National Trust – Page 3 – My Days Out Blog

Lindisfarne/Holy Island, Northumberland.

The full name of the place is, apparently, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
The low-lying tidal island lies just off the coast of Northumberland, and is connected to the mainland by a causeway that is flooded by the tide twice a day.
The island is most famous for its priory, founded during the dark ages and abandoned during the dissolution of the monasteries. St Aidan, St. Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels are associated with the Priory.
There is also a castle (National Trust) on a rock forming the highest point of the island. It was built after the dissolution of the priory. After becoming disused as a fort, it was converted into a holiday home in the 1900’s by the architect Edward Lutyens for magazine owner Edward Hudson. The castle is interesting and worth a visit. If you have time, walk out to the Gertrude Jekyll castle garden, and the nearby lime-kilns.
The ruined priory (English Heritage) is in the village and can be visited (chargeable). Entrance into the churchyard is free, and it is worth looking inside the adjoining church. Among other things, it contains a striking wooden sculpture of six monks carrying a coffin.
There was another fort next to the harbour, but only a few fragments of wall now remain.

Visiting – there are boat cruises to the island, or you can drive there. Beware the tides, which restrict when you can come and go. Be aware also that the police and coastguard take a dim view of people who ignore the warnings and get themselves trapped on the causeway by the incoming tide. There is a village on the island, with the usual amenities.

The Hill House, Helensburgh, Scotland

National Trust for Scotland
The Hill House was built in 1902-3 with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, arguably Scotland’s most famous architect and designer, as architect. It was commissioned by the Glasgow publisher Walter Blackie, and remains a remarkably complete example of Mackintosh’s unique vision. It is also widely acclaimed as a work of art and design associated with the Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the 20th century.
Though very modern for its time, the house does not entirely turn its back on tradition, for some of its details evoke the spirit of old Scottish castles and tower houses.
Parts of the interior decor were designed by Mackintosh’s wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, a talented artist in her own right.
The house was originally run with the aid of several servants, and had only one private owner after the surviving Blackies sold it. It was acquired by the NTS in 1982, and they have gradually returned the house to its original appearance.
The entrance passage and hall incorporates a change in level and has elaborate rectangular lampshades, originally lit by gas, now electricity.
To the right of the entrance is the library, containing many Blackie publications. The drawing room is a large room with a bay window facing the Clyde. The fireplace is made of small putty-coloured tesserae with oval decorative panels. Above it is Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh’s gesso panel depicting a sleeping princess in her bower. There is also a writing desk designed by Mackintosh.
The Dining Room has dark walls with a lighter frieze and ceiling. None of the furniture was designed by Mackintosh.
Beyond the hall are the service quarters.
Upstairs are an Edwardian bathroom and a number of bedrooms. The main bedroom is L-shaped and has a barrel ceiling over the bed. The walls are stencilled and copies of Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh’s silk hangings hang over the bed. In the upstairs east wing rooms, traces of the original decorative schemes have been uncovered.

The house can be reached by car or train. It is a must-see if you are interested in Mackintosh or art nouveau. There is a cafe in the service wing.
Thumbnails (no interior photography).

House from east garden — House from east

Moirlanich Longhouse, Central Scotland

National Trust for Scotland
This house and connected byre is typical of a rural 19th century or early 20th century dwelling. The roof is supported by crucks and was originally thatched, though the thatch was raked back in the 1940’s and covered with corrugated iron sheeting.
Inside, the house still has many of its original features, including a Scotch dresser, box beds and a ‘hingin lum’ or hooded fireplace. Walls were papered, and in places there are over twenty layers of wallpaper, some of which has been separated and displayed.
There is a parlour kept for entertaining the minister and the landlord, and a kitchen and bedrooms for everyday use.
Nearby is an interpretation display hut with a small exhibition.
The opening hours are restricted to two afternoons a week in the summer.
I visited the house during a tour of fine Highland scenery.
Thumbnails

