Page 21 - Oundle Life July 2021

Lyveden New Bield is an
Elizabethan summer house in
the parish of Aldwincle. Built for
Sir Thomas Tresham c.1600, and
owned by the National Trust for
the past 99-years, Lyveden New
Bield is Grade I listed – which
makes it a ‘Building of exceptional interest’ and among the most treasured 2.5% of all listed buildings in England.
History generally reports that Lyveden was ‘unfinished work’ but was it really ‘unfinished’ or was there simply more that Tresham intended to do before he died in 1605? It is often claimed that “History is written by the victors” although, the phrase is more often repeated by history’s biggest losers as they foresee their loss being reimagined to flatter the winners. It is this thought that sticks with me regarding Lyveden.
Sir Thomas Tresham was 15 years old
when he inherited Lyveden in 1559 from his grandfather – his father having died when
he was just three years old. Young Tresham
was subsequently raised in Sir Robert Throckmorton’s household as a devout Catholic before heading up to Oxford to be educated at Christ Church – well-known at that time for its ‘tolerance’ of Catholics.
This was a time shortly after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in England,
Wales and Ireland; a time when being Catholic was enough to get you locked-up. Despite
this, Tresham was recognised for his successful reforming estate policy and was picked as sheriff for Northamptonshire in 1573, and knighted in 1575 at the Queen’s Royal Progress at Kenilworth. However, his refusal to attend English Protestant Church services landed him with several prison terms and staggeringly-high fines totalling more than £2m in today’s money.
In 1593 after being released from prison, Tresham built the highly symbolic Rushton Triangular Lodge as a protestation of his Catholic faith and soon after he was returned to
21
UNFINISHED
LYVEDEN?
But never Lived-in?!