England | Mark Simms Photography

Posts tagged ‘England’

Although most of what we see today is the remains of a mid-19th century country house, designed in the ornate Italianate style reminiscent of Queen Victoria’s Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the history of Witley dates back to the medieval period.

At it’s height in the late Victorian period, Witley Court was the setting for lavish parties hosted by it’s owner Lord Dudley and attended by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII).

After the First World War, the declining fortunes of the Dudley’s resulted in Witley Court’s sale to a local manufacturer and business man, Sir Herbert Smith. However, Sir Herbert could do little more than maintain and manage the property. Therefore Witley’s opulent past was already a distant memory by the night of the devasting fire on 7th September 1937, which gutted the interiors and left the house a shell of brick and stone.

Witley Court, Worcestershire, England, UK

© Mark Simms Photography (2023)

The Yorkshire Dales

Because it’s taken me nearly 10 months to post all my photographs from our trip to the Yorkshire Dales back in November 2021, I’ve brought them all together again in one gallery below. Yorkshire is blessed with some magnificent ruined abbey’s, so if you like that sort of thing then this post is definitely for you:

© Mark Simms Photography (2022)

Jervaulx Abbey

There are a number of ruined abbeys in and around the Yorkshire Dales. I’ve already posted about Bolton Abbey, and I have a post on Fountains Abbey to come. Today though is the turn of Jervaulx Abbey.

Like many religious houses in England and Wales, the 12th Century Cistercian Abbey at Jervaulx was ravaged by Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monastries circa 1540.