Today’s visit was the ultimate treat for me – a Tudor house, decorated and suspended in its 1920s hey-day, filled with Christmas decorations, and a crisp, blue-skyed, winter day. What a way to finish off this Year of Trust.
Barrington Court in Somerset is a real mishmash of eras – originally built in the 1500s (started when Henry VIII was on the throne, finished around when Elizabeth I was in charge), the most famous period of the house is actually the 1920s, when the house was saved by the Lyle family – as in Tate and Lyle sugar barons.
Before Mr Lyle came along, the house had been unloved. In fact, it was so unloved, it passed through lots of hands until it was rented to some farmers, who unbelievably kept their animals in the mansion, and eventually accidentally set fire to the place. Bet they didn’t get their deposit back.
In 1907, a derelict Barrington was gifted to the National Trust (who said ‘thanks’ as unenthusiastically as you did on Christmas Day when your aunt Margaret gave you another hand-knitted hat, this time in fluorescent orange). The Trust was still new back then and didn’t have the money to fix it up, but Abram Lyle did and so it was leased to him on the understanding he redecorated (and rebuilt).
Barrington is now an absolute pleasure to wander round, and especially at this time of year it gives us mere mortals a glimpse of what it must have been like to wake up on Christmas Day in a house like this.
The entrance to Barrington is actually around the back of the building, accessible now once you have picked your way through the beautiful walled kitchen gardens, and admired the water fountains.
One of the main reasons why I loved Barrington so much was that, unlike lots of other National Trust properties, not every room was set out to be exactly as it would have been in a particular time period. The Great Hall was really the only room set out with furniture, which gave the house a much more open feel and encouraged dreaming of living there.
Talking of living there, the whole house had a lovely feel to it, and I fell in love with a bathroom where the morning light was streaming in and I could just imagine 1920s me in a deep bubble bath before beginning a day of luxury in this grand house. And then some bored and noisy children came down the corridor, and I was back in the room.
At the top of the house was a long gallery, common in stately homes in this part of the world, and unlike in the sterner Montacute House, the children seemed to be actively encouraged to hare up and down the length of the house. The Lyle children had actually ridden their bikes along it when it was too wet to play outside. And I couldn’t help but smile as today there was a paper aeroplane competition taking place.
As Barrington Court wasn’t owned by one particular family with its own stories of dramas and scandals to tell, there weren’t a huge number of information boards detailing the history of each room. Instead there were stories dotted about the house, including one where the gardener accidentally rode the lawn mower into the moat. Because of course the house had a moat. I expect it’s a common problem.
Verdict: Gorgeous house, and a truly magical place with all the Christmas decorations
A Year of Trust 