National Trust.
Great Coxwell Barn was built in the mid thirteenth century for the Cistercian abbey of Beaulieu. 152 feet long, it has buttressed walls of Cotswold stone, and a soaring stone-tiled roof with its rafters supported on slim oak timbers. Projecting porches either side of the barn house the original doors.
This is an impressive building and worth seeking out if you are in the area. The visit won’t detain you long, however.
Category: National Trust
Buscot Park, Oxfordshire
National Trust.
The house is a late eighteenth-century Neo-classical building. The pavilions to each side, and the imposing flight of steps leading up to the entrance front, were added in the 1930’s. The interiors are lavish, with extravagant chandeliers, inlaid and painted Regency and Empire furniture, and mahogany doors. Many noteworthy paintings hang in the house. The more prized contents form part of the Faringdon Collection. A cycle of Burne-Jones paintings, Legend of the Briar Rose, runs around the walls of the saloon.
Outside are extensive gardens and grounds. The entrance, ticket office, walled garden and tea-room lie to the west of the house, and the Pleasure Grounds, with the larger lake and various garden features of interest lie to the east. There is a notable water garden with features leading down to the lake. Frescoes can be found in the archway leading to the (private) outdoor swimming pool, and in the tea-room.
The house interior and Faringdon Collection are well worth seeing, and the gardens provide plenty of scope for sightseeing and walking.
Opening days and dates are somewhat restricted.
Great Chalfield Manor, Wiltshire
National Trust.
Great Chalfield Manor was built in 1467-80. Following centuries of neglect, which left it in a ruinous and partly demolished state, it was restored in 1905-12 for the Fuller family. A century later, it becomes harder to tell which bits are original and which are reconstructed. The house is furnished with period furniture collected by the Fullers. Outside are moats, lawns, and a working estate.
Inside the house are some interesting features. An ancient mural uncovered in the dining room is thought to be of the first owner, Tropnell. High up in the great hall are heads thought to be medieval caricatures. The garden has two large pieces of topiary with cross-passages, and a summerhouse in one corner.
(Picture: Trish Steel – Wikimedia)
Newark Park, Gloucestershire
National Trust.
This unusual house stands high on a spur of the Cotswolds. It was built as a four-storey hunting lodge in c. 1550, but reworked by James Wyatt in the 1790’s. Wyatt also updated a second block added in the late 17th century.
Inside, there are interesting rooms and contents on three floors. Much of what is on display was collected by a late tenant who occupied the house for many years. Some features of the interior date from the Tudor era. There are fine views from the upper windows.
IIRC the basement floor is also partly open.
Outside, there are formal gardens laid out by the late tenant.
I visited Newark Park on a detour after finding that somewhere else at which I had intended to stop was closed that day. However I liked Newark Park and found it an interesting visit.
Osterley Park, London
National Trust.
Osterley Park stands on the site of an Elizabethan mansion which was radically reworked by Robert Adam from 1761 onwards. A grand double portico added by Adam closes the courtyard and provides an imposing entrance. Adam created many grand rooms with décor evoking the world of Greece and Rome. Noteworthy are a grand hall and the Etruscan Dressing Room.
Outside is a large park with trees and a lake.
There is quite a lot to see at Osterley Park.
When I visited, my sat-nav delivered me to a lane leading to a back entrance to the park, but I didn’t have to pay any parking charges there. Official entrance & parking are at Jersey Road. Osterley tube station is a mile from the Park.
2 Willow Road, London
National Trust.
This unique Modernist home was designed by architect Erno Goldfinger in 1939 for himself and his family. The house has surprising design details that were groundbreaking at the time and still look fresh today. By comparison, the average estate house of today looks timid and boring. The house also contains the Goldfingers’ impressive collection of modern art, intriguing personal possessions and innovative furniture.
