Wimpole Hall

Wimpole Hall is always said to the the finest and "most majestic" of Cambridgeshire houses and when the original house was built in the late 1630’s it was strategically close to two Roman roads giving its owners easy access to London.

Over the years it, like many houses of its genre, has seen a great deal of changes since its original design as a four-gabled manor house, which was then surrounded by a rectangular moat. So a total overhaul over the generations emanating from the absolute demolishment of that original dwelling.

I’ve viewed many a "stately home" and I always find the social history attached to them of real interest and the Wimpole estate had laid in the ownership of the Chicheley family for 250 years. They’d acquired other estates and properties over the generations and it was Thomas Chiceley who built somewhat extravagantly in the new style. In fact he spent so much on the development that he was forced to sell out to Sir John Cutler.

Sir John was unable to stamp his mark on the estate and his son-in-law spent a huge £20,000 (in the early 1700’s) on the construction of the orangery and, to retain the symmetry a service wing on the eastern side. But he to hit financial hardship and the house was sold on to the Cavendish-Holles family Once again major changes were made and once again funds ran out and the house entered the ownership of Lord Harwicke. It remained in this family’s ownership from the 1730’s until 1930.

The move from the Hardwicke family was again the result of finances but this time it was about the debauched life style of the last Lord who I was reliably told liked his drink and his gambling. Too much it turned out and in 1930 the house was becoming run down and was finally rented out to generate some income. Rudyard Kipling’s daughter, Mrs Elsie Bambridge was a tenant in 1930 and it turned out that she became the saviour of the Wimpole Estate. When her famous father died Elsie purchased the estate and set about restoring it to its former glory.

To top it all she furnished it beautifully and then, on her death, in 1976, bequeathed Wimpole, alongside Batemans to the National Trust.

Hopefully it no longer hit hard times and will be open for the public for many, many years to come. It certainly deserves to be viewed and cared for.

Quick Tips:

Being members of the National Trust we were able to enter the grounds and the Hall for free. The usual admission charge is £12.60 a head and we’d paid our joint annual membership, at its renewal date in June, of £75. Already we’d clawed back £25 and I’ve no doubt that over the year we’ll visit some new sites and the membership will pay for itself, yet again. If you’re a visitor to the UK it really is worth considering annual membership – you can sign up at any National Trust site and you don’t need to be strong on maths to work out that visits to four of the National Trust Properties will more than recoup your initial payment. If you live in America then you can sign up before you visit because the National Trust because the National Trust and Royal Oak Foundation are affiliated to one another.

On a clear day then I’d strongly recommend that you take along the makings for a picnic, as there would be nothing better than sitting in the parklands of the Wimpole estate enjoying a leisurely lunch. The café on the estate does tend to get busy and it really doesn’t have great ambiance. It’s alright for a drink and a snack but not the best place to enjoy lunch. Shopping for food outside of the trust property will give a far wider choice and just imagine a glass of wine with some locally made bread, fine cheeses, pickles and ham – a classic ploughman’s lunch in the serenity of the Cambridgeshire countryside.

Best Way To Get Around:

The most efficient way of getting to and from Wimpole and other Trust properties is "on wheels". Car would be my firm recommendation as if you’re a visitor to the UK these are easy to hire and much safer than motorbikes. We have friends who just love taking their bikes around the country dropping off to see a Trust Property on route, but you do need to be travelling light, be a confident biker and preferably guarantee the better weather. With this summer in mind the latter is, it has to be said, unlikely. Indeed as I’, writing this journal, on a mid-morning in July the raining is beating down on my study window. That’s a British summer for you! So take my advice and hire a car and if the weather’s anything like this year save a pound or two by hiring one without air-conditioning – the chances are you won’t need it!!

Of course if you’re basing yourself in an area that is prolific with trust properties you could look to a combination of public transport (this is not a problem in many counties, although you will have to perfect your reading of the bus and train timetables to ensure your journey is feasible). You should remember in your planning that transport is not co-ordinated in the UK so you’ll need to build in to your journey time any delays or possible cancellations. Indeed such contingencies could seriously scupper your visits so I’d still reckon on the car being your best option. Indeed checking over the route to Wimpole I’m fairly sure that you can’t get a bus to there and the nearest railway station with a taxi service is at Royston – a fair drive away from the Wimpole Estate.

