Saturday, 31 October 2026
Friday, 30 October 2026
MOON - Woven With Northern Soul
https://www.abrahammoon.co.uk/
We are currently only able to ship within the UK for
online orders of both samples & fabrics.
For international trade enquiries, please email
customerservice@moons.co.uk.
ABOUT US
Founded in
1837 and with our roots in apparel, we are one of the last remaining vertical
woollen mills in Great Britain, with a reputation for consistent quality and
innovative design. Here you can discover more about the Abraham Moon mill, our
illustrious company history, and the many natural benefits of wool fabrics.
COMPANY
HISTORY
Our company's
fine history is just one of many features that come together to make Abraham
Moon products extra special, and is something we're rightfully proud of. From
supplying fabric for a growing Leeds market throughout the 1800's to supplying
the major fashion houses of modern times, this rich tapestry all comes together
to create quite a story over the past 180 years.
FROM HUMBLE
BEGINNINGS TO INTERNATIONAL RENOWN
1837 - A
memorable year in at least 2 respects. It was the year in which Queen Victoria
succeeded to the British throne and it was also the year in which Abraham Moon
& Sons was founded.
Abraham
Moon, a considerable standing in the community of Guiseley, on the Northern
fringes of Leeds and the Southern fringes of the Yorkshire Dales, supplied many
local families with yarn to weave cloth on hand looms in their homes. When the
cloth was woven he would collect the pieces, paying the weavers for their work.
The cloth was then scoured (washed) locally and hung out to dry in the
surrounding fields. Abraham would then transport the pieces by horse and cart
to Leeds for sale in the market.
The newly
built railway to Leeds ran directly behind the mill which had its own sidings.
This proved an invaluable form of transport both inward (wool for processing,
coal for power) and outward (distribution of cloth to the expanding consumer
network). The company’s records show exports to both Western Europe and Japan
as early as the 1890’s.
“Mr Moon
was attending the annual Yeadon feast in his horse-drawn carriage. When a band
struck up the startled horse bolted down Henshaw Lane. Two passengers managed
to jump clear and were unharmed but Mr Moon stayed in his carriage trying to
calm his horse. In its panic it tried to turn into a familiar lane where there
was no room for the carriage. The vehicle demolished part of a wall into which
Abraham Moon was thrown. He died soon afterwards from a head injury”. The
article goes on to report that the horse survived the accident!
After his
death, Abraham’s son Isaac succeeded him in the business, which continued to
flourish throughout the remainder of the Victorian era.
Design and
pattern books which date back to the early part of the Twentieth Century tell a
story in themselves. Fashion fabrics from 1900 to 1913 gradually give way to
army shirting, trouserings and greatcoat cloths from 1914 which in turn are
replaced by the emerging fashions of the 20s. Today designers use the old
pattern books for inspiration with new designs and the re-creation of retro
looks.
1954 - Frank’s
nephew Arthur took control, only retiring as chairman in 2010. The current
managing director is John Walsh, the fourth generation of the family which
succeeded the Moon dynasty. 1952 also marked a further extension of the mill,
still located at the original site on Netherfield Road, making more room for
the warping and weaving of the fabrics.
2009 – Bronte
Tweeds was purchased by Abraham Moon & Sons. Already a well-known producer
of throws and tartans, the combination of Bronte's extensive market knowledge
and our dedicated in-house design team and manufacturing versatility has seen
our accessories division grow exponentially in the years since. Bronte Tweeds
was rebranded as Bronte by Moon in 2013.
The showroom space was renovated from our old
finishing department, where for decades our fabrics went to be steam pressed
and rolled before the final quality control checks and despatch.
We have
archive pictures of the space from even further back, 1912 in fact, when the
area was used for burling and mending. You can clearly see the Victorian-era
building archways and brickwork behind our new Sales & Marketing office.
This
original building work was then extended in the 1950s, adding approximately 10m
to the width of the mill on what was previously a courtyard. This is where our
mill stands to this day, in close proximity to Netherfield Road.
Now it has
been completely transformed into what you see here and below; an opportunity
for us to not only give our ever-expanding product range a permanent display,
but to tell the story of our unique heritage and historic craftsmanship.
CONTACT
INFORMATION
We love to
hear from you on our customer service, product range, website, or any other
topics you wish to share with us. Your comments and suggestions will always be
appreciated; please complete our ‘Get in Touch’ form with your feedback.
Our
customer service team aim to respond to all messages within 24 hours; during
our busier periods this may not be possible so please allow up to three working
days for a reply.
