Coughton Court, a patchwork property.

Coughton Court is a beautiful building or many different styles. You walk up to the door through a lovely Tudor looking courtyard, with a fountain in the middle and plant beds running down either side and enter through a medieval gate house. However looking at the house from the other side you could be forgiven for thinking it was a different building!

Like Charlecote Park, Coughton is also still home to the same family that has owned it for generations.

Coughton plays on the connection it has to the gunpowder plot. The Throckmorton family were an extensive and powerful family for several centuries. They were Catholics in a very protestant world and as such members of the large family were often involved in plots to bring Catholicism back to England, often by attempting to remove the current monarch in favour of a Catholic with strong claim to the throne.

Again the first thing that caught my attention in the house was a pietra dura table, however it was distinctly less fancy than Charlecote's. It had a charm of it's own however and bears the families coat of arms.

I was quite impressed that the runner on the stairs also bears the families coat of arms!

The staircase displays portraits of the family. The tour leads visitors to the top of the building first, then allowing you to explore each room on the way back down.

Part of the tour also includes going out onto the roof in the center of the building. Visitors climb a spiral staircase to get up to the roof which is all very exciting! The weather was lovely so I could really appreciate the view.

I enjoyed the fact that there were very few ropes and stanchions, you could walk right into the rooms and explore them. I know this is often not possible in houses so it feels like a real treat when you visit somewhere you can explore in this way.

There was one room dedicated to interpretation about the various plots that the Throckmorton family has been linked to. The information was very interesting but I'm not sure I liked the 'cage' display piece in the room.

It made the room very small and meant I had trouble reading all the information without feeling like I was in someone's way.

In contrast there was a really well done piece of interpretation in the Dining Room remembering those who lived and worked at Coughton and died during the First World War.

The dining table is set with a place for each man from the estate who died during the First Word War. In the center is a flower arrangement where each flower ha been created out a paper, copies of documents relating to the men and the war. 

The table is laid really nicely and by each setting is a photo of the man being commemorated. On the back of his chair hangs a piece of fabric with the individuals story. In the corner of the room is a display case with artifacts relating to the men, and next to that a table with reproductions of photos, medal cards and other documents for people to read.

The next room along from the Dining Room was full of interesting items, some lovely embroidery, and beautiful cope that in a very nice purpose built display case, and more religious artefacts. This room displayed the catholic relics the Throckmorton had kept safe over generations, despite the risk of persecution they faced for practicing their faith.

The cope is said to be the work of Catherine of Aragon, and it was conserved in 2001 by Blickling Conservation Studio, so looks wonderful!

Also in this room was the chemise Mary Queen of Scotts was wearing when she was executed. I had no idea this was housed in a Trust property so me and um were quite excited when we found this. I don't know how sure they are it is definitely Mary's chemise, it was given to the Throckmorton family in 1820, over 230 years after Mary's execution. The embroidery on the front is in Latin and makes that claim that the garment was Mary's, and who am I to argue with embroidery?

The Saloon is the last main room on the tour, and then you exit the building through a hallway that looks like it is used by the family that still live there, boots are sat around, coats hung up and umbrellas and walking stick lent up against the wall. It was quite strange to leave such a grand house through such a normal, homey looking area.

There are also two churches in the grounds, although we just popped in one as time was getting on. The church we visited was St. Peter's, completed in the late 1500's. My favourite part of this church was the stained glass window which looks to have been broken at one point and pieced back together at a later date, but in a very patchwork kind of manner. 

It looked quite striking, even if it wasn't what was originally intended.

A  bit like that stained glass window Coughton is a real patchwork, not only does the exterior look like several different buildings tacked together, the interior houses such a varied collection and it seems to be a house of many parts. 

Though the families' deep sense of religion runs through the whole visit there seems to be very little coherence, but I actually quite liked that as although there was no one 'feel' there was lots of interest and beauty in the house and grounds. Each room had a different style and story making a visit to Coughton a very interesting one.

