The contradictions of Gumley

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXc8DJo7j-V-jrtLFnBxvkRGmviQeruljcHl-e1QEDNQs_RmWmeaJyJDP6rIHIAcbUESQg3L4WkzDBkXzbpoYLFtwGZ1sGajjqmlmvyYgsqh6Ccx35725iQEoQkURq1vxVb_DifiKRH-vn/s1600-h/gumley1.jpg"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368462661553165698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXc8DJo7j-V-jrtLFnBxvkRGmviQeruljcHl-e1QEDNQs_RmWmeaJyJDP6rIHIAcbUESQg3L4WkzDBkXzbpoYLFtwGZ1sGajjqmlmvyYgsqh6Ccx35725iQEoQkURq1vxVb_DifiKRH-vn/s400/gumley1.jpg" //abr /blockquoteGumley is a village dominated by Gumley Hall 1764 which was demolished over 50 years ago. /blockquotepSo says a document (Word file) from a href="http://cmispublic.harborough.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=4113"Harborough District Council/a. It sounds odd, but then Gumley is a place of contradictions./ppIt has to be admitted that it has a very ugly name, yet the Arthur Mee volume on Leicestershire was happy to call it "perhaps the prettiest village in the county"./ppAnd despite its rural setting the village is largely of 19th century red brick, which gives it a slightly urban feel. It consists of one long street leading you up the hill to the church - it reminds me a little of Bishop's Castle in Shropshire./ppBeside the church, the interior of which was largely recast in the 19th century, is a mysterious wooded mound, and beyond that are some impressive earthworks. Somewhere here must be the site of the Synod of Gumley, which King Aethelbald of Mercia held in 749./ppOffa visited Gumley twice in 772 and 779 and one local theorist, a href="http://www.geocities.com/andrewburbidge/Booklet1.htm"Andrew Burbidge/a, reasons that Gumley must have been Arthur's Camelot. /ppBeyond these ancient sites is a remarkable cricket ground, but that deserves a posting of its own./ppThe Gumley of today does not occupy the site of the original village. That was clustered at the top of the hill, but it disappeared in the 18th century when the Hall was built and its grounds laid out. a href="http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2009/06/william-hanbury-and-church-langton.html"William Hanbury/a also had some of his plantations here./ppGumley Hall was built for Joseph Cradock (1742-1826), a Leicester man with tastes very different from those of most country squires. He was a friend of Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith and David Garrick./ppAfter passing through various hands in the 19th century Gumley Hall came into the ownership of George Murray Smith, the Chairman of the Midland Railway. It is easy to imagine at glaring across the fields at East Langton Grange, home of the radical Liberal MP and railway contractor a href="http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2009/05/house-points-j-w-paddy-logan-in-house.html"J.W. Logan/a who had built part of the rival Great Central route to London./ppDuring World War II Gumley Hall was used for training by the Special Operations Executive, which organised sabotage behind German lines, and after the war Leonard Cheshire used it for one of his experimental communities for former servicemen and their families./ppThe Hall was demolished in 1962, but its stable block, complete with its clock tower in the style of an Italian campanile, still dominates the village. So you can see what the council means./ppThe clock tower is shown in the picture at the top of this post. Below are views of the church, the mysterious mound by the church and some of the earthworks nearby.br /br /a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2F2mJ2G4KkhK6VKvNNc5lS_82iGbYvcZoJvfaNg7OiWKshyGgGkikXIRJRXVgj0QKcg958Rngm1jAT-2l2TKa5K3n0bAIAHPlTInv4Gxvzzwcz5xQcFGKQF6FERtQXwkhkOoFuCcgAVKF/s1600-h/gumley2.jpg"img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368462433129084370" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2F2mJ2G4KkhK6VKvNNc5lS_82iGbYvcZoJvfaNg7OiWKshyGgGkikXIRJRXVgj0QKcg958Rngm1jAT-2l2TKa5K3n0bAIAHPlTInv4Gxvzzwcz5xQcFGKQF6FERtQXwkhkOoFuCcgAVKF/s320/gumley2.jpg" //a a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48hj_0fhHGucTmY-jvYJs0a2tJY_mc3wlIieGHFODyo72M7sslw9l6gOfunqsF3UqpHN8w3Qsz4p-5AZD9H7TLCwXUBHg-rCY9WRZxVINEHangqXeCiuAojrT8gc0McpsxoT91Xfrmk6W/s1600-h/gumley3.jpg"img style="WIDTH: 240px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368462425618035330" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48hj_0fhHGucTmY-jvYJs0a2tJY_mc3wlIieGHFODyo72M7sslw9l6gOfunqsF3UqpHN8w3Qsz4p-5AZD9H7TLCwXUBHg-rCY9WRZxVINEHangqXeCiuAojrT8gc0McpsxoT91Xfrmk6W/s320/gumley3.jpg" //a a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8kOUECUcBII4Pdhh4D6DaaHKiDKA8NkLcnS0usuT65pHkaqjfz2Zvlos8hBplvmJ32Qv5a63lzxzEPXdxZEWawFSroMrBfEjigKTLE1R6Ru3PvUNOA7baae2un1SLxuUS2y-bcAPi-1EL/s1600-h/gumley4.jpg"img style="WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368462260315060834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8kOUECUcBII4Pdhh4D6DaaHKiDKA8NkLcnS0usuT65pHkaqjfz2Zvlos8hBplvmJ32Qv5a63lzxzEPXdxZEWawFSroMrBfEjigKTLE1R6Ru3PvUNOA7baae2un1SLxuUS2y-bcAPi-1EL/s320/gumley4.jpg" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-299029115804740235?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div

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