Our Little Empire: A fun weekend!

Just a few pictures from my last day of this (holiday) year. Myself and Simon went to 3 houses and estates on Friday and Saturday and had a great time! The weather was cloudy with a few sunny intervals, and the sky does look fab in some of these pics!

Coughton Court

A fab place to spend a Friday off work!! We got here much later in the day as we usually would as we went via Timbuktu to get Simon his Irish Tea (and Club Rock Shandy, marshmallows and Chef sauce!). Its known more for flowers and planting than anything, and although I appreciate beautiful flowers, I am not exactly into gardening etc. Below is the house from the back - it is still lived in by one member of the family - in the wing to the right here, which we had no access to.

This is the house from the front

At the back of the property, about 10 minutes walk away, there was a bluebell woods. These are protected areas of woodland, apart from being stunningly beautiful, they also indicate ancient woodland, as a bed of bluebells this extensive takes many hundreds of years to grow and settle.

Baddesley Clinton

On saturday we went to Baddesley Clinton. The picture below is pretty much what is in the handbook and although clearly an old house and worth a visit, it didnt really strike us too much.

However as we walked round the side of the house next to the moat we saw that through that archway was a courtyard with some tudor buildings.

This was the view once we got through the archway. It was home, most notably, to The Quartet, two couples who lived here while writing and painting. What a life! The house, like many National Trust properties we've been to, helped hide Catholic priests in Priests holes and the Jesuits particularly hid here - tiny spaces hidden in wall spaces or carved our of stone.

In the gardens were a few fishpools - dug in 1400s so they could be stocked with fish for the cook. Below however is a ditch believed to be an early moat.

Packwood House

Our final house of the weekend. This was only about 3 miles away from Baddesley Clinton. This side of the house was a bit gloomy, but on looking back at the photos it seemed like there were 5 front entrances to the house! We didnt get as much information as usual on this house. It was bought in 1924 by a 16 year old with his inheritence (!) and he set about changing and enlarging the interior. He also bought a lot of the furniture and art from other houses that at this time were being demolished.

This was the original entrance to the house, and I must say it looks much better from this angle! Actually looks like a house. The buildings to the left were added by the new owner, adding a corridor to link an old barn which became the new great hall.

And this picture is my favourite (its my screensaver at the moment!). Great picture, the day certainly didnt seem that sunny! Down the middle are flowers and plants in blues, to the right a line of yello. Behind me was a first of different size and shape topiary bushes, which a spiral at the top and an umbralla of a tree in the middle.