Montacute House: Somerset Daytrip

Recently Mr Bingley and I were staying with my parents on the south coast in Dorset. A gorgeous place to visit and if you’re down there you could always nip down to Durdle Door mentioned in the previous ‘Special Places’ post.

After a few days of catching up with old friends we felt it best to get out in the sunshine and fresh air. This was a refreshing change from spending days cooped up inside eating left over apple crumble from numerous family get-togethers.

We decided to visit Montacute House in the quintessential rural village of Montacute in Somerset. Now I have visited this house a number of times but Mr Bingley has only visited the gardens. Although built in the Jacobean era, like Hardwick Hall it has that commanding Elizabethan architecture, huge windows, far reaching views and imposing symmetry.

Getting there:

Fairly straightforward as it’s only about 30 minutes off the motorway. From either direction you need to be on the M5 as far as Taunton. From here take the A303 towards Yeovil and then the A3088 into Montacute. From here the signs will be very straight forward.

Information:

There are daily talks about the history of Montacute House, it’s milestones and it’s owners which are well worth joining but the regular talks were rather limited to be honest.

However far more exciting are the numbers of concerts and theatre groups that perform at this fabulous house as well as the classic BMW rally on the 12^th May. A definite date for the diary is the 21^st June as a visiting theatre company will be staging a Sherlock Holmes mystery within the house. The show will encompass plenty of live music and audience interaction for all ages and if I lived closer I’d be getting a ticket. Mr Bingley was rather taken with this as he fancies himself as a bit of a sleuth even if it’s just discussing Sunday night’s Silent Witness.

I completely agreed, it sounded great but I was looking forward to something a little different; Back to the 80s and 90s is a concert in the garden on 20^th July. You can set up camp on the lawn with a picnic and a few friends whilst listening to your favourites from the past few decades. I’ve already started digging out my Chumbawamba cassette...

Best Bits:

Pictured: A portrait of the
indomitable Bess of Hardwick

Montacute House has a long-standing partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and is home to a number of paintings from the 15^th to 17^th centuries.

Montacute House is home to the longest ‘Long Gallery’ in the UK, a feature that was very popular in Elizabethan England. The gallery houses these exquisite paintings and it makes a real feature especially with the incredible views reaching over the garden and park beyond.

I managed to find a few paintings of Robert Dudley, my absolute favourite Renaissance cad; a lothario and dastardly scoundrel in every sense of the word! If you don’t know much about him then it’s definitely worth hunting down some information about his plotting and scheming.

There was also an extremely precious portrait of James 1 by John de Critz in the gallery. It was bought by the National Trust in 2011 and up until recently has been in restoration. The intricate detail in the painting is astounding, down to the buttons and pearls on his jacket.

Whilst I was walking down the gallery in a trance and imagining being whisked away by Robert ‘Casanova’ Dudley himself Mr Bingley was rather glumly shuffling along and scuffing his shoes.

Art is not his thing. Renaissance art is even less of his thing. For Mr Bingley this part of the trip was thoroughly unenjoyable, especially as I take at least 5 minutes to scrutinise each art piece.

This was one of my favourite parts of the house and if you are also a fan of Renaissance architecture and paintings then Montacute House is truly unmissable.

The gardens are also exceptional; there are fountains, secret gardens, concealed passages, hidden ponds and a couple of small mazes of wobbly

Pictured: Montacute's famous
          wobbly hedges

hedges (very small but brilliant fun for children who want to get lost!). We spent a good hour exploring the garden and that’s without stepping into the glorious parkland beyond.

After the dignified silence of the art gallery Mr Bingley perked up and I found him quite excited at the prospect of getting outside and investigating the orangery, garden pavilions and hidden passageways.

The recently restored orangery was truly exquisite, filled with orange and lemon trees and heated to the extent that tulips were coming into flower when there was still snow on the lawns outside. If you are remotely interested in gardening and historical fiction then I highly recommend reading Phillipa Gregory’s ‘VirginEarth’ or ‘Earthly Joys.' I tend to think of the gardens and selected flora at these houses as an extension of wealth; the trouble people took to grow exotic new plants without today’s mod cons is astonishing.

