Riseholme (fictional village)


Riseholme is a fictional Elizabethan village in the Cotswolds in the "Lucia" novels of Edward Frederic Benson. It is thought to have been based on Broadway, Worcestershire.

Lucia and Riseholme

Riseholme first appeared as the home of Emmeline Lucas and her husband, Philip, in Queen Lucia. The Lucases had by then lived for ten years at The Hurst, in front of which was a Shakespearean garden. Lucia was "Queen" of Riseholme, the main figures in her circle being George Pillson and Daisy Quantock.
Riseholme appeared also in Lucia in London, in which Lucia launched herself on London society; Mapp and Lucia, in which, following Peppino's death, both Lucia and Georgie, took holiday lets in the Sussex town of Tilling where, at the end of the summer of 1930, they decided to settle. At Tilling Lucia unveiled her celebrated dish, Lobster à la Riseholme.
Lucia and Georgie visited Riseholme again in Trouble for Lucia where they stayed at the home of the operatic prima donna Olga Bracely and Lucia called on Poppy, Duchess of Sheffield, at nearby Sheffield Castle.
It was revealed in Mapp and Lucia that Lucia's great rival in Tilling, Elizabeth Mapp had once visited Riseholme and stayed at the Ambermere Arms. She also hijacked Lucia's au reservoir and presented it to Tilling society as her own.