Horsey Windpump

The late, great Whitney Houston said it best; I believe that children are our future. Teach them well about National Trust scones and hopefully they'll remember to come and visit you in the nursing home and take you out for a cream tea every now and again (I'm paraphrasing a bit there).

I've been taking the education of junior scone fans very, very seriously over the past few months. I'm nearing the end of the National Trust Scone Odyssey (I have to be finished by December 2020) and before I collapse over the finish line in a clotted cream coma, I'm hoping to have inspired the next generation to start a similar project. Otherwise what are we all going to read?

I decided that a field trip was in order. Luckily, I've spent the last twenty years working in marketing so I was able to create a tantalising itinerary for several of my youngest friends; we would get on a boat and sail down the Norfolk Broads to the National Trust property with the very best name (Horsey Windpump), we'd carry out a thorough review of the scones, then we'd head into nearby Great Yarmouth where we'd spend several aeons putting £5 of coppers into a slot machine in the hope of winning a unicorn keyring worth about 10p. There would potentially be doughnuts and a lot of chips. Were they in? Readers, they were in.

An early start was needed, so I booked accommodation. I was insanely pleased with myself here; back in the day, I would spend many a Friday night drinking alcoholic beverages with my school pals in a pub called The Cherry Tree. And now here I was, on a Friday night with those same school pals drinking alcoholic beverages and saying things like "did anyone bring any toilet rolls?" in a static caravan on the Cherry Tree Holiday Park! See what I did there? It was completely lost on everyone but I remain delighted with myself.

ANYWAY - let's get on with the tale of Horsey Windpump. If there had been a Carry on Farming film, then the Kenneth Williams character would surely have been called Horsey Windpump. It's such a great name. When I first started this quest, HW didn't serve scones and so I had resigned myself to never visiting. And then earlier this year I got the nod that scones were now on the menu. Usually this kind of news causes me all sorts of trauma, as I have to add another property to my endless list, but in Horsey's case I was overjoyed.

Here are some historical facts:

• There has been a drainage mill on the site since the early 1700s
• There are similar mills dotted all around this part of Norfolk - by draining the land using wind power, landowners could make more area available for farming 
• Drainage continues today - there's an electric pump doing all the work these days, but if it wasn't there then the area would be flooded:

• The area used to be an island used for grazing or keeping horses (hence the name), with one access road that regularly flooded
• The current windpump structure was built in 1912 on the foundations of the 19th century mill
• Horsey Windpump was working until 1943 when it was struck by lightning 
• It was acquired by the National Trust and has been restored - its sails were set in motion for the first time in 76 years in May this year, which must have been a great moment
• As with all mills, it's not the most accessible property - there are several floors and 61 steps to negotiate to get right to the top, most of which are very narrow (I can report that the young sconepals cared not a jot about this and were scampering up the stairs like squirrels)
• If you have time and the right footwear (it goes without saying that I didn't), there's a three mile walk from the windpump down to Horsey beach where you might be able to see grey seals

We had taken full advantage of the windpump's location on the Broads by hiring a boat and arriving in style via the water.

Amalia demonstrating some exceptional, possibly genetic, sea-faring skills

John also showing considerable sailing expertise 

We were also treated to a bizarre Rawhide moment when a herd of cattle suddenly appeared and came running down the road. Maybe they'd heard that we were in town and eating all the scones. Whatever - I was just glad that I was safely inside the windpump at the time or I'd have run screaming down the path, pushing small children out of my way as I went.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

But let's move on to the Horsey Windpump scones. The tea room at Horsey is tiny but the staff were very friendly and tasty beverages and scones were soon served to the team:

The young apprentices hard at work - from L-R: Olivia, Amalia, John, Amy and Lara

The scones weren't home-made:

But everyone enjoyed them - below you can see Olivia and Amy demonstrating their advanced scone preparation skills, which were honed on a previous outing to Overbecks back in the summer:

And so our National Trust scone field trip came to a close and we headed off to the Pleasure Beach in Great Yarmouth. It had been a resounding success though, and five young sconeoisseurs have moved closer to their black belts in National Trust scone appreciation.

Lara raising funds for the next field trip

Horsey Windpump: 5 out of 5
My scone score: 3.5 out of 5
Average scone score from my young apprentices: 3.8 out of 5 (I've trained them well)
Average scone score from their mothers: 4.2 out of 5 (way off - embarrassing really)
Arriving by boat: 500 out of 5 - I highly recommend hiring a boat 

A special thank you goes to eight year-old Sconepal Amy, who also provided some lovely photos of Horsey Windpump from her collection. I'm thinking of making her my official photographer.

