Cotehele House

On Saturday we also visited Cotehele House in southwest England in Cornwall County.
Located above the banks of the River Tamar, it was built between 1485-1539 by Sir Richard Edgcumbe. It was constructed of local granite and slate stone. In 1553 the Edgcumbe family decided to build a new family home in Plymouth, so even though Cotehele was still owned by the Edgcumbe family for nearly 6 centuries, they did not live at Cotehele. They did visit there and entertain there through the years. This resulted in the preservation of the original Cotehele, and it is one of the least-altered houses of the period. It contains original furniture, armor, and tapestries.

The windows on the outside of the property are interesting, in that they are very small and high in the outer walls. They were built that way for defence. However, in the inner courtyard, the walls have large windows.



The following is a pretty cool water reservoir. Rain water would comes off of the roof into the tank. Then someone could turn the tap at the bottom and get water.




There are still no electric lights in the house---so touring it is interesting! It is dark, and to see paintings or other things well, you must use a flashlight (torch, as the English call a flashlight). It really gives you the feeling of what it would have been like to live in the house! It was a cool, rainy day, so some of the fireplaces were in use------it felt good to stand close to the fire!


The Great Hall and the kitchen were the first rooms to be built. In fact, even though the family was very wealthy, they all slept on the floor in the Great Hall. There were no such things as separate bedrooms or beds during this time period (1400's). According to the traditions of the time, the head of the family got to sleep closest to the fireplace, then the rest of the people spending the night there were placed close to the fire according to their rank or importance to the owner. The stone walls were decorated with armor and weapons.

In the 1500's other rooms were added to the house, including bedrooms. Some of the rooms had tapestries covering the walls, for warmth as well as decoration. One room is called the King Charles Room, because he supposedly slept there in 1644. In 1789 George III and Queen Charlotte were visitors to the house one morning and ate breakfast there. There is a large bench-chair with seat pillows embroidered with their names----because they sat there! It was really a status symbol to have entertained the king, so the family wanted to be sure that everyone knew about the king's visit!

There were displays of how food would have been served during the time period. One interesting , but very unappetizing food, was a large pie with bird parts sticking out of the top crust ( head, wings, tail, etc., all with feathers!) ! I don't know the purpose of that---but it made me think of the children's song with the words "five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie"! Other plates of food had whole fish wound around the food, or a fish-head sticking up in the middle. The centerpiece was a boar's head with plants and herbs sticking out of it.

The following photos are of the gardens, which are extensive and beautiful.





The misty/rainy day made the spider webs look beautiful!