More from Great Witley Church

A busy day at Great Witley, providing assistance for the duty steward Ruth Butler. One of our new stewards, Angela Snow, also paid us a visit, which was a pleasant surprise. Churchwarden Ian Holland kindly allowed us to visit the crypt in order to view the first Earl of Dudley's tomb. It is a splendid marble sarcophagus. Also the environmental monitoring equipment has been installed on the windows in order to check conditions; the information gathered over the next few months will be used to enable decisions to made with regards to the future direction of conservation measures.

Witley Church Windows - 18th November 2010

Today saw the installation of the first protective panel on the exterior of the "Anunciation" window in the parish church. These unique set of ten painted & enamelled glass lights, the work of Joshua Price of York, were made in 1719 and are in need of constant care and attention in order to keep then in their immaculate condition. The P.C.C. have therefore decided that, in order of priority, each window will be protected externally by a panel of special transparent glass-fibre, in order to prevent damage from the weather. Over the next few months each window in turn will be thus treated and also monitoring equipment will be installed in the church to check the windows' condition. Hopefully these measures will help to prolong the life of this historically important asset for decades to come.

Peter Gurney of Shakenhurst

High up on the hill near Neen Sollars on the Worcs./Shrops. border stands the memorial to Peter Hugh Gurney of nearby Shakenhurst Hall. The Gurney's lived here for most of the twentieth century and were close relatives of Rachel, the Countess of Dudley from nearby Witley Court. Photo's by Rob & Anne Wall.

Rachel & Laura Gurney

Rachel Gurney (later the Countess of Dudley) and her sister Laura (later Lady Troubridge) were frequent visitors to Little Holland House in Kensington in their childhood days, as this house was the home of their grandfather Henry Thoby Prinsep who set up an artists and photographer's studio here. The house became the workshop of famous Victorian era artists such as G.F.Watts, and Henry's sister-in-law Julia Margaret Cameron. This is a picture of the two Gurney sisters by Watts.

Witley Court - P.F.R.S. Behind the Scenes

Poseidon Fountain Restoration Society visit to Witley Court, "behind the scenes" tour of the main service block buildings which lie adjacent to the court itself. This area is not normally open to the public and the society is most grateful to Spencer Trickett of English Heritage in kindly arranging this event in his capacity as site operations manager. Approximately twenty members together with some of their families came along to enjoy the day.

The statue of William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley stands in Dudley town centre, below the ancestral home of the old castle. It has been moved very slightly from it's original position due to road alterations some years ago. The statue was carved by C.B.Birch and was unveiled by the earl's widow, Countess Georgina, in 1888.

Badges and Buttons

Ruth Butler has a small collection of coat buttons from domestic servants uniform and a cap badge from an item of military uniform of the Worcestershire Yeomanry. These artifacts display the Earl of Dudley's crest and motto.