For the
address, contact number and opening hours of the Abraham Moon shops in York and
Guiseley please see below:
YORK
33
Stonegate, York, YO1 8AW
Mon-Sat:
9am-5:30pm Sun: 11am-5pm
GUISELEY
Netherfield
Road, Guiseley, LS20 9HQ
Mon-Sat:
10am-5pm Sun: 10am-4pm
THE FABRIC
SHOP
Our stock
supported fashion fabrics are now available online. Pick from classic
best-selling tweeds in a wide range of colours from the Abraham Moon range.
We're
pleased to provide this special cut-length service, through which our fabrics
are used for all manner of projects including tailored jackets, trousers,
skirts, hats, and even footwear. All Moon tweed fabrics are British made at our
unique woollen mill in Guiseley, Yorkshire, where we have been crafting fine
cloths with love & precision for 180 years.
Thursday, 29 October 2026
How is Tweed Made? | Inside Lovat Mill
Our Story
Situated on
the banks of the river Teviot, in the picturesque Scottish Borders town of
Hawick, Lovat Mill is 'The Home of tweed'.
The product
we all recognise as “Tweed” has its origins in Commercial Road, Hawick, just a
few metres away from where Lovat Mill stands today.
Lovat Mill
has a worldwide reputation for woven excellence in design and quality. As well
as the production of Tweed, the mill is also famous for its woven pure
cashmeres and other luxury fabrics.
Our
production process is a seamless blend of traditional craft skills and modern
technology. Find out how we go from design to delivery.
Be inspired
by our range of luxe tweed and cashmere products, the perfect gift or treat for
yourself.
Lovat Mill
Commercial Road, Hawick
Scotland, TD9 7AQ
+44 (0)1450 373231
admin@lovatmill.com
Wednesday, 28 October 2026
25 British Clothing Brands That Still Make Everything in Britain
0:00 25
British clothing brands that still manufacture their products in Britain.
1:05
Trickers
1:40 Edward
Green
2:08 Cheney
2:45 Sanders
3:15 Grenson
3:45 Loke
4:16 Barker
4:52 NPS
5:31
Turnbull and Asser
6:04 Emma
Willis
6:41 Private
White VC
7:14 Walker
Slater
7:59 Old
Town
8:34 Cookson
and Clegg
9:10
Community Clothing
9:47
Pantherella
10:22
Glenmuir
10:51
William Lockie
11:25 Begg X
Co
12:34
Malaliers of Delph
13:11 Fox
Brothers
13:45
Abraham Moon
14:27
Hainsworth
15:06
Burberry
Tuesday, 27 October 2026
Monday, 26 October 2026
The World of Downton Abbey and The Buccaneers
It is impossible to follow "Downton Abbey" without associating it with the world of rich American heiresses who came to England to marry, and rescue with their money, ancestral houses and titles ... as described in "The Buccaneers", the last unfinished work of Edith Wharton ...
Jeeves
You may be surprised by the many similarities between the plot of Downton Abbey and the history of the Highclere Castle and the Carnarvon family. Julian Fellowes, the writer of Downton Abbey, is life-long friend of the Carnarvons and used bits of family history as inspiration. One of the more striking similarities is between Cora Crawley and Almina Carnarvon.
As the result of the rapid industrialization of the late 19th century, a new upper class was created in the United States. It was almost impossible for the "new money" to integrate themselves into the established American upper class due to the attitudes of the established old money. Beginning in the late 1870s, the new American heiresses began to turn to Britain to find suitable husbands in the aristocracy. At the time, the British upper class was land-rich but were running out of money. They were in desperate need of cash in order to run their vast estates. They gladly turned to the new American money so they could avoid losing their family estates. In Britain, the rules of inheritance was based on primogeniture and property was almost exclusively passed to the eldest male. In the United States, property was usually spilt between children, enabling women were able to inherit large sums of money. For fifty years, there were many marriages between British aristocrats and American heiresses. These new members of the British aristocracy were referred to as Buccaneers. By 1900, it was estimated that about a quarter of the British House of Lords had an American connection.
As the first installment of Downton Abbey revealed, Cora, an American heiress, married Lord Grantham for her money. Cora was the daughter of a dry goods millionaire and a member of "new money" American class. When she married Lord Grantham, the estate of Downton Abbey was near financial ruin. Afterwards, Cora's large dowry and later large inheritance, was tied up in an entail (see this post on Austenprose for info). Though the the marriage was initially one out of convenience, it grew into a love match as seen in the series.