Another Trusty Holiday

Recently I went on another National Trust holiday, with a portion of re-enacting in the middle, and visited another four wonderful National Trust properties. 

First on our tour was Charlecote Park, home to the Lucy family since the 12th Century. The current, rather impressive, house was built in the 1550's, the walls built of contrasting red brick and pale stone.

In the Great Hall the first thing that caught my eye was the fabulous pietra dura table, just like the one at Powis Castle where I used to work. I love the colourful stone and intricate designs. Turns out this trip was a good one for my love of pietra dura. 

Also in the Great Hall were lots of family portraits. There was an interesting one of Thomas Lucy III and his family. It is strange that the eldest son, Spencer, seems to be stood outside, while the rest of the family were stood close together inside. We thought it may have been to symbolise that he had died as a child, but he lived to inherit his father''s title. The picture features seven of the families 13 children.

There were also a series of slightly strange plaster busts of members of the family displayed in the Great Hall. I love looking at paintings and statues like these, they give a great idea of the clothing and fashion of the period.

The Dining Room has fantastic decor, amazingly bright wallpaper and a lovely plaster ceiling.

It also has great views out over the formal gardens.

I love libraries, and this library is a real treat. Beautiful inlaid furniture, and lots of lovely looking old books and another pietra dura table!

Charlecote also has a small connection to William Shakespeare as it is believed it was at Charlecote Park Shakespeare was caught poaching. The connection is amplified in the library where Shakespeare's Second Folio is on display (under a cover to protect it from too much light).

There were a lot of very nice objects in the house, pretty earth quake detectors in the Billiard Room, where looked like tall buildings with lots of bells hanging from the roof that would ring if the ground shook.

There was a lovely love seat in the Drawing Room, where they were doing some conservation in action! There was also a lovely gold and jeweled writing set on a table in one of the bedrooms. 

There didn't seem to be a lot to see on the top floor but that might have been because the family still have rooms in the house. It must be amazing to say that your family have lived in your home since the 12th Century! 

Despite a strong start, and the fact that the family still live there, I didn't really get a feel for the characters, or the story of the house. 

The grounds were lovely, and there is a really pretty stone work along the walls and the top of the house. It helped of course that it was a lovely sunny day!

We then had the first of many cream teas of the holiday in the Orangery, which was very nice, and headed off to the next property.

Well displayed wealth at Welbeck

Recently I went to visit the newly opened Portland Collection at the Welbeck Estate.

I have been meaning to go to Welbeck for quite a while, the house has close ties to Clumber and Hardwick including things like having a portrait of Arbella that I would love to get to see (It is a copy of the one hanging at Hardwick but apparently the face is quite different). The house is not open very often but the Harley Gallery and Portland Collection are open most days.

The house was sold to Charles Cavendish, Bess of Hardwick's son and through this line later came to be the seat of the Duke's of Newcastle before coming into the hands of the Duke's of Portland.

The Harley Gallery contains exhibition spaces predominantly used to display modern art which I'm afraid usually holds little interest for me.

The Portland Collection, however, is a display of the treasures collected by the Duke's of Newcastle and Portland and it is fantastic. The collection has only just been made public, housed in a renovated building just along from the main Harley Gallery, and it is free to visit. 

What is on display is just a small sample of what the Duke's collected (the collection totalling 5000 pieces all together) and it is truly magnificent. The paintings are stunning, there are some incredibly important historical artefacts and amazing silverware.

Follow this link to have a look at some of the pieces in the collection.

Some of my favourite pieces included a lovely little portrait of Elizabeth I, a very ornate strong box dating from 1690 and a really beautiful diamond tiara from 1902 (that was once accidentally sat on by the Duke!).

Everything in the exhibition space was displayed very well, shining and sparkling and all looking very well cared for. The rooms were dark but the objects were well lit, and each piece had a good description to accompany it. They have also digitised some of their book and displayed them on touch screens in the same way I saw at the British Library a couple of years ago.