Photographer: Amy King

Photographer: Amy King

Oxburgh Hall

My friend's little boy has come up with a completely ingenious way of telling you when he doesn't like a birthday or Christmas present. He just says, very earnestly, "IT'S NOT MY FAVOURITE". He isn't being rude; you know where you stand...everyone's a winner, if you ask me.

And so I have decided to adopt his phrase to describe how I feel about National Trust properties that are inhabited by tenant families. They are not my favourite. Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk today reminded me why.

BUT! There are LOADS of reasons why you should LOVE Oxburgh and I am going to focus on those first. 

1. It has a moat!
Who doesn't love a moat? Certainly not my long-suffering sister - when I asked her if she would mind driving me around East Anglia for four hours on a Saturday she thought for a moment and said "I do like a moat," and off we went. 

2. It has a gatehouse!
The gatehouse is a 'tour de force of late medieval brickwork' according to the guidebook. It was first part of the house that was built by Sir Edmund Bedingfeld in 1482.

3. It has a family that have been there forever!
The Bedingfeld clan have lived at Oxburgh for over 500 years and are still there today. I am not sure if they are related to Daniel Bedingfield of 'Gotta Get Thru This' dance tune fame but it played in my head for several hours today anyway.

4. It has a priest hole!
The Bedingfelds were (and are) Catholic. This meant that their fortunes declined very rapidly in the late 16th century - anyone continuing the Catholic faith in Elizabethan times was sanctioned, but Sir Henry Bedingfeld was in a worse position than most; he had been a strong supporter of Queen Mary and had kept the young Elizabeth I under house arrest for a time, so he probably wasn't her favourite person. The priest hole at Oxburgh is still visible in the impressive King's Room, where visiting members of the clergy could be bundled out of sight should the place get raided. Some say it was built by our friend Nicholas Owen of Baddesley Clinton fame. 

5. It has The Marian Hanging!
The managers of National Trust properties must dream of pulling up a floorboard one day and finding a lost work by Michaelangelo. Oxburgh has The Marian Hanging. It's a series of embroideries made between 1569 and 1585 by Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Talbot of Hardwick Hall (wife of the man who was keeping Mary prisoner for Elizabeth I). It's an amazing artefact as it is believed to contain messages and thoughts that Mary was not able to otherwise articulate during her captivity.

It wasn't found under a floorboard but it did end up at Oxburgh purely by fortunate circumstance; it was given to Ann Dacre, Countess of Arundel, before being passed down through her Arundel descendants at Cowdray Park before one of them married into the Bedingfeld clan and brought the hanging to Oxburgh Hall in 1761 (and lucky they did too, as Cowdray Park suffered a terrible fire in 1767). The hanging is amazing and very well displayed. 

6. It has a roof!
You can venture out onto the roof from the Queen's Room and admire the gatehouse towers up close.

Up on the rooooof

7. It has Oxburgh scones!
And not only does it have scones, it has table service in the tearoom! You don't get that in many properties, more's the pity. Table service has one giant downside though; you can't pick your scone. When the waitress put the plate in front of me today, I was very, very disappointed because the scone looked very, very small while the receipt was clearly showing me that it wasn't very, very cheap (£5.50 in fact). 

However. It turned out to be one of those Tardis scones and was a lot bigger than it looked - in fact, it was probably the perfect size. It was also very fresh and very tasty. I won't lie though - that first impression of a weeny scone after a two hour drive rankled and I had to really persuade myself to give it a deserved 5 out of 5.

But, lovely as Oxburgh is, the fact remains that tenant-inhabited properties are just not my thing. A sign from the NT saying "please avoid wearing high heels in the house to protect the floors" is fine by me; a note from the 10th baronet with his rules and requests reminding me it's his family home is a bit irritating if I'm honest. If you want to protect your family home, don't let 75,000 people traipse through it every year.

But! We try not to be grumpy on the National Trust scone blog and it was a five-star visit: a beautiful property and a tasty scone!

Oxburgh Hall: 5 out of 5

Scone: 5 out of 5

The Marian Hanging: 5 out of 5

Blickling Estate

Here are two superb facts about the Blickling Estate in Norfolk:

• Anne Boleyn was probably born there
• It was the location for the video of I've Never Been To Me by Charlene (as in "Ahhhh've been to paradise/But I've..." etc.) - honestly! Watch it! 

