House – My Days Out Blog

Southill Park, Bedfordshire

Private
I visited Southill Park under the HHA’s ‘Invitation to View’ scheme.
Southill Park House was built in brick c. 1720-1729, and then remodelled c.1796 for the second Samuel Whitbread by architect Henry Holland, who clad it in ashlar stone and moved the formal entrance from the south to the north side. Holland also constructed colonnaded loggias to the south and built the eastern “service wing”, and the stables. A late 19th century brick-built orangery, with stone pilasters and a hipped glass roof is attached.
The Whibread family, who made their money from the eponymous brewery, acquired the estate in 1795. The site of an earlier house, Ghastlings, on the estate is marked by a mound 400m to the north-east. It was demoiished 1720-29.
The principal floor contains a number of fine rooms whose decor dates from various periods, some retainimg more of the original Holland features than others. The discovery of dry rot in 1989 prompted a three-year programme of repair and refurbishment in which various rooms were redecorated and the placement of furniture and pictures rethought. Many items have remained in the house for hundreds of years.
The gardens and grounds (not all seen on my visit) are impressive, with flower borders, lawns, wooded reas and statues bordering some avenues.

Finding Southill village is straightforward, but finding the house defeated me as well as about ten other visitors who asked the same locals for directions. Unless you have a passenger who can help you follow the directions to the letter, your best bet might be to use ‘What 3 Words’ or find the White Horse pub and look around for the entrance gates. They are set back from the road and have no signage other than ‘No Entry, Private’. Unhelpfully, the ‘Southill Park’ pin on Google Maps is nowhere near the house or the entrance.

Copped Hall, Essex

Private
The current Copped Hall was built in the 18th century and extended in the Victorian period. The Georgian centre section was gutted by fire in 1917 and the mansion was further stripped of saleable materials in the early 1950s. The house remained a wreck within neglected grounds until acquired by the Copped Hall Trust in 1995.
To date, the mansion has been cleared of debris and vegetation, re-roofed, re-floored, staircases installed, and window shuttering or new windows fitted. The gardens have been cleared of overgrowth. Selected rooms have been re-plastered and decorated in Georgian style.
The house can be visited on certain days, principally by a guided tour of house and gardens that takes about two and a half to three hours. When I visited, this took in the grounds, including the site of the Elizabethan mansion with sunken gardens, the huge walled garden (Copped Hall Gardens on satellite view) containing among other things the ruins of a large number of greenhouses, and the squash court which is now a shop and tea-room. A sunken rockery garden with trees occupies part of the former cellar of the Elizabethan mansion.
The house tour included a maze of cellars extending below the whole mansion, the ground floor including the stables and an exhibition of agricultural or gardening equipment. Also included is a tour of the grand first floor, where one or two rooms have been replastered and decorated in Georgian style. One room had an exhibition of botanical drawings associated with the house.
The second and third floors can be accessed by a separate Hard Hat tour.
Various rooms contain furniture and other items typical of the house’s period, donated to the Trust. It appeared that some of the contents were intended to be viewed on a self-guided visit.
There is plenty to see at Copped Hall, and it is well worth a visit. Access is straightforward, but note that the mansion is north of the M25 which cuts across the former estate, while the entrance gate to Lodge Lane is to the south of the M25.

St. Pauls Walden Bury, Herts

Private
The garden was laid out in the early 18th century, and its original concept of a formal woodland garden, with temples, statues and ponds has not changed. Beech hedged allees of the traditional goose foot design fan out from the north front. Parts of the house (the north front) date from the 18th century, while other parts (the southern part) are Victorian. Inside, on the ground floor, can be found some fine painted plaster ceilings in the older part, and some interesting paintings and other objects.
Royalists however will be most interested in the Bowes-Lyon connection. This was the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, a.k.a Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and the late Queen Elizabeth II also visited here. A photograph of the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret seated on a rocking horse, still in the house, can be viewed here. Other mementoes are in the billiard room.
The extensive gardens are well worth a tramp round. Statues or temples appear at the end of long straight vistas, and flowering bushes can be found among the trees in the western part. According to the guidebook, the garden is planted to display different flowers throughout the year. On my visit in February, camellia bushes in flower were lurking among the trees to the west.
The soil in the gardens is clay, so after heavy rain there is much surface water everywhere with slippery mud underfoot. Suitable footwear is advised.
The house is rarely opened to the public but the gardens open more often – see their website.
If travelling from a west or north-westerly starting point, you are advised to travel via Hitchin to avoid a maze of narrow twisting lanes.

Fulham Palace, London

Fulham Palace Trust
Fulham Palace was formerly the palace of the Bishops of London. The older part of the palace, the Tudor Courtyard, dates from around 1495. In the 1760s the house was remodelled in a Gothic style, with crenellations, but in 1813-30 it was remodelled in a Georgian style.
The last bishop to reside in the palace left in 1973.
Now the site offers a small museum, a number of viewable rooms on the ground floor with good plasterwork ceilings but little furniture, a chapel, shop, and a cafe.
The extensive grounds, originally enclosed by a moat, now filled in, include a walled garden. The site extends alongside the Thames on the west side of Putney Bridge.
If you approach from Putney Bridge tube station you will come to first a church, then an inconspicuous entrance that leads to the east end of the grounds, then a long fenced path that takes you to the main entrance.
Worth a visit if you are in west London.
Admission to the Palace and grounds is free.

