A (an) history hit.

We were going to walk to Packwood Hall today so there was even less rush this morning than normal. It is about a 15 min walk from our mooring and on a lovely morning like today it was a pleasure despite the traffic on the road.

The first view of the House.

The house didn't open until 1100 but we spent the time in the kitchen garden. The house was built for a yeoman farmer called Fetherston between 1556 and 1560. He had pretensions and wanted to upwardly mobile. Eventually his sons became a lawyer and a doctor and they became more like gentlemen farmers playing at the farming bit. The acquired upwards of 700 acres of land around the house too. The property stayed in the family for over three hundred years.

On of the big features of the garden is the Yew Garden. This was started by taking over some of an orchard in the mid 17th Century. It now consists of 100 trees and some say it represents the Sermon on the mount. This is because there are small trees on the slopes of a mound with 12 great trees higher representing the apostles and 4 representing the evangelists. It the summit of the mound is one large tree. This is looking back at the house from the 'multitude' on the slopes.

Here you can see the mix of large yew trees and box hedges.

The grounds have lovely gardens and woodland walks and the bluebell walk was still looking great.

One of several 'art installations' in the woods.

Looking back at the house from the far side of the lake.

The Fetherston family fell on hard times and after renting and then selling the house lay empty for a few years before an industrialist from Birmingham, Alfred Ash, who had made is money out of galvanising bought it in 1904. He died in 1925 and the house etc was left to his son Graham Baron Ash and a daughter Beryl. Graham lost no time in selling the business interests and investing in the stock market. He then set about transforming the house back to a 16th/17th Century manor house. He was able to do this as at the time many of the landed families of the country were in difficulties and house were being closed and demolished so he was able to buy original items for his conversion. Graham (Baron was just a middle name) never married and was a precise and fastidious man who liked everything to be tidy and just so, and that is how he wanted the house to be. He did have visitors but only so long as they didn't overstay! Above you can see the converted cow barn that was finished just in time for the visit of Queen Mary in 1927. It wasn't connected to the house at the hat time. He later had the long gallery added to join the two up. The oriel window is named after Queen Mary. He sold his stocks at just the right time before WWII. By 1941 he had finished his project and persuaded the nascent National Trust to take over the house and grounds and a lump sum of £35000. He added 42 conditions to the gift, things like there must be fresh flowers in the rooms, the furniture couldn't be moved, the land couldn't be built on etc etc. He wanted it not to be as it was but how he wanted it to be seen. He lived there still until 1947 when he moved into Wingfield Castle in Norfolk where he started the process of restoration again. He had leased the castle for two years to get it habitable and taken a bathroom and the kitchen from Packwood. He died in 1980 at the castle and he still had over £800000 so not only was he a restorer and conservationist but seemed to have a good eye for investment.

The beard will have to go when I get home to get the charger cable. We had a walk round some more of the grounds and then headed back to the boat. The air seemed to be cooling off and there were black clouds looming. Thunder and lightening had been forecast along with torrential showers so we were hoping to escape them. As it happens, to press, there hasn't been a drop of rain falling. It has been a nice relaxing day and worth the stop. There is another National Trust property within easy reach of Kingswood Junction, Baddesley Clinton, but I think we have had our fix and besides it doesn't open at the beginning of the week so we would miss it.