The Castle on the Hill: Week 1

The Castle, the Pattern, Past/Present/Future, the Music, and Lent

Berry Pomeroy Castle. Photo by Torbay By Air

“A Tudor manor house is built within the Norman walls," said Mr Birley, as he followed her out of the car. "It is a strange and very lovely combination."

Miss Brown walked as in a dream through the shadows of the Norman archway… On the south side the Castle stood upon the rocky summit of a wooded hill that fell precipitously away to a valley far below where a stream was singing. Beyond this valley the ground rose again and rolling wooded hills stretched to the horizon... The Norman walls, the Tudor house, the brilliant little formal garden, the wide view across acres of glorious woodlands, made a whole so perfect that one was not conscious of the many centuries that had gone to the making of it. Its beauty banished time and teased one out of thought. "Oh, it is very nice," murmured Miss Brown…

(Mr Birley continued,) “It is likely that this war will see it dwindle away altogether; it may be that the whole place will be blown to pieces, like your own beloved home. Then will come the period of the Third Exile, from which perhaps, this time, there will be no return. One cannot, you know, always return. For every family, for every nation, for every civilisation, there must come, at last, the end…"

"Please God not yet," said Miss Brown, for once managing to say what she wanted to say with surprising fluency. "Not yet for England, and not yet for this heavenly place. England, now, is like this place. A castle set on a hill for all the world to watch."

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, The Castle on the Hill

Within walking distance of Goudge’s 1940’s home in Marldon, UK, is Berry Pomeroy Castle ruins. Goudge said the castle demanded that she write a tale about it. To get going, she used bits of its real life history and then also placed the Birley family inside its Tudor house to safety during the drama of WWII.

Berry Pomeroy Castle in Totnes, UK is mentioned by its local tourism board, Visit Totnes, as: “one of England's most haunted castles.”

Even Google agrees:

Join us for the location of Berry Pomeroy castle, remembering that the pattern is never lost, the coziness of home, past/present/future, the music that encouraged Miss Brown, and our Lenten journey…

“Come in this way, and fear no more,

Peace in your heart, leave wide the door

Turn not the key, nor shut the gate.

None come too soon, nor return too late.”

Where is Berry Pomeroy?