New Old Clothes & Some Cat Chat

 

Welcome to my ever-evolving wardrobe! I love how it changes on a near-weekly basis. I've sold a huge amount of my clothes over the last few months so there's plenty of room for everything to fit into my wardrobe and, as the vast majority of them are cotton, I can wear them all year-round & don't need to do the seasonal swap-over like so many of my friends.

Here's what I've worn over the last week incorporating some new-to-me, recently acquired goodies.

This Indian cotton, block printed "Athena" blouse by high end label, M.A.B.E, was a 2024 Vinted buy, I made the skirt using a vintage Indian bedspread on my sewing day with Liz last week (see it HERE) and the vintage Moroccan belt was a £3 Vinted find. Well, a friend spotted it, alerted me via a WhatsApp message and I snaffled it seconds later. 

I made this maxi-length waistcoat last year using a 1971 dressmaking pattern and a pair of 1970s Morris & Co. Golden Lily curtains bought from a local charity shop (my choker was made with the leftovers). 

The vintage Ayesha Davar cheesecloth maxi dress had been in my wardrobe for years and was recently restored to her former glory by Jon & his dyeing skills. 

The dusky pink Indian handloomed cotton wraparound top is another recent Vinted find. One of my festival trading neighbours was selling these for £45 last Summer, this was £5.

 This 1969 Chelsea Girl cheesecloth dress has been in my wardrobe for years and has always been too long and too big - last week I washed it (possibly for the first time, I'm such a slattern) and now it's the right size and length. I know it's from 1969 as I was wearing it when I bumped into a lady who'd owned the same dress in her youth!

This reversible cotton kantha jacket was a charity shop find last week for £4.50. Kantha, if you're not familiar with the term, is an embroidery craft from the eastern region of India and consists of old clothes stacked on top of each other and hand-stitched to make a single piece of fabric. Recycling at its most stylish!

There's pockets on either side with wooden toggles on the printed side and coconut shell buttons on the plain side. In India you can pick these jackets up from chi-chi boutiques for around £50 but if you buy them from the likes of Toast or the V&A you can pay up to £400! 

This All About Audrey kaftan is so useful, it screws up to almost nothing, is relatively crease-free & has no fiddly fastenings making it perfect for wearing down to the swimming baths for my twice-weekly swim. Did I mention that we're using the big pool as well as the brine pool now? It's so much quieter in there enabling me to swim a mile in under 40 minutes - it takes me the same amount of time to swim 3/4 mile in the other pool (a combination of chatting to my mates and dodging the width swimmers!)

Stamped ROAM, I can't find anything out about this silver necklace made from what looks like replica Ancient Greek or Roman coins so it's likely a tourist souvenir. It was £3 from a charity shop last week. 

Quick, my friend & fellow blogger, Annie messaged me last week, there's a Naked Generation dress on Vinted for £12....seconds later and it was mine! I loved this since I spotted it on their website back in 2022 but couldn't justify the £175 price tag. Thanks, Annie!! 

As you'd expect from NG, the quality is fabulous. Three people stopped to admire it when I wore it at the weekend.

Remember the whopper of a crystal ring I bought for £1.50 last week? Well, this rather fab ring in the foreground of the photo was from the same charity shop (at the same price), no maker's marks on this one but it's another huge lump that fits my massive hands so I imagine it was donated by the same stylish person. 

Nothing new here, you've seen my All About Audrey cotton wraparound skirt and my vintage Ayesha Davar cheesecloth blouse before but....

Did you notice my eyewear? I've bought another couple of pairs of prescription sunglasses from Specsavers. I used to have them just for reading in the summer but with varifocal lenses I can wear them all the time without tripping over my own feet and with the graduated lenses on the square pair, I can wear them indoors without looking like I've had a heavy night. They weren't cheap but with my weird eye issues & crap eyesight they really are a game changer. 

Cat update!!! I always feel like somebody's watching me...I texted Jon last week. (Sorry about the Rockford earworm).

Yes, Gordon's still visiting us.

I was reading a comment from Louise in the Midlands asking if William's brother had moved in yet when I looked up and saw him sitting in the hallway. He's getting braver by the day.

When I come downstairs at 6am he's camped out on the windowsill waiting for his breakfast. He and William trill at each other (the chirrup cats use to communicate with each other in a friendly way) and over the last couple of days he's started miaowing at Jon & me. 

William's totally chilled about it all. He's like his mother, give us a bit of sunshine and we're happy.

 

Power Paws!! 

They're even hanging out together in Jacob's pen. 

It's our Never Had A Wedding Anniversary tomorrow, 33 years of unmarried bliss! I'm not sure there'll be much celebrating, after our early morning swim I'm off to the dentist for a root canal...wish me luck!

See you soon.