In the book, The World of Downton Abbey, it is stated that Cora was inspired by the real-life Buccaneer, Lady Curzon. However, there are several parallels to Lady Almina Carnavorn, real life chatelaine of Highclere. In the late 19th century, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon was in serious debt, about 150,000 pounds. He owned 6,000 acres from four estates, including Highclere Castle. At the time, Highclere was in poor shape due to the large amount of money required to maintain the house. In 1895, Lord Carnarvon married Almina Wombwell, an heiress with access to an enormous amount of cash. Officially, Almina was the daughter Marie and Fred Wombwell but she was rumored to be the love child of Marie and Alfred de Rothschild. Rothschild was a wealthy banking tycoon. Unlike the social norm, he did not shun his illegitimate daughter and only child. Instead, he provided his "god-daughter" with a sizable dowry and eventually, inheritance. Almina had many suitors as a result. Once married, Rothschild not only provided a large dowry, but he also gave the couple a substantial annual allowance. Rothschild's money paid for Highclere's expenses and it also provided money for the couple to maintain several other homes as well as fund the Earl's Egyptian adventures in the 1920s. Initially, Almina was looked down upon by society. She eventually won society over and her husband through "her wit, brave spirit and fabulous dresses."
While there are some differences between the stories of Almina and Cora, there are several parallels. Both women married into the British aristocracy because of their money and were responsible for saving the estate from severe financial ruin.
Posted 10th January by Abby in http://nookstowersandturrets.blogspot.nl
Remains of the Days
Three Books Explore the Reality Behind the World of ‘Downton Abbey’
By JUDITH NEWMAN
Published: February 3, 2012 in The New York Times
The British costume drama “Downton Abbey,” shown here on PBS, is now unfurling in all its magnificence, and I, like its millions of American fans, will again be reminded of what it would take for my life to be truly suitable:
— Everything brought to me on a silver salver.
— Breakfast in bed daily, because I am a married woman and that is my prerogative.
— A steward’s room boy whose entire job it is to watch a panel of bells, each connected to a different room in the house from which I might ring for service. Since I live in a 1,500-square-foot co-op, this isn’t such a bad job.
— The soles of my shoes polished.
— My newspaper ironed.
— My sheets ironed.
— My shoelaces ironed.
Until “Downton Abbey,” I never realized how many of my deepest desires involved ironing. True, it would also be nice to have a great deal of furtive sex with my social inferiors, preferably in crinolines. But at this point, I’d settle for a crisp newspaper.
I know I should feel guilty about my cravings for these things. But that’s the beauty of shows like “Downton Abbey” and its venerable ancestor “Upstairs, Downstairs”: the lives of the gentry are filled with so much intrigue, excruciating protocol and silent suffering that it would be churlish to resent their unimaginably comfortable existence.
And there’s another draw for Americans, particularly in an election year. We continue to labor under the delusion that we live in a class-free society — that social mobility is a birthright, not a remote possibility. If we’re not continually upgrading our circumstances, as Newt Gingrich reminds us, it’s our own damn fault. We are expected to be “Oprah”-ishly self-actuating and self-improving, and only sloth prevents us from achieving spiritual clarity and financial success. How perversely comforting, then, to turn our attention to a world where you will die where you are born and where the heroes are the rare overachievers who work their way up to butler from footman.
The merchant class, which is to say the publishing industry, is mining the popularity of “Downton Abbey” with the release and re-release of two books that inspired the show, and the inevitable companion volume to the TV series (inevitably titled “The World of Downton Abbey”). One memoir is written from the point of view of upstairs, one from downstairs. See if your keen discerning eye can spot the difference:
“Highclere was a symbiotic system, and mutual respect was the key to its success. The fifth Earl prided himself on an Old World courtesy, and that set the tone for the entire household. He took an interest in the well-being of the staff and the cottagers on the estate; often a donation would be made towards a fund for a tenant whose livestock had died, and money was also made available for the staff to have medical treatment.”
“On Christmas Day after breakfast all the servants had to line up in the hall. . . . Mr. and Mrs. Cutler, and the daughter and the grandchildren, were assembled complete with Christmas smiles and social welfare expressions. The children looked at us as though we were beings from another world. . . . When we got to the Christmas tree we deferentially accepted the parcels that were handed to us by the children, and muttered, ‘Thank you, Master Charles, thank you, Miss Susan.’ ”
The first selection, from “Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey,” is written by the former fashion designer Fiona Aitken, now the eighth Countess of Carnarvon. She and her husband, the earl, are the current residents of Highclere, the 1,000-acre Hampshire estate that, not surprisingly, resembles Parliament, considering they share an architect, Charles Barry. Highclere is also the filming location of “Downton Abbey.”
