There
may be many fewer homes open than gardens but what there are provide plenty
of interest - from medieval St. Michael's Mount, Tudor Godolphin
and Cotehele, through Georgian Antony and Pencarrow, to part Tudor, part
Edwardian Lanhydrock. Favourites are Antony for its sheer elegance
and woodland garden, Cotehele for its antiquity, gardens and location,
Pencarrow for its family's fight to keep it going, Trewithen for a charming
guided tour. Private homes (*starred) mostly have obligatory guided
tours; National Trust are self-guide with docents in each room;
Mount Edgcumbe, owned by Plymouth, is self-guide. We prefer self-guide; guides can get too personal.
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Antony House is the
ancestral home of the Carew Poles who have been here since the late 15th
century. Their present home is a charming early Georgian mansion
- but with more Christopher Wren to it than the Robert Adam. Contents,
though of no great significance, are most enjoyable - portraits by Reynolds
(a local man closely associated with Saltram House in Devon), sporting
paintings by Sartorius, Chinese Chippendale furniture, Waterford crystal
and Ming dynasty figures. Gardens by the house are pleasant and varied
- at one end of an avenue there is an unexpected temple bell from Mandalay
- but the best of the garden is the separate Woodland
Garden (unlike the house, not National Trust but still owned by
the family), a hundred acres with a National Collection of Camellias, the
(for Cornwall) inevitable rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias - and glorious
views over the Rivers
Lynher
and Tamar
and across to the tiny harbour of Anthony Passage. Anthony House
is on the Rame Peninsula, in the far south-east of Cornwall. It is
accessible also by ferry from Plymouth on the the Devon side of the River
Tamar; a car ferry runs from Devonport to Torpoint, a passenger ferry
runs from Stonehouse to Cremyll. In addition to a shop there is also
a tearoom but, if you enjoy a pub, best places to eat nearby are the Edgcumbe
Arms in Cremyll and the Halfway House in Kingsand.
The garden is not
really large enough to justify a visit for itself only. It is, however,
well worth allowing the time to look round the garden after you have seen
the house. The views from the terrace at the north front of the house
are superb: to the north, avenues offering vistas to the River
Lynher; to the east a long avenue leading past a red brick
dovecot to a distant temple. The garden itself has a summer garden,
a knot garden, a yew walk, topiary of a bell and a tepee, and a colourful
small pool guarded by a heron sculpture. At the far end of the yew
walk is a temple bell from Burma, flanked by Japanese granite lanterns.
Maintenance is all you would expect from the National Trust.
The Caerhayes Estate
has only changed hands once in over 600 years. But for the profligacy
of the man who built the castle, it might not have changed hands then.
The Trevanions acquired the estate - stretching from Portloe to Mevagissey
- in 1370. Nothing is known about the homes they built until, around
1805, John Bettesworth Trevanion hired architect John Nash to build the
present house. Nash's extravagance bankrupted Trevanion and the entire
contents of the castle, even the lead off its roof, were sold. Eventually
John Williams - major Cornish mine owner and banker - bought it in a state
of dereliction in 1855.
I took the guided
tour in April 2005. I cannot recommend it. Our guide felt compelled
to entertain us with irrelevant anecdotes and personal asides and, though
good on the history, offered us little information on the contents.
Portraits include works by Reynolds, Romney and Cornishman John Opie.
Paintings include Dutch, animal paintings, seascapes and watercolours of
the Williams family's former Scottish estates. All that remains of
Trevanion days is a portrait of a Chesapeake Bay retreiver. Chinese
porcelain looks good. The house is high-ceilinged and light but one
feels restricted by the narrow boardwalk between tightly roped-off areas.
Library and Drawing Room are most attractive. The old billiard room
is now a museum and gallery - interesting material but you can't linger.
Anyway, the garden is the real
attraction here.
From A3078 Tregony-St.
