| Date | 26 February 2016 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0069 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Views of the Past |
Transcript
Memory-filled house
THIS week I dedicate my column to the late Old Windsor historian Margaret Gilson who sadly died last week – Margaret was passionate about the history of Old Windsor and had written a book of the buildings of the village illustrated with her own illustrations – we look at the Priory at Old Windsor the home of collector Richard Bateman.
The Priory in Old Windsor was originally known as Grove House and was built in 1700 as a small 10 roomed house – it was to become what could be termed as the first museum in the Windsor locality.
It was bought by Richard Bateman in around 1730.
His collections from around the world became famous and were put into the guidebooks to Windsor of the time.
Bateman was a great collector and his collections were deeply influenced by the current taste for everything Chinese. His gardens boasted Chinese pagodas, bridges and temples. He was also influenced by the great collector Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill – so much so that by 1758 the building had been converted and enlarged to which the poet Gray called ‘a mock monastery’.
The diarist Mrs Delany reported in 1768 that the house consisted of ‘arched porticoes and windows, Gothic towers and battlements’.
The interior of the old monastery on the ground floor was divided into four very small rooms and a passage, all filled with an innumerable collection of China, Japan and knick-knacks.
The walls were covered by oddities from all corners of the world. There was also a small library furnished in the Chinese taste and mirrors were used to enlarge this room.
The dressing room boasted a miniature shrine carved and gilded, which contained relics, such as a piece of the True Cross and a bone of St Patrick amongst other religious objects. Attached to the main house was a new extension termed the Refectory which was hexagonal in shape.
After the demise of the Bateman family the house was renamed the Priory which still remains in private ownership today.
Image: Batemans in 1760.
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