The following is a brief and somewhat potted history of Guy's Cliffe, it's owners and families and it's surrounding estate lands...

Guy's Cliffe once known as Gibbecliff has no doubt always had an allure that simply kept on blossoming. This is an old, special place, resplendent with caves, a spring and the River Avon skirting its flanks. It could easily have been seen as sacred long ago and attracted those who would perform their pagan rites. It was likely that for this reason it would come to be converted over to be a sanctity for the Christian word. For here in the 7th Century St. Dubritious, Bishop of Warwick came to this site and founded an oratory or small chapel here dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene which at first attracted hermits, solitary men who led a pious, stark existence and who most likely resided in the caves naturally present.

The hermitage of Gibbeciff came into being but the name this place bears today would be down to the arrival of a man who'd be legendary in his time.

Guy of Warwick comes to our attention as a humble cup bearer, son of a steward to the then Saxon Earl of Warwick. Privileged as he was to serve at the Earl's table he one day caught sight of the Earl's daughter, the fair Felice. He fell instantly in love with this haughty princess and resolved he would one day marry her. However upon letting his feelings be known to her he was rebuked for his lowly status, for she wanted all the trappings an equal suitor could bring. Guy resolved that he would become worthy of her and set about achieving fame and fortune. Many brave deeds did he undertake until at last as champion of England he was able to return to her and she consented to be his.

Yet he was not without reasoning and knew that his love had cost innocents their lives. Their honeymoon afforded Guy time to reflect upon this and he resolved that to be truly happy he must find peace with god. He left Felice pregnant and heartbroken and journeyed to the holy land.

Many years he was gone and when at last he returned to England's shores his wife had become the countess of Warwick following the death of her father, his son had grown to a young man and had been kidnapped and his own parents had died. He was now but a shadow of the man he once was, bedecked as a beggar, walking with a limp and of unkempt appearance.

At the time of his landing the then King of England, King Athelstan was in trouble for he was besieged in Winchester by the Danes whose army easily outnumbered his own. He faced a quandary for the King of the Danes had offered him a choice, come out and fight and most assuredly be beat or choose a champion to fight their own, a giant of a man called Colbrand and again most assuredly be beat.

A vision came to Athelstan and he was guided to seek out a man dressed as a pauper at Winchester docks who would be his champion and Guy of course was that man. Upon seeing this beggar Athelstan's heart sank for although the beggar was tall he was not exactly champion like and the king did not know that this was once England's best. Yet Guy agreed to help Athelstan and he was readied for battle. It was a fierce fight and looked at first to be one sided but in the end Guy slew Colbrand who still posed a threat even with the loss of an arm by decapitating him.

A jubilant and thankful Athelstan promised anything in his kingdom to this new found champion but Guy humbly and perhaps still penitently asked only for anonymity as he left the king who alone now knew who is champion had been. Guy journeyed back to Warwick but not to his fair Felice instead he came to the place that would adopt his name and here he hewn an abode for himself from the rock. About two years he lived there in the company of an hermit taking of the water from the spring here and receiving scraps from the castle table. So close he would sit to his wife yet never did she recognise this man to be her husband and never did he let on to her that he was her love until his dying hours. Felice by now a gracious and much loved countess would walk often close by to his abode in quiet reflection of the cost of selfishness until she one day received word that her Guy was nearby and close to death, the messenger bore his ring as proof of this news. She came down to the hermitage and here he died within her arms. She had his body interred here yet no more than two weeks later she walked once again close by and overcome with mourning threw herself from the rise of the cliff to her death. She was buried next to her one true love so that at last they would be together in peace. So ended Guy and Felice their graves presided over while his name lasted and life at the hermitage continued. When we reach the 15th Century the chapel here had fallen into a state of disrepair and a visit by Henry V only served to highlight this. Licence to found a chantry was given and it was determined by the then Earl of Warwick that the chapel should be made good and this work was carried out. Around this time Richard de Beauchamp Earl of Warwick erected the effigy of Guy of Warwick. Carved from the rock here to depict his great height he was painted up and his shield was adorned with the arms of Arden family.