Mawes, follow signs Portloe, Caerhays
We had last been at
Cotehele in 1988 so, on a glorious sunny March Sunday in 2003, we decided
to re-visit, as we have many times since. Set high above the broad
River
Tamar, Cotehele was in the Edgcumbe family for 600 years until
gifted to the National Trust. There is a lot to see - the House,
two
Gardens, Cotehele
Quay - with a small maritime museum and restored Tamar Sailing Barge -
and a working water mill. Thanks to the Edcumbes building a new
mansion in 1553 on the Rame Peninsula opposite Plymouth, Cotehele
remains a little altered Tudor manor. Its small-scale but rambling
interior is furnished mostly with Jacobean oak. Walls are hung with
rich tapestries and bedrooms have handsome four-poster beds with crewel-work
hangings. Highlights include a massive 400-year-old walnut veneered
cabinet with Adam and Eve carvings, an ornate mirror painted around 1700
by Boldini and, in the White Bedroom, a 1688 mirror bordered by entertaining
stump-work . There is a short introductory film and a good restaurant
and shop. In the east wing there is an art and craft gallery.
Try to avoid dull days as the National Trust believes in low light, in
order to conserve ancient textiles and paintings.
Cotehele
- the front entrance to the house
Signed by lanes from A390 2 miles W of River Tamar
ON
THE ESTATE On the quay on the River Tamar is a Discovery
Centre, updating the former museum with contemporary displays about
the estate. Nearby is the restored Tamar sailing barge Shamrock.
By the limekilns, the Edgcumbe Arms serves teas and light lunches.
On the lane towards Bartlett's Bridge is a restored Water Mill with
working waterwheel and machinery milling organic flour. There is also a
display about a new hydro-electric scheme. There is a dovecot in
the spring gardens and, on the path leading to Calstock, is the Edgcumbe
Chapel of 1485. The walk along the Tamar to Calstock is mostly
on the estate, easy going and very pleasant. We have enjoyed lunch at the Tamar Inn in Calstock.
The Godolphins were
one of Cornwall's great families, wealthy from tin and copper mining and
influential at court, but their home degenerated to farmhouse after the
line died out in the early 18th century. In 1937 it was bought by
Philadelphia Impressionist artist Elmer Schofield. For 70 years the
Schofield family struggled to maintain and restore Godolphin but in 2007
it passed to the National Trust. Inside is fine 16th and 17th century
English furniture, a good collection of Windsor chairs, and the paintings
of Elmer Schofield and his son Sidney. The famous Wootton portrait
of the Godolphin Arabian racehorse, one of three from which all thoroughbreds
descend, was once here; sadly no longer. We first visited
in May 2003, admired the ancient buildings, enjoyed the open part of the
house, tended by aged docents, and had a glorious walk. We revisited
in 2006 and again in April 2007. We were back again in 2009 to check on
progress of the house under the National Trust and to see how restoration
of the important medieval garden is going. Also in April 2007 I had
a delightful walk from here taking in both Godolphin Hill and Tregonning
Hill. It is well worth visiting Godolphin at bluebell time, the woods
are absolutely carpeted with them.
Lanhydrock
is the National Trust's most visited Cornish property, though many
visitors are locals who come just to enjoy the extensive parkland and woodland
gardens (if all you want to do is walk in the park, a public footpath runs
through). As a result, the house is rarely as busy as the car park
may suggest. The ancestral home of the Robartes family has every
appearance of a great Tudor mansion but only one wing is original;
the rest was rebuilt in entirely sympathetic style after a disastrous fire
in 1881. Inside, the Victorian rooms are impressive but for us the
most enjoyable feature was the remarkably preserved 'below stairs', from
where dozens of servants ran the house with military precision. There
is a small church
behind the house, carefully tended formal gardens between
the gatehouse and the house, spring gardens behind the church and hilly
woodland gardens, filled with bluebells in spring, running down towards
the River Fowey. Lanhydrock is just to the south of Bodmin and
easily
accessible from the main A30 highway (it is well signed). There
are three restaurants - one in the house, one in the courtyard, one by
the main car park - and a good shop.
Parking is a long way from the house but a golf buggy operates a
shuttle
service for those not wanting to walk.
