Lyveden New Bield, Northants

National Trust
An abandoned and incomplete Elizabethan building, with its surrounding gardens. The building, a shell, is interesting, and when I visited the orchard had been re-created with a planting of period fruit trees.

Re-visited 28 Aug 2021 (10 years later).  The manor house (acquired 2013) and a new car park were opened earlier this year. The new car park is further from the Lodge, and a walk from car park to Lodge takes one to the manor house which houses a cafe, toilets, and an upper floor exhibition room (the latter not open when I visited).  From there one can walk onwards to the orchard and the house, past some mounds and long ponds.  I didn’t see the labyrinth marked in the grass in the area enclosed by mounds and long ponds – apparently it is clear cut in late summer.  The stonework of the Lodge is in remarkably good condition, and various carved religious symbols decorate the exterior. Inside, one can enter the basement rooms and look upward to the sky.  In the manor house I saw a model showing what the Lodge would have looked like if completed.

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