The silver was magnificent, and it has been displayed to really show it at it's best. I particularly liked a candlestick that is part of a much larger dinner service.

It was commissioned by the Duchess of Portland and features insects and plants. The full 178 piece service took over ten years to make, but I bet it was worth the wait to see it gleaming on the dinner table.

The Portland Collection also boasts several items belonging to Charles I, including the pearl earring that he wore to his execution, which is currently on display in the exhibition.

The pieces will be rotated every three years to give the public opportunity to see different items from the collection. I'm already looking forward to heading back and seeing more of this magnificent collection! 

I think it is really wonderful that these treasures can now be seen by the public, and in a way that is still clearly focused on caring for the objects. If you are ever in the area and have an hour or so spare I recommend you go and surround your self with a little, well displayed, luxury!

Chapel Complete!

After many weeks of hard work doing the Deep Clean the Chapel of Saint Mary the Virgin is once again open to the public and back to normal!

The Deep Clean means the team of staff and volunteers clean from as high as we can reach, using long poles to vacuum the walls, working all the way down, finishing with scrubbing the Chapel floors.

The candlesticks that stand on top of the Rood Screen are  objects that can only be cleaned once a year. They are out of the way, so do not suffer from any corrosion due to people touching them, but they do get dusty and are affected by the humidity.

So we brought them down from the Rood Screen, to dust them off with a pony hair paint brush and then remove any corrosion. We do this with a metal cleaner in very minute quantities, gently applying it with wads of cotton. You can see the difference this makes in this picture; the one on the left has been cleaned and the one on the right is still to do.

After we have removed the corrosion we put a protective layer of wax on the candlesticks. This will stop any moisture in the air from reacting with the metal and potentially corroding the candlesticks. Finally they are buffed until the shine with a very soft duster, before being replaced on the Rood Screen.

The same wax we use on metals can also be used on other objects, such as the marble floor that leads up to the altar in the Chancel. The floor is cleaned and then a fine layer of wax is added and buffed up. This increases the floors shine, as well as protecting it from dirt, grit and the effects of people walking across it.

Cleaning the intricate wooden carvings with a hogs hair paint brush was a great opportunity to really study the beautiful details and admire the craftsmanship. Delicate cleaning like this allows us to get into all the nooks of the beautiful carvings, making sure we are doing a really through job of removing cobwebs, dust and debris. 

One of the last jobs to be done during the Deep Clean is to scrub the floor, a huge job and a very good upper arm workout. We use water with a very small amount of mild detergent in, and proper scrubbing brushes. It gives you a taste of the life of a parlour maid and makes me quite glad that I am not one! You can see how much scrubbing we did by how worn down the brush was once the floor was done.

Finally now all the items have been returned to their proper positions the Chapel is looking wonderful and ready to receive visitors again! Now onto the next big project!

Snow in Oslo (& boats)

The next day of our Norwegian Holiday was absolutely packed with boats, three museums worth all right by one another.

The first of the three museums we visited was the Kon-Tiki Museum. Now if you want to be filled with a burning sense of wanderlust, this is the museum for you! The Kon-Tiki was a boat built by experimental anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl. He built this boat to prove that it was possible people from the Americas could have travelled to South Polynesia on such a vessel, and he then proceed to sail his boat across the Pacific Ocean!

Thor was so convinced that it was possible he, six other men and a parrot set off on a mission everyone else said would certainly get them killed. They set sail in April 1947 and it took them 101 days but they reached their destination successfully. He also spent a lot of time on Easter Island trying to unravel the many mysteries there, like how the figures 'walked' onto the island.

Not content with one death defying voyage across the ocean Thor built a further three boats for similar voyages, these ones made of reed and based on the sort depicted in Ancient Egypt. During these voyages Thor noticed that the oceans were becoming more and more polluted and began raising awareness of the issue internationally.

