A Victorian Family at Lanhydrock: ‘Gone the Happy Dream’
A personal account based on the Lanhydrock archives by Mike England is now available
1876 – ‘That evening at Butleigh Court, near Glastonbury, a very special relationship started. One great romance would transform two modest individuals and provide Lanhydrock with its greatest era since the Civil War…’
Romance, fire, happy families, school days, travel feature in a golden era. War, heroism and tragedy, the story of Tommy Robartes, marriage, divorce, suicide follow in more uncertain times. Servants memories, experiences of the evacuees, decline and renewal complete a fascinating portrait of a lost age.
There are three thousand family letters, eight thousand photographs, diaries, documents, journals, press cuttings and oral memories the Lanhydrock archive.