Petworth House, West Sussex

National Trust
Petworth is a vast house with an important collection of paintings. The service block and servants’ quarters are across the courtyard, and there is a large park with lake.
The house was rebuilt in 1688 and altered in the 1870’s.
The artist JMW Turner was a frequent visitor to the house and guest of Lord Egremont, and the collection includes 20 of his paintings. The house features in the movie “Mr Turner” and was used as a location.
Most of the grand rooms on the ground floor are devoted to the display of paintings and sculpture, and the north end incorporates a purpose-built gallery. On some days an extra two rooms at the south end of the ground floor are opened.
The historic kitchen block, built in the 1750’s, is well preserved and the ground floor rooms can be entered. Some rooms are now used for shop, cafe and restaurant facilities.
At the date of visiting, the roof of the main house was undergoing repairs and a Roof Tour (cost £5) was available, which gives a great view of the works and of the surrounding rooftops and countryside.
There is a lot to see and I spent over 4 hours there (not including the park).
If driving through the town, beware the tricky one-way system, especially if following a sat-nav. The Petworth NT carpark is distanced a fitness-inducing walk from the house. There is another carpark at the far end of the great park.
Thumbnails:

Uppark, West Sussex

National Trust
Uppark is a Queen Anne style house and garden standing on a hilltop. It was built largely in its present form in the late 17th century. Some remodeling took place in the 18th and 19th century. It is a handsome house, and has some fine principal rooms with original contents. The gardens are attractive, and there are some interesting tunnels under the forecourt which connect the house with the stables and former kitchen outbuildings.
Uppark is known nowadays partly for the disastrous fire which occurred in 1989. The fire was started by heat from a workman’s blowlamp, and not discovered till it had taken hold in the roof. Firemen arrived promptly but were unable to halt the progress of the fire which destroyed the roof and upper floors and damaged the principal floor. The portable contents of the principal floor were rescued by firemen and volunteers before the upper floors fell into the principal rooms.
The decision was made to restore the house to its condition before the fire. The reconstruction was an epic of restoration. Today, the principal (ground) floor looks much as it did before the fire and is furnished with most of its original contents.

Chartwell, Kent

National Trust
Chartwell was the country home of British prime minister and war leader Sir Winston Churchill.
The site of Chartwell was built on from the 16th century, but the present house originated in the Victorian period. It was a brick Victorian house of no architectural merit, but Churchill bought it for its position and the views. It was transformed and extended by the architect Philip Tilden in a vernacular style of the kind made popular by Lutyens. In 1938 it had 5 reception rooms, 19 bed and dressing rooms, 8 bathrooms, and was set in 80 acres of grounds.

A tour of the house takes well under an hour, and it has to be said that the main interest is the Churchill connection. Rooms are displayed as they were in Churchill’s time, or contain exhibitions. Various rooms contain some of Churchill’s books. He owned many thousands of books, and made a living as a writer and historian. His histories of Marlborough, and of the English Speaking Peoples, of the Second World War etc. are still worth reading today. Volumes of his work can be seen shelved around the house. Many of Churchill’s own paintings are also on display. His art may not be to all tastes, but he was regarded as a serious artist. Below the principal ground floor is a lower floor that looks out onto the lakes. The kitchen on this level is preserved as it was in the 1930’s.

The grounds are very extensive, and contain formal gardens, lakes, woods, a swimming pool, a walled garden with a wall part built by Churchill, and some cottages with Churchill’s art studio.

Access is along narrow roads. The car park is of only moderate size, and when I visited on a March afternoon, it was full.

Ightham Mote, Kent

National Trust.
Ightham Mote (pronounced I-tam) is a medieval manor house that has survived for over 650 years in a valley in the Weald of Kent. It is entirely surrounded by a moat of running water, fed by a stream that traverses the gardens. The various owners were wealthy but not famed, and made modest changes to the house to adapt it to their needs and tastes. Much of the present outline of the house was in place by the 16th century. The house, with its cream stone and jumble of red-tiled roofs, sitting in a square moat, is very attractive.
If one stands in the central courtyard and looks around, it may look as if the house is of one piece and date, but in fact it is the product of six centuries. The earliest parts of the house date from the 1330s while other parts were built or altered at times from the Tudor to Jacobean to Victorian. The last owner bought the house in the 1950s and some rooms are presented with the decor of this period.
The house suffered sales of its entire contents on more than one occasion, and is presently furnished with furniture appropriate to the periods in which the rooms are presented.
Above the house to the north is a lawn and informal grounds, while to the west are a formal garden and some cottages on the site of the former stable block.
From 1990 to 2004 the house underwent a major programme of conservation during which much of the roof and timber-framed rooms were dismantled, and rotted and infested parts of the timbers cut out and replaced with new wood, before the whole was reassembled, so that the house now looks the same as before, but no longer crumbling. Hence most of the lath and plasterwork in the house is modern. On the other hand, without these repairs and also the repairs carried out in the Victorian period, parts of the house would have eventually fallen down. The conservation programme cost around £11 million.