The countess’s book tells the story of the beautiful and diminutive “Pocket Venus,” Almina Victoria Marie Alexandra Wombwell, who lived at Highclere from 1895 to 1923 with her husband, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, fifth Earl of Carnarvon. He is best known as the co-discoverer of King Tutankamen’s tomb — after a series of expeditions financed by Almina. Because, like many aristocratic families of the time, the Carnarvons were long on lineage and short on cash. So he did what every self-respecting gadabout did: look for an heiress who could rescue him, and his family pile, from ruin.
Enter Almina, for Burke’s Peerage the child of Capt. Frederick Charles Wombwell and Marie Boyer but rumored to be the illegitimate daughter of Sir Alfred de Rothschild. A director of the Bank of England for 20 years and the first Jew ever to hold that position, Rothschild doted on his “godchild” and made it known that he was prepared to give her a “fortune” on her marriage. He also wanted to solidify both her standing in society and his own. He paid up Lord Carnarvon’s debts and settled on her a sum of £12,000 (roughly $1.5 million in today’s currency) a year. Almina proceeded to turn Highclere into a social epicenter of Edwardian England.
When World War I broke out, the perfect society lady became the perfect nurse, opening her home to the wounded and transforming it into a hospital. Loyal servants who wanted to go off and fight were promised that their jobs would be available upon their return. Does oblige ever get more noblesser? When Lord Carnarvon died, allegedly of a mosquito bite and blood poisoning, a pall fell over the dozens of grieving servants. At least this is the eighth countess’s story. Almina was a woman of great charm and courage, and the family universally beloved.
This account differs somewhat from that in a biography of Lady Almina that came out last year. William P. Cross’s “Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon” tells of a woman who traded her money for a prestigious but arid marriage, took lovers young and old (including her husband’s best man) and burned through Rothschild’s dowry, leaving her feckless son enraged and penniless when he finally inherited the estate. Lady Almina did, in fact, open her home to the wounded, and went on to open a series of tony nursing homes (and discreet abortion clinics) for the rich and famous. But the homes never paid for themselves, and she and her second husband, a military officer named Ian Dennistoun, whom she married a few months after Lord Carnarvon’s death, ended up in bankruptcy court. Almina died in greatly reduced circumstances in Bristol in 1969, at the age of 93.
I suspect the real story of the relationship of servants to their masters is more accurately told by Margaret Powell, in her simple and quite brilliant “Below Stairs.” Here she throws the last shovel of dirt on the myth of the devoted help and their unfailing love and respect for the stately home. Powell notes that G. K. Chesterton “wrote about the malignity of inanimate objects,” and then adds that she thinks “they are malign because they take up so much of my time dusting, polishing and cleaning them.”
First published in England in 1968, Powell’s memoir was an inspiration for the classic television series “Upstairs, Downstairs.” She recalls her years “in service” from the time she was a desperately poor girl from a family of seven, growing up in a few rented rooms in Hove, to her years working long days as a kitchen maid and eventually cook in the houses of the good and the great. Apparently she was sufficiently immune to the charms of her employers to seek escape through marriage, children and higher education. “Below Stairs” was a hit, and Powell went on to write other books about her experiences. But perhaps none were quite so powerful as this one, which describes in simple and often excruciating detail the divide between Us and Them. “We always called them ‘Them,’ ” Powell writes. “ ‘Them’ was the enemy, ‘Them’ overworked us, and ‘Them’ underpaid us, and to ‘Them,’ servants were a race apart, a necessary evil.” In those carefree days before nondisclosure agreements, it was assumed by everyone that “what they upstairs did, although it was a subject of scandal and gossip and laughter, was their privilege. Not because they were better than us, but because they had money and it was no good having money if you couldn’t deviate from the norm.”
What makes Powell such a credible narrator is the fact that she’s never reflexively bitter or nasty. When she worked for a family that treated her with kindness and without condescension, she was deeply grateful and desperate to please. These families were rare. More common were those that showed their utter disregard for the servants by practicing necessary “economies” on the staff, monitoring their food and furnishing their rooms with broken castoffs. As the arbiters of morality for the help, a girl’s employers could dismiss her for paying too much attention to her appearance, since there was a slippery slope from wearing makeup to having an out-of-wedlock child (cause for immediate dismissal, of course, without pay and indeed, usually, without anyplace to go). In one home, Powell was excoriated for passing the day’s mail to the lady of the house by hand: “Tears started to trickle down my cheeks; that someone could think that you were so low that you couldn’t even hand them anything out of your hands without it first being placed on a silver salver.”
