July 26, 2018 - Shugborough Hall
While Heidi was visiting us, we toured another stately home in the area. Just to shake things up a little this time, we will use the National Trust description of the estate instead of Wikipedia's (We're really living on the edge, aren't we?!).
Rare survival of a complete estate, with all major buildings including mansion house, servants' quarters, working farm, and walled garden
Join us on a journey into uncharted territory as the Shugborough Estate returns to the care of the National Trust this year. This is just the start of the journey for Shugborough as the programme of conservation and improvements to the whole estate is a long term project that will continue to be carried out over the next ten years.
Home to the Anson family since 1624, a legacy of exploration and innovation, it was once described as ‘a perfect paradise’.
You can explore sweeping parkland, ancient woodland and a landscape peppered with monuments, then discover Park Farm, created at the cutting-edge of agricultural reforms.
In the Georgian mansion, unearth unusual treasures and experience life 'below stairs', then enter a world of glamour and royalty in the apartments of Patrick Lichfield, 5th Earl and fashion photographer.
Shugborough has quite a bit to offer. The estate has an interesting history of being built on treasure seized from a captured, foreign ship. The servants quarters are some of the most interesting we have seen, giving a seemingly realistic view of how it may have been to live and work there. The more modern apartments of Patrick Lichfield are an interesting, if not voyeuristic, view into the life of one of the UK's most famous photographers who died in 2005 (Unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to take photos in the apartments, so we have no way to show this part of our tour.). The expansive grounds and gardens are beautiful, even though everything was severely dried up due to lack of rain this summer. It is hard to imagine how beautiful it must be in a regular, rainy year. We'll start in the large, walled garden. Their specialty was dahlias. They were amazing.
We started by touring the servants quarters. The National Trust has done a great job at Shugborough of showing how the operations of the house happened. The picture below is the stables and servants quarters. Imagine what all of that wisteria must look like in bloom!
This table in the servants' hall had a plate for each major position and showed how much money they made relative to the others.
When you have a lot of ironing to do and only stove-heated irons, you probably need a way to keep many hot. This system seemed ingenious.
The contraption below was used to press linens. The linens were pressed between the box full of rocks and the rollers beneath the box.
Certainly, a lot of hard work had been done in these rooms. Notice the fire-heated washing tub in the back wall. We have seen many of these large, ribbed, galvanized bucket things all over Derbyshire. But we did not realize that they were washing buckets until we saw them here in context. The ribs work to help clean, just like the ribs on a washboard.
Another part of the tour involved some of the farm work buildings, but I guess we don't have pictures. In one of those buildings was a sort of museum that had all kinds of old farm implements, with posters and displays of how they all would have been used. It was very interesting and made us quickly see how hard they had to work at what they did. We really enjoyed the diversity of the different areas of this estate that gave us a view into many different working parts of life in earlier times.
Rare survival of a complete estate, with all major buildings including mansion house, servants' quarters, working farm, and walled garden
Join us on a journey into uncharted territory as the Shugborough Estate returns to the care of the National Trust this year. This is just the start of the journey for Shugborough as the programme of conservation and improvements to the whole estate is a long term project that will continue to be carried out over the next ten years.
Home to the Anson family since 1624, a legacy of exploration and innovation, it was once described as ‘a perfect paradise’.
You can explore sweeping parkland, ancient woodland and a landscape peppered with monuments, then discover Park Farm, created at the cutting-edge of agricultural reforms.
In the Georgian mansion, unearth unusual treasures and experience life 'below stairs', then enter a world of glamour and royalty in the apartments of Patrick Lichfield, 5th Earl and fashion photographer.
Shugborough has quite a bit to offer. The estate has an interesting history of being built on treasure seized from a captured, foreign ship. The servants quarters are some of the most interesting we have seen, giving a seemingly realistic view of how it may have been to live and work there. The more modern apartments of Patrick Lichfield are an interesting, if not voyeuristic, view into the life of one of the UK's most famous photographers who died in 2005 (Unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to take photos in the apartments, so we have no way to show this part of our tour.). The expansive grounds and gardens are beautiful, even though everything was severely dried up due to lack of rain this summer. It is hard to imagine how beautiful it must be in a regular, rainy year. We'll start in the large, walled garden. Their specialty was dahlias. They were amazing.
Notice how dry the grass is, and yet how beautiful the flowers still are.
It's a bit of a walk to the mansion house from the walled garden and parking lot, but well worth it.
We started by touring the servants quarters. The National Trust has done a great job at Shugborough of showing how the operations of the house happened. The picture below is the stables and servants quarters. Imagine what all of that wisteria must look like in bloom!
This table in the servants' hall had a plate for each major position and showed how much money they made relative to the others.
The large laundry was interesting to see.
The large drying rack on the ceiling could be raised and lowered.
When you have a lot of ironing to do and only stove-heated irons, you probably need a way to keep many hot. This system seemed ingenious.
The contraption below was used to press linens. The linens were pressed between the box full of rocks and the rollers beneath the box.
Certainly, a lot of hard work had been done in these rooms. Notice the fire-heated washing tub in the back wall. We have seen many of these large, ribbed, galvanized bucket things all over Derbyshire. But we did not realize that they were washing buckets until we saw them here in context. The ribs work to help clean, just like the ribs on a washboard.
Of course the mansion house was rather grand.
They went to considerable work to make this library door hidden.
Though parched, the gardens behind the house were impressive.
The grounds surrounding the house had many interesting monuments, features, and walking trails.
The statue below has a cat on the top and may have been erected in honor of beloved pets.
Another part of the tour involved some of the farm work buildings, but I guess we don't have pictures. In one of those buildings was a sort of museum that had all kinds of old farm implements, with posters and displays of how they all would have been used. It was very interesting and made us quickly see how hard they had to work at what they did. We really enjoyed the diversity of the different areas of this estate that gave us a view into many different working parts of life in earlier times.
Comments
Post a Comment