production of large quantities of wallpaper at affordable prices, however, until this time, wallpaper was a luxury that only the wealthy could afford. These early papers, were which became increasingly popular towards the end of the 17th Century, were made from powdered wool.  They were hand painted, stencilled or printed onto paper with glue or varnish. Then the wool dust, (known as flocks), were scattered over it, sticking to the varnish to create the appearance of velvet. Oxburgh Hall contains over 120 different wallpapers, dating from the mid-18th Century. Some are still on its walls, but many are also in its archive. 

Unfortunately, today the interior of Oxburgh does not retain any of its original 15th Century features.  The house has been lived in almost continuously by the Bedingfeld family, until it was nearly lost and demolished in 1951, when it was saved at the last minute and given to the National Trust.