Well. It made me kind of rethink my whole silver salver fantasy. Though I still want my sheets ironed.
All these years later, “Below Stairs” retains its peculiar fascination. Powell does nothing to romanticize poverty or domestic service, and considers the few servants who Stockholmishly identified with their masters as jackasses. But she also makes us understand that service could be tolerable and, in some cases, almost pleasant. There’s a certain freedom from stricture, at least in your life outside work, and a certain pleasure in knowing you’re a capable person, while the people you serve are not.
Later in her career, Powell had occasion to work for older ladies in reduced circumstances — perhaps ladies like Lady Almina. “I can’t help thinking that people who were once wealthy and now have to live on a fixed income are worse off than ordinary working-class people,” she observes, while “people who are living on fixed incomes like these old ladies have got to keep on trying to keep up some sort of show.” And that, perhaps more than anything, is what united servant and master. Not love, not admiration, not even fear — but a certain measure of pity. That man standing at attention in the white gloves may be feeling just a little bit sorry for you.
Judith Newman is the author of “You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman: Diary of a New (Older) Mother.
THE WORLD OF DOWNTON ABBEY
By Jessica Fellowes
Illustrated. 303 pp. St. Martin’s Press. $29.99.
LADY ALMINA AND THE REAL DOWNTON ABBEY
The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
By the Countess of Carnarvon
Illustrated. 310 pp. Broadway. Paper, $15.99.
BELOW STAIRS
The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey.”
By Margaret Powell
212 pp. St. Martin’s Press. $22.99.
The Glitter and the Gold
Author: Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
For fans of Downton Abbey, this is the riveting real-life story of the Vanderbilt heiress who married the Duke of Marlborough in 1895. A fascinating insight into upstairs-downstairs life and the highest circles of Edwardian aristocracy.
Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfil her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home - Blenheim Palace.The 9th Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era. An unsnobbish, but often amused observer of the intricate hierarchy both upstairs and downstairs at Blenheim Palace, she is also a revealing witness to the glittering balls, huge weekend parties and major state occasions she attended or hosted. Here are her encounters with every important figure of the day - from Queen Victoria, Edward V11 and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas, Prince Metternich and the young Winston Churchill.This intimate, richly enjoyable.
in http://www.qbd.com.au
Because of their "new money" background, four American girls have difficulty breaking into the upper-crust society of New York. Laura Testvalley, the governess of one of the girls, suggests a London season and thus the young women set sail for England and the unsuspecting English aristocracy. In England, all the girls soon find eligible husbands and the youngest girl, Nan, seems to land the best husband of them all: the handsome and very wealthy Julius, Duke of Trevennick. Nan and Julius meet for the first time in a ruin, which is an indication of where their marriage is soon heading. After the nuptials, Julius seems more interested in clocks and stable boys than Nan's happiness, and all the girls soon discover that English upper-class men are not at all what they expected and hoped for.
Sunday, 25 October 2026
London's oldest restaurant given to the National Trust - preserving history (UK) 14/Oct/2026
Rules,
London’s oldest restaurant, donated to National Trust
Historic
eatery in capital’s theatreland given to heritage charity after changing hands
only three times in 228 years
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Esther Addley and George Francis Lee
Wed 14
Oct 2026 01.01 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/oct/14/rules-london-oldest-restaurant-donated-national-trust
When
Thomas Rule served his first oyster to diners on Maiden Lane in London’s Covent
Garden, “mad” George III was on the throne of England, John Adams was US
president and William Pitt the Younger had just come up with a wheeze called
income tax to pay for the Napoleonic wars.
More than
two centuries later, Rules, the restaurant
Thomas founded in what became the capital’s theatreland, has outlasted nine
British monarchs and 45 prime
ministers – but has changed hands only three times. The interior of its
four-storey home, stuffed with historic playbills and vintage caricatures and
gilded antlers, is little changed from the 19th century, nor has the tone of
its determinedly meaty menu – think rabbit rillettes, shin of veal and roast
guinea fowl.
Established
in 1798, Rules was once frequented by the likes of Charles Dickens, Laurence
Olivier and Charlie Chaplin. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian
Rules was
beloved by Dickens and Thackeray, inspired Graham Greene and was a favourite of
Charlie Chaplin, Laurence Olivier and Ava Gardner. But even London’s oldest
restaurant can feel vulnerable to the winds of change, leading the man who
bought Rules in 1984 to take perhaps the most significant step in its long
history. JP Mayhew has now donated the restaurant’s historic home to the National Trust,
assured that the heritage charity will “protect this place in a way that no one
else could”.
