A Weekend in Warwickshire .......

....... and an interesting discovery!

So, last Bank Holiday weekend we went up to Warwickshire to see our son and visit a few National Trust places in the area (having exhausted all the houses near us).  On our way up we stopped off at Charlecote Park - a beautiful 16th century country house set in a deer park.

Charlecote Park

For some reason I didn't take many photos inside the house but I couldn't fail to notice the beautiful pietre dure table in the entrance hall - here's just the corner.  It really is stunning!

Also pictured is a lovely ceiling..... 

After lunch we went to Upton House (near Banbury).  Currently, this house has been transformed back into a bank and it will remain 'dressed' for wartime until sometime in 2017.  During the Second World War the owners of Upton House (the Bearsteads), vacated the house and relocated the senior employees of their family owned bank (Samuel & Co) to Upton House.  For the duration of the war, they ran the bank from Upton House - it's a fascinating story and we only had a short visit but I think we'll go back! 

The Banking Hall

















I'm pretty sure my grandad had this green china!

Wow - I love the fabric on this chair!   I'm not sure if this is the original fabric but Zoffany's Bargello weave is almost identical (I feel a flamestitch post coming on!) ......

There is also a fantastic art collection at Upton House and beautiful gardens.  When we visited, the tulips were amazing!

 

Day 2 and (after a hearty breakfast!) we set off for Packwood House - and this is where we made our interesting discovery!  This house is gorgeous - it's a much restored Tudor house stuffed full of fabulous textiles and treasures.  Apparently a visitor in the 1920's said of Packwood House:

"It's a house to dream of and a garden to dream in."

We wandered round, admiring the house and its treasures (more on those later) and had an  interesting chat with a man doing a deep clean in one of the rooms - he explained to us that they literally go over every inch of every room to inspect for signs of woodworm, damp etc - painstaking work!

Entrance Hall - with welcoming fire

The long hall with beautiful tapestries on the walls





































So, we wandered round the ground floor and made our way up to the first floor and walked into a room (the name of which we didn't know because we weren't paying attention!) and read this:

 

We did know about this because my husband's cousin had researched the family tree but we had completely forgotten about it!  It  would appear that the house was in the family until 1876 - it would seem that I married into this family 110 years too late!

Lord of the manor!

Excitement over, we carried on walking round (feeling much more "at home!") - here are some of my favourite finds:

The grounds were pretty special too .......

Auricular Theatre

After that, we went to Hatton Locks - a flight of 21 locks and quite spectacular!

Our final port of call was Farnborough Hall which is still a family home so, although we were free to look around a lot of the house, we weren't able to take photos.

Watch this space for a post about flamestitch fabrics and wallpapers .......

Thanks for stopping by!