It’s Mummy’s birthday weekend and she likes nothing better than to spend time with the whole family visiting places she loves. Last week we had a few days out and even tho the weather was not the best we all had fun.
The great thing about National Trust is whatever the weather there is something to do, be it running wild through a forest and getting covered from head to toe in mud, building a den, walking the dog over some amazing countryside, exploring a managed garden and seeing wildflowers, parking up and going for a surf or visiting a country estate house and taking the history.
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Locally to us, we have a number of properties, gardens, and coast to discover and Kinghtshayes is one of the most…well intriguing.
Knightshayes Court is a Victorian country house, its near the old “Lace” making town of Tiverton, Devon.
The Heathcoat-Amory family or John Heathcoat “Jr” (Grandad John was the creator of the mechanised bobbin lace making machine and Lacemaking factory owner), he built this impressive house overlooking his mill in Tiverton (when the family mill was destroyed in Loughborough) but he wanted it to be a bit, well “Bling” for the day and commissioned William Burges (a well-renowned designer or a victorian Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen) to create a statement!.
Well, the relationship with the family broke down and Burges got the sack and the house ended up being finished by John Dibblee Crace but he was no Llewelyn-Bowen and ended up having his work covered up by the family… right balls up.
But the house today is a fantastic window into the rich Victorians mind, the architecture of this building is wild and wonderful form the outside gothic look to one of the bedrooms with its the Egyptian styled bird lined wallpaper (with a monkey?) or the grand entrance hall, where you could stand all day looking at something different (but can you find father Christmas?) each room is different and for every turn of the corner, you don’t know what you are going to expect.
We have been visiting this house for years and each time we go I find something new.
Lucky for us the weather (and possibly the Corona effect) kept the visitor numbers low so we were able to go around without having to shhhhhh ASBO up with his loud voice, and not be embarrassed by Tibius and his touching addiction.
The team at Kinghtshayes are fantastic, from the entrance to the helpers and the restaurant, the welcome the smiles and the information is brilliant and the staff all interacted with the kids and it made the children at ease
After the house we let the kids run wild in the gardens, and as predicted all got covered in muck, but it wouldn’t be a day out if the boys could not roll down a hill or Tiddley get stuck in a muddy puddle in her sparkly shoes.
The weather closed in and we had Cake, its the one thing we all look forward to, not that Granma will always treat us, it’s just the cakes are wonderful, but we as a party of 7 queueing up, this can cause a rugby scrum, and the fact that the monsters kept changing their minds you could see the stress on the people behind us (but I’m sure they remember being young once and looking at a cake with a dribbling smile)
once ordered and sat down the silence, the 4 children sank there teeth into the cake and their eyes light up with happiness and content, us adults, well we were just happy for the coffee, cake and 1 minute of peace.
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For walks around the grounds, the nature play park, the walled garden, and the amazing house and gardens and CAKE! Kinghtshayes it’s, well, fantastic.
