Hi, Martha <dixiepeanut(a)comcast.net>, Joan <APCYN(a)ttlc.net> and other
listers - I am posting this to the list as it may be of general interest.
You both ask about De Vere hotels in Cheshire, England, the most important
so far as we are all concerned being the De Vere Carden Park Hotel. If you
go to
http://www.devereonline.co.uk/
and use the menu to find Carden Park there is a full description. It fails
to mention that the Carden family lived at Carden Hall before the Leche
family obtained it by marriage in the 17th century.
Carden Hall was one of the most famous "black-and-white" Cheshire mansions.
It burned down one night in 1912. The Leche family had let it to a Colonel
Holdsworth (South Africans I believe). By the time the horse-drawn fire
engines arrived from Malpas, Broxton, Farndon and even Chester it was too
late to save anything. The ornamental lake was too far away to pump water.
Even when they managed to find and break open the safe, I am told all the
ladies' jewellery [shut up, spell-check - we spell the word that way in
England!] was melted into a solid mass.
Nothing much happened until the 1980's when the entrepreneur who built the
Alton Towers theme park bought the estate and built the Carden Park hotel
and conference centre there, including a vineyard which produced a wonderful
light white Carden Wine in 1996 or thereabouts, of which I bought several
cases. Never repeated, sadly, as that was the one and only perfect vintage.
When we held the Carden Gathering nearby in 1998, some Cardens stayed at the
hotel. The conference centre went bust and after a while was bought by the
De Vere Hotel Group, and is thriving again.
Any listers visiting the area should consider staying there, although it is
pretty expensive, way above the Hilton and Marriot standard. They should
contact me first for information about the Carden Arms pub in Tilston and
the family stained glass window in the local church, about the history of
the family in the area (from whom we are nearly all descended according to
our DNA project), and about the incredible Carden tombs at Mavesyn Ridware
not very far away.
Arthur Carden, of Horsham, England.