See
Countryside page for Walks
on the Estate
Tucked away in the
far south-eastern corner of Cornwall, on the Rame Peninsula overlooking
Plymouth Sound, Mount Edgcumbe House and its attached Earl's Garden are
little visited. On a sunny Saturday in early September 2004, we had
it almost to ourselves. What brings people here, many from Plymouth across
the water, is the country park and 'formal' gardens, where entry is free.
We had previously enjoyed the park and walked the coast path to Kingsand.
This time we included the house, built by the Edgcumbes of Cotehele
in 1553, largely destroyed by World War II bombing and partly rebuilt after
the war. Now owned by the city of Plymouth, this is museum rather
than home. Little remains of family things, but what is here is well
maintained and displayed. Furniture includes a fine Boulle chest
and an inlaid display cabinet filled with porcelain. There are many
family portraits and some Italian landscapes but the best of the paintings
is the collection of Van der Velde nautical pictures. Downstairs
consists of great hall, drawing and dining rooms, library and octagonal
sewing, card and smoking rooms in the corner turrets. Upstairs -
mostly given over to historical displays about family, estate and war -
has a charming suite of bedroom, dressing room and bathroom:
pity about the modern taps on the bath. There is a café in
the Orangery, another near the house. Park and formal gardens are
free; there is a fee for the House and Earl's Garden.
Pencarrow is our local
'great house' (our friend Caroline was a guide there) yet we first took
a house tour as recently as 2004. The fine Georgian house is the
home of the Molesworth St. Aubyns - a branch of the St. Aubyn family formerly
of Clowance and now of St. Michael's Mount.
It has some good furniture but it is the paintings and the porcelain that
stand out: landscapes and sea-scapes, portraits by Reynolds,
and collections of Meissen, Sevres and Worcester. Our guide was terrific
but we felt that the tour was rather too long at an hour and a quarter.
Gardens
are at their best in May for the rhodos, azaleas and bluebells though the
recent 'Mole's' stream garden should be good in all seasons. The tea
room, though small, is good but, if you choose to eat outside, you should
beware peacocks. There is normally ample parking in a courtyard away
from the house, where there is also a shop. The long drive to the
house is through lovely beech woods, filled with bluebells in spring, and
passes through an iron age fort,
a great bonus for those who enjoy antiquities. Our recommendation
would be to visit this charming place in late spring when the rhododendrons
and azaleas in delightful gardens are at their best.
When the 9th Earl
of St. Germans died in 1988 the inheritance taxes due were unaffordable.
Eventually a deal was done with government accepting 23 paintings, including
14 portraits by Joshua Reynolds, a local man. They remain in the
house but have to be shown to the public on 100 days a year. Sensibly
the family decided to show not just the 'gift in lieu' paintings
but also much of the house and all its gardens and grounds. This
is a most impressive place, acquired by the Eliots in the 1540s, at the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, and now owned by the 27th generation.
The Grade I listed house is partly by Sir John Soane and much of what you
see is his work. Most striking is Soane's Round Room, its walls covered
with a superb but unfinished mural by the late Plymouth artist Robert Lenkiewicz.
Contents include fine furniture, among the highlights a Louis XIV Boule
armoire, a Carlton House desk and Louis XIV and XVI clocks. There
are too many portraits for our taste but there are also works by Van Dyck,
some good nautical paintings and boat models and a casually displayed collection
of old lace. The atmosphere is of a much loved and happily unpretentious
family home, its grandeur a little faded and worn. The Repton park
is also Grade I. We enjoyed wandering the woodland, with its daffodils,
camellias, rhodos and hellebores, and walking down to the broad River Tiddy.