“With
many years of hard work, and some extraordinary strokes of luck, Rules has
survived everything from redevelopment plans and changing tastes to the blitz
,” Mayhew said. By taking on the historic and listed 34-35
Maiden Lane, he added , the National Trust would “[safeguard] its bricks
and mortar, its famous interior and its invisible atmosphere too. I am grateful
to them for believing in this idea and for protecting this building and two
centuries worth of stories for people to enjoy forever”.
The
interior of its four-storey home, stuffed with historic playbills and vintage
caricatures and gilded antlers, is little changed from the 19th century.
Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian
The £11m
“landmark” gift is one of the most valuable in the National Trust’s recent
history, and will mark its first entry into the restaurant business – although
its portfolio includes 39 historic pubs and a number of country house hotels,
including Cliveden
in Buckinghamshire.
Not that
the heritage charity will be taking on the napkin-folding and the slow cooking
of pork cheeks. While Mayhew is donating the historic building and its
contents, he sold the restaurant business to Ricky McMenemy, its
longstanding general manager, in 2022; McMenemy will become a commercial tenant
of the National Trust.
Diners
can expect little change to the menu, said Lucy Porten from the National Trust:
‘It’s not a National Trust menu … there will be no scones.’ Photograph: Jill
Mead/The Guardian
“Our
involvement, day to day, will probably be very light touch,” said Lucy Porten,
a national curator for the charity. “It will always be run as a restaurant. We
will look after [the building and its contents], but we recognise that they
will have to evolve if they are going to continue to meet diners’ needs.”
Diners,
however, can expect little change to the menu, she said – and crucially, no
scones. “It’s not a National Trust menu, this is a very successful business in
its own right. There will be no scones. That’s not their business.” Nor will
there be preferential access or prices for National Trust members, “because it
is a business, and it has to be successful,” she added. Instead, the charity is
exploring options for virtual visits and other ways people could “feel like
they are visiting the space” from afar.
It was
several years ago when Mayhew first approached the National Trust about a
possible gift. Porten said while “excited by the offer”, they looked carefully
at whether it was the right organisation to take on the building.
The
storied restaurant has outlasted nine British monarchs and 45 prime ministers.
Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian
Porten
said: “The nature of the National Trust, and the fact we have this
extraordinary ability to take on places inalienably, for ever, means that we
have to think about what’s right for now, but also to think about looking after
them for future generations. That’s quite a big thing … It had to be quite a
balanced response and decision.”
Part of
its value to the trust, she said, lay in helping the charity “tell different
histories which are hard for us to tell at our other properties”.
“You get
a sense of all the delicious food which has been enjoyed here, the fine wines
that have been consumed, the good company that’s been enjoyed. There’s
something in the air about the conversations and the celebrations, the
flirtations, the deals that have been struck, the heartbreak. All that hangs in
the air, in a very magical way, [as] the backdrop to lots of different
historical moments and lives.
“It’s an
extraordinary slice of the social history of London, and to have been here for
so long - in this site and doing this business – is a very rare and special
thing.”
Saturday, 24 October 2026
20 Pubs in Britain That Are Older Than the Country Itself / Which is really England’s oldest pub?
Which is
really England’s oldest pub? Tree-ring dating helps settle debate
Historic
England archaeologist says some inns’ claims to date back 1,000 years are
inaccurate and oldest is from 1430
Fri 23
Oct 2026 18.17 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/oct/23/oldest-pubs-inns-historic-england-archaeologist
With
their low ceilings, timber beams and roaring fires, many of England’s inns lay
claim to being the oldest in the land and to have been visited by Vikings and
Saxons.
But an
archaeologist who worked on behalf of Historic England says not one of the more
than two dozen pubs that make this claim is being accurate.
While
many claim origins dating back 1,000 years, Dr James Wright, a buildings
archaeologist, said it was difficult to verify whether any pubs were built and
used as inns or ale houses and kept in continuous use prior to the 1400s.
After
painstaking investigation, including tree-ring dating on the wooden beams of
pubs – a process known as dendrochronology – Wright named the George Inn, of
Norton St Philip, Somerset, as the oldest pub in England. It has fabrics dating
from the late 14th century.
Inside
the George, set up in the 14th century by the monks of Hinton Priory.
Photograph: PR
He told
the Guardian: “Not one of the claimants to be the oldest pub (and there are
over two dozen of them) are even vaguely close to being so in reality.”
