As members of the National Trust we can visit any of their properties without paying, so we will look out for more to make the most of our annual subscription. Whilst up in the North East we went to check out Wallington Hall. The hall was in the Trevelyan family for about 250 years and there was a hall there long before that.
It is not the biggest stately home we have seen, but it sits in 100 acres. Apparently some beavers have been released in part of the estate, but we did not see them. You drive in over an ornate stone bridge to get to the car park, then it is short walk to the house via a grand arch that was probably part of the stables.
To the right is the cafe. There is a gift shop as well as another for gardening equipment that also sells plants. There is also a second hand book shop that we did not see. That is a common feature at these places.
We went to the gardens first. This is a bit of a walk through the woods. There are a couple of large lakes on the way there.
We heard that they had a project to plant a million snowdrops in the woods. It was not the time for those, but they did have these sculptures.
On the way we passed this grand structure that is along a formal path. You could not go in.
The walled garden is huge. It would originally have contained lots of fruit and vegetables to feed the household, but is mostly given over to decorative plants now. The pond feeds a stream that runs through it. There was also a greenhouse, but that was closed to the public.
Inside the house is grand, but not too overblown. The central courtyard was roofed over at some point. The murals below portray significant figures of that part of the country, such Hadrian who built the Roman wall and Grace Darling who saved the crew of a wrecked ship. Owls feature a lot in the decoration and may be a family emblem.
One room contains several large dolls' houses that belonged to the family along with other toys.
Of course there is a large kitchen. There was a display about the girls from Newcastle who were evacuated there during the war as it was heavily bombed. They worked in the kitchen and garden.
There is also a well stocked library and there were lots of other books around the house. I like that there were some toys there too.
One of the owners wrote a popular book about the American Revolution and you can see him here with Theodore Rooseveldt who was apparently a close friend.
Rich people liked to collect things and there is a whole room dedicated to a collection of assorted items. There are stuffed birds, shells, fossils as well as relics such as weapons and a set of wax seals belonging to notable people. Such collections would be the starting point for various museums.
Wallington is worth a visit if you are in the area. I expect the snowdrops are spectacular when flowering.
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Fab! Love the walled garden :) Thanks for sharing, @steevc
Annabelle 😊
It's quite a place. I've come to appreciate gardens.
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You've really been getting around lately huh? That's awesome that you can go to all the historical sites if you are a member. Kind of like the state parks in Michigan I guess.
It's not cheap to get in if you pay on the day, so it was worth joining up.
I'm so envious of the history England has preserved. I need to make it back there soon. Most of us here in America can only trace our ancestry back a few hundred years. I just watched a show about the oldest buildings still standing in the state I was born, Ohio, and the oldest was built around 1788.
I've stayed in some buildings older than that. Of course it's usually the grand houses that last, but you can dig up old stuff just about anywhere here. America as a country is relatively new (happy birthday!), but the history goes back a lot further.
Incredible. The US is a much younger country, yes, but we've done a poor job of preserving the history we have. It's just a different mindset, really. With the help of LIDAR they're finding all kinds of indigenous settlements/earthenworks across the US that they previously didn't even know existed.
https://www.youtube.com/@CastlesandTiaras
I really like this YouTube channel. The host usually digs deep into the history of the properties she features.
I've not seen that channel, but we've followed this one for years as they dig up sites around the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/@TimeTeamOfficial
I used to watch that on our public broadcasting channel (PBS) before work in the early 2000s. I loved that show. There's also a YouTube channel created by a real estate group in London—the name escapes me—but they feature properties renovated to original specs. They just featured a row house in Covent Garden for sale that I would really liked to see in person.
Wow, it's really an interesting place to visit! That doll's house is fantastic, some months ago I watched a docu movie about some similar doll's houses and the details are really a great work of artisans. Just to know, I love the Cabinet of curiosities and I'd like to visit a similar one. 😁
I think these people had so much money that they kept finding things to spend it on. There were several dolls' houses. Another house we visited recently had hundreds of stuffed birds. I hope you can visit some places like this.
I agree with you, they had so much money to spend on this kind of things. When I was a child my dad made a doll's house for me and my sister. He loved to work with wood in his free hours and he made the house (a small house) with some fornitures too just by his hands and some pieces of cheap wood. It was not similar to the one in your pic, but for me it was the most beautiful in the world (you can see it in the following pic where I was around 7 years old).
Cute! My granddad made me a fort for my toy soldiers. We were happy with simple toys back then.
I used some of my redundancy money to buy a lifetime membership.
That's cool. I hope you can do plenty of visits. We pay annually, but may use it more when we retire.
It turned out to be a good investment.
It reminds me the villas we have here, it's cool you can visit them for free
We have to pay for the membership, but that can save us money over a year.
Update: @steevc, I paid out 12.595 HIVE and 0.000 HBD to reward 16 comments in this discussion thread.
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I wonder why the building has columns like that of ancient cities in Europe.
The classic Greek and Roman styles have always been popular.
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