Bere Court: History of an English Manor House.

Alicia Kerfoot is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and
Cultural Studies at McMaster University.

Bere Court narrates the history of the house from before it was granted to Reading Abbey (the account begins with Roman Britain) until the Breedon family sold it in 1894. The first section of the book is titled “Bere Court—Country Mansion—Ancestral Home,” although it actually begins its story in AD 43, and follows the site through the Middle Ages and into the 15th century. In fact, most of the first part of the book does not involve the house itself, but recounts historical narratives that imagine contact with the site it was eventually built on. The second part is titled “A House is built fit for an Abbot’s or a King’s Pleasure” and tells of the 15th-century improvement of the structure by the Abbot of Reading Abbey, followed by its dissolution under Henry VIII, and its inhabitants until John Breedon’s purchase of it in 1671. Bere Court is a valiant attempt at a wide-ranging history that does not quite work. The most interesting aspect of the book is its genealogy of the site, as opposed to its retelling of national history (which lacks quality research). This makes the third section of the work (simply titled “The Breedons”) most interesting because it contains more genealogical information, and although the historical context is still slightly unorganized, this happens less frequently.

This account of Bere Court is not a formal architectural or social history of the site, but rather an indulgent personal project. Ultimately nationalistic in nature, it lacks subtlety and analytical distance, which is also apparent in its awkward language and strange use of future tense. What it does boast of is personal passion, and despite its uncritical handling of historical discourse, it contains some good information about the owners of Bere Court and the history of the property itself. One final warning: my copy of the book fell apart within the first twenty minutes of reading, so it might be useful to test the binding before investing in the work.