Bury Lodge

For some reason, Bury Lodge of Hambledon popped into mind this morning, for no apparent reason at all. Bury Lodge being the place where we were living at the time of the birth of our first child, with me being on detached duty to what was then OPCS, now ONS, at Titchfield, near Fareham in Hampshire.

To be more precise, in the first floor flat of the East Wing, a sort of late 19th century granny annex to the earlier building. Right in the snap above, with the upper window being that of what we used as our sitting room when it was warm enough. Our six month interlude in the country. Lots of large green finches outside our kitchen window.

Our landlord was a retired Major General, while we were friendly with the gardener and his wife, a retired RMP sergeant major. Not a chap to tangle with outside a pub.

A place which Google knows all about. The nearest we ever came to stately living. See references 1 thru 5.

PS 1: the Strawberry Hill gothic of Bury Lodge can be compared to the Greek revival of The Pro in Dublin, built some thirty years earlier, that is to say around 1820 - the pro-cathedral, now finally promoted to full cathedral, popping up in yesterday's Financial Times, despite the date being just before Christmas.

In the margins, I learn that Dublin's St. Patrick's cathedral has remained in the Anglican fold and is also very much of the time of our own cathedrals, with the building dating back to the 13th century - although a lot of what can be see in the snap above is the result of a mid 19th century make-over.

All very odd. A testament to the tangled history of Ireland. See references 7 thru 10.

PS 2: it occurred to me later that perhaps the Irish church did not want to be saddled with two ancient monuments to look after, but did not like to say so out loud.

References

Reference 1: https://auctionet.com/en/themes/942-six-generations-the-contents-of-bury-lodge-hambledon.

Reference 2: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1095548?section=official-list-entry.

Reference 3: https://www.thefugitiveking.uk/index.php/visit-to-hambledon/. Why on earth would King's Rest Cottage adjacent be more or less derelict in 2022. It certainly wasn't in our day.

Reference 4: https://research.hgt.org.uk/item/bury-lodge/.

Reference 5: https://media.rightmove.co.uk/42k/41066/152537597/41066_WIN012357264_DOC_01_0007.pdf. The source of the snap above.

Reference 6: https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explore/about-the-army/corps-regiments-and-units/adjutant-generals-corps/provost-branch/royal-military-police/.

Reference 7: Dublin gets its first official Catholic cathedral since the Reformation: St Mary’s in a relatively poor part of the Irish capital only had a ‘pro’, or temporary, designation - Shane Harrison, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 8: https://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/worship/.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Patrick%27s_Cathedral,_Dublin.

Reference 10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Cathedral,_Dublin. The Pro.