At the end of November, I visited National Trust's Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire. The estate is one of the ones that has decorated for the Christmas season with a few of the rooms on the ground floor and the servants' quarters on the lower floor being opened with Christmas trees and other decorations on display. The estate has been farmed for at least 2,000 years and was an Iron Age settlement. The current house was re-lived in during the 1930s. The 1930s era is how the current house rooms are presented to visitors. In additon to the house and farm having decorations, Wimpole Estate has a large Christmas light trail for visitors to see at an additional cost.
The working farm has many animals to see, and two horses were wandering the grounds with their handlers. We saw them in the stables later, and they were dressed with green and red.
The first room off of the hallway when entering the house contained a Christmas tree and decorations on the fireplace.
The beautiful room through the hallway on the left, with the impressive dome, contained illuminated reindeer. Visitors could just peek inside.
On through the room was a Christmas tree, decorations, and wrapped boxes that children could stack.
This led to a smaller room, possibly a withdrawing room in an intimate size that contained a smaller Christmas tree and decorations.
The dining room was most impressive, laid out with Christmas decorations and set up for Christmas lunch.
After this room, we saw the staircase decorated with lights, and we headed down to the lower floor. The first room to see is the chapel room, which was lit up with candles and had people singing Christmas carols and playing the piano. I stayed for "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger".
On through the hallway is the main housekeeper's room, which was decorated with a Christmas tree and set up for tea.
Next up was the butler's room, also decorated for Christmas.
There was another Christmas tree located next to the staircase in the servant's hall, and this led to the outside door at the side of the hall.
The was a pleasant walk through the garden and views of the folly ruins, which I want to see sometime. Last time, we could not find the way inside the parkland until after we had walked across the entire estate (after visiting the walled garden and farm) and decided that we would visit it on a following visit with hopes of dry weather.
We visited the farm and saw the cattle, goats, rabbits, horses, chickens, and pigs.
Previous visits to Wimpole:
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