The Arundells of Wardour – from Cornwall to Colditz

By Barry Williamson

Hobnob Press

Pages 242 Softback  

TIS.922

This is a book that begins at the end and sets the scene for what is to follow. Contained in this book’s pages are the centuries long story of one family, the Arundells, and their rise and fall. Having said that, it is as the author himself says, not a rags to riches story as the Arundell family were the ‘wealthiest and most powerful’ in Cornwall, owning land and tin mines. So how did they come to live at Wardour?

In 1516, Thomas Arundell, the youngest son, who was a descendant of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to King Edward IV, making him a distant relation to the House of Tudor, took himself to London to forge his own career. He began by working for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey which gave him years of training which he then used in working for Thomas Cromwell.

This was the beginning of the rise of the Arundell family in Wiltshire, how they came to be given as well as purchasing land at Wardour. Being a staunch Catholic and Royalist family, as time goes by, it can be clearly seen what this meant to the family and how it added to the struggles they had in maintaining their position and ownership of Wardour.

By the time we reach the 8th Earl we see that the family had wealth but we also see the costly improvements to the estate grounds by Capability Brown. This level of spending, and some might say going forward, mismanagement, began the decline in the Arundell’s fortunes. It does not take long for fortunes to disappear, and with the Arundells, from the early 1800’s we can follow their decline through the next 150 years to the 16th and last Lord Arundell.

This book is an excellent read, the writing keeps the pages turning as if it were the best of novels because you really do want to know what comes next for the family. They are involved in so many of the important events in British history that you absorb a deal more than perhaps you anticipated. It is a history that is written thanks to the amount of documentation left by the family that researchers can make good use of.

This book is well worth the time spent on reading it and it will not disappoint. There is so much more to this book than the bare bones that I have mentioned here, but I will give no spoilers.

Barry Williamson’s The Arundells of Wardour is available to view at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre or borrow via your local Wiltshire library, reference TIS.922

Eileen Sutherland, Community History Advisor