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It was reported November 1839 that Henry Stracey
Esq. had grown in his garden at Kirby Bedon, a carrot which weighed in
at 5½ lbs, was eighteen inches long and had a
greatest circumference of fifteen inches .
It was revealed in November 1895 that Kirby Bedon Hall had once been the
home of the Hanson Berney family. When the last married Sir Berney
Hanson died, his son and namesake was discovered to be living in South
Africa and he returned to the Hall, bringing with him his black servant,
named Seis. How the new owner performed is unknown, but the Estate
passed to the Straceys.
Within the Hall was room which had always been kept locked during the
time of the Berney Hansons, for "fear of bad luck". Captain Stracey had
the door opened and discovered within "cards scattered hither and
thither, wine glasses and wine bottles, some broken as if in a mad
carouse - and at the table, in tattered rags of silk, the skeleton of a
woman. Truly the Berneys were a wild race."
It was in 1841,shocked by the discovery, that Captain Stracey had the
Hall demolished to the ground.
<The accuracy of the 1895 information remains to be proved. Sir
Hanson Berney, Bart. is mentioned at Kirby Bedon in November 1829, 1833
and 1837, but members of the Stracey family are at the Hall in 1837,
1838 and 1839, so the locked room may not have been so shocking?> |
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