One lovely and sunny morning in mid-July, I visited this beautiful moated manor house: Baddesley Clinton. Baddesley Clinton is located in Warwickshire, and it was passed down the same family (father to son) for twelve generations before being maintained by the National Trust so that future generations can appreciate it. The family were Catholics, and they were often short of money. I visited the property during the pandemic when the country was still locked down, and not all of the rooms were open to visit.
A house has existed on this location for over 800 years with the newest edition dating froma bout 1890 and the oldest part of the house being the kitchen. However, before we look at the interior of the house, I had a wander around the garden.
I saw one of the resident cats at Baddesley Clinton. There are two cats, and I saw the grey and white one named Tommy. He was more interested in being left to snooze than wanting any company, so I just left him to get on with his lazy morning.
The side of the house contains some beds and a sundial before getting into the walled garden and kitchen garden.
Baddesley Clinton used to be a place to see wonderful dahlia, and I planned to go to visit them in the next season, which would have been last year, but that did not happen for the obvious reasons. However, I am disappointed to say that since then, the dahlia have been replaced with squash due to the dahlia becoming diseased. Diseases in plants can and do happen, particularly if they have been left to feed on the same soil after many years.
The grounds here with the bedding plants and before walking into the walled garden were pretty.
The walled garden had a glass house and an area for the kitchen garden with vegetables growing under netting to keep the birds and other animals out.
Continue past the gardens, and there is a lovely woodside and "pondside" walk around a large pond through the forest. There are a few benches to sit on to appreciate the surroundings. The squirrel was happily foraging away (or trying to dig up previous forages).
The trail went around the other side of the house, and it was not too far to walk but pleasant enough. I headed back to the restaurant/cafe, which is located in the stables, for a bite to eat. Okay, it was breakfast, but I had a cream tea - tea with scone, clotted cream, and jam.
I still managed to eat it and arrive to queue up for the house to open about fifteen minutes before opening time, but there was already a queue formed with about ten people in front of me. During my short walk around the grounds, Baddesley Clinton had become a bit busy.
It is thought that the house contained a drawbridge over the moat at one time.
My first impressions are that it is an attractive house, a typical moated fortified medieval house. We entered at the right-hand side upon entering the internal courtyard, and this used to be the servant's area. This led off to a kitchen.
The original kitchen would have probably been a separate building in medieval times as a fire prevention method. The current kitchen was originally the servant's quarters and transformed into the kitchen in the mid-1700s. In the late-1500s, preist hunters came to the house to search (as Catholicism was not permitted), and nine men hid in the sewers underneath the house after climbing through the toilet. Five of the men were priests. The priest hunters were stalled by the offer of breakfast while servants hid the belongings of the men and turned mattresses over.
The above photograph is the entrance hall.
The Great Hall is an impressive room. The stone fireplace was actually moved from one of the rooms upstairs to its current location. King Philip III of France gave the family a tusk from a type of sea creature, and it hangs in the room. It was impossible to get some photographs without others in them as some people in front took a lot longer to look at some things.
Upstairs were two bedrooms before coming to the hallway upstairs where there is another priest hole. The floor boards are very crooked today.
Off the hallway is a chapel.
Another room upstairs is the Great Parlour, and it contains paintings. It is where the last owner painted until her death at 93. Some of the paintings are unfinished here, and these are on display.
A sign in the house explains the high thresholds. Thresholds were common in country houses in particular to hold the thresh down for insulaton. The thresh would blow into other rooms if not held by a board between rooms, and we still use the word today, although we do not place thresh (straw) on our floors.
The last room upstairs that we were able to visit was the library.
The whole house was not open during my visit due to the lockdown and social distancing rules, so I was only able to see a quick glimpse of it.
However, it is a beautiful property with a beautiful garden and lovely areas to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. Of course, the sunshine makes everything look nicer.
I do hope to return to Baddesley Clinton and hope that the house is completely opened the next time that I do visit.
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