Wimpole Hall

Last weekend we visited our friends in Islip, Northamptonshire.   It was great to catch up with Dawn and Richard, and as usual we were very spoilt.

On the Saturday we drove to Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, in order to look around Wimpole Hall, a magnificent National Trust property.

The house and back garden!   And some garden too.   A beautifully landscaped Parterre Garden.

And all set up for a wedding.   What a magnificent venue.   Apparently the cost, £5000, covered the venue only.

There were long views, from the front and the back of the house.    This view looked towards the folly, which was a good twenty minute walk away.   I loved the pointy box hedging.

The folly, or false Gothic Tower, which had recently been renovated.  Saturday was the opening day.   Free Pimms apparently.   But too far to walk.

The bride and bridesmaids arrived,

and walked through the house, and down the path to the waiting groom, and groomsmen, plus guests.  The wedding was quite a distraction for us.  And the other visitors also.

The grand avenue at the front, two and a half miles long, and lined with trees.   Talk about making an entrance.  Reminds me of the chateaux in the Loire Valley.

The estate comprised of 3,000 acres.     The house, built in 1640, was the largest house in Cambridgeshire.   A very grand house, but also very cosy and comfortable.   The last owners, Captain George Bainbridge, and his wife, who was the daughter of Rudyard Kipling, refurbished the house and gardens, and also had the service wing knocked down, as it was in terrible disrepair.

Some of the previous owners of the house were the Chicheley family, and the Earls of Hardwicke.

The beautiful tessellated floor in the front hallway, apparently covered in carpet by Mrs Bainbridge, during her time in the house.

A very cosy sitting room

And another equally cosy sitting room.    The Bainbridges liked their rooms to be comfortable.

The library was full of books, in many languages.   Multilingual?  Or just a collector of books.   Apparently many of the books were annotated in pencil, so they had been studied, at some point.

An amazing gas light.   The dome was built in the roof, and the room underneath was taken away, so that the view from the ground floor was quite spectacular.   Natural light during the day as well.

The size of the bath does not look very large in this photograph,   But it was huge, and very deep, with steps down the side of the bath.   The metal cylinder at the front was the shower.   Not for the fainthearted.

The stables, which were a wreck when the National Trust took over the estate.   It was quite a feat of renovation and restoration, but the finished result was impressive.   Inside the building there were now tea rooms and shops.

We also walked around the walled garden, which was also very impressive and very large.   And such an assortment of flowers, shrubs and grasses.

New Zealand flax bush.

Humpty Dumpty?   Not fallen yet though.

A very long path, lined with box hedging, and full of every vegetable imaginable.   There were also plenty of espaliered fruit trees against the walls, growing well in the warmth.

I loved these flowers, in different colours.   A variation of the common yellow yarrow.   Just like pincushions.

On Sunday we walked around Islip and admired all the beautiful houses, plus the Nene River, which flowed through the centre of the village.  

The photograph below was of the church and its very tall and majestic spire.  The steep spires in Northamptonshire, are a landmark in the area, and they rise high above the rolling hills.   There are about three hundred churches in the county, and one hundred of them have very high spires.

It was a lovely weekend, staying with our friends, and looking around their village, as well as visiting an interesting National Trust proprty.