Hellens

Earl Harold Godwinson was Lord of Merkelan (Much Marcle), which included Hellens, from 1057 until his death as King at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Thereafter William the Conqueror gave the manor to his standard bearer Walter de Lacy. He awarded the tythes to the monastic houses of Cormeilles Abbey and to Lyre Abbey in France. The whole was worth £30, an impressive sum for a Domesday Book village. By 1096 the manor had been granted to the de Balun family. The de Baluns were later to witness the signing of Magna Carta. Hellens, or Helyons, as it was then called, is first specifically mentioned in 1180, by which time the de Baluns had been created Lords of the manor. In 1275 Sir Walter de…

Hellens is a living monument to much of England's history. Its collections contain numerous artefacts, including books, furniture, paintings and objets d'art. There are items associated with Anne Boleyn, Mary I, Elizabeth I, Charles I, Charles II, Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton, and of the house's inhabitants over the centuries. Among other items, a pardon for Richard Walwyn from Elizabeth I is displayed. On one of the window panes of 'Hetty Walwyn's Room', named for Mehitabel, an 18th-century occupant confined there by her mother until her death after a failed elopement, is an inscription attributed to her which reads "It is a part of virtue to abstain from what we love if it will…