Mr Bingley and I also loved the sculptures surrounding the top storey of the house. We thought they were just random statues but soon discovered they were the ‘NineWorthies.’ Being the unrefined simpletons that we are, neither Mr Bingley or I had ever heard of this collection of chivalric characters. Don’t panic, we had heard of some of them, Julius Caesar and King Arthur for instance; we are not completely hopeless.

Worst Bits:

If art and paintings aren’t for you then the house, especially the top floors are not going to be of much interest. They are not highly furnished as they are all about a clean and simple background for the artwork. Mr Bingley found this boring and to be honest we had to escape before I’d examined everything for fear of him having a tantrum and embarrassing himself.

The house interior also wasn’t up to much. Some of the furniture was beautiful but I can’t help comparing it to Hardwick Hall which was magnificent. I got the impression that the National Trust had filled it with some stock furniture rather than trying to honestly recreate its atmosphere.

A lot more could also have been done to build interest around the Phelps family who built and lived in Montacute House. There were some wonderful little anecdotes but you had to keep asking attendants in order to discover them; these could really have been printed out or made more clear.

Pictured: The stained glass windows and heraldry in the Great Hall

Kids:

In the garden I can imagine that children would be happy for hours; playing hide and seek amongst the wobbly hedges, making dens and climbing huge felled trees in the park. However this fun depends upon your children having a sharp imagination. If they don’t and require a little more stimulation then it could be a struggle. The house could have made some sort of treasure hunt or interactive game to keep less imaginative children occupied and entertained (especially considering it was Easter weekend!).

Unless your children are complete cherubs then keeping them quiet and sane inside the house is going to be tough. There is very little to entertain children within the walls and a simple quiz would really help to alleviate their boredom.

I would definitely suggest taking the children to explore the gardens but I probably wouldn’t bother with the house unless they had a themed ‘what’s on’ event which was child friendly.

Facilities:

There was the usual gift shop and café selling locally produced food and locally reared meal and the good quality homeware we are used to with the National Trust.

There were also excellent disabled facilities, with wheelchairs and braille guides available although on a first come and first served basis as well as large print booklets in each room. The majority of the garden was accessible with ramps for easy access and with level access to the café and shop including a disabled toilet near the entrance. Sadly only the lower floors of the house were accessible for wheelchair users which is a shame when the National Portrait Gallery is located on the top floor.

Montacute House is also very close to a number of other smaller National Trust properties including Barrington Court and Lytes Cary Manor. All three are made of the distinctive yellow ‘hamstone’ that is so popular in this part of the world.

You could also visit picturesque Ham Hill in the nearby village of Stoke sub Hamden. This is an Iron Age hill fort with glorious views and still has the remains of the ‘hamstone' quarry. Again if you have children then this could be another great place for them to explore– take the bikes and they will be able to spend hours letting off steam.

Interesting Fact: 

Sir Edward Phelps the original owner of the house became Speaker in the House of Commons in 1604 and even made the opening speech for the prosecution at the trial of Guy Fawkes.

Overall:

It is a beautiful house from the outside and from the inside is equally stunning but the lack of full furnishings means it does have a slightly empty and ‘unlived in’ feel compared to the rich and opulent interiors at Hardwick. The gardens in my opinion however are far superior to those at Hardwick and they open up onto beautiful parkland beyond which is rich with dens and hiding places for young children and adults (!) to explore.

Pictured: Cross-eyed King Stephen

If art is a keen interest then the gallery is unmissable and even those less interested can’t help but be entertained by the selection of royal portraits which feature cross- eyed kings including the rather crazed looking King Stephen.

All in all a brilliant day out but I would suggest waiting for some warmer weather so you can take full advantage of the dazzling grounds. It might even be worth waiting for one of their summer evening concerts and packing a delicious picnic, a couple of bottles of wine and inviting a few friends along who appreciate 80s power ballads.

Mr Bingley’s rating:

Mr Bingley decided to split the scores between house and garden as a combined score just didn’t do the gardens justice in this event.

House:5/10

Garden:9/10