I would struggle to come up with two greater claims to fame, frankly. 

In fact, Blickling has had MANY claims to fame:

Harold Godwinson (or Harold II as he was for a few months in 1066)
There was a manor house at Blickling in the 11th century which belonged to Harold Godwinson. He later achieved fame as Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, who succeeded Edward the Confessor and reigned for a few months before meeting a messy end near Hastings. William the Conquerer gave Blickling to his chaplain.

Sir John Falstolfe
Sir John owned Blickling at the beginning of the 15th century - he was an English knight who lived from 1380-1459. However, he was actually made famous in the 16th century as Falstaff, the fat and cowardly knight that appears in three Shakespeare plays. Whether the real John was fat and cowardly, nobody knows. But he definitely lived at Blickling.

Sir Thomas Boleyn

Sir John sold Blickling to Geoffrey Boleyn in 1437. His grandson, Thomas Boleyn, inherited in 1505. Nobody knows when his daughter, Anne, was born, so it's impossible to know whether she was born at Blickling or Hever Castle. However there's a carving on the wall saying "Anna Boleyn - Hic Nata" or 'born here' and who are we to argue.

Anne is said to haunt Blickling on the anniversary of her death. Thomas is also said to haunt the area, cursed for eternity for failing to prevent Henry VIII from executing two of his children. Every year, he has to cross 12 local bridges before cockcrow.

Sir Henry Hobart 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Hobart (pronounced Hubbard) bought the Blickling Estate in 1616 and built the house that we see today. However, instead of razing the previous house to the ground and starting from scratch, he asked Robert Lyminge, the architect, to incorporate the old house into the new. Which he did.

Sir Henry Hobart 4th Baronet

Poor old Henry Hubbard - I'm only including him on this list because he died following a duel. He lost his seat during an election in 1698 and blamed a neighbour for badmouthing him. He challenged the neighbour to a duel, which took place illegally without seconds or witnesses, and his neighbour "ran him through". Henry was carried home, where he died.

Henrietta Howard

Henrietta was the daughter of the Henry that was killed in a duel. She never actually owned Blickling - it belonged to her brother and then to her nephew. However, she did an awful lot for her brother - he benefitted greatly from the fact that she was mistress of the Prince of Wales from 1718 to 1734 (or George II as he was from 1727). Before that it seems she had had a tough old time - she was married to Charles Howard, son of the Duke of Suffolk, who turned out to be a wife-beater and a gambler so she left him in 1717, which meant giving up all contact with her son. 

Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian

Henrietta's nephew, John Hobart, left the house to his second daughter, Caroline, in 1793. His eldest daughter, Harriet, had annoyed him by getting divorced. However, Caroline had no children and so it was Harriet's son by her second husband, the Marquess of Lothian, who inherited Blickling in 1850.

By 1930, Blickling had made its way down the line to the 11th Marquess of Lothian, Philip Kerr. He was British ambassador to the USA from 1939-1940, playing a major role in getting the US into World War II. He was also a huge supporter of the National Trust, helping to set up the Country Houses Scheme. He did a lot to the house and garden at Blickling, which had been tenanted for many years, and it was passed to the Trust after his death in 1940. 

What did I tell you? So much excitement for one house.

But this brings me on to something that always flummoxes me about the National Trust; why do volunteers dress up in period costume at NT properties, but dress up AS SERVANTS. Why? It's not actually 1730, so why not pretend to be Henrietta Howard? Why be a lowly kitchen maid when you could be marching about the place hitting other volunteers with a riding crop for being lazy?

But the volunteers pretending to be cooks at Blickling were great - they were very funny and they engaged brilliantly with the visitors, especially the teenagers; "How old are you? 14? Great, you can start tomorrow" (cue terrified face from teen).

But more importantly, they were selling recipe cards and one of them was for apple scones, which is of course a surefire way to impress me:

The Blickling scone
Speaking of scones, the Blickling tea room was very pleasant and the scone was very, very tasty indeed - one of the tastiest scones I have ever encountered on this Odyssey. I agonised over the score though, because although it was tasty it was a tiny bit dry. In the end, I gave it a 4.9, which is mean considering they also offered recipes for apple scones and all, but this is a very serious study and I have to be ruthless.

A couple of tips for visiting Blickling:
1. Consult the map. I hate to admit this to you, but I couldn't find the garden. It's enormous but I just could not work out how to get into it. If I had looked at the map, I'd have worked it out.
2. If you need somewhere to stay near Blickling, try The Buckingham Arms - it's a pub located on the estate (not NT), it has rooms, and it looked lovely.

