June 17, Dursley and Woodchester Mansion

I repeated most of yesterday's walk, this time in the rain, and with a detour to visit  Woodchester Mansion, an unfinished, Gothic revival  house:

Why, you may ask, is the house unfinished? For the answer to that and just about any question you might have, see: Woodchester Mansion

This brief tour will stop at only a few rooms.  

The ladder is a dead giveaway that the house remains as a work-in progress.  Note that the bottom rungs have been removed to prevent mischief makers from making big insurance claims:

What is impressive about this room:

is that the curators admit that they were not sure what it was used for (although, when you get right down to it, the choices they offer are related) as opposed to biblical archeologists who insist that every stone of a certain size was an altar.

Choice #1: Was it the  Game Larder?

The original plans describe this room as a Game Larder. Many Victorian country houses had such a room somewhere in the backstairs area, to store game shot on the estate until it was ready to eat. The maturing animals would have been smelly and the game larder would have been established away from the main rooms of the house.

Here the architect has provided an excellent ventilation system. There are four air vents under the windows, and two more each side of the door. The latter are connected to the courtyard by ducts under the corridor. The north wall has a large flue connected to a chimney on the roof. The chimney vents are carefully shaped so the wind blowing past them creates a drop in pressure. This causes fresh air to be sucked over the game and up the flue, removing odours. The stone corbels would have supported cold shelves on which the game was placed. A hook for a haunch of venison could have been attached to the central ceiling boss.

The ventilation might have been carefully designed because the larder is so close to the religious part of the house. Would the system have worked in practice? Or would the odours have penetrated the Chapel during a hot summer?

Choice #2: Was it a Mortuary?

William Leigh was a very zealous convert who followed the protocols of Roman Catholic life very diligently. Might he have envisaged the ultimate event in his beautiful Chapel being his own or his wife's requiem mass?

The rites of the Church demand a three-day period between death and the requiem. The coffin would be placed on a shelf - only priests are allowed to rest on the ground - with the feet directed to the east.

So is it possible that this room, with an elaborate ventilation system and adjacent to the Sacristy and Chapel, was intended for Mr and Mrs Leigh's bodies? There is provision for two stone shelves, and the corbel or support placed in the north-east corner has been hammered away. Was the stonemason's mistake, quickly corrected when the architect informed hi that the shelves needed only to be coffin-length?

A perspective through arches:

This room was finished to prepare for a pope's visit (I forget which pope).  Aside from the gorgeous ceiling and windows, note the coffee urn on the table! 

What is a house without fun and games, even if there is nowhere to sit?

My favorite display was about BATS  

MYTHS AND INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BATS

Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight.

Bats do not get tangled up in anyone's hair. They do not attack people, but on the contrary try to escape from them. Vampires (South America and West Indies) may sneak up on sleeping people to stab exposed parts and lick their blood flow. They are the same size as Greater Horseshoe bats.

 Bats are not blind. In daylight they have eyesight comparable to humans, but use echolocation to navigate and forage in darkness.

A bat can catch up to 300 insects per hour while feeding.

 Female bats usually have only one baby each year. Pipistrelles sometimes have twins.

 Bats are more closely related to humans than they are to mice.

 A bat's wing is more like a human hand than a bird's wing.

 Bats worldwide eat many types of food - insects, fruit, pollen, small fish, small mammals including other bats, amphibians, and blood. All UK bats are insectivores, meaning they only eat insects.

Horseshoe bats hang by their hind claws like black plums or small pears so are easy to see. Most other bat species roost in nooks and crannies e.g. under roof tiles or tree bark, between bricks, and in crevices in caves. They are very difficult to find.

THE LIFE CYCLE OF  GREATER HORSESHOE BATS.

Mating: Adult males produce sperm only in mid-summer and store it until mating, usually between late August and Christmas. Adult females store and feed the sperm until early April when conception normally occurs.

Pregnancy: Pregnancy lasts three months or more. Births are later if foraging conditions are poor in April and May. In general, earlier-born pups have a better chance of surviving their first winter.

Births: Greater Horseshoe pups are born between mid-June and early August. At birth pups are about 30% of their mother's weight.

Feeding: The mother forages for insects for about 5 hours a night to produce enough milk for her pup to double its weight in 14 day only the mother cares for the pup

Female Pups: Females do not give birth until they are at least 2 or 3 years old and some not until they are 8.

Male Pups: Male pups grow slower than females and end up smaller. Size has little effect on either their survival or reproductive success. They usually become sexually mature at the age of 2 or 3. A single male occupies a special mating winter roost where adult females join him in a harem group.

Foraging Bats: For most of the summer bats leave the roost to forage around dusk, and return about an hour later. They forage again before dawn. Lactating female Greater Horseshoe bats forage 3 times by adding an extra flight in the middle of the night. They can catch up to 4.5grams of insects per sortie, which is 20% of their bodyweight, s may eat over half of their bodyweight every night. They usually fl- between 2 to 4 kilometres from the roost but overall fly 25 to 40 each night.

In winter bats may forage if their fat reserves are low. This usually occurs at dusk after a mild day. They do not like cold, wet, or conditions at any time of year.

When conditions are poor and there are not many insects, bats conserve their energy by lowering their body temperature to ambient levels. This is called torpor.

Summer torpor (June to September) leads to dusk arousal and activity every day. Winter torpor (October to May) during the hibernation period involves suppressed dusk arousals. Greater Horseshoes can only stay in torpor for a maximum of 12 days. Some other UK bats can last for over 40 days.

Hibernation: Greater Horseshoe bats often fly longer distances to their winter roosts, up to 40 kilometres. They hibernate until spring (May), but need winter grazing by sheep or cows to supply the insects they need for foraging on mild days.

Life Span: Some bats can live for up to 42 years. Greater Horseshoes can survive for 30 years, but average 6 to 8 years.

But better they should stay outside and not come into your house!