Barrington Court house and gardens is located in Somerset in southern England and is managed by the National Trust. The house was built in the mid-1500s and is a Tudor-style building. The land was given to the original owner, Earl of Bridgewater, for services to Henry VIII, and a house was being planned but the fall of Catherine Howard put and end to it. Barrington Court has a house, gardens, and workshops that are open to the public with craft, furniture, and jewelery shops. I visited Barrington Court in the middle of September, and while the house was listed to be opened the week before, some bad weather had done some damage to the house and forced it to close.
The Tudor house was restored from in the 1920s as the house had become derelict, and the farm buildings, orchards and the gardens were planted. Colonel Lyle of the Tate & Lyle sugar fortune, was responsible for saving the house, and he was very interested in architecture.
Barrington Court has a formal garden called the "white garden" and also the kitchen gardens, which supply the restaurant on site. I visited the kitchen gardens first as they are next to the parking and walled, flanked by fruit trees.
The kitchen gardens had a large range of fruits and vegetables. The fruits looked like they were ripening well, and I saw beans still in blossom. I also saw pumpkins and squash ripening on the vines.
After visiting the kitchen gardens, I walked to the more formal gardens. I took my time a bit because I did not realise that the weather had damaged and closed the house then.
I found the farm building, just next to the formal gardens at the back of the house, to be interesting. No animals were living there when I visited, except a straw pig. The cobbled floor shows that it was used a lot.
On the side of the house is the formal white garden, designed by Gertrude Jekyll. It is designed with white flowering plants with a statue in the centre.
Through the wall at the back is an entrance to the other formal garden with a pond. This was my favourite garden because of the beautiful views of the house.
The National Trust took ownership of the house in 1907, and it was one of its first large properties. In 2014, it was used in the filming of "Wolf Hall".
The perfect view is the pond with the bright red dahlias.
At the end of the visit, I walked to the workshop buildings to visit the shops.
I hope to visit Barrington Court some day once it is reopened to do so.
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