House and grounds
open afternoons March to mid-June
Home to the
Prideauxs
(now Prideaux-Brunes) since Edmund acquired the property at the
Dissolution
of the Monasteries, Prideaux Place looks from the outside like an
ivy-clad
minor Robert Adam castle. Inside it is a riot of totally
unexpected Strawberry Hill Gothick with pendant plasterwork in
brilliant white,
only the Great Chamber and Grenville Room not conforming. In the
former a superb 16th century plasterwork ceiling tells the story of
Susannah
and the Elders; the latter has an interior brought from Stowe House
near
Bude, demolished in the 18th century. Contents include armorial
Worcester
porcelain, heraldic glass, painted panels by Verrio and Cornish artist
Alec Cobbe. Our favourite rooms are the Morning and Drawing
rooms,
charming, comfortable, well lit and clearly in family use. Gardens
are under restoration and there are exhibitions in the stableyard, where
you should walk through the dairy to see its gothic disguise. Long
views east across Prideaux's deer park take in Rough Tor and Brown Willy
on Bodmin Moor. When we first visited in July 2004 we parked at Daymer
Bay, walked to Rock and took the ferry over the Camel estuary, lunching
first at Rick Stein's fish and chip shop. If you park in Padstow,
you can walk up the hill to Prideaux Place though there is parking by the
house. One serious criticism: our chatty Welsh guide
told us too much of himself, too little of the house!
In the grounds are a Cornish Cross
and St. Petroc's Holy Well.
Prideaux Place, crenellated and ivy-clad east front
Above Padstow town, signed off A389 from Wadebridge
January
2008: Major restoration work is taking place in the gardens and grounds,
led by Tom Petherick, one of the leading figures in the restoration of
the 'Lost Gardens' of Heligan. This includes re-opening woodland
walks and clearing and replanting large areas. A Formal Garden, lost
for years, has been re-created in a simpler manner than the original. Review
of our visit in July 2008.
I
was unsure how to classify St. Benet's but, since it does B&B, I
felt that "house open to the public" was best. However, hedging
my bets, I have also included it on my "Holy Sites & Churches"
page. I
have passed St. Benet's a thousand times on the way to Bugle, St.
Austell and
the south coast.Recently I read
that there is a Cornish Cross in the front garden so, on my way back from a
visit to St. Pauls Church in Charlestown, I called in at St. Benet's, just off
the road near Lanivet.It is now a Bed
& Breakfast, with nine en-suite rooms, run by J.J. and his wife. St. Benet's has had a mixed history.It was founded as a chapel in 1411, at that
time used as a retreat for lepers - a lazar house - but dissolved by Henry VIII in 1549.What you see here is relatively minor remains
comprising gatehouse and domestic range.The detached and degraded tower behind is all that remains of the
chapel;between it and the back of the
house are the remains of a well.It was
owned in the 16th century by the Courtneys of Tremere, related to the Earls of
Devon;their monuments are in Lanivet
Church.After it was purchased in 1855 by
the rector, Rev. W. Phillips Flamank, St. Benet's had a considerable makeover
so that it now appears to be a sort of Regency Gothick.As you face the house, the left hand end was
the gatehouse of the original establishment and retains its octagonal stair turret.What is now a three light window was once the
carriage archway.Above is an oriel
window with what appear to be atatue niches to each side.In the garden to the front of the house is
what I had gone there to see, a small round-headed Cornish Cross, believed to
be of the 13th century or earlier, which has been attached to a more modern
shaft.
The first sight of
St
Michael's Mount is breathtaking; the house seems to grow
out of the rocky bluff that tops the tiny island. Access is unusual;
at high tide by boat, at low tide by a long stone causeway from Marazion.
The path to the house is winding but steep and rough. A place of
pilgrimage from AD495 when fishermen claimed to have seen St. Michael,
in the early 11th century Edward the Confessor founded a Benedictine monastery here;
at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it became a fortress. In 1659
it was acquired by the St Aubyns of Clowance (related to the Molesworth-St.
Aubyns of Pencarrow) and became an unusual
home; the family still lives here but the house is in the
care of the National Trust. You would scarcely expect to find a garden
at all on such a small, steep rocky island, exposed to gales. None
the less, a 20 acre 'Maritime Garden' covers terraces below a 300 foot
cliff. Planting is mostly of weather tolerant exotics. Amongst
great granite rocks are yuccas, agaves, geraniums, hebes, fuchsias and,
in spring, wild narcissi. The garden is not National Trust but opens
under family auspices on less days than the house. Allow at least a half-day
for the time to and from the island, an exhibition and movie, the most
enjoyable house and the steep garden. The National Trust operates a good
restaurant just above the attractive little harbour.
