(jolly music)
- Hi, I'm Esme
and I'm here at Audley End House and Gardens
in Essex
to find out about some of the games they've played here
over the centuries.
So come with me to meet Peter,
who's the curator here at the house.
(relaxing music)
Hi, I'm Esme, nice to meet you.
- Hi, I'm Peter, welcome to Audley End.
- Well thank you very much for having me.
So can you tell us a little bit more about this property?
- Yes.
This house that we're standing in has been here
for over 400 years
and it's been home to many different people
during that time.
So in the 17th century it was once a royal palace,
owned by King Charles II.
Then in the 18th century
it was owned by a man named Sir John Griffin Griffin.
- Great name!
- Yep.
And in the 19th century it was home
to Richard and Jane Neville,
who were the 3rd Lord and Lady Braybrooke.
And they lived here with their eight children.
- Eight children, that's a lot.
- Yeah.
And for all of these people
playing games at Audley End has been really important.
- Well, I'd love to hear more about some of these games.
Can you show me the way?
- Sure, let's go.
(upbeat music)
- So back in the day there were some bowling greens here
as part of the estate.
Is that bowling like bowls?
Is it bowling, like ten-pin bowling?
What was that?
- Well, the bowling that was played here
was on a bowling green.
But it's a good question
because bowling with skittles, like ten-pin bowling,
but an outdoor version,
was something that was really popular in the 18th century.
And actually it was called Nine Pins then.
But at Audley End, it was something a bit different.
This is more like lawn bowls.
By the 17th century when this house was built
it was really popular in England.
We have engraved images showing the house
as it existed then.
And you can even see a game in action,
people bowling the balls,
and this is a form of lawn balls with a jack.
So you throw a little ball to start with
and then the aim of the game
is whoever is the person who can get their bowling ball
closest to the jack.
Even in the late 16th century, it was popular in England
and very famously Francis Drake,
the great explorer and naval man,
in 1588, when the Spanish Armada was advancing
and news was brought to him that
this was a really kind of imminent threat.
He was on Plymouth Hoe playing a game of bowls
and while everyone around him was panicking, he said,
no, no, there's time,
I can win this game of bowls
before we go and defeat the Spanish Armada.
- This man has his priorities set out, clearly.
(upbeat music)
(calm music)
How old is cricket as a sport?
- So it's thought to have started in England
in the 16th century
and it really grew in popularity.
Particularly when we developed a global empire
and we took it to other parts of the world.
- So how and when was it brought to Audley End?
- Well we think that the cricket pitch was laid out
in about 1842.
And this is because Lord and Lady Braybrooke's sons
went off to school and they played loads of cricket.
And when they came back
they wanted to be able to play it at home.
So they laid out the cricket pitch
and established a team,
and they'd play against local villages
and other clubs in the area.
- And is the pitch still in use today?
- It still is very much actively in use,
by the Audley End and Littlebury Cricket Club.
- Yeah, go for it, under-arm.
Yeah, there you go.
- Ooh, go on, catch.
Fetch! (laughing)
So we've been joined by Nick,
who's going to teach me, hopefully,
a thing or two about cricket.
So Nick, would you like to introduce yourself?
- Sure, so I'm the first team captain
here at Audley End and Littlebury,
we play just over the water there.
I think, they used to play here, a long time ago.
You'll probably be the expert there.
We are about four weeks away from the season,
so hopefully the weather improves.
- Oh!
- Oh, there you go!
Big celebration, in front of the house.
(Nick laughing)
(calm music)
(upbeat music)
- [Peter] Do you want me to tackle you?
- [Esme] No, please don't.
It's quite a heavy ball, isn't it?
- [Peter] It's because it's supposed to look like
an old one.
- [Esme] Why is it so heavy?
It's like a rock.
- Come on, Peter!
- During the war, Audley End was requisitioned
for military use
and it became a secret training base
for the Polish Special Operations Executive.
- [Esme] Wow.
- And these men were training to go
and essentially be parachuted into occupied territory
and undertake really dangerous missions.
And they needed time to play games and let off steam.
And football was one of the things they really enjoyed
to help them do that.
(Esme laughing)
(jolly music)
- You've got mud all on your face!
This is why I've got makeup on.
Were there any other sports that these Polish men played
while they were staying here?
- There were, and we've got some really amazing
old black-and-white photographs
showing them playing volleyball
and basketball and tennis.
All in the garden where we now have
this beautiful parterre lawn,
that was completely grassed over
so they could do these kinds of activities.
We know that they did wheelbarrow racing,
piggyback racing.
They even had a slow bike race.
(relaxing music)
There are thousands of books in here.
- So many books.
