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THE MANOR HOUSE, HEMINGFORD
by Nicky Gibbs
A group of fourteen History Society members visited The Manor House, Hemingford on the 3rd of July 2024. They were shown around the house by Diana Boston, daughter-in-law of Lucy Boston who owned the house from 1939 until her death in 1990. Diana keeps the gardens open all year round and welcomes visitors into the house by appointment. A visit to the house appeals to many different people: those who are interested in the gardens with their old roses, irises and Coronation topiary, those interested in seeing the handstitched patchwork quilts which are admired for their complex patterns and intricate stitching, still others may have read the children’s novels written by Lucy which were set in the house.
The original Manor House was constructed around 1130 of Barnack limestone (the same stone as used for St Mary’s Church in Buckden), which came from quarries near Stamford. Originally an annex to the great hall, the current building may have been used as a chamber to entertain guests. It was surrounded by a moat which lay between the house and the River Ouse. The Norman heart of the house had been largely masked by later additions and a Georgian facade.
Lucy was born in Southport, Lancashire on 10th of December 1892; the fifth of six children. Her father was James Wood, an engineer and sometime Mayor of Southport and her mother Mary Garrett daughter of a Wesleyan minister. The couple were very different characters. Lucy described her father as passionate, eccentric and prone to acts of religious fervour and her mother as devout and abstemious. After a visit to the Holy Lands, her father decorated the drawing room of their Southport home with a frieze of a painted landscape which represented the journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. Other rooms carried religious mottos such as “He that giveth to the poor shall not lack”. In contrast her mother could barely bother with food saying that “her idea of food was that it was a sad necessity” so her children sometimes “raged with hunger”.
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Manor House, Hemingford: Activities
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