Blickling Hall: 5 out of 5
Scones: 4.9 out of 5
Sightings of Thomas or Anne Boleyn ghosts: 0 out of 5

Felbrigg Hall

I've been desperate to visit Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk ever since I read the book Dry Rot & Daffodils by Mary Mackie. She actually lived in Felbrigg Hall while her husband was the administrator there (ie the National Trust employee that lives in a property and stops it from falling down or being ransacked). 

I am the sort of person that hears noises and sees shadows at 10 o'clock in the morning, so living in a stately home would not suit me at all. (The other night I woke up and was completely convinced for half an hour that there was an actual mallard sitting on my bed. This is 100% true.)

But it wasn't the scary noises that put me off in Mary's book. It was the general public:

• Men wandering into the estate late at night to shoot rabbits
• People letting their kids kick the antique furniture
• Families helping themselves to armfuls of flowers from the gardens
• People banging on the windows in February shouting "WHY AREN'T YOU OPEN? YOU SHOULD BE OPEN." etc. etc. etc.

I wouldn't last five minutes in charge of a National Trust property, not without landing myself a stretch in Holloway Prison anyway. 

BUT! I was in for a big surprise today. Mary's book didn't prepare me AT ALL for what I found at Felbrigg Hall. Several times in the book she mentions how nearby Blicking Hall gets all the attention in the Cromer area, what with its celebrity connections to Anne Boleyn and King Harold of Hastings battle fame. 

But I am going to stick my neck out and say that Felbrigg is one of the best National Trust properties I have ever been to.

Before I tell you why, however, here's some history of Felbrigg:

• There were originally some actual Felbriggs at Felbrigg, but they sold the estate to John Wymondham (later Wyndham) in 1450
• Thomas Wyndham may have built some of the bits of Felbrigg Hall that are still extant today before he died in 1522
• In 1620, another Thomas Windham, began to rebuild Felbrigg - at the same time, Blickling was being built about 8 miles away and so the same workmen and architect were probably used
• William Windham II spent four years on the Grand Tour, returning in 1742 - he extended Felbrigg to make room for his souvenir paintings and books
• William Windham III left the estate to his half-nephew, William Lukin, in 1810 but he changed his name to Windham to keep things simple for us
• His grandson was named 'Mad Windham' by his contemporaries at Eton - he was certainly very eccentric
• He loved uniforms - as a child he had a servant's uniform and would wait at table; later he had a train guard's uniform and would cause chaos on the platforms of local stations by blowing his whistle at inopportune moments
• He 'fell into the clutches' of a woman called Agnes Willoughby whom he met at Ascot - his uncle tried to petition that Mad Windham was too mad to enter into a marriage settlement but the court disagreed
• Agnes and Mad were married but she soon ran off
• Thanks to Mad's enormous debts, the Felbrigg estate became the property of his bank and was sold to a John Ketton in 1863
• Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer was the final owner of Felbrigg before he passed it to the National Trust when he died in 1969

The property is presented as Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer had it, so it's a very comfortable stately home. This is the Great Hall;

So why have I decided that Felbrigg is one of the very best NT properties in Britain? Here are some of the reasons.

1. A Fantastic House with Great History
Felbrigg was way better than I expected. I've had to borrow this picture as I failed to see it for myself while I was there, but below is the South Front (on the right), which was begun in 1620, and the East Front (on the left), which was completed in 1675. Amazingly different.

2. A Free Mini Guidebook
My second mission for this blog was to Ham House. I was given a free mini guide book, with a few highlights of history in it. I thought it was brilliant, although I didn't realise at the time that very few other properties offer them.

Felbrigg had one too and it was great - really well written, with interesting factoids and pictures to help find the items of greatest interest. I wish all NT properties did them:  

3.An Accomplished Pianist
I was admiring the portrait of William Frederick 'Mad' Windham (as they call him in the guidebook) when a room steward opened the piano in the Morning Room for a visitor. I think we've all walked round properties to the sound of somebody forgetting that they can't actually play the piano, silently wishing that the NT had kept its 'DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING AT ALL' policy. But this visitor really could play and shared the most moving music - it was just perfect.

4. A Book about Scandal
I absolutely love it when you find a fantastic book about an NT property - see also the peerless Wedlock from Gibside, Circle of Sisters from Batemans, Mistress of Charlecote from Charlecote, A Kingston Lacy Childhood from Kingston Lacy, and A Lady of Cotton from Quarry Bank Mill. 

