It was a lovely sunny day (albeit a bit chilly) when we left by coach to Houghton Hall, only1 hour and 20 minutes away. In fact, we arrived a bit early so had to wait outside the very ornate white gates to get in, but it gave us the chance to observe that all the cottages outside were painted white and, as we found out later, housed the people who work at the Hall.
Houghton Hall is a beautiful Palladian mansion surrounded by traditional parkland built for Britain’s first and longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in the 1720s. It is now home to the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, a descendent of Walpole. As one of the guides told us, it was built to impress - and so it did! It is absolutely sumptuous, breathtaking. What was impressive was that the guides in each room obviously loved their job and were able to give us little snippets that one wouldn’t find in the official handbook!
We knew that Houghton Hall has the Cholmondeley Collection of Model soldiers. Well …. I hear you say …. but it is an incredible collection started by the 6th Marquess in 1928 and moved to Houghton Hall in 1980 soon after the Hall was opened to the public.
Out into the garden. The walled garden is most impressive with colourful borders, vegetables and fruit trees AND the most spectacular wisteria walkway (if that is the proper term) that I have ever seen. Here again the gardeners were quite happy to chat, and at the plant shop the lady serving there carried one of our member’s box of plants to the coach for her!
For those with deep pockets there is an impressive display of paintings and ceramics, and a gift shop for those of us with more modest means!
How could I forget the cafe – who doesn’t like cake? Well, there was a good array of savouries too. In fact, we felt obliged to visit the cafe twice during our visit.
Although privately owned the Hall is open to the public on Wednesdays, Thursdays and weekends this year and is well worth a visit.
I think we all agreed that it was a most enjoyable day out.
Photographs: Copyright Seajay Harrison