This man is the sort of man who makes you want to do more with your life, and the Kon-Tiki Museum, which also talks about his other expeditions, is a very worthy tribute to such a larger than life person. It was amazing to read about his adventures, whilst looking at the actual vessels that he and his crew sailed on.

Next up was the Fram Museum, all about the Polar Ship Fram that went on three polar expeditions. Again the actual ship sits at the center of the museum and you can even go on deck and inside. Each cabin is labelled with the names of the people who have stayed there.

Every so often the Norther Lights are projected around the museum, giving an amazing sense of space and adventure to the museum. There are also lots of fun interactive for children and adults so we enjoyed having a go on those. This museum however didn't so much make me want to jump on a boat and go on an adventure, clearly I only have the explorer instinct when the destination looks a bit warmer!

The third and final ship museum was the Viking Ship Museum. The artifacts in this museum were amazing, and reading about how they survived in the various states they did, and who the people associated with them were was fascinating. There are three ships and their associated finds displayed in the museum. They have been restored to some extent so the Oseberg and the Gokstad appear complete where as the Tune is much less complete.

The museum itself is rather dated and they are planning a massive renovation and re-display, which will give the brilliant collection the surroundings it deserves. For the mean time however the quality of the collections speaks for itself, and nothing beats seeing real viking ships when your visiting Norway!

On Christmas Eve we happened to find ourselves in Oslo Cathedral just as the carol service was starting. Mum claims this was a total coincidence but me and Jake weren't convinced. The service was lovely, they sang mostly familiar carols that we could join in with in English and the choir and congregation sang in Norwegian. It was quite nice to just sit and admire the surroundings while they talked in Norwegian, even thought I couldn't understand it I enjoyed just listening to another language.

The Cathedral has the most amazingly colourful painted ceiling, showing images of biblical stories. Listening to the choir and the music and staring at that beautiful ceiling was a really lovely, relaxing experience.

We also went to the Museum of Decorative Art and Design, which had some beautiful piece of royal clothing on display. They also had chronological displays of furniture and design which were really interesting, even the modern pieces.

Then it finally snowed, and it was so worth the wait. We walked through the palace grounds in the snow and into the town center and it was lovely. I'm actually quite glad it hadn't snowed earlier because it also suddenly became very cold too!

The museum I had really wanted to see was the Resistance Museum which was fascinating. The museum is housed in a tiny building inside the fortress walls, but it is packed with information! Don't let its size fool you and allow a lot of time to visit this museum as it took us a long time to read through the masses of text. While the museum could do with an update the content is totally engrossing.

The text took you through the build up to the Second World War and the entire conflict. On one side of the room was information about the global situation and on the opposite wall what was happening in Norway with those who were resisting occupation. If I hadn't been so interested I would not have made it through all the reading, but I really wanted to know about all the brave men and women that risked everything for what they thought was right.

Our final museum of the trip was The Historical Museum. we could have spent a very long time in this museum. There were several different galleries but my favourite was the one with all the ecclesiastical art. We saw more Stave Church portals, some fantastic medieval icons and even an entire painted church ceiling!

There was also of course a Viking exhibition, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed about the standard of this. The interpretation was minimal and very uninformative, the layout was strange, and there was some totally random textile art in some of the cases that really detracted from the objects in my opinion. Most frustratingly was there was nothing in the gallery to tell me why these swords were curly! Were they just tired and having a nap?

The answer (Google tells me) is that no one really knows, but it is possible they were purposely bent before burial so that they were 'dead' like their owner. This would have the added affect of discouraging grave robbing. There was also an Egyptian Gallery and an interesting but all too brief temporary exhibition on identity, and what the artifacts we leave behind say about ours.

I have to say I was quite sorry to leave Oslo when the time came. It is such a beautiful city full of friendly people and really interesting museums that I could have spent so much time in, just absorbing every fascinating and beautiful detail. I would really recommend visiting to anyone with an interest in history and heritage, or anyone who just wants to spend time in a lovely city!