VISITS: Highlights of Highclere Castle

Back in May, I provided a brief overview of this year’s UK trip, which centered around London and areas close by. One of our stops was at Highclere Castle, the home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon, and the house made famous by the Downton Abbey TV Series. Thankfully, the great success of the show has increased the number of visitors over the years to such an extent that many needed repairs have been made. Ongoing restoration continues, and many educational and tourist programs have been added as well.

A little rain shower did not diminish my daughter's enthusiasm for the tour.

While perhaps not my first choice, I succumbed to the desires of my wife and daughter to go see the house, which I had first read about in Mark Girouard’s book, The Victorian Country House. Designed by architect Charles Barry, and featuring a park designed by Capability Brown. The 5,000-acre estate is in Hampshire, about 5 miles south of Newbury, Berkshire. Reportedly the original site of the home was recorded in the Domesday Book, and the first house was built on the foundations of the medieval palace of the Bishops of Winchester, who owned this estate from the 8th century. Highclere has been home to the Earls of Carnarvon and their forebears since 1679.

UK TRIP 2017: London and Environs

Things have been quiet for some time, as I have become involved in a local historic preservation project as well as ongoing work at my own house. But over the coming weeks I’ll try to fill you in on the highlights of my recent trip to the UK, where I was able to take in a number of memorable sights and enjoy a fair amount of good pub ale.

A grand staircase at Hampton Court Palace

To simplify things, we based our stay in London; I had initially planned to book accommodations in three different cities, but there was simply so much to see—and with a pre-booked single day-trip via Eurostar train to Paris—we figured it would just be simpler to stay in one place, which in this case was a wonderful small hotel in Belgravia.

Liberty of London. This department store is just as amazing on the interior.

We took in all the obligatory London sites—Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, St. Paul’s, Tower Bridge, etc. as well as personal favorites like Shakespeare’s Globe and Liberty of London. Half-day jaunts to Windsor Castle and Hampton Courts were also on the list—as was a visit to Highclere, which my daughter requested, being a fan of Downton Abbey. Not my first choice for a country house tour; I would have preferred something more in the vein of Wightwick Manor or Cragside…but that must wait for a future visit.

The Thames at Windsor. Had a lovely lunch at the restaurant across the way.

I will get into more detail in follow-up posts. Suffice it to say that the trip was all that I had expected; the London Underground was superb and so easy-to-use, the pubs were picturesque and delightful, the people were friendly and the architecture was sublime. Everything you could hope for.