Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire
Secreted away in the picturesque Forest of Arden, this medieval moated manor house was home to the Ferrers family for more than half a millennium, having been extensively adapted by their ancestor Henry Ferrers, an antiquarian, diarist, and lawyer, in the late 16th century – though the property’s origins go back to Saxon times.
It was during Henry’s tenure, in 1588, that the property became a safe house for Catholic priests at a time of much anti-Catholic sentiment. Henry had leased Baddesley Clinton to Catholic sisters Anne and Eleanor Vaux, and Anne, who was protector of Father Henry Garnet, Jesuit Superior of England, enlisted Nicholas Owen, an architect renowned for his skill in building hiding places, to install priest holes capable of hiding up to 12 Catholic…
