Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire

Frontage National Trust.
Hardwick Hall is one of the best-known of the NT houses. This Elizabethan house stands on a hilltop, looking big, smart, symmetrical and impressive. The tag “Hardwick Hall, more window than wall” was coined to describe it, and indeed it seems to have a window/wall ratio rather greater than that of my Victorian house and more typical of a public building. The design looks timeless owing to this particular look being copied in later centuries. Everything about the place seems calculated to impress by its size and grandeur. There are at least two big stone staircases, and on ascending one of them, one enters the High Great Chamber on the second floor. This is a very big and very high room and lavishly decorated, the Elizabethan decorations being largely unchanged. There is also a long gallery which is quite high and very long, and crammed with 80 portraits.
In the Dining Room the Sea-dog table is supported by four superbly carved chimeras and four tortoises.
The first floor rooms are now all open to visitors. The house has six towers incorporated in the structure, and atop the towers are the initials of the house’s first owner, Elizabeth Shrewsbury, in letters at least six feet high.
Close by are the ruins of Harwick Old Hall (English Heritage), which is in fact little older than the new Hall, but was allowed to fall into disrepair in more recent years.
Don’t miss a chance to visit. A visit to both Halls and their grounds will occupy several hours. Nearby on the Hardwick estate is Stainsby Mill (NT), a water-mill in working order. (revisited July 2017)

Outbuildings
Outbuildings
High Great Chamber
High Great Chamber
Fireplace
Fireplace
Cabinet
Cabinet
Sea-dog Table
Sea-dog Table

Fountains Abbey, Yorks.

National Trust & English Heritage
Fountains Abbey is now rated as a World Heritage Site. The abbey ruins are unusually complete, with many parts standing at near their original height. Perhaps the site was too remote to be extensively pillaged for building stone. There is much to see and do on site. Besides exploring the extensive abbey ruins, you can explore the beautifully landscaped Georgian water garden of Studley Royal, and visit Elizabethan Fountains Hall, the Cistercian monastery corn mill, and St Mary’s Church.
The gardens have a lake and many temples and follies, and even a twisting tunnel designed to give visitors a mild scare. If you are a fan of William Burges, do not miss the Victorian church, which looks plain on the outside, but inside is a riot of Victorian Gothic colour and carved ornamentation in wood and stone.
You should plan for an all-day visit.

Duncombe Park, Yorks.

The house, flanked by two large square service wings, is set in extensive parkland. The house was completed in 1713 and remodelled in 1843. The central block was gutted by fire in 1879 and not rebuilt till 1895, with a slightly revised layout.
I visited Duncombe Park in 2005. Inside, there is the Stone Hall, a lavishly decorated forty-foot cube, and other fine rooms with period furnishings. The house is no longer open to the public, but you can still visit the park and gardens, which are open several days a week during the warmer months.
(If you are curious to see what the house is like inside, check Weddings/Ceremony Locations on the Park website, or enquire about the Special Events.)
The gardens are quite extensive and include two temples, a large formal terrace, and a ruined conservatory.

Cliffords Tower, York

The tower comprises an unusual quatrefoil shell wall, built on top of a high mound. It’s almost all that remains of York Castle. Visitors can climb to the top of the wall, which affords great views over the central parts of York. The middle of the tower, which may once have been roofed, is now an open courtyard. If I remember correctly, there are a few relics and exhibits to look at inside the tower.
If you’re disabled, check photos of the mound and tower before planning your visit 🙁
There is a pay car park nearby, but you probably don’t want to be driving around the centre of York during the day, and you may find access on foot or by bus less troublesome.

Charlecote Park, Warwickshire

The long red-brick house, spiky with gables and chimneys, sits close to a ponded stream. Parts of the house date from the sixteenth century. The house is built on an irregular E-plan, and has Queen Elizabeth I’s coat of arms displayed over the porch. Though Charlecote looks like an Elizabethan mansion, most of it dates from the early nineteenth century. The nineteenth-century interiors are also finished in Elizabethan style. There is a fine collection of books, and some fine furniture.
Outside are outbuildings, some of them older than the house, including a brew-house, a wash-house, and a coach-house displaying a collection of vehicles used at Charlecote in the nineteenth century.

Castle Howard, Yorks.

One of the great stately homes of England, set in a broad estate dotted with monuments and other buildings.
Most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. The south or garden front has two wings on either side of a central hall and dome. The house was badly damaged by a fire in 1940, which destroyed the dome and twenty rooms. Some rooms have been restored over the decades, but the east wing remains a shell.
Today the house contains many treasures, including several important collections of pictures, porcelain, sculpture, an enormous wine cooler, and the William Morris screens.
Castle Howard’s other claim to fame is that it was used as the location for the fictional “Brideshead Revisited” TV series. Some fire-damaged rooms were part-restored for use as sets, and others were restored with TV money. An exhibition about the filming can be seen in the house.
Outside there are gardens, and a number of listed monuments, including the Temple of the Four Winds, the Mausoleum, and numerous statues. There is also a huge lake.
There is enough to see and do to occupy the visitor for much of the day. If you want to see the monuments it helps if you like walking.

Beningborough Hall, Yorkshire

The great baroque house was built in the early 18th century. Notable are long vistas down the corridors, and the high quality of woodcarving on friezes and overmantels. The contents were dispersed in a 1958 sale, but some have been bought back since. The house also hosts a loan of 120 portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, and some porcelain from the Ashmolean Museum. Outside, a garden lies along the south side of the house.

Belton House, Lincs

National Trust
An H-shaped house built in the reign of Charles II (1685-7) sits in a wooded park, with gardens. The interior furnishings and fittings are of high quality and include collections of silver and porcelain. Delicate and intricate woodcarvings surround pictures and frame doors, and there are superb plaster ceilings in several of the principal rooms. Nineteenth-century formal gardens are laid out to the north of the house. The well-known architect James Wyatt carried out alterations to four principal rooms, and the exterior, in the late 18th century.
All photos were taken during my second visit in Sept 2022. It was raining so I was not able to visit the gardens.
The house and grounds are impressive and well worth a visit.

Gardens
Writing desk
Ceiling
Chinese room
Garden
Clock & vases
Ceiling

Barrington Court, Somerset

National Trust
This mid-sixteenth century house has a spiky outline of gables and chimneys and is built to a characteristic Elizabethan E-plan. Barrington was the first country house to be acquired by the National Trust, and it could be said that the NT has learnt by its mistakes. Ever since, the NT has been wary of accepting a house without a substantial endowment to provide for its upkeep. Barrington came to the NT as a derelict gutted shell with few original internal features remaining. Its present authentic-looking internal appearance is due to the sympathetic attention of an early tenant, Colonel A Lyle (of sugar fame) who lined it with his collection of interior fittings salvaged from contemporary derelict buildings. Every house seller knows that a house looks better with the rooms kitted out with furniture and fittings, and today Barrington is leased to Stuart Interiors for the display of period and reproduction fine furniture.
Today, the rooms, including the gallery on the top floor, make an interesting visit. The house exterior is attractive, and surrounded by lawns, a partial moat and gardens.