Day 1
I woke up in the morning late London time and checked Lynn and I into the tour. It was great to see a lot of people from past trips and the wonderful historians. We had a very nice lunch right in the room where we met. Alison Weir gave the welcome, along with Michael Jones introducing Northumbria, and then we were all off for our first trip. No time to waste!
About eight of us visited Beningborough Hall. Nicola
Tallis gave us a talk about the Hall on our way to visit:
John Bowser came back from his Grand Tour in 1706 and married Mary Howard. They built the Hall together. It is a Queen Ann House. It is an elegant red brick mansion overlooking the River Ouse, eight miles northwest of York. It boasts one of Britain’s finest baroque interiors and a walled garden, and it is home to over 100 portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. The garden is undergoing a renaissance thanks to designer Andy Sturgeon and is surrounded by 380 acres of parkland. I enjoyed it immensely!
We left the Hall and returned to the hotel where we had a reception and talk by Michael Jones about the creation of Northumbria.
Oswald was King of Northumbria from
634 until his death, and is venerated as a saint,[2] of
whom there was a particular cult in the Middle Ages.[3]
Oswald was the son of Æthelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira and
came to rule after spending a period in exile. After defeating the
Welsh Gwyneddian ruler, Cadwallon ap Cadfan, at the Battle of Heavenfield, Oswald brought the
two Northumbrian kingdoms
of Bernicia and Deira once
again under a single ruler and promoted the spread of Christianity in
Northumbria. He was given a strongly positive assessment by the historian Bede, writing a little
less than a century after Oswald's death, who regarded Oswald as a saintly
king; it is also Bede who is the main source for present-day historical
knowledge of Oswald. After eight years of rule, in which he was the most
powerful ruler in Britain, Oswald was killed in the Battle of Maserfield while fighting
the forces of Penda of Mercia, who then himself was defeated by Oswald's
brother Oswi.
Oswald is credited with the creation of Northumbria.
I knew then how much I was to enjoy this as my medieval British
history background is null. I was excited to be learning a lot of new information.
We had dinner and drinks at the hotel and went to bed. I had
sticky toffee pudding, so I was happy.
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