We can assume that Richard admired Guy of Warwick and his chivalric values and it is most likely that from here on this place truly adopts the title Guy's Cliffe. History now records the names of hermits here who would receive a penance for praying for the well being of the Earls family. But for the resident priests of the chapel accommodation was provided in more fitting premises than crude caves by a small cottage. Of note here is John Rous an antiquary, that is to say an historian, who composes a history of Guy's Cliffe and who had access to very early records and indeed lost hearsay about this place, unfortunately his work was lost in the great fire of Warwick. The cottage perhaps he and the other priests occupied is purported as having existed most likely on the grounds that the present house now occupies. One account also records the hermitage itself as existing in the same area and cites the graves of Guy and Felice as being within that.

Life at Guy's Cliffe is about to change dramatically though as in the reign of Henry VIII upon the passing of the dissolution of the monasteries act the site becomes the property of the crown and pious life here is halted. The estate is given over to Sir Andrew Flammock, Knights Thistle and constable of nearby Kenilworth Castle. A favourite of Henry's when he didn't fall foul of the king through his crude sense of humour! He builds himself a house with an accompanying lodge here on the site of the present house perhaps removing the priest's cottage in the process or perhaps incorporating it into the new building? In 1656 a depiction is drawn of Guy's Cliffe and this shows the Flammock building in accompaniment to a still house, the nearby chapel and its cellar and the cavities in the cliff. By this time the property had passed from Katherine, daughter of Andrew and her husband John Colbourne who had acquired a licence for the chapel. John Colbourne then sells the property to William Hudson who owning many mills around the locality was perhaps most interested in this place because the estate included the old mill? Through his daughters marriage to Sir Thomas Beaufoy the estate then passes into that family.

Dame Charlotte Beaufoy sold Guy's Cliffe and the old mill to a surgeon from Kenilworth called William Edwards in 1701. He in turn left the entire estate in the care of his brother John Edwards on his death. It then passed to Williams' son Thomas, a baker of Warwick. Thomas mortgaged the property to a Mr. Mallory in 1727 and by 1748 Thomas's son William Edwards had let it out to a Mr. Ward and in 1750 most likely mortgaged it to a Robert Mallory. All a little confusing and to add in a bit more confusion we encounter a grey area when it comes to the disappearance of the first house. A depiction exists of the property in 1722 that would seem to show the first house as not being there. This could be the case or it could be that in his concentrating on the Eastern aspect with the chapel being prominent, the artist had simply chosen not to include the house? A date of 1725 is offered for the disappearance of the first house by a much later owner who is said to have had in his possession a picture from this date clearly showing the first house as gone. If this is right then we can only wonder just where those people letting the property were living? Could it have been within the caves about or perhaps within the under cellars of the chapel? What we do know is that with arrival of one of its most prominent owners in Mr. Samuel Greatheed the place was about to change again. Samuel Greatheed of the Greatheeds of Morley derived his wealth from his family's plantations on St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. He had arrived in England in 1737 as a young man studying law and would go on to become a Whig member of parliament for Coventry.

History notes that he at first leased Guy's Cliffe in 1743 which if correct meant that he was amongst others also letting the property at that time. This would seem to point to there being a habitable dwelling being in existence there and it was probably that of the first house.

Samuel most likely fell under the spell of this place but he had the means to truly make it his from the wealth he derived from abroad and he purchased Guy's Cliffe in 1750 and thus the second house came into being. From a report by a Mr. Eld in 1757 we can derive that Samuel incorporated some of the first house into his new build and this is evident today from a study of the present basement level. As for the fate of the still house no record exists to verify the date of its disappearance though it is quite likely that when the building of Samuel Greatheed's property began the still house was demolished. At this time he embellished the property with certain features, perhaps taking advantage of natural hollows and improving upon them. One such feature is a large cavern to be found along the eastern end of the lower cliff that is compartmentalized by a series of cloistered arched supports. This was the work of a man called Harris and was originally known as Harris's cave but later became known as the cloisters cave. Because of the connection to plantation ownership it is rumoured that slaves were bought to Guy's Cliffe and made to work on some of these elaborations. It is entirely possible that people of Afro-Caribbean descent were at Guy's Cliffe around these times. If so then they were at the property as workers and certainly not as shackled slaves, as Samuel was a supporter of the bill to outlaw slavery. Testaments to their presence are the head carvings that may well be of their own likenesses found in the longest cave of the courtyard. It should not be forgotten that it was de-rigueur for plantations to have slave workers so the wealth afforded to construct the second house was generated by the efforts of the enslaved.