Ightham Mote is well worth a visit, as it has some fine interiors and is one of the best moated medieval houses in the country.
Note that the approach to the house is along narrow roads.

Coughton Court, Warwickshire

National Trust
The Throckmorton family have owned Coughton (pronounced ‘coat-on’) since the 1400’s and the present house, with its gatehouse and two wings, dates from the 16th century onwards. The Throckmortons were a Catholic family, and much of their history is a story of persecution, secret worship, and hiding priests. The family were also entangled in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy.
The house, as seen from the courtyard, has two projecting brick and timbered wings in a Tudor-ish style, connected by an imposing stone gatehouse. From the other, West, side, the stone gatehouse, flanked by a pair of Gothic styled wings, dominates.
Parts of the gatehouse, including the roof, and most of the South wing are opened to visitors. A ‘priests’s hole’ can be seen in the tower. The house contents are interesting, and include some religious relics. The double-height Saloon is the biggest room, and apparently was the medieval Hall. Looking at the ground-floor South wing plan, it appears that there are some spaces near the end of the tour that are easy to miss.

In the grounds, there is no shortage of things for visitors to look at: a walled garden, a lake, river walks, an orchard, two churches, and a vegetable garden. When I visited there were scores of for-sale sculptures dotted around the grounds.

Coughton appears to be a popular destination, and if you want to go around the house it is advisable to go early to avoid being caught out by the timed entry ticketing.

Hinton Ampner, Hampshire

National Trust.
Hinton Ampner is best known for its fine garden and stunning views to the south. The country house itself represents the fifth rebuilding on the site. It was remodelled in 1960 by Ralph Dutton, the 8th and last Lord Sherborne, after a devastating fire destroyed the interior and most of the contents.
The house, previously Victorian, has been remodelled in a Georgian manner to contain Ralph Dutton’s collection of Georgian and Regency furniture, Italian pictures and objets d’art.
I found the house of more interest than the gardens. Dutton seems to have been particularly fond of objects made of porphyry, and of tables and cabinets inlaid with semi-precious stone.
If you like formal gardens, look at the Sunken Garden behind and below the house. The garden descends in a series of terraces.
If you are looking for the Walled Garden, you already saw part of it, as a section is fenced off to serve as the reception route.
A small old church also stands in the grounds.
I have not included any pictures of Hinton Ampner, as I arrived there after two hours in a hot car on one of the hottest days of the year, and the sole thought in my head on leaving the car was to buy some chilled water ASAP.

Speke Hall, Liverpool

National Trust.
Speke Hall was built in stages during the sixteenth century by the Norris family, and now comprises four timber-framed ranges built around a central courtyard. The south-eastern corner with the Great Hall appears to be the earliest part, and the east range, containing the kitchen and scullery, is the latest.
The house later was neglected, and when purchased by Richard Watt in 1795 it appears to have been derelict, with the west wing in complete decay. A full restoration was not carried out until the 1850’s, and this gave the interiors their present antiquarian character. William Morris wallpapers were put up in various rooms. The Tudor-style furniture was mostly introduced in the 19th century.
The double-height Great Hall is of irregular shape and contains two fireplaces and elaborate wooden panelling and bay windows. The Great Parlour has an ornate plaster ceiling, and a large fireplace with above it carved wood panels representing William Norris II with his two wives and nineteen children. At the other end of the room is a massive oak buffet containing pieces of older carving.
The Blue Drawing Room was fitted out in the 17th century. It is presently decorated with William Morris wallpaper, and furnished with a suite of Louis XV style furniture purchased in the 19th century. There are several bedrooms on display. The arrangement of the kitchen and scullery dates from the Victorian renovations of around 1855, and the present cooking range was installed about 1910.
There are formal gardens around the house (mainly behind to the South) and a substantial park with woods, a kitchen garden and orchard, maze and visitor block (formerly a farm).

The black and white exterior of the house is striking, and the interiors contain many features and furnishings of interest. Outside, one can enjoy the formal gardens and walk in the wider grounds, which form an oasis of green in an area which today is heavily industrialised, with the airport a few hundred yards away. The River Mersey should be visible from the south edge of the grounds. (Click on images to enlarge)

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