Marrying into money

Monday 10th October 2016 - near Much Wenlock, Shropshire.

Our night was silent as a graveyard.....well actually we were next to the graveyard!  The morning was a beautiful sunny start.  People started to arrive at the church car park from 9am onwards and I got concerned that their might be a funeral service or something.  It turned out that they were a team of people who were recording all the information in the church.

There were several memorials to Vernons and a written history of the family on sheets in a side chapel. The family at Hanbury Hall seem to be a branch of the Vernon family that came to prominence in 1580 when Richard Vernon became the Rector of this church.  It was a particularly wealthy clerical position and he bought a property and some land at Hanbury.  It was his grandson Thomas Vernon that became a successful barrister in London and married into a wealthy family.  He bought more land at Hanbury and was responsible for starting to build Hanbury Hall as we see it now.

Talking about marriages, I think Janice (soon to be a Vernon) was looking particularly at home in our Grand Hall.  I suppose I will need to get her portrait done!

There was another very interesting story about Emma Vernon.  There had been no male heirs and she married Henry Cecil who was a second son of the Earl of Exeter whose family own Burghley House at Stamford, Lincolnshire.  It is a long story but she ran off with the local curate and he remarried a common girl from Gloucester and then actually inherited his title as his older brother died young.

The hall has been used recently for the Antiques Roadshow, Countryfile and most prestigiously.......Bargain Hunt!

I also found out that Thomas Vernon (probably from Sudbury Hall) obtained Stokesay Castle, near Ludlow by marriage in the15th century and he passed it to his grandson Henry Vernon in 1563 but due to hard time they had to sell it in 1598.

It seems from my research into the family history that the Vernons made a series of good marriages into families with wealth and status.  No pressure then Janice!

The nearby Vernon Hotel and Restaurant seemed the swishest of the Vernon pubs we had seen but it was the only one we didn't actually go in. We will save it for a future trip.

We moved on towards out next destination but stumbled across another National Trust house.....Dudmaston House near Quatt, Bridgnorth.  The house wasn't open but a wing of it was used as an art gallery.  We treated ourselves with a look at the modern art, without too much sniggering, but enjoyed some of the proper art.

What a nice sunny day.  This is Dudmaston.  Probably not so grand but nice nevertheless.

We found our next CL about 3 miles from Much Wenlock which is close to Telford.  Surprisingly there is a National Trust place nearby and also I want to visit a little church at a place called Tong where some of the early Vernon tombs are to be seen.