Tudor Times at Coughton Court

With another glorious Spring day forecast we decided to dust off our National Trust cards and head to Coughton Court, a hour's drive away from home. Although we'd visited the estate before, it was during lockdown when only the gardens had been open. 

The Coughton Estate has been owned by the same family for twenty-one generations. The Throckmortons, originally from Worcestershire, came to Coughton in 1409, on the marriage of John Throckmorton to the heiress Eleanor Spiney. The Throckmortons gradually increased in wealth and power through the fifteenth century, by service to the Earls of Warwick, to the Crown and by marrying the daughters of wealthy families. In the 1480s Robert Throckmorton (c. 1451 – 1519) was knighted after supporting Henry VII. With a knighthood and plenty of money, all Sir Robert needed was a smart new country house. Building began at Coughton in the early 1500s, but Sir Robert did not see it completed, dying on pilgrimage to Rome in 1519.

Sir Robert Throckmorton

Sir Robert’s son, Sir George (c. 1489 – 1552) entered royal service and was also an MP. In 1512, he married Katherine Vaux, half-aunt to Henry VIII's sixth - and surviving - wife, Katherine Parr. Sir George and Lady Throckmorton remained resolutely Catholic in the face of Henry VIII’s reformation, resisting the annulment of Katharine of Aragon’s marriage. Sir George was apparently the author of the remark that Henry should not marry Anne Boleyn because ‘it is thought that you (Henry VIII) have meddled with both the mother and the sister.’ Following this rather dangerous discussion with Henry, Sir George retired but his open sympathy with the Pilgrimage of Grace earned him arrest, although not execution.

There was scaffolding up when we visited so here's a photo I took back in July 2020.

After George's death in 1552, Coughton passed to his eldest son, Robert. The family were practicing Catholics and the house contained a priest hole, believed to have been designed by Nicholas Owen, a Jesuit brother, later tortured to death in the Tower of London. 

The priest hole at Coughton

Coughton holds a place in English history for its roles in both the Throckmorton Plot of 1583, a failed attempt to murder Queen Elizabeth and, most famously, the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 after some of the conspirators rode directly there after the plot's discovery. The resident at the time, the politician Sir Arthur Throckmorton (1557 - 1626) was the cousin of four of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, and cousin to the wife of a fifth.

Unlike the rest of the family, another of George's sons, Sir Nicholas (1515 - 1571), embraced Protestantism. He was appointed ambassador to France by Elizabeth I, becoming personally acquainted with Mary, Queen of Scots and, on his return to England, he was appointed Elizabeth's envoy to her.  Having recently seen this excellent film based on her life, we were very excited to see Mary, Queen of Scots' nightdress on display. 

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton

 Sir Nicholas’ wife was Anne Carew, and, amongst their 13 children was Bess, who became a maid-of-honour to Elizabeth I, but also lost favour, and was thrown into the Tower for marrying Sir Walter Raleigh without royal consent.

Bess Throckmorton by Sir William Seger

The gatehouse at Coughton was built in 1536, using stones from the ruins of nearby abbeys at Bordesley & Evesham following the Dissolution of the Monasteries Act in 1536. Geoffrey Tyack described the gatehouse as a dazzling monument to family pride, and the angle turrets, large expanses of window and battlemented skyline combine to give an impression of chivalrous splendour. 

The windows in the Great Hall date back to 1549 and bear the arms of  Queen Catherine Parr.

How sad, this poor lady isn't identified in the portrait and was just referred to as "wife"...charming!

A fleece & Gore-Tex free zone! I was the only National Trust visitor dressed like a 19th Century cowgirl. 

The gardens were pretty bare, certainly not the riot of colour we'd seen during previous visits.

There's two churches within the estate. The Church of St Peter at Coughton dates from the late 15th century, originally Catholic but became Anglican following the Reformation.

This bench was given to Clare Throckmorton, a previous resident of Coughton Court, on her 80th birthday in 2015.

St Peter's, St Paul's & St Elizabeth's Church is Catholic and was built between 1851 and 1853.

One of tombstones commemorates a Knight of St Sylvester, a distinction awarded by the Pope, recipients of which were given the privilege of riding a horse inside St Peter's in Rome. 

 

Coughton Estate has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1946. The Throckmorton family, however, hold a 300-year lease and situation is reassessed every ten years and controversially, following the hall's £3.3million conservation work, paid for by the National Trust, the family have decided that they want it back and from June 2026, Coughton Court will no longer be part of the National Trust's portfolio. We were oblivious to this news during our visit and actually spoke to the current resident Magnus Birch Throckmorton when we were there, I don't think I'd have been quite as friendly if I'd known. 

So, if you're a National Trust member now could be your last chance to visit! 

Coughton Court, Alcester, Warwickshire, B49 5JA

Open Wednesday to Sunday

 House from 10am - 4pm (Gardens until 5pm)

Have a fantastic weekend and see you on the other side!