The National Trust

When we first arrived in England, someone recommended that we join the National Trust, a non-profit organization that owns, maintains, and manages many historic properties across Great Britain. The story usually goes that a particular property was privately owned for centuries until the family could no longer pay for the upkeep. Some houses were sold to (gasp!) wealthy Americans like the Astors, but at some point there were few people remaining who could afford to purchase and maintain these massive houses. The National Trust has acquired many of these homes, or sometimes just the surrounding gardens, and they make them available for visits from the general public, often adding cafes and shops to make them more tourist-friendly and lucrative. With our National Trust membership, we get free entry into a huge number of enormous, grand, beautiful, old houses that seem to be around just about every corner in England. If we have a free day over the weekend, we often look through our National Trust guidebook and pick a property to visit. We have yet to be disappointed.

Here are some of the places we have visited over the summer but haven't managed to write about until now.

This is Cliveden. Yes, this was once a private family home for some duke or other. The building is now a hotel, and you can pay to tour it. The grounds are owned by the National Trust, so our membership got us in for free.

Water garden

Traditional hedge maze

It took us nearly half an hour, but we managed to find our way to the middle.

The National Trust has made an effort to make these properties very family-friendly. Cliveden has a beautiful playground with hand-carved wood sculptures based on storybook characters. This is the crocodile from Peter Pan (Captain Hook and Peter were close by).

Every kid wants to sit in a throne.

Wind in the Willows boat. There were also characters from Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, and King Arthur.

Formal gardens behind the house

Close-up of formal gardens

I repeat: someone used to live here. It's pretty staggering to imagine this being a private home.

Next is Polesden Lacey, located near the route for the Olympic bike road race. Polesden Lacey was most recently owned by Mrs. Greville, a wealthy socialite who prided herself on throwing extravagant parties for Britain's A-list in the early 1900's. The Queen Mum was, apparently, a friend and frequent visitor back in the day. Though the house was built in the 1600's, it was remodeled just after the turn of the 20th century, and the decor is very early 1900s. As with Cliveden, the grounds are the real draw. Polseden Lacey seems to function sort of like a local park for nearby residents, who brought picnics, took walks, played games, and generally enjoyed the day without visiting the house.

Polesden Lacey near Dorking, one of my favorite town names.

We strolled through the rose garden.

We played croquet on the lawn.

We climbed through the rock garden.

One of us was game enough to dress up in period costume.

We ran through the meadow.

Here are some of the many picnickers enjoying the grounds at Polesden Lacey.

As an aside, these historic homes often have delicious, homemade ice cream for sale, which is irresistible. My favorites have been comb honey (honey ice cream with little bits of honeycomb) and stem ginger. I may take up ice cream-making when I get home in the hope of being able to eat these flavors again.

Last, but not least, is Blenheim Palace. Blenheim (pronounced "blen-em") Palace is not owned by the National Trust, but is still owned and lived in by the Duke of Marlborough. The palace is open to visitors most days and has cafes and shops, which, in addition to entrance fees, help support the upkeep of the palace. Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, and there are several rooms devoted to Churchill history and memorabilia. We did a quick walk through the palace and ended up on the grounds, watching a falconry display and a jousting tournament.

Grandma Ruth, Erik, Malcolm, and Soren at the entry gate into the palace grounds. The gate is the size of a mansion.  But wait...

...here's the palace. Unbelievable. Can you imagine being invited to a playdate here? "Oh yeah, this is my house."

View from the back garden

Blenheim has a huge maze. The wooden platform in back helps you plot your route through the hedges. Without that we would have been in the maze forever.

Success!

There were several gnarled, hollowed out, old oak trees on the grounds.

You could visit a different castle, palace, or historic home every weekend in Great Britain and never get bored. The National Trust owns 350 properties, and there are many more castles, palaces, and mansions that are still privately owned. There is really nothing on this scale in the U.S. These places are jaw-droppingly beautiful, ostentatious, and overwhelming.