Going, Going, Gone

We've been constructing buildings on these islands for over 5,000 years, so you might expect that there'd be ruins to explore at every turn in the road, but this is clearly not so. Even in today's throw-away society most derelict structures are taken down and tidied away, so that the sites can be redeveloped for other uses. Finding satisfying ruins to photograph is not easy. Lets take a trip out to the area around the small Bedfordshire town of Ampthill and see what we can find.

Going.....Clophill Old Church

Clophill is just over three miles from Ampthill and after parking in a modern street we found ourselves trudging up the Old Church Path in drizzly rain, as generations of churchgoers must have done in times past. But it wasn't lack of fitness or resolve that led the parishioners of the mid-nineteenth century to replace their old church with a new building, more conveniently situated in the heart of the community. The population had simply outgrown their place of worship.

The burial ground, however, continued to be used and the Old Church became a mortuary chapel. The chancel and porch were demolished at this time. There was a slow deterioration in the fabric of the building, but the final blow came in the nineteen-fifties when thieves removed all the lead from the roof. The carved roof-beams were taken soon afterwards but by more legal means; they were to be used in the new church.

What remained of the building became heavily vandalised and was also associated with satanic cults. It was later claimed to have been just a group of students who arranged the whole thing as a "joke". Recently the site has been tidied up by the efforts of the local community - they've even built a viewing platform at the top of the tower which you can climb up to if you arrive at the right time.

Going.....Houghton House

We moved on to Houghton House, a property belonging to English Heritage, which you get to along a single track farm road and where there's space in the car park for no more than eight cars. In summer most people must walk up from Ampthill - there are some advantages to visiting on a rainy day!

There's nothing to welcome you to Houghton House but a small information board and a couple of rather bedraggled ponies. It wasn't like this in 1621 when the Dowager Countess of Pembroke received King James I in her newly-completed mansion. Sadly the Countess didn't enjoy her house for long; she died later that year from smallpox.

The house then became the country seat of the Bruce family, who later sold it to the Duke of Bedford as a home for his son. That son died in a hunting accident and the house passed to the grandson, who let the extensive grounds to a neighbour. He later tried to rent out the house but found, surprisingly enough, that no one wanted to live on a windswept hill with wonderful views over someone else's parkland.

By 1794 the house, still unoccupied, was becoming a liability so the Duke decided to strip out anything valuable and sell it. This included the roof, the staircase (which can still be seen in a nearby hotel) and anything else that could be salvaged. He then sold what was left to his neighbour, the Earl of Upper Ossary (great name that!), who included the romantic ruin as a feature in his park, which had been landscaped by 'Capability' Brown.

Although I love a good ruin, one can't help but regret what was lost. The once grand entrance above, for example, was probably designed by Inigo Jones, one of the most respected and innovative architects of the time.

It won't surprise you to hear that such evocative remains have given rise to reports of "shadowy figures", "a young girl in old-fashioned clothes" and even "a dark knight on horseback". You can, if you want, see an unconvincing film on YouTube of a group of enthusiasts trying to prove the existence of the ghosts. Some claim to have heard a man's voice shouting "Get out!", while others interpret the two syllables as something more forceful and Anglo-Saxon, but expressing much the same sentiment!

One person who was definitely here was W.M who left his mark in 1846 - graffiti is nothing new.

Gone.....Ampthill Castle

As the title implies there's nothing at all left of our final "ruin". The cross seen above marks the approximate site of the castle. It's called "Catherine's Cross" and takes its name from Catherine of Aragon who was staying here in May 1533 when she learned of the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII. But there's more to see on a stroll around the park.

The grounds here are part of the estate of the Earl of Upper Ossary, of whom we heard earlier, and this is the very land which was re-modelled by 'Capability' Brown. The idea of his landscaping was to try to emulate the views imagined and painted by the artists of the day.

I think he succeeded in his aims, though you'll have to decide whether my photo has captured the essence of the view he created. The small lake and clumps of trees are just the kind of features you'd expect to find in a 'Capability' Brown vista.

He also provided viewpoints for his patrons' homes. Yonder, to delight your eyes, lies Ampthill Park House, built for Upper Ossary's noble Earl.

We made our way back to the car park, well satisfied with our trip out on a morning of such unpromising weather.

Take care.