Parking around trust properties is normally not a problem – after all they are reliant on visitors most of whom will come by car or coach. The additional feature at Wimpole is that the car park is interspersed with smaller "informal bays" where many people would set up their picnic tables and chairs. Mind you when we visited the weather, to be polite, was "somewhat inclement".

Energetic? Try a cycling holiday. Not my cup of tea so I won’t dwell on this as an option!

Finding your way around the Trust’s properties is extremely straightforward as you can be guaranteed that they’ll be plenty of experts on hand, some well illustrated maps of the house and grounds and often a self guided tour with headphones. If you check out the website you’ll see if the place you’re visiting has guided tours although if they do there is usually an extra fee for the privilege of having this personalised service

If you have a disability Wimpole offers a "taxi service" around the grounds and up to the main house. A must if you are limited with walking as there are "several steps" between the car park and the main house.

Despite the light rain we decided to at least make a cursory tour of the grounds (there are 60 acres in total). On a good day I’d have liked to take the stroll from the Hall to the gothic tower, a ruin that was designed in 1751 by Sanderson Miller to create a focal point on the estate’s landscape. It’s really an enlarged garden ornament that has no other purpose than to create an atmosphere. It was finally built in 1772 and I guess it must have amused Philip Yorke, the 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, as he sat in his dining room folly that had been built to create a feel of history about the estate. Other than the fact that on closer inspection we would have seen that the "medieval remains" had no realm substance to them I guess we didn’t miss too much. Although I would have liked to closer inspect the building for the concrete plinth that apparently is marked "Well 300ft". Perhaps after all the "folly" is an elaborate covering for the well below? Perhaps not!

We started off with a walk around the formal gardens of the house with its neatly manicured parterre – this must require constant attention from its gardeners as I can imagine it could soon look messy if left unattended.

The rain certainly dissuaded us fro making the long walk to the folly and back but under the shelter of the tress we were comfortably able to walk from the hall to the walled gardens. In the neighbouring fields some of the estate’s rare breeds of sheep wandered the grounds and if we’d have got time we could have checked out more of them at the nearby Wimpole Home Farm. At the end of the day we weren’t highly motivated to view the farm and the constant drizzle really didn’t encourage us, but if you want to incorporate this into your tours you’ll need to make the visit almost a full day. We did see the farm building with its thatched great barn in the distance 7 vowed to return to view on another occasion.

We walked through the loop in the trail that took us past the "pleasure grounds". These are no more than informal gardens planted round with some fairly rare tress and a mass of daffodils at the height of Spring. Just the perfect place to chill out. Within a stone’s throw of the "pleasure grounds" (a little overstated by their title0 is the marvellous walled kitchen garden. This isn’t just for show as it’s still fully operating as a "working garden" so there’s the luck of the draw as to how things are when you visit. It was, despite the rain, the height of activity and it was full of a colourful variety of scarecrows. I don’t if this is a regular feature of the gardens but it made for an interesting addition with the dummies looking down on us from the top of the walls, waving at us from the centre of the garden or just statically staring at us as we gazed at the inventiveness of the designers of these functional constructions of waste products. Just goes to show that re-cycling can be fun and productive – we didn’t see any trace of bird life in the garden.

Over the generations the estate at Wimpole has received the attention from some of the great landscape gardeners of their time including Charles Bridgeman, Robert Greening, Humphrey Repton and of course the renown Capability Brown. It’s a testament to their early work that the garden design still works today.

Having explored the ground floor we leave the Trompel'œil work of the ante-room and climb the low banistered highly ornate staircase to the first floor. Here the first room that we visit is the "Chancellor’s Bedroom" named after the 1st lord of Hardwicke who was the longest serving Chancellor of the 18th century. Centrepiece to this room is a 1780’s "Prince of Wales bed". Despite it’s age it is not original to the house and was acquired by Elsie Bambridge to be in keeping with the room and although the "knitted hanging" is "perfectly right" for the style of the bed this accessory was made in 1842 and again was matched by Elsie.

Next to the bedroom was the Lord Chancellor’s dressing room although this, at the point of being bequeathed to the National Trust had become another bedroom and is furnished accordingly. It’s relevant to note, however, that the Chancellor’s bedroom was hardly ever used after the 1st Lord died in 1764.