As a fan of good modern architecture, I found the visit most interesting. By the way, the houses at each end of the short terrace were built at the same time but do not belong to the Trust. As I left, I noticed that one of them has an application posted seeking to replace the Goldfinger windows with UPVC. (I hope the planners told this philistine where to get off.)
The terrace with no. 2 does look a bit like a small commercial block, but is not unattractive. Goldfinger had great trouble getting his design passed by the local planners, who wanted something more in keeping with the rest of the street. Unfortunately for their case, the nearest pre-existing Victorian houses are oversized and ugly.
Entry before 3pm is by timed guided tour. An introductory film is shown at regular intervals.
The house is about ¼ mile from Hampstead tube station – No.2 is at the far end of Willow Road. If you have to drive, you might find parking at East Heath Road or at parking meters.
Fenton House, London
National Trust.
This 17th-century merchant’s house has remained largely unaltered during more than 300 yars of continuous occupation. Inside, there are notable collections of furniture, pictures and porcelain. In almost every room stand early keyboard instruments collected by Major Benton Fletcher. The walled garden has terrace walks framing a lawn and sunken brick-paved rose garden. On the other side of a high wall is an orchard and vegetable garden.
The house and contents are well worth a visit, as is the garden. It’s an easy walk up from Hampstead tube station, through some interesting streets. Driving and parking here looks like a no-no.
Peckover House, Cambs
National Trust.
Peckover House is a classic Georgian merchant’s house, facing onto the River Nene which runs through Wisbech. The owners, the Peckovers, were staunch Quakers, but ran a successful private bank. Inside the house, the panelled rooms have fine Georgian fireplaces and a wealth of elaborate woodwork and plasterwork by local craftsmen. Relics include a cabinet of curiousities. The spacious two-acre garden extends behind several other properties on the riverfront. Its size comes as something of a surprise – these days a whole housing estate could be crammed into it. It is divided into a number of sections, mostly planted in a Victorian style, and including lawn, wilderness walk, orangery, glasshouses, climbing roses and flower beds.
As Peckover House is now in the town, parking outside the house is time-restricted. Apparently there is free parking at Chapel Road, 273 yards away, but I parked outside the house and had to nip out mid-visit to move my car.
Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire
National Trust.
Little Moreton Hall was built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, entirely of timber framing. It surrounds a central courtyard. While most of the hall is of two storeys, the south wing has three storeys, the top floor being filled with a magnificent long gallery, possibly added as an afterthought. At any rate, the weight of the gallery and its heavy stone roof has distorted the structure below, and the floor of the gallery now resembles a wave-tossed sea frozen in oak.
(Those of an engineering turn of mind may note that the Trust recently inserted hidden steelwork to hold up the 3rd floor, and that the Hall’s undulations owe less to a medieval lack of string and spirit levels than the tendency of vertical posts to rot at the bottom and slump downwards over the centuries.)
Apart from three pieces, all the original furniture has disappeared and the rooms are shown unfurnished. The interior is corridor-less, with one room leading into another.
The building is of exceptional interest, and the external timbers have been cut in a variety of patterns to glorious effect. The whole is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of Tudor workmen.
Besides the house, there is a chapel with wall painting dating from the 16th century. The built-in dog kennel in the courtyard may amuse visitors.
Shaw’s Corner, Herts
National Trust.
The house is undistinguished, but is filled with fascinating mementoes of the great Irish dramatist and critic. Apart from the museum room, which shows gems such as the Oscar that Shaw was awarded in 1938 for the screenplay for the film version of Pygmalion, and his membership card for the Cyclists’ Touring Club, the house is still arranged very much as it was in his day. The rear garden is of a considerable size, and contains a curious rotating shed in which Shaw did much of his writing. The trees have grown rather bigger than they were in Shaw’s day, transforming parts of the garden into a small wood.
I enjoyed my visit to the house and garden, and departed much better informed about Shaw than I was when I arrived. Despite its proximity to London and some large towns, the village can only be accessed by some narrow and twisty roads, but the small NT car park can be very busy.