The chapel of St. Mary Magdalene received some attention in his time and the tower is added as a fine complementation. So Guy's Cliffe is now the Palladian residence Samuel intended for his family and he is there until his death in 1765. His son Bertie will soon add his own touches improving upon what his father built, taking it to new heights of admiration, voiced by many. When the beginnings of this young man's' artistic talents are emerging his mother Lady Mary Bertie was asked to take into her care a young lady called Sarah Kemble who at this time in her life had developed affections for a man called William Siddons who was part of her family's acting troupe and who was not deemed to be entirely suitable for her. But the distraction did not work and Sarah eventually eloped with William. She went on to become one of the nations great actresses, however the personal life of Sarah Siddons didn't have such good fortune. We know that she often visited Guy's Cliffe and was an especially welcome visitor, she herself considered this a favourable retreat and her bust was afforded a special place in the vestibule of the house.

Bertie Greatheed was an interesting man, fair yet driven and especially caring of his family. He expressed his creative gifts through his painting and play writing. He also amassed an extensive art collection at the house and his large library bulged with many literary works with a bias towards the classics and works of romantic fiction, but equally so he was also a man of science and practised meteorology and astronomy. He, his wife Anne and their son also called Bertie travelled extensively and he kept a journal of their life giving such accounts as their being trapped in France at the outbreak of war with Napoleon, who his son with his own talent had portrayed so well that it was said to be the greatest likeness of the emperor to be found. Bertie had a love of Guy's Cliffe but initially was not disposed of the wealth his father had known and was at one stage struggling to keep the great house going. However he held land in the up and coming town of Leamington Spa and sold off this for development of its planned new half on the rise above the river Leam. He also received a large accession of fortune after the death of a relative, his shareholdings in the Gas Works of Warwick also afforded him a dividend. With such favourable turns in his fortune he would go on to add to the house considerably. The Western and Northern aspects of the property received attention with additions like the buttressed projection out from the drawing room, raised roof works were erected to give the viewer an impression of an house that had naturally emerged from the bedrock to tower over the surrounding land. The 44ft archway also appears around this time as well as the rows of puzzling arched chambers in the courtyard. In his latter days he had the old laundry that stood where today's dining area now stands demolished and erected a kitchen. Bertie's son married a German girl and was himself receiving due recognition for his talent when tragically his life was cut short, he died abroad in Vincenza, Italy aged 23. This hit the family hard. Bertie then took his son's name in his memory to be known as Bertie Bertie Greatheed and his son's dawings and paintings were shrined in the vestibule of the house as well as on the walls of many other rooms. It has been said that Bertie's work on Guys Cliffe gave him some refuge from his own grief but his additions also derived from a desire to take his home and beautify it in harmony with nature yet with a passing nod to certain aspects found within his prized books on romantic fiction and history. One such example may be his having a monument to Piers Gaveston placed on the execution spot of the favourite of Edward II at nearby Blacklow Hill, part of his estate. Anne and Berties' granddaughter Anne Caroline Greatheed came to Guy's Cliffe and was raised there in the love of her family. She married the Honourable Charles Percy who took the Bertie name into his title in honour of the Berties, who Anne's grandfather had derived his lineage from on his mother's side. He and Caroline embellished the estate with the lodge cottage at the head of the drive and undertook further amendments to the property. They had but one child in Anne Barbara who inherited the estate in her fifties but never married. Not much is known about this lady who is in the company of her mother until her mother's death in 1882. Her mother had a translation commissioned on the engraving within Guy's Cave in 1870. This deciphered from apparently two differing versions of Saxon dialect repeated 'Cast out. Thou Christ, ( thy ) servant, or knight, this weight or burden. Gy'. Work was also undertaken on the ceiling of the Chapel in 1876 which resulted in the very fitting fluted affair we see today is probably attributable to Anne Caroline. When Anne Barbara dies in 1891 she peculiarly leaves a great deal of the contents of Guy's Cliffe to a Sir Edward Lane Durand, perhaps a close acquaintance? The property itself is left to Lord Algernon Percy, second son to the Duke of Northumberland. Upon his ownership Algernon sets about acquiring the goods that Edward had received and managed to secure a great deal of them. Although the halcyon days of Guy's Cliffe House were fading he nonetheless added to the property with a large extension, complete with lifts, both hand pulled, one a service lift and one a passenger lift for his frail mother. The extension was completed in 1898 and is four storeys in high with gothic arched windows and a Juliet balcony. It encompassed a Gun Room, Study, Ladies Parlour and Bedroom uppermost.