Moving from the dressing room we’re back into a hallway at the top of the stairs. This is an interesting room because although one door leads back to the top of the staircase the one opposite it is a false door. A speedy exit would nowadays meet with a brick wall but for some time it would have led to "fresh air." You see the room that was originally the other side of this door was removed to allow the creation of the high dome of the "entertainment room". Another interesting feature of this hallway is way above you – the balcony above has a gap within it to enable the children to look down on the activity below.

Another dressing room was converted by Elsie Bambridge’s into a study and, as she decreed this room is exactly as she left it to the Trust in the 1970’s. Although as you’d expect the furnishings are all quality period pieces!

The Bed sitting room that leads from the study was Elsie’s bedroom and is decorated in her favourite colours of pastel pink and bright green. There’s loads of stuff crammed into this space but check out the small child’s chair, a pretty carved wooden chair and a stunning, striking (in both senses of the word) porcelain clock.

The bathroom, which is adjacent to the bedroom, is no more and we were assured that it was a fairly ordinary bathroom. Instead it was been dedicated to the display of the Bambridge’s collection of prints. As you’d expect of an en-suite bathroom it’s not a huge space but Elsie was able to cram an awful lot of artwork into the space. From the bathroom there are the "back stairs" leading up to the servant’s quarters but this route was not accessible to the public. Indeed one of the National Trust Guides had told us that well over 50% of the house was closed and even they as working volunteers had been unable to view them.

As well as going upstairs there’s a flight of stairs leading down to the bathhouse, which was built into an existing courtyard back in 1793. It required 3,000 gallons of water to fill and we stood looking down on it from an upstairs balcony, which was in fact the original changing room. No expense to deceive was spared as pine timber was given an oak finish and the plaster had been painted to give the effect of porphyry (a large-grained purple coloured organic rock) and the marble surrounding the bath had been given a grain wood appearance. It seems nothing is what it appears to be! The access to the bathroom was by way of a spiral staircase but that wasn’t an option for us as we headed off down the internal back staircase leading to the chapel and ultimately the basement and Wimpole Hall’s "below stairs".

We entered Wimpole hall by the grand external staircase, the same entrance used by Queen Victoria when she visited the hall back in the 1840’s.

Imagine the excitement as the royal guests were received in the Ante room before settling down for some post journey relaxation in the South Drawing Room. From here they could enjoy a superb view across the estate and relax in the comfort of this grand indoor terrace.

A step or two away and we are in the Long Gallery which was originally three rooms, with a long adjoining corridor, until it was "opened up" in 1742. There’s a mightily impressive fireplace with a sculpture of Bacchus (perhaps an indication of the occupants preferred tipple) and a magnificent grand piano that almost seems dwarfed by the size of the room. Just imagine the scene as family and guests sit in this room enjoying a glass or two of wine and been serenaded by this tones of this beautiful instrument.

The library was the next venue and with its dark blue bookcases and ample lashings of gold leaf it was a very sumptuous affair. It was built back in 1720 and a perfect showcase for the owner, Lord Harley to show off his huge book collection in the five rooms built specifically to house them. The smaller annex, the "Great Library" was built as a major extension to the main house as the original library rooms had reached full capacity and an "overflow" was required.

From the library we headed off to the old dining room with its terracotta walls and a gold leaf brocade boarder. It’s now set aside as a small museum and full of memorabilia relating to Captain Bambridge and his wife, Elsie the daughter of Rudyard Kipling.
The Yellow Drawing Room was designed by Sir John Soanes for his friend, Philip Yorke and is described as a room is "so spectacular, and splendidly decorated, that it alone warrants a visit to Wimpole Hall." This drawing room became the ball room and is a grand affair that had been specially updated for the visit of Queen Victoria and Albert. Quite fantastically, Soanes literally inserted a new room, combining both ground and first floor rooms, with a dome at one end and a barrel-vaulted section. The magnificent domed ceiling looks down on a bright painting of a group of cupids.
It was on Thursday 28 October 1843 that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were escorted from Cambridge to Wimpole by the Whittlesea troop of the Cambridgeshire Yeomanry and it was decreed that "the County Cavalry are well able to guard Her Majesty as long as she may stay in Cambridgeshire." The Queen and Albert stayed at Wimpole for two nights on the Friday evening 800 guests joined the royal party for a grand meal and ball. Although it was interesting to note that when the Queen retired to her bed all revelries ceased, You see the Royal bedrooms were directly above the front suite of rooms.
The saloon would have been a more intimate setting for the family to relax in and with views across the formal garden out across the rolling countryside to the gothic folly I caan imagine the tranquillity that would overtake the occupants. This would have been a stress free environment with a superb vista.
The furniture in the breakfast room was all acquired by Elsie Bambridge, as although the house had been furnished at the point of her purchase most of the contents had been sold off to pay off the bills of the last Lord of Harwicke (Champagne Charlie as he was affectionately known).
The Dining Room accommodated at least 24 diners and it looked magnificent with its mighty central chandelier and its highly ornate plastered ceiling
From the dining room we got one last glimpse of the entertainment room and could admire the technical skills that had built an early heating system into the dome, fully regulated from a dial at the side of the door. The hallway leading to the upstairs stair case was fully painted out in trompe d’oeil giving that familiar deceptive feel to the hall’s opulence.

