This is just a small collection of photos we have, I am updating this page, and will also add our archive material here soon

19th April 2024

Grounds

Interior/Rooms

The Armada anchored in Calais Roads, panic stricken at the approach of the eight English fire ships at midnight.

KENNETH DENTON SHOESMITH R.I. (BRITISH 1890-1939)

In 1930, the First Lord Vestey, owner of the Blue Star Line, had commissioned Shoesmith to paint a series of murals depicting the events surrounding the English victory of 1588 over the Spanish Armada, for the dining room of his home, (the room is now known as the Jacobean room)

In ten panels, telling the story, from Sir Francis Drake's game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe, to the return of the English fleet at Dover Castle, Shoesmith's oil paintings recreated the classic schoolboy history image of the great sea battle, with richly coloured galleons, lively anecdote and not least wrecked Spanish ships. Each panel was 40 inches high, constrained by the dimensions of Vestey's walls, while their width fitted the individual bays and alcoves of the dining room.

In 1939, after just nine years in place, the murals were taken down when, with the outbreak of War, Kingswood became War Department offices. They were put into storage and with the coming of peace in 1945, were donated by the Vestey family to Radley College, where Lord Vestey's son, Captain William Vestey (killed while serving with the Scots Guards, in 1944), had been educated.

At Radley they hung on the walls of the College Dormitory for more than thirty years. However, when that building was altered in 1976 the paintings were again taken down and put into storage. In 1988 Radley decided, with the Vestey family's agreement, to sell the murals to fund the purchase of works by young artists, and in 1998 the murals were sent to auction, selling for £4,000  at Sotheby's London, June 1998.