Lord Algernon and Lady Percy bought a degree of re-invigoration to Guy's Cliffe but others would bring a different aspect altogether as the world was about to see its first world war. As the hostilities broke out it quickly became apparent that the number of casualties and their need for recouperation would overwhelm the health service. Many large estates were given over to being hospitals of healing for the wounded troops and Guy's Cliffe through the grace of the Percy's became Voluntary Aid Detachment no.36. Over 600 suffering soldiers passed through the archway to re-couperate in this place of peace. They were treated in wards using the large rooms of the house which were simply named after colours, except verandah ward. Cared for by nurses and house staff the soldiers had a great deal of the house available for their needs and no doubt many formed good relationships with the family, certainly one such soldier known as H. Twigger did. Upon his recovery Mr. Twigger set up a hut nearby at the old Mill. Here he sold postcards, pictures and mementos of the house as well as offering tours of the property when convenient for the family. He was well versed in the skills of photography and perhaps much of his work from his enterprise is yet still to be found? Lord Algernon and his wife were well liked, he a little eccentric and both somewhat religious. Algernon it seems was a little cautious of the new marvels the world was then bringing as he never had electricity installed in the house, considering it a dangerous thing. Yet gas, both town and Acetylene coursed through the property for lighting, but a strict code of fire precautions was practised to ensure a degree of safety. When the seeds of the next threat to world peace were being sown in the 1930's Lord and Lady Percy turned their attention to the Chapel and much work was undertaken to bring out its antiquity. Unfortunately for Algernon this was considered complete at the time of his death in 1933.

The Percy's had a daughter in Katherine Louisa Victoria who went on to marry Captain Josceline Reginald Heber, later Heber-Percy who himself penned an excellent descriptive history of Guy's Cliffe. The Heber-Percy's had but a brief ownership of the property. Guy's Cliffe House was let out to a foundation for orphaned children during the Second World War. This home was governed by Paul Field and his family along with a small retinue of staff. The accounts of the surviving boys sent here tell us that this was a happy place and of course a young boys delight with its surrounding grounds, nooks and crannies and river for swimming and fun on the water. Paul Field also came to appreciate that this was a unique place and desired to purchase it outright to continue the work but the body of foundation governors did not wish this. The Percy line, so long the guardians of this place had been forced by financial constraints to sell on the property to a consortium of business-men back in 1939-40 and although they were not resident at Guy's Cliffe during the war years the household goods were locked away in rooms unavailable to the Fields. Come 1946 an auction took place over several days that would see these distributed by sale far and wide. The consortium owners had high hopes for conversion of the property into a hotel after the war but just as it was planned to happen the then labour government passed a property improvement tax that simply made the project unviable. The consortium had little choice but to sell on the property at a time that offered little hope for such a large, old house and therefore it remained on the market until 1950 when a Mr. J. F, Ward purchased it. He was a builder who had his own plans for the property and they ultimately would curdle the catalyst of downfall for this place. He proposed a demolition of the property to make way for a new development which thankfully was declined by the County Council. However left with effectively a white elephant he hatched a new plan. He arranged for the estate to be split into three different lots of sale. The Mill was sold on and went on to become a restaurant, the land to the south including the stables was purchased by the local authority who let this out to become the home of a riding school. That left the house, chapel and immediate grounds within the third. Mr. Ward had not finished trying to salvage some more money quite yet though and the house in particular was then subjected to what could only be described as acts of legal vandalism. Firstly an auction was arranged in 1952 whose content of lots were made up of the very fabric of the house itself. All fixtures, including floors, doors, window frames, wood workings, plasterworks, fireplaces, iron works, ranges, sinks, toilets, bathroom fittings and any other features of a practical or adorning nature were offered for sale and ripped out by their purchasers. We cannot blame the people who came here looking for something to adorn their homes but find it hard to see why no objection seemed to be voiced by anyone who knew of this place at the time and of what that auctions legacy would be. Left with now a shell of a building the lead from the roof was stripped by Mr. Ward and by doing this the vandalism of the elements was given free reign and their damge was backed up by those acts an abandoned estate suffers at the hands of the ignorant. Luckily its next owner was an entirely different man and he was Mr. Aldwyn Porter who purchases Guy's Cliffe in 1957. Mr Porter had hoped to restore a part of the house and live within it but by this time the damage to the property and lack of any modern services to the house made the notion impractical. Instead he built for himself a bungalow on the meadow aside his beloved property. Mr. Porter did what he could to stay any further decline and even had plans made for the front elevation to receive some restoration. This was scuppered by the damage inflicted to one of the bays by a crane undertaking works on behalf of the local authority, the repair of which swallowed up the funds he intended for the facade's restoration. Aldwyn also wrote a small book on the history of the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene but his old house was becoming ever more enshrouded in a cloak of ivy and all but forgotten.

