Parks & Gardens – Page 9 – My Days Out Blog

Ickworth, Suffolk

National Trust.
The house is unusual, having a huge and palatial central rotunda and two curving wings connected to it by corridors. It was built by the eccentric Earl-Bishop of Derry, Frederick Hervey, to house his collections, a plan realised by his descendants.
One of the wings leads to a Pompeian Room, the block beyond being occupied by the orangery and the modern visitor reception. The other, east, wing corridor terminates in an ante-room, with more collections. The block at the far end of the east wing was the family residence, now a hotel. There are also exhibits in the basement. Outside, there are 70 acres of formal gardens and 1800 acres of park. The Italianate garden is behind the house.

The grand rooms are impressive and the house contents are of interest. On my last visit I explored the park, in which it is posible to take a 7 mile walk. Some of the paths are hard-surfaced trackways on which you can cycle or use a mobility buggy. On a walk around the relatively short River Linnet trail I saw a lot of grassland and arable, the walled garden with listed summerhouse, and St Mary’s Church.
There is another church (St Leonards at Horringer) at the estate entrance.
The house and park together could be an all-day visit.
Or if you are coming a long way, you could also visit Melford Hall nearby.

Greenway, Devon

House front with old bus — Vintage bus in front of house

National Trust.
This is the former home of best-selling author Agatha Christie. The house is in a rural setting on the banks of the Dart estuary, and is set in extensive gardens and grounds that slope down to the riverbank. Many visitors, of course, are drawn here by the Christie connection. The house contains many interesting family collections (Christie’s husband was an archaeologist). The Georgian house dates from 1790, with early nineteenth-century additions.
There is an intriguing frieze in the library, painted by an American naval officer whern the house was requisitioned during WWII. Outside there is a stable block, and down by the river a substantial Georgian boathouse. The gardens are quite large and some time can be spent exploring them.
There are strong disincentives to arriving here by car – the roads are awful and the NT car park is very small, so visitors have to ring up and book a space well (i.e. days) in advance. I don’t remember my whole itinerary, but I arrived by minibus from a bus station in some town nearby. Apparently there is also a vintage shuttle bus service. You can also arrive by river ferry from Dartmouth etc.

Trelissick Garden, Cornwall

National Trust.
The garden was developed from the 1930’s onwards and contains many sub-tropical plants. The grounds slope down to the waterside of the Fal estuary, with gardens on many levels, set in hundreds of acres of woods and parkland. The gardens contain many species of flowering shrubs. A road leading down to the chain ferry which links the east and west sides of the estuary divides the garden into two parts, and a rustic bridge over the road links the old and new gardens. For the walker, the gardens contain many hundreds of yards of pathways.
If you enjoy gardens, this one is well worth a visit. The house is not open, and in fact it’s quite awkward to see it from the gardens, though its white front is a landmark when viewed from downriver.
It is possible to reach the gardens by riverboat from Falmouth etc.

Hartland Abbey & Garden, Devon

The house was originally an adaptation of abbey buildings, but there was a major reconstruction in the 1770’s. Evidence of the original Abbey building can still be seen in the basement. There are notable interiors in the Queen Anne and Regency styles. Since the Abbey has never been sold, it contains collections of pictures, furniture and porcelain going back hundreds of years. There are exhibitions of documents, and of Victorian and Edwardian photographs.
There are extensive gardens and grounds leading down to a rocky cove on the coast.
The house and contents were interesting and I remember exploring parts of the gardens.

Chambercombe Manor, Devon

This white-walled house has a history going back nearly a thousand years, according to its present custodians. At one time it was a grand manor owned by an earl of Suffolk, but later became a farmhouse. The house contains eight period rooms available to view, ranging from Elizabethan to Victorian.
The house and contents are of some interest, and there are several acres of gardens which can be explored. The website makes much of the paranormal in an effort to stir up more interest in the place.

Tapeley Park, Devon

Tapely Park stands in a superb position overlooking the estuary. It’s an attractive imposing but elegant ‘Queen Anne’ style Georgian villa of brick with stone pilasters, parapet and a pediment, sitting above the impressive terraced gardens.
The owner, Hector Christie, had a reputation as an eccentric young aristo, but in recent years he seems to have put all that behind him, and since featuring in Channel 4’s “Country House Rescue” has made efforts to run the house and estate as a proper business. As evidence, there are now two websites, one for weddings, the other for garden visitors.

