Category: English Heritage

Wrest Park, Beds.

House front from garden
English Heritage.
This is one of the great gardens of England, but is one of the least well known. The grounds and formal gardens cover about 90 acres, with a number of garden buildings and follies, and miles of pathways. At the further end of the canal is the domed Great Pavilion, designed by Thomas Archer in 1709-11.
The Wrest Park mansion was designed by Thomas, Earl de Grey, in a French style, and completed by 1839. Several important rooms in the house are usually open to the public: the great entrance hall, and a suite of rooms on the garden side ground floor.
Most of the garden buildings, inclding the Orangery, were built at about the same time as the house.
There is plenty to see and do, and for 2013 there is a new visitor reception and parking in the former walled garden, and a new exhibition area and Countess’s Sitting Room in the house. Just checking all the buildings in the gardens should keep one occupied for at least a couple of hours. The house, outside and inside, is also of interest, and the grand entrance hall should not be missed. The grand rooms on the garden side are largely unfurnished.

Wrest Park Orangery
Wrest Park Orangery
Wrest Park grounds
Wrest Park grounds

Wrest Park folly
Wrest Park folly
Wrest Park Pavilion, Long Water and statuary
View down Long Water
Fountain with orangery behind
Fountain

Totnes Castle, Devon

English Heritage.
This was a classic Norman motte and bailey castle, founded soon after the Conquest to overawe the Saxon town. A later stone shell-keep crowns its steep mound, and gives sweeping views across the town rooftops to the River Dart. The shell-keep wall is in a fair state of preservation, as can be seen in stock photos.
Apart from the view, there’s not a large amount of things to look at, but the circular shell keep itself looks rather iconic. You’d think that a castle on a high mound would be easy to spot, but if I remember correctly I had a lot of difficulty finding it, because the crowded old buildings block any view of it from street level. If you don’t have any luck with brown signs, find a good street map and track it down with that. The old centre of Totnes is not car-friendly so if you arrive by car it would be best to park it in a car park on the edge of the town centre and continue on foot. When I was last there, it was possible to drive up the length of the old high street and under the building that spans the street, but I really wouldn’t recommend it! Also, the exit from the top of the high street onto the ring road is hazardous, because of poor visibility and high-speed idiots.
Other EH castles are in the same area of South Devon.

Stonehenge, Wilts.

English Heritage.
One of the iconic English monuments. It is easily found at the A303/A344 junction and you could make it a stop en route to the south-west. There have been plans to expensively re-work the surroundings and visitor access, but when I visited in 2007, one had to park across the road from the stones in the EH car-park, and then cross under the road via a tunnel. One could walk around the stones in a circle but not walk amongst them. The site is open daily. (Admission charge) A free audio tour is available.
Druid myths apart, the site is impressive, the standing stones are colossal and the prehistoric workmanship amazing. A number of fallen and unstable stones were re-erected in the 20th century to restore the circle to more like its ancient complete form.
The ancient monument enthusiast will find other monuments in the same area.

Rushton Triangular Lodge, Northants.

English Heritage.
This strange triangular building was designed by Sir Thomas Tresham, and constructed between 1593 and 1597. The number three is apparent everywhere in the design, with three floors, trefoil windows, and three triangular gables on each side. It is open several days a week in the warmer months.
I navigated to the location using sat-nav. It’a a curious building and worth a visit if you are in North Northants. The Lodge was formerly part of the Rushton Hall estate, the Hall being about a mile away. The Hall, now a hotel, is worth seeing.

Chysauster Ancient Village, Cornwall

English Heritage.
This Iron Age settlement was originally occupied almost 2,000 years ago. The village consisted of stone-walled homesteads known as ‘courtyard houses’, found only on the Land’s End peninsula and the Isles of Scilly. The houses line a ‘village street’, and each had an open central courtyard surrounded by a number of thatched rooms.
There are also the remains of an enigmatic ‘fogou’ underground passage.
The site was presumably in use during the Roman occupation of Britain. Nine homesteads remain, with walls up to about four feet in height. The site is on a hill, with views of the surrounding country. If I remember correctly, access from the car park is by walking a footpath uphill along the side of a field.

Berry Pomeroy Castle, Devon

English Heritage.
The castle dates from the 15th century, and within the outer walls is a great 17th century Tudor mansion, now much ruined. The site is tucked away in a wooded valley, overlooking a steep drop. There is quite a lot to look at in the way of romantically ruined structures, and parts of the castle are quite well preserved. There is an audio tour. It’s worth a visit if you are in South Devon.
Berry Pomeroy Castle is one location where the satnav is less than helpful. If you enter the postcode into Google Maps, satellite view, you can see just why I found myself on the wrong road, going in the wrong direction, and a mile from the castle. I had to ask a local for directions. The roads in the vicinity are single track, with no visibility.

Whitby Abbey, Yorks

Whitby AbbeyEnglish Heritage.
The abbey stands on a headland overlooking the sea and the town of Whitby. The Gothic ruins are said to have inspired Bram Stoker when he was writing ‘Dracula’. The site dates from AD 657, and the visible ruins, in an Early English gothic style, date from the 13th century. Quite a lot of structure still stands, despite the ravages of time, North Sea weather, and a direct hit by a shell from a from a WWI German battle-cruiser. Also on the site are the remains of the Cholmley family mansion, now adapted to house the visitor centre and exhibitions. An audio tour is also available.
The Abbey can be reached from the town either by 199 steps, or by a much more circuitous motor route.
This is an iconic Gothic monument, and well worth a visit if you are visiting Whitby.

Rievaulx Abbey, Yorks.

Rievaulx Abbey ruins
Rievaulx Abbey ruins
English Heritage
The abbey ruins lie in a quiet valley and large parts of the church survive to their original height. There are substantial ruins of other monastery buildings. The site has yielded much archaeological evidence about abbey life, and there is an indoor exhibition. There is an audio tour.
Well worth a visit if you are touring in the area.
In theory, the site is overlooked by the nearby Rievaulx Terrace above, but in practice the view (in 2005) is severly restricted by tree growth.
Rievaulx Abbey from Terrace
Rievaulx Abbey seen from Terrace

Richmond Castle, Yorks.

English Heritage
Richmond Castle stands on a rocky promontory above the River Swale, and overlooking the picturesque old town of Richmond. The castle is Norman, and the towering keep is unusually complete. Visitors can climb up inside it for panoramic views over the castle’s great courtyard, the wide cobbled market place of Richmond, and the land beyond. There is an exhibition space, and a garden, its origins contemporary with the castle, on a terrace overlooking the River Swale. Inside the circuit of walls is a broad spread of green, with the vertical lines of the well-preserved keep soaring above.
The castle is well worth a visit if you are touring in the area. The castle is in the town and there is no dedicated parking. It was here that I encountered the parking-disk system used in North Yorkshire, that involves obtaining a free cardboard disk from a shop (etc), setting your time of arrival, and leaving it on view in your car.
The old town itself is also interesting, as I recall.

Pickering Castle, Yorks.

English Heritage
An interesting castle built on top of a mound surrouded by a deep ditch, obviously a replacement for a Norman wooden + earthwork fortification. Much remains of the outer circuit of walls surrounding the ditch, but not so much of the stone keep. There are views from the top of the mound.
Worth a visit if you are touring in the area.