Gloucester Warwickshire Railway

This preserved steam railway offers a 2x 10-mile round trip between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Cotswolds. The track was once a GWR main line.
Main stations (and boarding points) are at Cheltenham racecourse, Toddington and Winchcombe. Currently (2011) the railway operates in two halves because of a trackbed collapse. To be honest, as it’s a while since I visited this one I don’t remember a lot about it, except that it offered a decent length of run though some pretty countryside. Plan on using the train trip(s) as the basis for a day out. As with most preserved railways, tickets are available that let you hop on and off the train as much as you like. The workshops are not open to the public.

Wimpole Hall & Estate, Cambs.

Wimpole Hall frontage
Wimpole Hall
A mostly 18th century house, set in the middle of a large estate with a two-mile avenue of limes, a stable block, a walled garden, a model farm, a wooded park, and an 18th century bath room. There is plenty to see and do. Inside the house, note the painted chapel, the Yellow Drawing Room, and the long library. The stable block provides the usual National Trust shopping and munching experience. Plan for a half-day to full-day visit. There is an extra charge for the farm (inc. NT members.) Road access is via the A603.
Wimpole Hall - rear
Wimpole Hall - rear

Rockingham Motor Speedway

The circuit was originally built in 2001 for American-style oval racing, but the middle has now been developed to allow for up to 13 track layouts. There is grandstand seating on one side of the oval, facing the pits and the lap display tower, allowing all spectators to be seated with a view of the whole circuit. It’s a big place, so you might want to bring binoculars. Some of the seating is under cover IIRC. All facilities are modern and there is plenty of hard-stand parking, unlike some other circuits! For some events, spectators were allowed to cross under the track at lunchtime and have a pit walk-about.

Castle Drogo, Devon

Castle under repair National Trust
The castle, built of granite, is in fact a fairly modern construction, designed by Edwyn Lutyens for Julius Drewe, a self-made millionaire and owner of Home and Colonial Stores. It was built between 1910 and 1930.
Inside, there are 1930’s style baronial interiors and family keepsakes. Outside, the house is dramatically sited on high ground overlooking a steep valley. There is a garden, and there are walks along the edge of the gorge.
The house suffers from water penetration, mainly through the flat roofs, whose unconventional asphalt topping was not a success. A further £11 million effort is being launched to fix the intractable leak problem. [£11m! No wonder people are reluctant to buy homes of non-traditional design 🙂 ]
Road access is steep, narrow and bendy.
Revisited May 2015: The roof repair is under way, and large amounts of granite have been removed from roofs and parapets to give access to the failing asphalt. The numerous windows are also being refurbished and given modern sealants. The interior has been cleared of vulnerable contents and access is limited. Some of the accessible rooms contain elements of a special modern art exhibition.
There is a viewing platform on top of the scaffolding giving a view of the roof, but I was not able to go up because of poor weather. However you can get some idea of what is being done by peering out of windows during your tour.
Revisited April 2017. Restoration continuing – first half completed and scaffolding moved to second section. Went up scaffolding for roof visit and view of light wells over kitchen.
The formal gardens are unaffected by the building works, and worth a visit as you return from the castle.

Drogo covered in sheeting
Work in progress
Formal gardens
Formal gardens
Tall ornate clock
Clock
Ornamental clock
Clock

Tyntesfield, Somerset

House approach
National Trust
An impressive Victorian estate and one of the NT’s more high-profile acquisitions, Tyntesfield is deep in the Somerset countryside. Besides the house and chapel there are gardens and miscellaneous out-buildings, with the inevitable restaurant, shop, café and visitor centre. When acquired, the house was a time-warp and stuffed with period objects. When I visited, the formal rooms were quite impressive, and the service and other rooms that were opened were full of miscellaneous stuff. The Chapel is next to the house but had a separate entrance, which was also used to give access to some rooms in the upper part of the house.

Update: Sept 2014.
Since my last visit, the NT visitor’s entrance has been moved to the service yard, a few more formal and service rooms have been opened on the ground floor, and the upper floor has been opened for visitors. The tour now exits via the Chapel. (My old guidebook shows the Billiard Room, Mrs Gibbs’ Room, and the Old Servants’ Hall as accessible, but they are not on the 2014 tour.)
The central hall, Library, Dining room and Drawing Room are impressively decorated in Victorian style and fully furnished.
Upstairs, approx ten rooms can be visited. These are less impressive than the downstairs rooms, but still interesting, and some are still filled with undisplayed stuff.
The Chapel is the size of a smaller church, and an impressive and colourful example of Victoriana.
In the house, it’s amusing to note that an analog Mitsubishi TV belonging to the last owner has become a NT exhibit. 🙂

Dining Room
Dining Room
Upstairs store-room
Upstairs store-room

Toddington Manor, Beds.

Private – non current.
The manor has a long history, and parts date from the Tudor period. The building used to be much bigger (see Wikipedia).
The gardens were open to the public on limited dates, and when I went a few years ago a tractor collection and other agricultural things were also on display. The gardens (with lake) are quite worth seeing. The house is not open to the public.
Toddington Manor is of special interest to me as until recently it was owned by Sir Neville Bowman-Shaw, who was the MD of Boss Trucks Ltd, where I used to work, and which went bust in 1994. I lost my job, while Sir Neville continued to lord it over Toddington Manor.
The estate was sold, asking price £6.5M. The tractor collection was apparently sold at auction.
The estate agent’s brochure gave a surprising amount of detail.

Stoke Park Pavilions, Northants.

Side view of both pavilions
Privately Owned
The two pavilions date from the 1620’s, and with parts of a curving colonade are all that is left of a large house with wings. One pavilion contained a chapel, the other a library. They are among the earliest examples of Palladian architecture in England. These are attractive buildings. Access is limited to a few days in August, and requires payment of a small fee. I remember having to drive down a long narrow lane avoiding the paintball site, waiting till the opening time, and knocking at the door of the keyholder’s cottage, and I think I was the sole visitor that afternoon. On the second visit (Aug 2012) it was open and there were other visitors and a friendly gardener. You can go inside the left-hand (ballroom) pavilion.
Various buildings from the original estate exist, under separate ownership and converted for residential use.
Pavilion L is now a wedding venue.

Pavilion R
Pavilion
Pavilion - Left
Pavilion -L
Site of mansion
Site of mansion
Fountain
Fountain
Pavilion L interior
Pavilion L interior

Cutty Sark, Greenwich, London

Forget it for 2011 – it’s under restoration, complicated by a serious fire, and even if you are outside the site you can’t see anything. For the curious, there is a restoration website.
In 2002 I visited the original Cutty Sark, and found it a most interesting visit. While the planking is timber, the ribs are of iron, and looked surprisingly small in section. What you will be able to see next year will be jolly fine, but it will be heavily restored.

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

An interesting visit for astronomy buffs, as there are displays of historic instruments and the original buildings. There is now an admission charge, to the considerable annoyance of visitors who just want to be photographed standing on the Greenwich Meridian.
If you are in or around the park at noon GMT or 1pm Summer Time, watch the ball on top of the Observatory, which is slowly raised and then suddenly dropped at exactly noon GMT. It’s a traditional time signal to shipping in the Thames.
There are several other places to visit in and around the Greenwich Park, and some of those are free. (National Maritime Museum, Queens House, Royal Naval College, Rangers’ House, etc)