So what kind of games would've been played in here?
- When the family had lots of guests,
they would've come through here after dinner
and tables would've been laid out all over the place
with card games, chess, backgammon.
So you could take your pick, really.
- Fun room for it.
And what's this round here?
- Well, I was having a little look
on the bookshelves earlier
and I found this book called The History of Playing Cards.
- Wow. - And it's from 1865.
So exactly the time when the family
would've been playing card games in this room.
- [Esme] And it's battered, isn't it?
- Yeah, it's had a life.
It's really well used and well read.
Which I think is quite nice to know
that the family weren't just interested in playing games
and playing cards in here,
but they really wanted to learn about it as well.
- So why do you think people were so interested
in card games?
- Well, I think it's one of those things
that has really universal appeal.
And famously, Dr Johnson, the English 18th-century writer,
he never learned to play cards in his lifetime.
And there's a quote here expressing his regret.
He said, "It's very useful in life.
It generates kindness
and it consolidates society."
- High praise.
- So there's something nice here about, you know,
no matter who you are or where you come from
you can sit down and play a game of cards together.
- That's a lovely quote.
And I suppose back then you didn't have wifi,
you didn't have TVs, you didn't have games consoles,
so you couldn't just do that after dinner.
- Well, today the library is still very much a place
where you can come and play games, play cards,
do jigsaw puzzles if you want.
- So if a family came in
and they were looking around Audley End,
they could genuinely bring a pack of their own cards,
sit down here as a family
and play in a room this spectacular if they wanted?
- Yeah, absolutely.
And it's one of those things that really keeps the spirit
of this place alive.
- Wow, what a good place to play it as well.
(jolly music)
- At Audley End, Lady Braybrooke was particularly fond
of playing Whist.
And she played that with guests really, really frequently.
Other games such as Patience,
there's another game called Sympathy that she liked to play.
So, yeah, she was a real avid card player.
- And then did the love of cards continue
into the 20th century?
Was it still as popular?
- Yeah, it really did actually.
And although there wasn't such a large family living here
in the 20th century,
there were still three children living at Audley End.
And I'm told they really particularly loved a game
called Old Maid.
(jolly music continues)
So we've divided the deck into two.
- [Esme] Yep.
- The first thing we need to do
is find any pairs that you've got in your hand.
- Pair.
Daughter, daughter, okay.
- Oh, that's my last pair.
- You won. - Father, father, so-
- Here I am, the old maid.
And then here at Audley End,
there's such amazing gardens.
Did they used to play them outside
on the lawns at all?
- Yeah, it's a great question,
because we don't really often think of cards
as being something you play outside.
It's more of an indoor game.
But just actually on the lawn, right there in front of us,
they used to play something called Living Whist.
- What's that? - Well, that is a card game.
But instead of using a pack of cards
you'd dress up as a playing card.
So you'd have 52 participants,
it might be the family or people from the local community,
and they'd come in and they'd dance around
and play a game of cards in person.
- Love that! - So, really fun.
And a sense of pageantry and very over the top.
(bright jolly music)
In the 18th century,
people would spend huge amounts of money
on very specialist pieces of furniture
that they could play backgammon on.
- It's a really beautiful table this, isn't it?
- It absolutely is.
And it was one of the top quality pieces of furniture
you could buy,
if you wanted to have a games table in the 18th century.
- [Esme] Is this like an original map
of all the woods?
- Yeah, so just a few years ago,
we found this inside the drawer.
And if you piece them together in the right order,
you can see that they describe the wood specimens
that we've got here.
- Can I? - Yeah, some of them
are quite hard to make out.
- Yes. - Yew, broom.
- [Esme] So they've mapped out where each wood would be.
- [Peter] Yeah.
(bright jolly music continues)
- [Esme] Okay, so let's start.
So roll the dice.
- [Peter] You could move that one two
and then you could-
- Can I only go on the black ones?
- [Peter] No, you can move there, whichever one you want.
- Oh right.
Gosh, quite complicated! (laughing)
- [Peter] It is quite complicated, yeah.
I find the easiest way is if you just start playing.
(bright jolly music continues)
- And what about chess?
- Chess, yep.
That's been played here very much so,
all through the 18th century and the 19th century.
Although the origins of chess are thought to date back
to the Norman Conquest of 1066,
is when it first came to this country.
The pieces then were much more abstracted forms.
So not the types of figures that you know
as chess pieces today.
- And it's such a famous game to this day really, isn't it?
- It is.
And it really reached its peak
and this very special moment in 1851
when the first international chess competition was played
at the Crystal Palace,
alongside the Great Exhibition in London.
(bright music continues)
(music fades)