Nearly sixteen years on from his purchase Aldwyn Porter had heard that a group of Freemasonry Lodges were through unfortunate circumstances about to lose their meeting place and he had an idea to help them and in turn see Guy's Cliffe realise a new life. He proposed that they could use the chapel and those buildings most serviceable for their meetings if they came and made good those areas. He would charge a very agreeable peppercorn rent for this of two bottles of beer a year! It was agreed and work by many of members of the lodges involved was underway. It was a daunting task, upon entering the Chapel for example the cobwebs hung like great drapes and some of the floors above were being held up by habit rather than by anything substantial. Smashed windows abounded, roofs needed attention, swathes of ivy needed clearing, amenities needed installing and brick and stone works needed urgent treatment. But the push continued and so by September 1974 the lodge of St. George was to be the first of the present lodges using Guy's Cliffe to hold a Masonic meeting in the restored chapel. Others followed suit and gradual improvements that are still being done continued. Mr. Porter eventually sold on his bungalow and its grounds which included The Avenue of Trees and Guy's Well to a new owner who has dwelt in this delightful home until this very day. On Aldwyn's passing no heir seemed interested in keeping the old house, chapel and lands so the estate was made available for purchase to the lodges using the property, they became the new owners and manage the site to this day. The old house remained pretty much as it was back when the sale went through for many years, many hoped that something could be done about it and so when approached by Granada Studios in 1992 to film there it looked like funds could be put into a remedy. The studio were looking for a ruinous, large house that they could use in their Sherlock Homes series for an episode called 'The Last Vampyre'. Pyrotechnics would simulate a large fire in the property of a man cornered and burned in his old house who the villagers believed was a vampire. That property would be visited by Holmes years later when the arrival of a mysterious man in the village is linked to a string of tragic events that seemed vampiric in nature. It sounded ideal and assurances were made that precautions would be in place, but just in case the level of insurance was raised and of course this was as well because the simulated fire spread along timbers within brickworks and reached hard to access areas. The fire engine on standby suffered a failure with its supply hose and the prevailing wind fanned the inferno that followed. The outcome of this saw that the property was made right to not only match the condition it was found in, which of course was fairly ruinous but stabilisation of the property through supportive props and capping occurred and a guarantee of 70 years for the structure was signed off by the construction company. Unfortunately some areas were lost and some parts made so fragile that they couldn't be saved and in this respect the fire was most damaging.

The property within Guys Cliffe House are split into two main sections, the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade 2 Listed Building and the ruins of the main Guys Cliffe House, also a Grade 2 Listed Building, along with the perimeter structures such as the Coach House, Guy's Cave (also a Scheduled Ancient Monument), Cloisters Cave, Courtyard Caves, Cellars and the Offices.

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene serves as a Masonic Lodge meeting place and is kept in pristine condition befitting of its valuable and cherished heritage. The chapel had by the 1970's become dilapidated and thus major restoration work took place to save the structure, it's features and many of it's artefacts.

In recent years extensive efforts have been made to remove rubble from parts of the building, in particular from within the ruins of the house. This rubble is mainly the result of the partial collapse of sections many decades ago when the building first became dilapidated. Very little of the internal features within the ruin still exist, having mostly been sold in the 1952 Auction, however occasional glimpses into the old fixtures and fittings are sometimes discovered and preserved.

Present use sees the property still functioning as a center for Masonic meetings and the areas under use and grounds are improved upon whenever funds make this possible. A body known as The Friends of Guy's Cliffe was formed initially by the wives of the men attending the Freemasonry Lodges at Guy's Cliffe and it continues as a body today with a working party made up of lodge members and interested members of the public. A desire for new life for the old house that is sympathetic to its inheritance remains a constant hope by its members. The Garden Party, Heritage Open Days, and all other efforts go towards one day perhaps realising this, one fine day indeed!

If you would like to read a much more in depth and detailed history of Guy's Cliffe, why not grab a copy of the recently published book, Recollections of a Country Mansion by our very own Terry Roberts...

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