TRAVELLING the A449 from Malvern to Worcester you pass through Powick, over the crossroads with the former asylum development on your right and down through the heart of the village.
There a quite remarkable sight greets you and has done for a couple of years.
Because, after being hidden from public view for generations, the trees and greenery have gone and the faded glory of Virginia House now looms over the carriageway from its elevated site.
In due course this could be some renovation project but for the moment the old place seems locked in its memories. A bit overcome by all the work that needs to be done.
And what memories this Queen Anne country pile must have. Not the least of which is a considerable connection with writer and humourist PG Wodehouse whose grandmother Lydia Lea lived there for 10 years.
In fact PG, affectionately known as Plum, had a close affinity with Worcestershire in general and Powick in particular. For after his grandmother left Virginia House in 1871 (in her days it was called The Terrace), she moved about a mile away to Ham Hill House (now Queensberry House) at King’s End overlooking the River Teme flood plain.
Former Worcester teacher Chris Garner, who taught English at St Mary’s Convent School for 20 years and eventually became headmaster, has researched PG’s life and times and he said: “Lydia lived at Ham Hill until her death in 1892 and it was this house Wodehouse loved so much as a child.
“In later life he told a friend that the annual visit to Ham Hill was ‘always the great event of the year’. One reason being the boys were left very much to their own devices.
“There was, however, the daily audience with Grandma. After one such occasion his older brother Armine asked Plum : ‘Did you ever notice Grandma looks like a monkey?’. ‘But a kindly one,’ replied Plum.”
While visiting Ham Hill, the boys would also stay with Uncle Edward and Aunty Lucy Apollonia at the Old Rectory in Hanley Castle where Severn End, the beautiful red brick home of the Lechmere’s, became the model for the much-featured Brinkley Court, the Worcestershire home of Aunt Dahlia, where Bertie Wooster enjoyed the exquisite cooking of Anatole, the French chef.
Much closer to the church is the former Hanley Castle Grammar School, the inspiration for Market Snodsbury Grammar School which appeared in Wodehouse’s 1934 comic novel Right Ho, Jeeves.
Chris added: “Whether through character’s names – Bertie Wooster, Lady Malvern, Lord Pershore, the earls of Powick, Droitwich and Kidderminster – or familiar settings such as Beckford, Droitgate Spa and Market Snodsbury, Woodhouse’s love of the county is always evident.
“Droitwich was a particular favourite and he made frequent visits in the 1920s and 30s, staying at the Impney Hotel, now the Chateau Impney.
“Even though he named this as one of his favourite hotels it did not prevent him using it as a model for the hilarious Walsingford Hall in his novel Summer Moonshine
“Once in Droitwich Wodehouse would visit the brine baths, relax in the shallow end and make notes. It suited his desire to avoid the limelight and he once wrote: ‘I have always liked wandering around in the background and I get much more of a kick out of a place like Droitwich than out of something like the Taj Mahal.’ “
PG Wodehouse died in New York of a heart attack in 1975. He was aged 93 and is buried in Suffolk County, Long Island.
However, after his grandmother Lydia died at Ham Hill House at the age of 83 she was buried at St Peter’s Church, Powick, only 200 yards or so from her previous home Virginia House.
And there is another memory of the Wodehouse family nearby. A couple of miles away at Bastonford on the main road to Malvern an impressive white-faced clock graces the wall of the largest house in the hamlet.
It was given to the community by PG’s aunt Lydia Josephine in 1892 when she left the area after more than 30 years as a district visitor. In return she was presented with an elegant jet locket and chain.
“Jolly good show,” as Plum would have said.
