Manor Houses

We've gone to two manor houses so far since we got here: Calke Abbey and Sudbury Hall. Both are run by an organization called the National Trust, which takes over "historical" properties and helps to preserve them for the future.

Calke Abbey is unique in that when the NT took it over in the mid-eighties, they decided to leave it exactly as it was given to them. So when you walk around the rooms, you see bits and pieces of everything the family had. There is random furniture stacked everywhere (most of it priceless!) and various books, collections, etc. that belonged to the family.

There were also fantastic gardens and a small village church on the estate. We had another glorious day and an interesting peek into a manor house in decline. (Unfortunately, we forgot the camera that day, but here is a link if you want to see some photos of the place: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-calkeabbey/).

Sudbury Hall was also an amazing house, although this one was restored and really beautiful both inside and out.


They had a "costume trail" in the house, where they had period costumes from various films, such as "Pride and Prejudice," "Persuasion," and "Sense and Sensibility" to represent the time period of the glory days of the house. Various parts of the house had been used in several of the films.



It's always interesting to go into these places and wonder what life was really like in these big, opulent rooms. Strolling about the gardens, ringing for the servants to bring tea...ah, back in the day...shall we go for a picnic?


Most of the houses also show you the "below stairs" areas, which is where the servants prepared meals and basically stayed out of the way of the families. At Calke Abbey, there is a long underground tunnel from the kitchen in the house all the way out to the outbuildings. The docent there told us that the tunnel was built primarily so the family didn't have to see the servants coming and going during the day! Times were sure different then.

From what we've learned, most of the manor homes end up with an organization like the NT due to the high cost of upkeep and the exorbitant "death taxes" the families must pay when the house falls into their possession. They get tax breaks if they connect with the NT and open the house to visitors. Plus, they get help on the upkeep of the place from the army of volunteers the NT has.