Category: #50places2026

Posted on

Shute Barton #50places2026

Shute Barton was on my list of places to visit. However the house is only open to members of the public eight times a year for pre-booked guided tours. You aren’t able to book tickets until 2 weeks before these dates. I missed the June dates as I was working, but I was able to book a ticket for July.

It’s not too far from Weston, but half of the journey is on slower country roads. I arrived and parked the car, it was quite busy the car parking. Made my way to the house and a volunteer checked my booking. 

Shute Barton

A 14th century Medieval manor house with Tudor additions, with royal connections. A building of battlements and towers set in the rolling east Devon countryside,

Current saving £305.30
One adult £5.25
Parking n/a
Total saving £5.25
Cumulative saving £406.55
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £310.55

The tour was excellent, we learnt about the house, it’s history and the different owners and occupants. There are links to other properties in the area as well. The property is usually used as a holiday letting, hence the reason for the restricted opening times.

The final chapter was to enjoy the garden.

Posted on

Great Chalfield Manor and Garden #50places2026

After an enjoyable visit to Westwood Manor, it was a relatively short drive to the other property I wanted to visit which was Great Chalfield Manor in Wiltshire.

I arrived just before 3pm and parked on the verge as per the instructions on the website. I booked a house tour, which was at 4pm. 

I thought no worries, they have a refreshment place, I’ll get a tea. However, their refreshments were in a barn, it was cash only and make it yourself. I did have some water. I then headed out for a walk in the grounds and around the moat. At 4pm I headed to the front door for the tour. 

Great Chalfield Manor and Garden

This beautiful medieval manor sits in peaceful countryside. Cross the upper moat, passing barns, gatehouse and delightful parish church to enjoy fine oriel windows and the soldiers, griffins and monkey adorning the rooftops. Romantic gardens offer terraces, topiary houses, gazebo, lily pond, roses and views across the spring-fed fishpond.

Current saving £290.30
One adult £15
Parking n/a
Total saving £15
Cumulative saving £401.30
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £305.30

We weren’t allowed to take photographs indoors, as it is still used by the family and there were personal items on display. I quite like this kind of house, more of a home, than a museum. Though I do feel sometimes like I am intruding into a personal space.

I saw some lovely rooms. Many of the spaces have been used for filming, notable the BBC’s Wolf Hall.

After enjoying the grounds and the house, I headed back to the car for the journey home. 

Posted on

Westwood Manor #50places2026

Last July I planned to visit Westwood Manor, however when I arrived the car park was full and there was lots of cars parked on the verges. So, after waiting a while I headed home. I planned to attempt to visit again later in the year, but I didn’t manage it.

This time I planned to arrive just before it opened at 2pm. I arrived with ten minutes to spare; I explored the surrounding environs of the village. At 2pm I headed to the house.

Westwood Manor

This beautiful small manor house, built over three centuries, has late Gothic and Jacobean windows, decorative plasterwork and two important keyboard instruments. There is some fine period furniture, seventeenth and eighteenth century tapestries and a modern topiary garden. 

Current saving £277.30
One adult £13
Parking n/a
Total saving £13
Cumulative saving £386.30
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £290.30

After an introduction I was able to explore the house. Found it somewhat amusing that some visitors had not understood some instructions and went to explore some closed parts of the house beyond the dining room, which are used by the tenant.

It’s not a huge house and much is closed off to visitors. I was impressed with the plasterwork which was over four hundred years old. The rooms are lovely and there is lots other see in each of the rooms.

After enjoying myself exploring the house I headed into the garden.

I did think about getting a cup of tea and a slice of cake (from the village hall), but in the end headed off to see Great Chalfield Manor and Garden which is just a few miles away.

Posted on

Baddesley Clinton Hall #50places2026

I had been to Baddesley Clinton Hall before back in January 2023. I had planned to visit it again in 2023, but never did, nor did I visit last year, though I visited some other places close by.

So, after visiting Packwood House, it was an easy choice to make to head to Baddesley Clinton Hall which was just over two miles away. I drove up to the car park, parked and headed to reception. This is a lovely house surrounded by a moat.

There is a real sense of history as you walk through the house, starting with the medieval origins, walking through the Tudor rooms before seeing how the house was used in the 20th-century before being handed over to the National Trust. 

Baddesley Clinton Hall

Moated manor house with late medieval, Tudor and 20th-century histories. Home to the Ferrers family for 500 years.

Current saving £259.30
One adult £18
Parking n/a
Total saving £18
Cumulative saving £373.30
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £277.30

Unlike my visit in January 2023, this time I did take the opportunity to walk around the lake and the gardens.

Posted on

Packwood House #50places2026

I had Packwood House on my list of National Trust properties to visit for a while now.

I drove off to Packwood House, up in Warwickshire. Though the app didn’t say the property had EV chargers, the website did. I arrived with 12% charge left and there were EV chargers, and I plugged in the Funky Cat.

I headed to reception, got my membership card scanned, and got a timed ticket for the house. I headed to the house.

This was a wonderful house, I really enjoyed exploring all the different rooms. Though not authentically Tudor, the early 20th century restoration, which is being conserved, is delightful. The upper floors are lovely. I really enjoyed the long gallery and the great hall at the end was unexpected.

Packwood House

The culmination of a lifetime of dreams: salvaged objects and exotic pieces come together in a Jacobean meets Edwardian style. Beautiful, homely, warm and welcoming. The house was originally built in the 16th century, yet its interiors were extensively restored between the First and Second World Wars by Graham Baron Ash to create a fascinating 20th-century evocation of domestic Tudor architecture. Packwood House contains a fine collection of 16th-century textiles and furniture, and the gardens have renowned herbaceous borders and a famous collection of yews.