Of the
George, he said: “The architectural history of the George Inn’s stone and
timber suggests that this building has been in continuous service for over 600
years.” He said the pub was set up in the 14th century by the monks of nearby
Hinton Priory.
Tree-ring
dating had helped “to understand scientifically exactly how old the timbers
are,” he said. “Because we know medieval carpenters didn’t muck around at all
and they would fell the timber when it was green and build almost immediately
afterwards, the actual date of felling gives us the near date of construction.”
Ye Olde
Fighting Cocks in St Albans, Hertfordshire, claims to have been established
around AD800, and the Bingley Arms in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, declares on its
site: “It’s the original English pub – officially the oldest in Britain –
dating back over 1,000 years to a time when Vikings were conquering parts of
the country.” Similarly, the Royal Standard in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire,
boasts that it was a favoured watering hole of King Alfred the Great’s West
Saxons in around AD880.
The Royal
Standard in Beaconsfield claims to have been frequented by King Alfred the
Great’s West Saxons in the ninth century. Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
Wright
said most of these claims seemed to be “modern marketing strategies”. “The
Fighting Cocks is often said to date to AD793. This date was probably not
arrived at until 1926 when it appeared on a postcard. Prior to that, it was
speculated to date to 1030, 770 and 672,” he said. “There does not seem to be a
basis in reality for any of those claims. Instead, the building started as a
monastic dovecote, built around 1400. The earliest date when we can say for
sure it was active as a public house is the first decade of the 19th century.”
Many of
the pubs claiming to be the oldest say they were mentioned in the Domesday
Book, but the historian said: “There are no pubs mentioned – at all – in the
Domesday Book, so any pub claiming to be in it is having you on.”
Wright
added: “The claims are likely to originate less in folklore and more in canny
marketing strategies by landlords, tenants, breweries and pub companies. The
claims potentially rely upon the public not being aware of how to accurately
date historic buildings.”
The
King’s Head in Shrewsbury is a serious contender for the title of one of
England’s oldest pubs. Photograph: Nick Hatton/Alamy
He provided the Guardian with a list of the pubs he believes to be the oldest in the country. His methodology was to determine that it was purpose-built as a public house, that it had been in continuous service and that there was archaeological, archival or dendrochronological evidence for the existence of significant primary fabric remaining from the original construction.
“I did
consider buildings which had been converted and others which had periodically
changed in land use,” he said. “Even with those taken into consideration, there
are only about 12 to 16 genuine contenders which have been doing trade since
the medieval period. Of these, the oldest date to the 14th and 15th centuries.”
Revealed:
Wright’s list of oldest pubs
- George Inn, Norton St Philip,
Somerset: late 14th century and 1430-32.
- Bull Hotel, Ludlow, Shropshire:
14th and 15th centuries.
- King’s Head, Shrewsbury,
Shropshire: 1426, 1430-31.
- New Inn, Gloucester,
Gloucestershire: 1432.
- White Hart Inn, Hook, Hampshire:
1419-51.
- George Hotel,
Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: mid 15th century.
- Angel Inn, Andover, Hampshire:
1445-55.
- Kings Head, Aylesbury,
Buckinghamshire: 1445-55.
- Angel, Grantham, Lincolnshire:
circa 1450.
- George and Pilgrims Inn,
Glastonbury, Somerset: 1461-83.
- Saracen’s Head, Southwell,
Nottinghamshire: 1460s.
- George Hotel, Odiham, Hampshire:
1486-87.
This
article was amended on 23 October 2026. A previous version said the Saracens’s
Head is in Lincolnshire; it is in Nottinghamshire.
Friday, 23 October 2026
The Jockey Club de Paris
The Jockey Club de Paris is best remembered as a gathering of the elite of nineteenth-century French society. The club still exists at 2 rue Rabelais
Between 1833 and 1860 the Jockey Club transformed the Champ de Mars into a racecourse, which has been transferred to Longchamp. One front of the Café de la Paix is in rue Scribe, which ends at the façade of the Opéra Garnier. On the wall a memorial plaque on the Hotel Scribe, at number 1, records the former premises of the Jockey Club, which occupied luxurious quarters on the first floor from 1863 to 1913.
During the Second Empire and the Third Republic, the gentlemen of the Jockey Club held numerous boxes at the Opera, "many little suspended salons" in Marcel Proust's phrase, where the required ballet expected in every opera was never in the first act, when the Jockey Club would habitually still be at dinner. One result was the famous fiasco of the "Paris Tannhäuser" of 1861, when Wagner insisted on inserting the requisite ballet into the first act, and the second act, with the members of the Jockey Club arriving to view their favourites in the corps de ballet, was all but hissed off the stage: Wagner never permitted another production in Paris. Proust's Charles Swann was a member, a fact that Proust more than once noted as a signal honour, given his Jewish background.
