National Trust.
The house was built in 1778-9 but was considerably expanded in the early nineteenth century and again in Edwardian times. Elsewhere are magnificent stone stables and a Victorian Norman Revival chapel. The house is unpretentious outside, but inside downstairs has some grand rooms. The contents reflect country house life in the 1930’s. Upstairs is the noted costume collection of Paulise de Busch. Outside, to one side of the house and above it, are magnificent gardens. The former walled garden is now the car park. Nearby is a large Chapel.
The house stands in a large estate, and elsewhere on it are the Marker’s Cottage (NT) and Clyston Mill (NT), and Budlake Old Post Office (NT). I don’t recall that I saw these, but they have separate entries in the NT guidebook.
I recall that this was rather a tedious place to get to, despite its proximity to Exeter. No major roads run near the estate.
Category: National Trust
Melford Hall, Suffolk
National Trust.
The Hall appears to date from the early sixteenth century, and apart from the removal of a gatehouse range that once enclosed the courtyard, and the insertion of eighteenth-century sash windows, the exterior seems not to have changed much. The interior has had repeated makeovers, with fashionable rococo decoration given to the principal rooms in the 18th century, and further changes in the 19th century. The house was ransacked in the Civil War, and the north wing suffered a devastating fire in 1942. The house has interesting contents, and some fine rooms. There is a notable staircase hall with a wide, straight staircase in the central block. Outside, there are gardens in which the visitor can stroll.
Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk
National Trust.
A red-brick moated house stands amongst extensive gardens and grounds. When it was founded in 1482, the house was in the middle of a marsh. Much has changed since, and while the great gatehouse is largely orginal, there was an extensive resoration of other parts in the 19th century. Stepped gables and twisted terracotta chimneys on the side ranges were added during the restoration. In the grounds is the Gothic Revival Chapel, designed by Pugin. It contains an elaborate altarpiece.
The King’s Room in the gatehouse is a great room with walls of exposed brick. An interesting circular staircase of fine brickwork leads up to another great room, the Queen’s Room. The staircase leads up to the flat roof, where other towers and chimneys can be viewed, and also the surrounding countryside.
There is a walled garden with turreted walls, and other areas of garden for the visitor to explore.
At the entrance to the estate is a rather startling ruined church, which can be reached from the car park. It was largely wrecked in 1948 when the steeple collapsed, destroying the nave and south aisle, but preserving the chancel and Bedingfeld Chantry.
There is a lot to look at on this estate, and it is well worth a visit.
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
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.
Lanhydrock, Cornwall
National Trust.
The house dates from the 1630’s, but was largely rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1881. Only the Jacobean gatehouse and the north wing survived. The Jacobean-styled house in silver-grey granite extends around three sides of a courtyard and contained every Victorian convenience except gas and electricity, which the owner found too hazardous. Inside, the newer and restored interiors contain interesting portraits and furniture, and a complete set of Victorian domestic paraphenalia in the service rooms. The old North wing has a 116-foot gallery with a barrel ceiling covered with remarkable 17th century plasterwork. Male and female servants had separate quarters. A large informal garden covers the steep slopes above the house.
The house makes an interesting visit, as the fine rooms and bedrooms are deeply elegant, while the numerous rooms devoted to nurseries, kitchens and servants quarters give an insight into Victorian life ‘below stairs’. I don’t recall the gardens, but the day was rather damp. For the able- bodied, there is a 600-yard walk between car park and house.
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.
St Michael’s Mount , Cornwall
National Trust.
The house, perched on a rock off the Cornish coast, is a strange hybrid of monastery, fortress, and elegant country house. A Benedictine priory was established here in the twelfth century, and a fourteenth-century church survives. The site was later converted into a fortress armed with cannon, and was key in the defences against the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was ocupied by Royalists during the Civil War, before surrendering in 1646 to a Parliamentarian whose family have occupied it ever since. Inside are Georgian interiors, some rare plasterwork, and fine Chippendale furniture. Outside, there is a terraced rock garden below the house, and an eighteenth-century walled garden.
Approaching the house is, to say the least, unusual. At low tide you can walk across the causeway, while at high tide small boats ferry visitors across to a little harbour on the landward side of the Mount. One then has to negotiate a steep cobbled path up through the gardens to the house entrance a long way above.
The house with its varied architecture is interesting, and the contents are worth seeing. There are also fine sea views, and there is more to see in the gardens and around the harbour. Altogether a visit to St Michael’s Mount is not to be missed if you are in the area.
Buckland Abbey, Devon
National Trust.
Buckland Abbey was bought by Sir Francis Drake after his triumphant return from his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580. He was able to purchase a house that had recently been converted from the abbey church by his rival Sir Richard Greville. The house contains many mementoes of Drake, while its fabric contains many relics of the thirteenth-century abbey church in the form of its crossing tower, blocked arches and traces of monastic windows, and inside, the tracery of the chancel arch. The house has Georgian alterations, and the only complete interior surviving from early times is the sixteenth-century great hall. This is warmly panelled in oak, with an elaborate ceiling, box frieze, and relics of Grenville’s retirement to Buckland. In the upper part of the house, rooms of no architectural interest contain displays.
The interior and the Drake relics are interesting. Outside is a great monastic barn, built about 1300, and one of the largest in Britain. To my mind this is a more satisfying piece of architecture than the mongrel church conversion. Also to be seen are a little herb garden, and a re-created Elizabethan garden, and the wider estate.
As the crow flies, Buckland is quite close to Cotehele (NT), but if you are planning to do both in one day, be cautioned that they are not so close via the local roads!
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.