Current saving £241.30
One adult £18
Parking n/a
Total saving £18
Cumulative saving £355.30
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £259.30

After exploring the house, I headed back to the café and had the ploughman’s lunch, which was significantly better than the one I had at Stourhead. I got bread this time.

After eating my lunch and drinking my green tea, I headed back to the house, well the gardens. I enjoyed walking around the collection of Yews, and the spiral terrace at the end of the garden was an intriguing surprise.

I had a lovely time at the house and would go again in the future.

Posted on

Denbies Wine Estate #50places2026

You could say at one level that putting a place like Denbies, essentially a wine shop in my list of #50places2026 might be seen as cheating, it’s just a shop isn’t it?

However there is a lot more to the place then a shop to buy some English wine. On the day we went, there was a Peugeot car rally, alongside an antiques fair.

Across the estate are the wine shop, restaurants, a farm shop, a beer shop, coffee roastery, to name some.

However what you can also do is walk around the vineyards in the estate. On the day we went it was hot and sunny and I did feel like I was walking around a vineyard in France or Germany.

I was pleased to have reached my fifty places in 2025 for my #50places2025 series of blog posts. This year I am planning to do something similar with a new hashtag, #50places2026 and it will be the same rules. Each time I visit a place I will post a blog post and some photographs. I can’t repeat places, and in an extra twist I can’t use the fifty places I visited in 2025 in the list as well (though I anticipate visiting some of those places again).

So far I have visited 34 places.

Posted on

Royal Albert Hall#50places2026

This was my first visit to see a performance at The Royal Albert Hall. We went to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Film Music Gala. It started off with the march from Raiders of the Lost Ark and finished off with Axel F from Beverley Hills Cop. Magnificent performance, which I really enjoyed.

I had been to see the hall in October 2022, but was just passing by and took a few photographs of the exterior.

Posted on

Wimbledon#50places2026

I have been to Wimbledon before, well Wimbledon Village, when I was staying at a hotel there for work back in August 2022. I remember when my Sixth Form College was having a trip to Wimbledon to see the tennis (back in the late 1980s), I wanted to go, but it was deemed to be not educational and relevant to my A Levels…. so I never went. I was staying in Wimbledon with my son who has just moved there. We spent time waking through the centre and up to the village and onto the common. I didn’t see any wombles though. I did see lots of horses riding through the village though. We had some nice meals and coffee too.  

Posted on

Priest’s House, Muchelney #50places2026

Priest's House, Muchelney

There are some properties where you can spend the whole day exploring the house, the gardens and the grounds. However the National Trust is not just about big houses and mansions, they also have large areas of countryside and coastal areas. One aspect of their portfolio are smaller houses of interest. So, I had a plan I would three such properties in one day. The first of which was Coleridge Cottage, the second was the Treasurer’s House in Martock, the third and final house was the Priest’s House in Muchelney.

It’s only a short drive from Martock to Muchelney, I realised that I was double backing on myself, but it was in the right direction going home. 

As with the Treasurer’s House, this National Trust property is on a tenancy, which means that for someone, it is their home. They open the house to National Trust for two afternoons a week over the summer.

Priest’s House

Late medieval hall-house in a picturesque village. This medieval hall-house was built in 1308 for the parish priest of the church opposite, and has been little altered since the early 17th century. Interesting features include the Gothic doorway, magnificent double-height tracery windows and a massive 15th-century stone fireplace.

Current saving £236.30
One adult £5
Parking n/a
Total saving £5
Cumulative saving £337.30
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £241.30

The owner does short tours of the house, so I rang the doorbell and waited for a short while before being let in for the tour.

This is a lovely thatched cottage, with some lovely medieval features. The massive 15th-century stone fireplace was huge and made from one piece of stone. Makes you wonder how they managed to not only get that into the property, but also how they got it to the village as well.

The tour is quite short, just three rooms, but the owner gave a really lovely guide to the house, its history and many of the features. 

Posted on

Treasurer’s House, Martock #50places2026

There are some properties where you can spend the whole day exploring the house, the gardens and the grounds. However the National Trust is not just about big houses and mansions, they also have large areas of countryside and coastal areas. One aspect of their portfolio are smaller houses of interest. So, I had a plan I would three such properties in one day. The first of which was Coleridge Cottage, the second was the Treasurer’s House in Martock.

It’s a thirty mile drive from Nether Stowey to Martock and Waze took me to the back of the church rather than the property. Not sure why, but it did mean I didn’t need to contend with parking on the busy B3165. I walked through the churchyard towards the Treasurer’s House. This National Trust house is on a tenancy, which means that for someone, it is their home. They open the house to National Trust for two afternoons a week over the summer.

Treasurer’s House

Medieval house with Great Hall, completed 1293 – with kitchen added in the 15th century. Solar Block contains an unusual wall-painting.

Current saving £231.30
One adult £5
Parking n/a
Total saving £5
Cumulative saving £332.30
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving £236.30

This is a lovely old building, one of the oldest buildings in Somerset (and the oldest building in Martock). The great hall is very impressive and you can also see the old Tudor kitchens as well. In the house itself there is the solar block which has an original medieval painting upon it which considering that this has been a private home, that it is still there.

A lovely property and a warm welcome from the tenants who provided an in-depth tour of the property with lots of insights.