Behind the Tales: The Manor House

Mona of the Manor and Babycakes feature a manor house inspired by Stanway House in the Cotswolds, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from London. In this video, Armistead tells how he first visited Stanway in the 1980s—and how we recently returned. I was awestruck.Stanway is widely considered one of the most beautiful Jacobean manor houses in England. One of the most striking things about it is its funky, lived-in feel. It’s not like walking into a museum. There are books piled on tables along with bric-a-brac, and as your eye sweeps up you see family crests and centuries-old paintings—quite possibly hanging in the same places they’ve occupied since they were first painted.The current manor was built in the 16th and 17th centuries and has been in Jamie’s family ever since. For the 800 years before that, a manor on the site belonged to Tewkesbury Abbey.An intriguing tidbit of history of the house, is that James Barrie, the author Peter Pan, often stayed at the house during the summers of 1920 to 1932. If you remember the scene in the beginning of the movie Finding Neverland, where Barrie plays a game using a coin to try to stick stamps to the ceiling—that was at Stanway House. Armistead has been in that room where the stamps are still on the ceiling. Jamie is a gracious, down-to-earth lord of the manor who has led a notably bohemian life. His official title is Jamie Charteris, 13th Earl of Wemyss (pronounced “weems”). He was married to Catherine Guinness from 1983 to 1988, and then to Amanda Feilding from 1995 until her death this past spring. Amanda was a leading advocate for psychedelic therapy for many years and co-founded the Beckley/Imperial Psychedelic Research Programme at Imperial College London. That program, along with the research program at Johns Hopkins, is considered at the forefront of exploring the healing properties of psychedelics for various conditions.For his part, Jamie has been creative in finding ways to sustain the remarkable estate entrusted to him, as Armistead discusses in the video.With that, pull up a chair and hear Armistead’s stories about Stanway House. You’ll also see some great photos of Armistead from his 1980s trip to London, when he was first introduced to Jamie and to Stanway. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit armisteadmaupin.substack.com/subscribe

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