Courteenhall House, Northamptonshire

Private
The Wake family has owned the Courteenhall estate since the Tudor period, and the current Georgian house was built in 1792 for Sir William Wake, the 9th baronet. It has changed little since then. The house and adjoining outbuildings and stables stand in extensive parkland designed by Humphry Repton. The family has always been involved in the business of farming.
The house has rooms of handsome proportions on the ground floor, with fine plasterwork, filled with good furniture and many beautiful objects collected over the centuries. Family portraits hang in most of the rooms.
In front of the house, to one side is the Arboretum with an attractive rustic pond. Behind the house there is a small formal garden with pool, and the parkland which extends as far as the Church (not part of the estate) and the listed stable block.
I visited Courteenhall on an ‘Invitation to View’ tour (this one for EH members only.) On arrival we were served tea or coffee and a biscuit, and then our host gave us a lively and informative tour of the principal ground floor rooms. Guests were then at liberty to walk around the grounds.
The estate, positioned between the A508 and the M1 near J15, is relatively easy to find, and well worth a visit. Be aware that the town of Roade to the south has a brand-new bypass.
For those interested in the history of the family, a handsome and substantial hardback volume ‘The Wakes of Northamptonshire’ is available for £20 (collected) or £25 with postage.

Toddington Park, Beds

Private
Not to be confused with the nearby Toddington Manor.
The house had changed hands about two years before the date of my visit. I visited via the HHA’s ‘Invitation to View’ scheme.
The house is early 19th Century with late 19th century additions. The family who built it also owned Toddington Manor at the time. The extensive grounds are attractive. Mostly laid to lawn, they include a pond, a lake and a large number of trees, some of which are rare species. The period features of the house interior were mostly removed by a previous owner in the 1970s, consequently there is very little to see inside other than some attractive cornices. The house tour included only two of the principal rooms, one of which was used to host the afternoon tea. We did have the opportunity to look in the cellars, which contain an impressive array of central heating equipment and pipework. The grounds include an original Victorian dairy.
Our host gave an informative tour of the gardens and a description of the house and its history.

Haughley House, Suffolk

Private. I visited Haughley House under the HHA’s ‘Invitation to View” scheme, where one gets a tour conducted by the owner, plus afternoon tea. The house also operates as a B&B.
The house dates from the 16th century, and the older parts are timber framed, unlike the 18th century extensions. Of particular note are the owners’ collections of fans, antique weaponry and militaria. Other features include include the priest hole in a chimney, two bricked up tunnels and manorial documents on display. There is also a three-acre garden with a walled kitchen garden.
My tour included the ground floor, first floor and a glimpse down into the cellar, and a tour of the gardens.
Externally the house does not look very interesting, but the interiors and contents are of greater interest, and it is worth a visit.
The house (for once) is easy to find, as satnav will take you into the village and you just have to bear right at the small village green and follow the Folly road round till you spot the house sign on the right.
Photography is not permitted on the tour but you can find a gallery of photos on the B&B website.
There is little to see of the nearby castle ruin, as it is on private property and shrouded by trees.

Berrington Hall, Herefordshire

National Trust. Berrington Hall is a substantial Georgian mansion built of sandstone, with attached service wings surrounding a courtyard. Service rooms occupy the basement of the house, and also lie under the service buildings at the sides of the courtyard. A walled garden lies near the house. Further afield one can take walks in the parkland. (This may involve braving a herd of cows). The parkland was designed by Capability Brown.
The house contains some fine ground floor rooms. In the dining room, paintings commemorate the victories of Admiral Rodney, a former occupant of the house. The bedrooms are mostly given over to exhibition space. Notable is an elaborate mantua, or court dress, worn by Ann Bangham, wife of the Hon. Thomas Harley.
In the basement under the house, various servant’s and service rooms can be visited.

Croft Castle, Herefordshire

National Trust. The present version of the castle was built in the early 17th century in a ‘medieval revival’ style, but has undergone some revisions since, including the demolition of the servants’ wing. The Croft family were forced to sell in 1746 but their trustees repurchased the castle in 1923.
In the late 1580s, the original castle was converted into an Elizabethan house, which was severely damaged during the Civil War. The house was remodelled in a Gothic style in the 1760s by its then owner Thomas Johnes. A lesser remodelling took place in 1913, with changes made to the entrance front and the crenellations. In 1937, a 17th century service wing to the north-west was demolished. In 1957, after fears about demolition, funds were raised for an endowment and the house was donated to the National Trust.
The principal rooms have some fine interiors with furniture and paintings.
The adjacent church is older than the house. The walled garden and glasshouse are also worth a visit. On the wider estate you can find the Fishpool Valley and an ancient hill fort.

Llancaitch Fawr Manor, Wales.

Private. This 17th century manor house has been restored and furnished as it as in 1645 when occupied by Colonel Edward Pritchard. A guided tour is conducted by actors playing the parts of some of Pritchard’s servants and explaining the history and contents. They talk in period language and the presentations are often very amusing. In the courtyard area there is a pleasant restored garden.
Tree ring dating suggests a date for the house of between 1548-1565. It was built to be defensible with walls 4 feet thick, and access between floors was by stairs within the walls. In 1628 the Grand Staircase was added and two rooms panelled. Some passages and stairs have been walled up, so there are more windows visible outside than inside. King Charles I visited the manor late in the Civil War, for discussions with Colonel Pritchard, but the Colonel later declared for Parliament.
The garden is a reconstruction of what might have been there originally.
Don’t miss the excellent exhibition contained in several rooms next to the modern reception area.