If you’ve ever seen Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, or any of those trauma-inducing, supposedly ‘family friendly’ films featuring orphans gazing up at austere wrought iron gates wondering if they will ever know the love of a family, then you’ve got a good idea of what standing before Mompesson House feels like.
This home, which has seen everything from actual stinking bishops (thanks to an absence of indoor plumbing) all the way to garish 1960s fashion (bright turquoise walls and sunshine yellow curtains is quite the combination), was a strange one to wander round. It didn’t seem to know what it was, or what it should be, reflecting the mishmash of ownership it has seen since its construction at the end of the 1600s.
Built by a corrupt MP, this house within the cathedral walls in Salisbury was actually on land originally designated for the clergy who would be serving the cathedral. However, it later became fashionable to live in such exclusive communities and so Elizabeth and Charles Mompesson built the house we see today.
Sadly Charles only got to enjoy the house until 1714 when he inconveniently died, and obviously it was unthinkable to let his widow own or manage the house herself, so her brother – also called Charles so a bit weird – took on the house.
Charles (brother) set about renovating the house to be in the fashion for the 1740s – so lots of intricate plaster work, a grand staircase, and of course a chandelier so pretentious it required the ceiling to be raised by a couple of feet.
Unfortunately, upstairs the results of this daft addition are, to put it mildly, a bloody mess. The floor is slopier than Boris Johnson’s shoulders, leading to a creatively shaped doorframe. Chandelier is nice though.
The house passed through a few other owners, including the Townsend family who converted and added the next door stables to the estate, before it was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1975.
For anyone trying to work out where they know the house from – it was the property used in the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.
Verdict: Unusual house to visit as part of a trip to Salisbury, not as the reason for visiting.
A Year of Trust 