Posts by
Celia Sanger
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Calke Abbey, a Tale of Ten Baronets
Just like many large houses in England, one family governed the lives of the residents in that house, and often that of the surrounding estates. Calke Abbey and its large estates in Derbyshire and Staffordshire was one such, but unlike many others this one stayed under the protection of one family, the Harpur Crewes, until…
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Who lived at Calke Abbey?
Who lived at Calke Abbey? Were they Harpurs, Crewes, or Harpur-Crewes? The truth is, they all did. Over almost 300 years, from 1622 when Mr Henry Harpur Esq., third son of Sir John Harpur of Swarkestone Hall moved to Calke House, or Caulk Hall (it wasn’t only the Harpur Crewe family who changed) they used…
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Henry Harpur, First Baronet of Calke Abbey
Henry Harpur was born in 1579, the third son of Sir John Harpur and his wife Isabella Pierpont, at Swarkestone Hall. Although Henry was not the first son, nor heir to any title or house, on the death of his father in 1622 Calke house was purchased for him, and the first Harpur took up…
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Winnie and Bertie – The True Story
Winifred Harpur Crewe, always known as Winnie, was born into a privileged life in 1879. The second daughter of Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe, Bart., she spent much of her childhood happily at Calke Abbey with her parents and siblings, one brother and three sisters. Winnie’s life followed the usual and expected pattern of the “gentry”…