There is an intriguing legend that while on holiday in the Alps, a 19 year-old Ellen Willmott bought, on the spot, a Swiss shepherd’s hut from St Bernard Pass / Bourg St Pierre because someone told her Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in it one night during his famous Alp-crossing exercise. The story continues that she had…
Tag: archaeology
The Dark Side of the Wall
There are some parts of Warley that have always been a mystery. This is mainly because of the way they’ve been represented (or not) in maps, photographs and even The Kip, despite their being – in theory at least – right in the middle of the pleasure garden. That doesn’t mean that they will stay…
Works at Warley
During the pandemic, just like humanity, Warley suffered. Over lockdown passionate volunteers were barred from carrying out pretty much any maintenance work – though quite how it is impossible to social distance when there’s about 12 of you in 30-odd acres of woodland still beats me. The hurt was palpable among the volunteers, seeing their…
Secret Signs
Warley Place is always slightly mysterious. It reveals its deepest secrets only to those who really – but really – look. We have no idea whether Ellen was aware, for example, that some of the stone her builders used in various parts of the garden is not quite what it first appears to be… The…
A Year at Warley Part V: Things that just fetch up…
Garden archaeology doesn’t come much more exciting than finding something pretty much every time you dig. I’ve been visiting Warley Place for thirty-odd years and every time I go something new has been uncovered by the dedicated team of volunteers. Sometimes it’s a bit of brick wall, sometimes a cobbled path. It might be yet another underground…
Miss Willmott's Ghosts 