June 15, 2018 - Calke Abbey
Today we got to tour Calke Abbey. Wikipedia says the following about it: The site was an Augustinian priory from the 12th century until its dissolution by Henry VIII. The present building, named Calke Abbey in 1808, was never actually an abbey, but is a Baroque mansion built between 1701 and 1704. The house was owned by the Harpur family for nearly 300 years until it was passed to the Trust in 1985 in lieu of death duties. Today, the house is open to the public and many of its rooms are deliberately displayed in the state of decline in which the house was handed to the Trust. We really loved seeing this impressive home, as it was left just as the family had had it when it was turned over to the National Trust (like the UK's National Park Service), and the family apparently rarely threw anything away. It really gave you a sense of what it had been like to live in the house. As with many of these large halls, Calke Abbey had large (in fact big enough...