On the ground floor beneath the Jockey Club was the fashionable Grand Café. There, on 28 December 1895, a stylish crowd in the Salon Indien attended the public début of the Lumière brothers' invention, the Cinematograph.
The Jockey-Club is directed by an annually-elected committee of a president, four vice-presidents and twenty-five members. New members are sponsored by two current members and must receive five-sixths of the members' votes, unfavourable votes annulling five favourable ones.
Lord Henry Seymour-Conway (1805–1859)[2] : 1834-1835
M. Anne-Édouard de Normandie : 1835-1836
Napoléon-Joseph Ney, prince de la Moskova (1803-1857)[3] : 1836-1849
Comte Achille Delamarre : 1849-1853
Armand de Gontaut-Biron, marquis de Saint Blancard (1839-1884): 1853-1884
Sosthènes de La Rochefoucauld, duc de Doudeauville (1825-1908) : 1884-1908
Aymeri, duc de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1843-1912) : 1908-1914
Comte Elie d’Avaray : 1914-1919
Armand de la Rochefoucauld, duc de Doudeauville, son of Sosthènes de La Rochefoucauld : 1919-1962
Philippe, duc de Luynes : 1962-1977
Charles de Cossé, duc de Brissac : 1977-1985
Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, duc d'Estissac : 1985-1997
François de Cossé, duc de Brissac : 1997
«Le Jockey, c'est une grande famille. Ici, la règle est de ne jamais se présenter entre membres. Tout le monde est supposé se connaître», explique le président de cette vénérable institution, le duc de Brissac, qui confie toutefois, avec un clin d'oeil, recourir parfois à la mémoire «infaillible» du maître d'hôtel ! Rares sont les heureux élus (1 200 membres) autorisés à franchir, le pas assuré et le sourire entendu, la lourde porte en chêne du 2, rue Rabelais, l'une des adresses les plus secrètes de France. De tous les cercles parisiens, le Jockey Club, créé en 1834 par la Société d'encouragement pour l'amélioration des races de chevaux, est l'un des plus sélects. Sans doute parce qu'il ne suffit pas, pour y entrer, d'avoir réussi dans les affaires ou d'occuper le devant de la scène médiatique. Ici, seuls le pedigree généalogique (les deux tiers des membres appartiennent à la noblesse française) et la réputation comptent. Mais il faut aussi être coopté par ses pairs, au terme d'un vote qui laisse peu de chances aux cas limites : un vote négatif annule cinq votes positifs ! «Mieux vaut présenter sa candidature quand on est encore jeune : on a alors moins de chances de compter des ennemis !», remarque un membre.
Les jeunes, justement, se pressent à l'entrée, appréciant de pouvoir croiser un Henri de Castries venu en voisin (le président d'Axa a ses bureaux à deux pas), discutant en toute camaraderie avec le baron Albert Frère ou Edouard de Rothschild ! «Une cinquantaine de nos membres ont moins de 35 ans, précise le duc de Brissac. Ils nous apportent beaucoup. Ils sont vraiment charmants, bien élevés, très détendus. Et pas du tout coincés !» En entrant au Jockey, ils savent aussi qu'ils auront accès à de nombreux cercles équivalents à l'étranger, comme le Knickerbocker Club à New York, ou le Turf Club et le Boodle's à Londres. Sans parler de la possibilité de piquer une tête quand bon leur semble dans la piscine de l'Automobile Club, et de déjeuner l'été dans les jardins de l'Interallié.
Ghislain de Montalembert et Jean-René Van der Plaetsen Mis à jour le 30/04/2010 in Le Figaro
Under the patronage of the Jockey Club, the Prix du Jockey Club (1,500,000 euros) has been run at the racecourse of Chantilly at the foot of the Château de Chantilly, the first Sunday in June, since 1836. The race at the Hippodrome de Chantilly is the proving-ground of the best of the three-year-olds, the French equivalent of the Epsom Derby run at Epsom Downs or in the U.S. of the Kentucky Derby.
Until 2004 the course was 2400 meters; since then it has been run at 2100 meters. In France, only the Prix de l'Arc du Triomphe has a richer purse (1,600,000 euros); that race was inaugurated by the Jockey Club in 1863 as the Grand Prix de Paris, and run at the Hippodrome de Longchamp. The racecourse was painted by Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Pablo Picasso, among others.
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