Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Thursday, 13 June 2019

Packwood House and a few photos from our garden


As promised in the last post a few photos from inside Packwood House




During the 1920's and 1930's Graham Baron Ash remodelled the Tudor Packwood House. He added extra rooms and turned a barn into the Great Hall. He gave Packwood House and land to the National Trust in 1941 in memory of his parents. He also left a Memorandum of Wishes explaining how he wished the house to be shown to visitors and asked for fresh flowers throughout. The house today is very much as it would have been when Baron Ash left in 1941.


Apologies for the quality of some of the photos - light was really poor in the house and even, after changing the iso and aperture, the shutter speeds were rather low!!

The Entrance Hall









The Parlour

The Ash family made their money from a galvanised steel business in Birmingham. Graham Baron Ash sold his interest in it after the death of his father in 1925. He invested the money in stocks and shares. He never married but his sister Beryl and niece Bunty regularly visited.







The Long Gallery was built in 1932 to link the house with the new Great Hall. Much of the furniture etc came from other country houses which were being demolished.













The Great Hall converted from a barn in 1927.















Tapestry seen from the stairs.





The Ireton Bathroom was added by Graham Baron Ash and in fact he added en suites bathroom to all the bedrooms. This bathroom has antique Delft tiles and all bathrooms had the same taps and lion head.









I didn't take photos of all the rooms in the house - some were even darker than others! But here are a few pictures of the bedrooms etc.












The Drawing Room












A few photos from the garden here at home which I took last week when some of the days were drier!!!!!!


Mock Orange is now starting to flower as are


Foxgloves and



Valerian




Pyracantha



Common Carder Bee


Canterbury Bells


Rock Rose



All photos taken by me the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera

11 comments:

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Gardens looking lovely

Ragged Robin said...

Simon Douglas Thompson - Thank you Simon :)

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

Lovely to see the inside of that house and you garden flowers are looking healthy and beautiful

Pam said...

It's good to see they seem to have followed his wishes with the house (i'd love to have fresh flowers in my house all the time!). The garden is looking very colourful :)

Ragged Robin said...

Margaret Birding for Pleasure - Thank you Margaret

Pam - Thank you and same here about the fresh flowers - I think perhaps volunteers get them for Packwood's gardens.

Rosie said...

I've enjoyed your photos of the interior of Packwood, it's so long since we visited that I'd forgotten what it was like inside. Your garden flowers are lovely, the valarian here is doing well and has spread so much this year. Have a lovely weekend:)

Rustic Pumpkin said...

The flowers are certainly starting to come into their beautiful best now. I must add this house to my list of "possible places to visit on your way home" when I am volunteering for the National Trust in our little information centre! Thank you, and it's a really lovely place.

Ragged Robin said...

Rosie - Thank you so much. I usually only go inside when it is decorated for Christmas but a dark cloud was approaching and it looked like rain.Glad to hear your valerian is doing well- it spreads here too :) Have a lovely weekend too :)

Rustic Pumpkin - Thank you so much. Packwood is well worth a visit and Baddesley Clinton which is also lovely is only a few miles away.

Anonymous said...

I did enjoy this post, thank you for doing it. Your garden is looking very good; mine did in May but it is showing off now and I can't get close to sort it out!

Bovey Belle said...

How beautiful. I am FINALLY playing catch-up after all the recent hard work getting the house ready to go on the market. I now need to go back a post or two and see the rest!

Ragged Robin said...

Toffeeapple - Thanks so much - please accept my apologies for late publication of your comment as we've been away for a week. Hope you get on top of your garden :)

Bovey Belle - Thank you. I know you have been so busy and working hard! I do hope the house sells quickly for you.