22 July 2015 - Farnborough Hall - National Trust

Tim, who is finding living in a small space and also having his bedroom in the lounge/living area, went on a 10 km run along the canal path this morning.  He is so fit and it is great that he can feel confident to go for runs on his own.  It is not such an ideal running track though with lots of potholes.

Annika and I then had a lovely walk to the shops via the canal, too.  It is a hive of activity. We could be accused of being "gongoozlers" which apparently is "canal speak" for those who spend time watching canal activities!

The grey skies and then rain came and went fairly quickly as seems to be the weather pattern here.  Our destination today was nearby Farnborough Hall (no connection with the well known air show).  It is only open for two afternoons a week as it is still lived in.  Walking into this magnificent but not too huge house did feel homely as much as such opulence can!  As it is still a residence, no photography was permitted and we respected that.

Farnborough Hall

The kids were given age appropriate quiz sheets which kept them fully engaged and drew their attention and our attention to quirky features which may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Before we knew it Luke was crawling about looking for fossils on the floor of the Hall and the volunteer guide saw he was keen to find things and chatted to him. The Hall is full of interesting items: marble busts of Roman Emperors, paintings, a grand piano, leather fire buckets and Chinese vases, but the piece de resistance was the marble and rosewood table.  It was made in a similar fashion to the one we saw in Charlecote House the other day.  This one, however, seemed to be a display of semiprecious stones, with a hundred different specimens, 96 of them identified by the Natural History Museum, and was magnificent just to pore over.  The centre piece was some of my favourite lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.  There were a number of small fossils in the marble of the table and Luke was thrilled to point them out.  There was also a parliamentary clock, again with the Roman IIII as opposed to IV for four.

Rosewood and marble table 1811-1820 - photo courtesy of National Trust catalogue

Tabletop - photo courtesy of National Trust catalogue

Then there was the Library with paintings in which were copies of the original Canalettos which had hung there before they were sold to pay for death duty!  The frames on the walls, stucco style, white plaster on duck egg blue background, were made specifically for those paintings.  In 1920's Chinese painters were employed to paint copies of the originals.  They did a fantastic job but painted the paintings before they were cleaned so the paintings look dark and a bit grubby compared to the original, one of which is in the Art Gallery in Melbourne!  We'll have to go searching for it on our return home!  Nowadays, old paintings can be cleaned without damage (remember Mr Bean cleaning  Whistler's Mother....!) and so many of the old Masters we have seen have been vibrant as they were meant to be.  In this room there was a footstool made of an elephant's foot! The Library was full of amazing old leatherbound books.  Luke noticed a huge old  family Bible  which we supposed couldn't be touched as it might fall apart!

Act of Parliament clock - photo courtesy of National Trust Catalogue - note the stucco plaster wall in background - these were in every room.  It looked like a giant Wedgewood plate!

The Dining Room had a huge extension table - set for dinner guests.  The paintings and black and white drawings and white porcelain pieces were beautiful.  The patchy painted ceiling had a story to tell!  Tenants had flooded the bath upstairs and instead of confessing their incident, they papered over the original ceiling.  The paper was later removed to reveal a formerly beautiful ceiling.

There was a landing upstairs with more stucco decor including family shields and coats of arms.  The whole area was well lit by the huge glass ceiling dome, a wedding present for one of the householders some time ago.

Sundial

Annika dwarfed by a Cedar of Lebanon

Definitely a huge tree - over 300 years old

So enormous that indeed it has its own lightening conductor!

Flowers in the garden at Farnborough Hall

 The Holbech family  still live on this site.  William Holbech was an English politician and sat in the House of Commons for two years in the 1790s.  He came from a wealthy background and had his education at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford.  In 1771, he inherited his grandfather's estates, one of which was Farnborough Hall, built in 1684.  His descendants still live in the house.  It is a relatively small house compared to those we've seen recently but very lovely and worth a visit.  The gardens are spectacular and parts are formal and the rest is a broad green path edged by woods on one side and a view over the Hanwell Valley on the other side.

Formal garden

Oh , the colour!

Bomb shelter or wine cellar or ? It is an ice house! Ice came from the lake and was brought to the house by horse and cart!

Blue lavender and moth

On the terrace - so to speak, d a r l i n g!

The Henwell Valley

Temple time for shelter from brief burst of rain

Hooray, the rain has finished!

And it was open to view!!

 Like many gardens of these stately properties,it is huge and lovely with  temple here and there and even a very sweet house overlooking the valley.

Little summer house, complete with beautiful stucco and duck egg blue paint...like a Wedgewood wall!

The Obelisk, erected 1751

 After finishing our visit we walked over the one lane road (the whole village of Farnborough is National Trust) for a riverside amble.  So very lovely.  I can see where the English painters got there inspiration from.  We even saw a whole field of red poppies in the distance.

By the river...weeds or wildflowers...gorgeous in either case.

River side amble

Yes, another bumblebee and flower....

Still river reflecting so perfectly

They were hopeful but we had no food for them!

We thought we had been locked in the grounds as it was late when we left but the gate opened for us (probably by the butler!) and we were on our way.  We battled the peak hour traffic in Banbury  (about 12 cars), did a shop for heavy items at Aldi and headed home in the "traffic".