[Sinai Park team]
the Sinai Park team
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the Sinai Park team, left to right: Dr Robin Trotter, Andrew Till and Bob Shale |
Andrew Till
Bob Shale
Dr Robin Trotter
One-and-a-half miles away from Burton, on a hill overlooking the town, is Sinai Park House, the magnificent medieval house currently being restored by its new owner. Helping her to do this are specialist joiners Andrew and Bob, who work for Henry Venables Ltd in Stafford and have already participated in the restoration of Windsor Castle. They are joined by Robin, a local GP and warden of St Modwen's Church, which stands on the site of the abbey. Robin is passionately interested in medieval monasteries.
The oldest surviving features of the medieval Sinai Park house are its moat, which dates to the 13th-14th centuries, and a stone cellar from the 14th century. Of the standing buildings, the oldest is the recently restored north wing, which is late 15th or early 16th century and features some remarkable wall paintings of birds and bees. The south wing and connecting hall are completely dilapidated, having been abandoned in the 1950s and subsequently used as a pig sty! It's thought that the original house had something to do with the abbey, but what could this be, so far away from the ecclesiastical buildings themselves?
how they got on ...
SINAI PARK HOUSE
Andy and Bob go round the restored wing of the house with Bob
Meeson, noting features especially the wall paintings at the eastern end of the north wing. They observe dendrochronologist Bob Howard taking samples, then go into the cellar, which is obviously older
than the rest of the house, implying an earlier structure.
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Dendro Bob taking samples at Sinai Park |
They go up in the crane to examine the roof and agree that they should compare this to the roofs of other medieval buildings in the town.
HISTORY ROOM
Robin has found three documents relating to Sinai Park: a charter
of 1410 granting the right to celebrate mass there; a document
granting 'mazer cup' to the monks in 1386; and one of 1334 granting
'bailiniri' to Adam Bullock. But he's also discovered that the
name has changed, to 'Seyne', which appears to have been a place
where bloodletting was done or where the monks went to recover afterwards.
On further investigation, he has found, in the History of the Abbots, mention of an extension of the monks' recuperation period to seven days. Then in a bishops' report of 1518, there is a complaint from the Burton monks about inadequate 'holidays' -- a situation that, in another report from 1521, appears to have been resolved. He has also found three references to deer and hunting in the 16th century, which seems to suggest that the monks did a bit of hunting.
THE MANOR HOUSE
Bob Meeson goes with Andy and Bob to examine the roof here and
compare it with the one they have seen at Sinai Park House.
HISTORY ROOM
Andy draws the Manor House roof. Mark Dorrington, senior archivist
at the Staffordshire Record Office, helps Bob through the Paget archive. Bob finds: the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, which values Sinai Park House at £8; a 1572 'rough account
and expenses', which indicates that there was new building going
on somewhere on the estate; and a warrant of 1605 to build a new
lodge there. This last could be the existing structure.
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Sinai Park in 1998 |
