Basing House 2010

Colonel Stephen Hawkins' Regiment of Foote
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Saturday 28th August - "Peace Shatters"
 
Saturday's programme will give visitors a flavour of events in summer/autumn 1643, when Civil War caught up with Basing House.  
 
The nutshell's guide to Basing in 1643

 

  • Basing House was owned by John Paulet, Fifth Marquis of Winchester.

 

  • Basing House did not have a military garrison - soldiers to defend it - until August 1643, and had managed to remain at relative peace for the first 12 months of the war.

 

  • The business of running the house and estate, one of the largest country houses in England, continued as normally as possible during this time.
Photograph by John Beardsworth - SK
 
  • By
    summer 1643, Parliament had grown stronger in the local area and the Marquis and his household began to fear that the House was vulnerable to attack.   In July he travelled to Court and secured a promise that the King would send 100 musketeers of Rawdon's Regiment to defend Basing House.

 

  • Shortly after the Marquis returned home (and before Rawdon's men arrived) the House was attacked by a troop of Parliamentary horse and a "ragged rabble" (!) of dragoons.  The Marquis managed to hold off two attacks with only his household and "six gentlemen armed with muskets".

 

  • Rawdon's hundred musketeers arrived on 31 July and drove off the attackers. 
    The House was then garrisoned and fortified over the coming months.

 

  • Parliament attempted to take Basing House again in November 1643, when Waller laid seige to it for a short period before being forced to retreat in the face of resistance from the garrison, and bad weather.
                                                       

Photogrsph by Rusty Aldwinckle - SK

 

Saturday's event - the Mini within the Major

              

Saturday focusses on portraying Basing's transition from peaceful country house to military garrison, as the inhabitants coped with the outbreak of Civil War, and with the war finally arriving at their door.

 

We have a gentle start to the day, portraying the House in early July as it comes awake and prepares for the arrival of the Marquis, returning from Court.    The "Marquis" arrives at noon, with pomp and flourish, in the first of the day's timetabled cameos. 

 

Further cameos during the afternoon will take the narrative forward to 31 July, with the arrival of Rawdon's 100 musketeers to garrison the House, and later to November and Waller's short-lived siege which was the first of three sieges Basing would endure during the Civil War.  If you think you might like to take part in the cameos, volunteers are warmly welcomed so please get in touch with the event team (contact details in Orders).

  

Our living history site will form a backdrop to the narrative being portrayed, with tents on the Bailey and New House areas representing the rooms and buildings of this once grand house.   Within the adjacent walled garden will be further living history participants demonstrating artisanal crafts (representing a village/hamlet). 

 

We and our client are keen to create lots of opportunities for "hands-on edutainment" for visitors of all ages and to that end, will be running a rolling programme of 20 minute drop-in sessions between 11.30 and 15.30 on Saturday, for visitors to join in and have-a-go at drumming, pike, and other skills.  There will also be the usual timetabled drill and skill-at-arms displays.

 

Photograph by Gareth Owen - SK

 

 

This page was last modified on 03 July 2010