Storm approaches St. Michael's
Mount
Off Marazion,
3 miles E of Penzance; park in Marazion
Trerice must
be one of the National Trust's smallest homes. A former seat of the
Arundells, well connected Cornish gentry, also of Efford in Bude and Lanherne
in St. Mawgan, it is a charming unspoilt stone built E-shaped Elizabethan
manor, with Dutch looking gables, some elaborate plasterwork ceilings,
good oak and walnut furniture, a fine collection of clocks and some good
porcelain. Paintings include portraits of the Stuart royal family
and others by local man John Opie. The garden is small but pleasing;
there are herbaceous borders, climbers, cottage garden plants and an orchard.
A stone barn houses a lawn mower museum; nearby a piece of
sculpture is assembled from lawnmower parts! The location of Trerice
is unexpected; only just outside Cornwall's busiest holiday
and surfing resort, Newquay, yet so tucked away down narrow Cornish lanes
that it might be in the middle of nowhere. A word of advice
for motorists. Beware narrow Cornish lanes! What seem to be
hedges on earthen banks actually hide rock walls - this is the dreaded
'Cornish Hedge', notorious
scraper of paintwork. There is a tearoom in a barn. There is
ample parking fairly close to the house.
Trerice
and its gardens revisited 2007
Our last visit to
Trerice was, we think, in 2002. The exterior of the house remains,
not unexpectedly, unchanged since then. The contents have changed
a little, unsurprisingly since the house came to the National Trust with
only the great oak table in the Great Hall; all else is from
other National Trust sources or on loan. The Great Hall now has an
exhibition laid out on the massive oak table; it includes
copies of Arundell and Coswarth family memorial brasses - more copies are
in a little brass-rubbing centre in the rear courtyard. The most
admirable thing that has arrived here since our last visit is a superb
collection of Georgian glassware, well displayed in the Drawing Room.
We found the guides in the rooms little changed and as helpful as ever.
What did seem to have changed quite a bit since our last visit was the
gardens, which have expanded. Borders in the courtyard at the east
front have filled out and the borders between there and the orchard were
looking really good, colourful and well filled. Behind the great
barn there are now tables on the Mowbray Terrace for the tea room inside.
Below the terrace is a new Elizabethan garden. As well as the house
and garden we revisited the mower museum; what an amazing
collection - but Lord Screwloose (the sculpture) was nowhere to be seen.
Philip Hawkins, wealthy
Cornish attorney, acquired the estate in 1715. He employed London
architect Thomas Edwards to build a new house and began a woodland garden
to set it off. Descendants profited from Cornish lead, silver, tin
and china clay. By marriage, Trewithen passed to the Johnstones in
1841; it was plant hunter George Johnstone, inheriting in
1904, who created the superb shrub
garden that you see today. By marriage again Trewithen is
now home to the Galsworthys. The view of the house from the south,
framed by an avenue of magnolias and rhodos, is quite superb. The
excellent 40-minute tour shows just five rooms: the small
attractive Library, the dark-panelled Oak Room, the warm and comfortable
Drawing Room, the Dining Room and the Smoking Room. Grandest is the
Dining Room with its Ionic columns, rococo plasterwork, Imari ware and
family portraits. Elswhere all is small scale, comfortable and very
family-oriented. Contents include superb oriental porcelain, Chippendale
chairs, good clocks and a desk and travelling tea-caddy once owned by Sir
Stamford Raffles of Singapore fame, connected to the family by marriage.
Portraits are by Reynolds, Ramsey and Romney and fine nautical pictures
include a Van Der Velde. There is a 30 minute movie and an estate
exhibition. There is ample car parking; a tearoom serves
rich cakes and pastries and cream teas.
In January 2017 I
was surprised to learn that remote Golden
is part of the Trewithen Estate.
Trewithen House
seen across the south lawn
On A390 St. Austell-Truro
at Probus, 7 miles east of Truro