Guy’s Cliffe is a stunning Grade II listed ruin with a long, and tumultuous past. It has been:
- Pre-historic site of triple Scientific Interest from the Triassic period
- An ancient Oratory in 600 AD
- A 10th Century Hermitage for Guy of Warwick
- Home for Secular Priests in 11th Century
- Links to Piers Gaveston who was executed in 1312
- Owned by various Earls of Warwick through the ages, including Felice’s father
- Site was valued by Henry VIII. Subsequently the 15th Century Chantry managed to escape the Dissolution of Monasteries
- Site passed from family to family between 1500 and 1750
- Site purchased by Samuel Greatheed in 1750
- 1898 large extension to the house was Built
- 1915 house was lent by the Percy family to the Red Cross as an Auxiliary Hospital called Guys Cliffe Hospital
- 1939 the house was vacated and used as a Boys Home for evacuees unti 1945
- 1946 Sale of furniture and household effects. Chapel and grounds purchased by a property company for a proposed hotel
- 1952 Hotel project shelved and the site was purchased by Building contractor. Further decimation and sale of fixtures and fittings
- 1955 Purchased by Aldwyn F Porter with the aim of building a private dwelling
- 1975 Leased to Trustees of St. George Lodge and Friends of Guys Cliffe was formed
- 1983 Purchased by Guys Cliffe Masonic Properties. Renovation to 15th Century Chapel and Rooms
- 1992 Major fire gutted what remained of the house during filming of a TV episode of Sherlock Holmes
- 1999 Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, Guys Cave Hermitage, other rock chambers – Listed Monument Grade II. Visit by Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis
