When planing our trips back in Australia we try to have a little structure but also a little flexibility so we can add or delete something based on information we gain when overseas; It's amazing how many great places we've found out about from locals and other travellers alike and having a little wriggle room in our plan allows us to fit them in.
Knightshayes Court was one of those places.
The reasonably new house, when compared with some of the truly ancient ones we visited, has a commanding view over the hills below and down to Tiverton where the original owners of the property had their business. Sir John Heathcoat Amory had the property built with the first stone going down in 1869. It's a very large house and it's surprising that it only took until 1873 to complete, but at the time that was considered a fairly long build-time.
From the house the owner could look right down over his business. It was a lace-works factory a legacy of his grandfather John Heathcoat who had designed and patented an ingenious machine, the bobbin lace making machine, which revolutionised the production of lace. The factory in Tiverton actually became the worlds largest lace-producing factory by the late 1800's.
The family had some money, that's for certain, and they spent a lot of it building their house and developing the gardens surrounding it.
We were fortunate enough to be there early, a by-product of it being a squeeze-in to our day and spent three hours wandering around inside and out and enjoying the fact there were very few others there.
Our first stop was the walled garden; Walled to keep the deer and rabbits out of course.
It was considered quite a status symbol to have a walled kitchen garden as only the most wealthy could afford the materials and labour to construct such significant walls. There was also a horticultural benefit though as it lengthened growing season through the micro-climates they could create within.
The walled garden was used to grow the produce used in the house although by the 1960's had been locked up and left to ruin. That's the problem with these old houses, they simply cost more money to run and maintain than most families can generate in modern times.
Many of these properties are simply handed to the National Trust and when funds permit are restored and opened to the public. The Trust do a great job maintaining these properties here at Knightshayes and even set to work in 2001 and restored the walled garden to it's former glory. Walking through one could imagine it in Victorian times and the gardeners now do a magnificent job, not just in the walled kitchen garden, but on the entire grounds.
Above you can see Faith, an avid gardener, in her element but soon it was time to head up to the house itself.
Most of the images I took inside didn't come out so well unfortunately and rather than share terrible images I'll just add these two for a bit of an idea.
The house was built in the Victorian-Gothic style and the interior reflects that also. The medieval hall is filled with stone carvings which depict medieval life, house banners and shields; It's an impressive sight. Showing one's wealth off was important in the Victorian era.
You can see how ornately the house is decorated, of course, simply to show off the wealth a person had. The workmanship is incredible though and the detail spectacular.
Scattered around the house is the many years of collected treasures the family acquired from rare books to ceramics. The image below shows part of the library. I mainly took this to show the ceiling but you can see some books also, the shelves were lined with them, many very rare ones also.
One thing we loved about the National Trust was the volunteers; Our friend in Falmouth, Cornwall is one of them actually, but not at Knighthayes. They are all passionate about history and very knowledgeable...The really cool thing was that they are not all ancient! There was a very attractive young lady here in the library and for some reason it was very difficult to move on...Her knowledge was amazing...Must have been the knowledge. Seriously though, it was good to see younger people taking an active interest in history.
Somehow I managed to say farewell to the hottie knowledgeable volunteer and we made our way back outside for a walk around.
There's formal and informal gardens in the grounds and they are quite large so we spent around an hour out there wandering around; I'm sorry that my photos don't really do it justice though. You'll just have to go there.
The gardens are very peaceful and we wandered around listening to the birds, checking out some garden ornaments and statues and imagining what it must have been like one hundred and fifty years ago.
We also learned that in World War Two it was used as a respite location for American airmen. It could accommodate forty officers and they would come here for a break from action in the skies over England and Europe. Many manor homes were re-purposed for hospitals and respite homes in this way.
Knaightshayes was allocated to 1st Bomb Division USAAF and they'd rotate in and relax a little before heading back into action. One however, was not to leave.
Lieutenant Albin Zychowski, a pilot who convalesced here, decided to engage in the customary flyover and wing-dip on leaving. Unfortunately his wing clipped a tree and his P47 Thunderbolt crash landed; Of course, the plane was loaded with munitions and he did not survive. This was three days prior to the end of the war in Europe. Pretty sad.
On our walk we came across another couple and as usual said hello, me with the typical Australian g'day. We ended up stopping for a chat for a while and like I said right at the start, we got a great lead on another place to visit called Chedworth Roman Villa which I'll write about some other time. It pays to be friendly.
It's about 12 pounds to enter Knightshayes and they open at 10am with the house being open from 11am. We were lucky though because we are National Trust Australia members which gains us free entry into every National Trust UK site...This saved us a lot of money over the weeks we were there.
I'd say if you are in the area it's worth heading to Knightshayes. Sure, it's not as old as some of the other places we went but it's interesting; There's loads to see inside and if you get a day like we had you'll enjoy wandering about...If you like that sort of thing of course.
Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoyed the insight.
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