Jane and Jesus

It was the 30th anniversary of the opening of Basildon Park (picture to right) to the public under the auspices of the National Trust. So they dropped the entrance tickets to their 1979 price of 90 pence ($1.35) and I arrived early to grab this bargain offer.

I have been to this minor stately home, 10 miles north-west of Reading, once before. But there had been a few changes since my last visit. A whole room was devoted to the filming of "Pride and Prejudice". Part of the 2005 version, starring Keira Knightley, had been shot at Basildon Park, with a few even more magnificent houses around England providing other backdrops. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414387/

Jane Austin was a relatively local girl, spending most of her life in the county of Hampshire, immediately south of Berkshire. I visited her home at Chawton, about 40 minutes drive from Reading, last year. She also spent a short time in Reading, attending the Abbey School about 200 yards from St James. This early 19th century establishment had absolutely nothing in common with the present-day Abbey School for the daughters of the affluent, but I suspect that the latter is very happy about any confusion on the part of the ignorant.

Her life is a reminder of how "local" was the life of nearly all people until very recent times. Such a famous (and fairly privileged) person never travelled outside a 70 mile radius of Reading in her whole life. In her later years, when she wrote her most famous novels, she spent most of her life within a small family circle in a very small radius of Chawton. But then Jesus travelled in an even smaller area and look at his impact...... (Chawton house at right.)



The film exhibition conveyed a highly positive image of the cooperation between the movie makers and the National Trust. This was in marked contrast to the impression of the James Bond film, "The Living Daylights", filmed at Stonor House (picture at right) on the other side of Reading. One of the staff at Stonor told me "Never again!!" Filming a huge budget Bond film was obviously a very different enterprise to "Pride and Prejudice". P and P's budget of $28 million was large by European standards, but modest in Hollywood terms.

Working in such a historic house posed endless problems for the crew. They obviously wanted to keep the National Trust on-side, otherwise they would compromise future cooperation in granting any filmmakers access to the hundreds of wonderful locations controlled by the NT. There were endless restrictions on the intensity of light and temperature; no equipment was to touch the historic walls. All the priceless and irreplaceable artifacts in certain rooms had to be catalogued, dismantled and carefully packed away.

As ever, the perversity of the creative team knew no limits. Having gone to all this trouble gaining access to a splendid house of the correct period, they decided that certain rooms were not splendid enough and needed some improving touches. 18 feet high pillars were constructed by a master plasterer (no fibreglass here) and shoehorned into a room. Once filming was over, they would just be dumped. No use storing all that expensive workmanship in the hope they might be reused in some future historic epic.

Basildon Park has known its up and downs; it is very lucky to survive to the present day without being demolished or destroyed as so many major houses have been. The 1930s depression and World War 2 obviously didn't help. During WW2, the legendary 101st Airbourne Division was billeted there, plus Italian prisoners of war. Between neglect, abuse and the ceiling of the library being scorched by brasiers during the grim 1940s winters, it was in a very sorry state by 1950.

Other parts of Basildon Park were equally enthralling. I couldn't recall them from my previous visit - I can't have paid proper attention. The Sutherland room was given over to a celebration of the largest tapestry in the world "Christ in Glory". This stunning work, 78 feet high by 39 feet wide, hangs in Coventry Cathedral. See http://www.know-britain.com/churches/coventry_cathedral_6.html


The original Cathedral was destroyed in the 1940 air raids on the city; Coventry was a major centre of the arms and vehicle manufacturing industries. At the time the destruction of this major city eclipsed even the London blitz; a new phrase, "to Coventrate", conjured up the new total warfare on civilian and military simultaneously. But was a civilian on a production line making a gun or a truck any less of a soldier than the man who used them on the battlefield? In 2005, when I visited Berlin, the German Historical Museum had relics from Coventry Cathedral on display.

The new Cathedral was consecrated in 1962, with the scorched shell of the old cathedral still standing beside it as a memorial. I have visited it only once in 1967. There was a still a huge empty area, used just for car parking, surrounding the new building. The rubble of 1940 had been cleared away, but no new buildings yet filled the vacancy. The enormous tapestry was emblematic of the new hopes for a new cathedral, a new city, a reborn Anglican Communion in England. The 1950s were a time of religious revival in Britain, with both the native clergy and exotic visitors like Billy Graham attracting churchgoers. In a few decades there was a catastrophic collapse into doctrinal chaos, moral confusion and organisational schism.

The Iliffe family, who bought and restored Basildon Park after WW2, made their money in provincial newspapers in the Midlands. They were friends of Graham Sutherland who designed the tapestry.

The Sutherland room contains numerous sketches and designs, both of the whole tapestry and detailed sections. Such a colossal project had to be subdivided to make it manageable. It also describes the manufacturing process at Freres Pinton in the little town of Felletin near Aubusson in France. To tackle this unprecedented task, this very specialised family firm had to bring out a huge loom last used 50 years earlier - talk about long term investment.

They were not even sure if this old tool could handle the sheer weight of the fabric, over a ton. But they did it and the whole enormous artwork was finally airlifted to Coventry. Someone suggested a 500 year warranty for the tapestry. No problem, monsieur. Tapestries made in the 15th century in that area still hang in cathedrals 500 years later.

See http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france_159/label-france_2554/label-france-issues_2555/label-france-no.-46_3691/feature-creative-arts-very-much-alive_3692/tapestry-tradition-of-excellence_4947.html