My nephew lived at Tapeley for a while, and helped build the “Straw Bale” house which stands in the grounds. As the name suggests, this is a small environmentally friendly building constructed of straw bales.
Besides the formal Italianate gardens, there are kitchen gardens, nature gardens, and when I visited, various animals including pigs.
The interiors apparently are of note, featuring a grand staircase hall and also several good fireplaces and plaster ceilings. At the back and upstairs, and in the big kitchen, the rooms definitely had what one could kindly call a period, lived-in look.
Website (for garden visits): http://www.tapeleygardens.com/

Arlington Court, Devon

National Trust.
The house has a plain exterior of grey stone, enlivened only by a pillared single-story porch. Inside, it’s totally different, with a Victorian interior decorated with boldly pattered and colourful wallpaper, coloured classical columns, and mahogany furniture, and cluttered with display cabinets overflowing with all sorts of collectible objects. With many acquisitions the Trust has the headache of what to fill the house with once they have acquired it, but here a lot had to be cleared out so that visitors could get around the rooms.
Downstairs is the stairway hall, and a long gallery extending along the south front. Other rooms contain collections of objects including model ships, tea caddies and paperweights. Upstairs are more rooms and displays.

Outside there are shady lawns, a small formal garden, a church, and a bit further off the colonaded stable block with its noted collection of carriages. As with cars today, in the horse era carriages came in an endless variety of designs, sizes and prices, and the Arlington collection, one of the finest in the country, contains many types. It’s a most interesting collection.
Still further from the house are a lake and woodlands. Arlington is the centre of a thriving agricultural estate.

Knightshayes, Devon

National Trust.
The house was built in 1869-1874. Designed in a Gothic style of gables and mullioned windows by noted Victorian medievalist William Burges, it was intended to conceal interiors of exceptional richness. The client however shied away from Burges’ riotous designs, and few were carried out. Instead, Heathcoat-Amory hired John Diblee Crace, but even his designs were thought too bold and colourful, and were largely covered up in later years. The National Trust has sought to restore the nineteenth-century work wherever possible. The vast gardens, based on a nineteenth-century design but greatly enlarged by the 3rd baronet and his wife, are much admired.
The hall, with medieval-style Gothic arches, gallery, timber vault, painted furniture and curious carvings, is the only room to be completed more or less as Burges intended. Recently a bedroom has been reworked using Burges’ original design drawings and given a patterned ceiling, bird wallpaper, and furnished with exotic original Victorian furniture made to his designs. Elsewhere are boldly painted, compartmental ceilings and elaborate chimneypieces. The overall impression is of bold designs and bright colours.
Outside, the gardens are the sort where you can happily wander about for ages trying to see everything. The stable block looks notably Burges, as do the corner towers on the walled kitchen gardens. Beyond the kitchen garden, and accessed from it, you will find the childrens’ play area and the Douglas Fir Walk.
The main gardens are accessed via the house and contain formal sections, and a lot of woodland gardens with winding paths.
Well worth a visit especially if you are into Victorian Gothic. There is enough here for an all-day visit.
Revisited May 2015.

Douglas Fir Walk - trees — Douglas Fir Walk

Ornate display cabinet — Display cabinet

Packwood House, Warwickshire

National Trust.
The house surrounds a front lawn on three sides, and was originally a timber-framed Elizabethan house. It still retains its massive Elizabethan chimneystacks and many gables, but has been greatly altered and updated over the centuries, being largely reconstructed in brick. The last private owner of the house, Graham Baron Ash (his name, not his title) undid much of the Georgian and Victorian alterations and re-introduced all manner of period features, such as leaded casements, floors, beams and chimneypieces from other old buildings. He also built a long gallery and converted a barn into a great hall to complete his vision of how a Tudor house should be.
Today, the house contains period furnishings, including fine Jacobean panelling, mostly introduced by Graham Baron Ash. Some of the contents came from Baddesley Clinton nearby. The elaborate gardens are also a showpiece.
A visit here doesn’t disappoint, and there is plenty to see inside and out.

Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire

National Trust.
The medieval house is built around three sides of a courtyard, and surrounded by a moat. Grey walls with mullioned windows fall sheer to the water, and there are tall red-brick Elizabethan chimneys towering above the roofs. The small panelled rooms, filled with mostly seventeenth and eighteenth-century oak furniture, are intimate and homely. The Ferrers family was Catholic, which is why they never had the funds to radically alter and improve the house. Three priest hiding places can still be seen within the manor house.
Today, the moated setting is striking, and the visit begins by walking the bridge across the moat. The tour continues through various rooms around the courtyard garden, both downstairs and upstairs, and including a look at the priest holes, one of them low down in a former sewer. A notable room is in the gatehouse above the passage. There are some pleasant gardens, both in the courtyard and in the grounds surrounding the moat. My visit included an hour-long guided tour of the grounds around the moat, which while not obligatory does provide visitors, particularly those who didn’t buy the guidebook, with some extra information about house and grounds.
Note that Packwood House (NT) is close by, and it is possible to fit in visits to both in one day.

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