July 28th 2017 - Sudbury Hall.

We got up after Carol and Stephen left and headed for Kedleston Hall to discover that only the grounds were open. It was a lovely drive up to the Hall - one of the nicest I have seen. As it was raining we didn’t want to be confined to outdoors so continued on to Sudbury Hall. Sudbury Hall was acquired by the National Trust in 1967 so 1967 is the theme of this year’s exhibits 50 years on from its acquisition. The car park is across the road and the pathway along to the hall had lots of placards along the way with events that happened in 1967 - e.g the Beatles released the Sergeant Pepper album. Fionnuala was 15 at the time and the BBC started Radios 1,2,3 and 4 etc.

I found the visit very interesting. Sudbury Hall is a late 17th century home set in its own park . The interior is richly decorated with  wood carving by Gibbons, superb plasterwork and decorative painted murals and ceilings by Laguerre.

 The most notable feature is the Grand Staircase which is too fragile to be used as the heavy footfall of visitors is likely to disturb and damage the plasterwork. However, beside the staircase is a bedlike couch which allows the visitor to lie down and admire the architecture and plasterwork. The plasterwork features garlands of flowers, fruit and palm branches. There are several of these “beds” throughout the hall which allow you to scrutinise the ceilings. For those afraid of not being able to get up again mirrors are also provided so I availed of them.

The Long Gallery is quite magnificent with amazing plasterwork. There were little exhibits which showed the effect of light on materials and paintings and one of the volunteers explained the painstaking process of protecting furniture and paintings and at the same time allowing them to be seen by the public. Just off the long Gallery there was a room which had a lot of books and the National Trust is in the process of cleaning and protecting each one of the books - it will be a long and difficult process!

In one room there was a red canopy bed. It looked in very good condition. I mentioned that to the volunteer who said it did not belong to the hall but had been brought in. She explained that the expression “to make up the bed came from the fact that if there was a guest that is in fact what had to be done. The bed had to be made from scratch. It reminded me of one such bed in fabulous condition that had been given to the couple as a wedding present and had never been used. The volunteer was able to remind me that it was in Calke Abbey which we had visited one of the times we were over here with Carol.

The house is presented as it was in 1967 with lots of clippings from the National Trust team that was decided how to restore the house appropriately and how to showcase its features. The jottings really brought across to me how much thought and work goes into National Trust properties.










The National Trust Museum of Childhood is housed in the services wing of the hall. However, there was a long queue and an awful lot of children already in there so we gave that a miss. Nor were we able to take advantage of the grounds as the weather was too wet. We did see the lime trees patterned in groups of 5 at the front of the house to the side.