Although much lowlier in terms of architecture and design the servant’s quarters are, in my view always a fascinating part of my visit to a stately home. They give the real insight into how things were for the aristocracy and give a sharp contrast to the public face of the family and the opulence of living life upstairs.

But before we reached them we called in at the 1720’s chapel. This was created by James Gibbs and the side walls are decorated with gold gilded statues set inside Corinthian columns. But all is not as it seems, as this is indeed a mural painted trompel'œil, but still a rather grand affair. Above the altar in this small chapel is an oil on canvas of the Adoration of the Magi, which would have been best viewed from the small family balcony to the rear of the chapel. I’m guessing it was for the family as the entrance is from the main house whilst the body of the church is accessed from an ordinary staircase up from the servants quarter and would have accommodated the large servant group working on the estate. The servant’s attendance for Sunday worship would have been a requirement and not just an expectation.

Down from the chapel and we next enter a hallway with a number of call bells, which in turn leads to a long dark, low-ceilinged corridor of the servant’s working quarters.

Firstly we see the housekeeper’s sitting room which at the point of handover to the National Trust was totally empty. Since then the room has been furnished in a 19th century style. Many of the pieces were reminiscent of that owned by my grandparents, who had inherited in turn from their parents, Indeed I have a 1840’s table cloth which still is in use today and nicely shows of those dining chairs that once belonged to my great grandparents back in the days when Victoria would have been visiting Wimpole. Interesting how a visit to a National Trust property can trigger off the memories. But I digress!

In this room are displayed a unique set of plates owned and designed by Rudyard Kipling’s father when he lived out in India. The small piano (no ipods or CD’s in this era!) would have been the housekeeper’s entertainment and a classical round table, covered with a damask table cloth , occupies the centre of the room. At the side of a garish fireplace in bright marble, fronted by an embroidered firescreen, is the housekeeps’ chair. It’s a small intimate room that feels quite isolated and potentially very lonely. But perhaps I’m wrong and it was after all the centre of life "below stairs".

In the corner of this room was a small romm which was trhe store for all the dry goods of the household. Drawers were ornately labelled with the likes of cinamon, mace and black pepper whilst large metal containers would have contained cocoa, coffee, tapioca. As a working store there’s the evidence of the old weighing scales and the fact that this room was always secured with a single key held by the housekeeper.

Moving along the corridor there are yet more bells and I wondered about the cacophony if several were ringing at the same time. A small wash room housed museum exhibist af a "dolly tub", a variety of replica victorian toys (which could be played with if you fancied), some original period dolls and a wide selection of kitchen and "below stairs" implements (including a "beating stick" for carpets, warming pans and a high backed tin bath). There’s a secured "butler’s pantry" for the family silverware, an ancient touser press and a range of original servant’s "uniforms".

The last room "below stairs" was the steward’s room which although not grand was a symbol of the importance of this role – this after all was the person who had to ensure that the estate "ran like clockwork" and that the gardeners and "below stairs staff" worked efficiently and unobtrusively. I don’t know how many rings on the bell were required for the staff to respond but you can be guaranteed that the family did not have to wait long before one of the servants appeared before them. This had two bedrooms, a separate sitting room and "proper" gas lighting. The walls were papered but it was clear from some of them that they were no more than thin and crude partitioned walls, but even so the importance was the illusion of grandeur. In the corner were some travel cases, duly inscribed "E. Bambridge", and signs of progress in the form of an early bakelite radio.

Below stairs is an interesting environment and as well as being able to check out the rooms in their original configuration there are loads of orginal memorabilia that will give a good insight into housekeeping in pre-electricity days.

Well worth spending time to check out.