We have been exploring Yorkshire and like to make use of our National Trust membership that gives us free entry to lots of historical locations. This time it was the country house Beningborough Hall. This is a 300 year old building in a large park. It originally had several thousand acres, but much was sold off to pay death duties.
I thought I had a photo of the whole house, but now I cannot find one. You can see it on the site above. These places tend to have a grand hall to impress visitors. It would have been more richly decorated, but a lot of the contents were sold long ago.
There was an exhibit about how one the lords signed the death warrant for King Charles I. When the monarchy returned he escaped death through bribes and connections, but lost most of his land.
The house went through several families and was last bought during the first world war. During the second war it was used by British and Canadian airmen who caused some damage. The National Trust acquired it after the family had to give it up to pay debts back in the 1950s. They have installed various items that might have been there.
The weather was varied so we explored the garden whilst it was dry. The kitchen garden is huge, but can give us ideas. You can see the house in the distance.
There has been some recent work on the garden that includes this area that is more suitable to the drier weather we are getting. That said, it did rain heavily when we were in the house.
There is a nice café where we got some lunch and were able to sit outside.
This bed was originally there and it is very grand. The last owner stripped all the wood panelling. It would originally have been painted.
The laundry was the other end of the social scale and it would have been hard work in there.
These places often have plants for sale that may be grown by their gardeners to raise more money. Another common feature is a second hand book sale. We did not buy anything this time.
Despite the wet weather this place was really busy, but there was plenty of space. There was a wildlife area with a play park for the kids. I think there was a activity trail for kids to do too.
They have some exhibitions upstairs, but there was nothing there at the time of our visit. We did go to a talk about the various owners by one the volunteers.
Actually I had a photo of the house after all.
