Wightwick Manor Part II

This is a view of one of the guest bedrooms, the Oak Room, which dates to 1893.  When not in use, the bed folds up  and the piece of furniture looks like an ornate cupboard with wonderful painted doors and beautiful pediment . . .  "This room once houses the bed Charles II is said to have slept in when hiding from the Parliamentarians at Moseley Old Hall in 1651.  Geoffrey (Mander) bought it in 1913."

A poor photo of a lovely painting, and below, drawings of William Morris by, I think, Rosssetti.

A beautiful Suffolk chair from the William Morris "stable" so to speak.  This is the design that was made in the recent Arts and Crafts House programme on tv.  We had a lovely long chat with a very enthusiastic Volunteer and stayed along this part about 10 minutes or more.

One of the beautiful tapestries - it had to go to Belgium when it needed restoring.  It (and the chair/s) were in the Pomegranate Passage.  The Daisy Room, off this passage, held a display of pen and ink drawings by a youthful Rossetti.  I wasn't that impressed tbh!

Above and below: naughty dogs in the Day Nursery.  The top ones are painted by sporting artist Cecil Aldin.

This poor puss had been in the wars!

A blurry photo of Keith in the kitchen.  A splendid range.

Above: faux food.

The table set for the servants' meal.

Another gorgeous range, and real food.

A close up of the small "range" next to the big one.

We went to the FABULOUS exhibition of William de Morgan's ceramics.  I absolutely adored his Persian-influenced pieces.

Just a few photos to whet your appetite.  More when I can fine time to put them up in the next couple of days.  I'm still busy as a busy thing in house and garden, but making great progress - today it was painting the cart shed and chicken shed doors, and then painting of a different kind when I went round what was mum's flat, painting all the solid oak doors and windows we had put in when we rescued it from being a derelict Dairy.  We have also been doing battle with one of our earliest flowering roses - a Banksia which romped away whilst I turned my back and has put out flailing branches some 12 feet long which I have tried to pin to the wall so they can flower and then they will be cut back as they will put out fresh growth again.  It's beautiful BUT a real thug (Thelma take note!!)

A brief gardening interlude

Just to let me draw breath before I do the next post - we have been SO busy here, working on the house and garden to get it up ready to go back on the market.  The garden is really taking shape now, which is a relief.

I did battle royal with the Paul's Himalayan Musk, 10 feet sprays of Brambles and their conjunction with Kiftsgate moving the other way!  Of course, it meant you could see right into the farmyard, so we put trellis at the back of the rose arbour, and stretched half a roll of weed suppressing membrane right across, and then bought two rolls of split bamboo. We are getting another tomorrow to finish off the left hand corner.  Now, I would have started left to right, but my Dearly Beloved wanted it done the other way round for some reason . . . so of course it was 2 feet too short . . .  I'm planting it with clematis, nasturtiums and other climbers to cover it quickly.

It looks a bit raw at the moment but I have some green wood stain I may slather over it to tone it down a bit.  We had to cut the Corkscrew Hazel back severely as it was taking over half the garden, and now have a bed beneath it I have planted up.  Against the green wire "trellis" we put up we have planted a Clematis Montana rubens on the right, and a later blooming white Clematis to the left (its name escapes me).  A whole bag of compost went on to tidy it up.

Today I have been carrying on ripping up the Yellow Archangel (Dead Nettle) which has romped its way round the garden and the top of the yard too.  Bloomin' stuff - won't have it in a future garden, that's for sure.  It had tangled with masses of Ground Ivy, and Nettles popped up too, so it's been quite a job digging them all out.  Anyway, these remaining plants are meant to be there and I've put a sack and a half of compost down and planted Gladioli - Purple in this bed, and White under the Corkscrew Hazel in the previous photo.

The Apple Tree bed has also been weeded and covered with a bag of wood chips.  It's costing me quite a bit to get it all up together for the new launch of the house on the housing market, but needed doing.

Have a lovely Easter.  I will try and make the other Wightwick Manor post at some point over the weekend.

Lunch in a loosebox . . . or Outing to Wightwick Manor - Part I

I have been wanting to visit Wightwick Manor (pronounced "Wittick") for a long time.  This wonderful Arts and Crafts house on the edge of Wolverhampton was owned by the Mander family and bequeathed to the National Trust in 1937.  HERE is a link to more about its history and the Mander family. 

I hardly need to say that Wolverhampton (on the outskirts of Birmingham) is a long way from Carmarthenshire.  We set off about 7.45 and "my" route took us around Kidderminster which slowed us down a bit.  Keith's route home (via Ludlow) was  faster and took us through some lovely Shropshire countryside.

This is the drawing room, with a lovely grand piano with marquetry work, topped with three William de Morgan plates.  The framed picture to the right is embroidered and has music notes in lines across it too.  I was tickled by the little pelmet curtain across the front!

This lovely fireplace is an Italian Renaissance one of about 15590, lines with hand-painted de Morgan tiles.    Fabulous brass Fire Dogs.  (Vesey?)

One wall of the Library, with its beautiful tiled fireplace.

Another gorgeous fireplace with fire dogs.  I disremember which room this was.  Possibly the drawing room.

"Three stunners" - Rossetti's drawings above a mid-18th C dresser with another de Morgan plate just in view.

If you saw the programme recently on the Arts & Crafts House, these were the very fire irons that the artisans had tore-imagine in the Arts & Crafts House series on tv earlier this year.  Rod, a bladesmith and metal worker, did a fabulous job on his.  

This fabulous room is the Great Parlour.  Below: more de Morgan craftsmanship.

This drawing upstairs took my eye - this lady had such a kind face.  Pattypan - she reminds me a little of you.

A sumptious four poster bed with a lovely bed-cover worked by William Morris's talented needlewoman daughter, May.  I asked our eldest daughter for a book about her textiles and it is brilliant.

Another guest room,  the Acanthus Room, with William Morris wallpaper and a bed which was made  around 1860 (either in England or Italy) re-using inlaid pieces of Italian marquetry, mother of pearl and ivory panels dating from c.1700.

In the same room two beautiful pictures - the one above by Burne-Jones and possibly the bottom one too.  This top one is believed to be Julia Duckworth, who was Virginia Woolf's mother.  The eyes were amazing.

More  tomorrow.  I am still tired as a tiredy thing after 8 hours driving (shared with Keith of course).

The new header photo was taken last May in the Usk valley.

Haworth village and church

Final round-up from Howarth.  I have had to rest up today as I have some sort of lurgy and just HAD to have a sofa day. I am hoping I can sleep it off (having slept for an hour at lunch time and another nap after tea).  Anyway, this is the walk up from the bottom of Haworth and the wonderfully atmospheric railway station.

Below: I couldn't resist a nod to my Devon roots!

Above : looking across the valley to what must have been cheap tenement housing in Victorian times. Below:  better housing came later.

The wonderful Apothecary's Shop close to the Black Bull Inn, and full of all sorts of delightful things to spend your money on.  I, meanwhile, was wondering how much they had paid to buy the fabulous old Chemists' jars and amazing mahogany Dispensary cabinet and drawers.  Those didn't come cheap!

The church - although the one standing in the Bronte's time was ripped down and rebuilt by the Vicar who followed Patrick Bronte.

A sad ending . . .