I thought I'd already covered Felbrigg with Mary Mackie's books BUT NO! There was another treat waiting for me in the shop. And with a title like A Scandal at Felbrigg, it's like they knew I was coming. It's about Mad Windham and his marriage to Agnes Willoughby. I've only read 20 pages but I'm loving it - I'll report back when I'm finished.

5. The Felbrigg Scone
I normally snaffle up my scones before I look round an NT house, otherwise I walk around going "what an amazing room...will there definitely be scones left?" 

At Felbrigg, I left the scone til last. Everything else had been pretty much perfect and I was almost dreading the scone letting the side down.

But it didn't let the side down. It was absolutely spectacular - one of the best scones I've ever had on the National Trust Scone Odyssey. Light, fluffy, fresh as anything, but really, really tasty. Fantastic.

The Only Not-Brilliant Thing - The Scone Queue
I'm going to mention this mainly so you don't think I got brainwashed by Felbrigg. The ONLY thing that wasn't brilliant today was the queue for the tea room. And I KNOW - I was there at 2.30pm on an August Saturday - I probably picked the busiest hour of the entire year. But I've known glaciers move faster - it was the slowest I've ever come across.

In mitigation, when I got to the front of the queue there was a man whose bank card kept being declined by the machine. I don't know about you, but my reaction in that situation would be to apologise profusely and use another card or pay cash or offer to wash up. He was blaming the machine. It was unbelievable and yet another reason why me ever working at the NT would result in a prison sentence. I'll stick to visiting.

Felbrigg Hall: 5 out of 5
Scones: 5 out of 5
Volunteer pianist: 5 out of 5

Sheringham Park

Here's a story about Sheringham Park: The hall was started in 1813. The owners, Charlotte and Abbot Upcher, originally wanted the house to face north and have a view of the sea, but Humphry Repton, their designer, was having none of it. "The sea at Sheringham," he wrote "is not like that of the Bay of Naples." 

If I had been Mr & Mrs Upcher, I would have said; "Quite right, Mr Repton, the sea at Sheringham is not like the Bay of Naples, because Sheringham is in North Norfolk and the sea is the North Sea. So we'll let you crack on with all of those Italian projects you undoubtedly have lined up and we'll find someone else to build our house."

They didn't say that though. Even though he was getting on a bit by the time he accepted the commission to design Sheringham, you don't hire Humphry Repton to design your house and then pooh-pooh his ideas.

Sheringham Hall - the sea is only a few hundred feet behind, 
not that you'd know it if you lived there

In fact, Sheringham Park, near Cromer, is the best preserved example of Humphry Repton's work, according to the NT. Here are a few factoids:

• Humphry Repton knew the area well and had been trying to find a use for it for a while before Abbot and Charlotte came along
• In 1812, Repton presented his proposals to the Upchers in one of his 'Red Books' - the books contained watercolours of before and after his proposed ideas, along with some poetry and prose to flatter his clients
• The Upchers decided to go ahead, and foundation stones were laid in 1813
• By 1816 the woodlands, orchards, and parkland were being planted
• Sadly, Abbot died in 1819 at the age of 35 and work on Sheringham stopped
• It remained empty for 20 years, with Charlotte staying in the old farmhouse that had stood on the site for many years
• Sheringham was eventually finished by her son, Henry Upcher, in 1839
• The Upcher family continued to own Sheringham and they stayed faithful to Repton - in 1975, his design for a temple was finally brought to life
• The National Trust bought Sheringham Park in the 1980s

You can't access the house. However, the coastal and woodland walks within Sheringham Park are really very lovely. It's just as well that I only found out about the 'Adder Adventure' events that the Trust holds at Sheringham when I got home though, or my leisurely walk might have been more of a sprint.

I'm going to include this next picture, even though it's a bit rubbish and probably nobody will find it funny BUT on turning a corner I suddenly found myself looking at a recreation of Liam Gallagher's head on the path. It turned out to be a little shelter for dog walkers (none of whom looked particularly mad for it);

The Sheringham scone
Anyway! Moving swiftly on from Liam Gallagher before you think I am completely mad; I don't think Humphry Repton's Red Books included a chapter on SCONES - he was probably more of a panettone man - but luckily Sheringham didn't let me down.

The Courtyard Cafe is more of a refreshment kiosk than an actual cafe, but they had cakes and tea and coffee galore. The scone wasn't home-made but it was nice enough and the tea was lovely. 

My one complaint; the guide book really needs a map. There's a big map on a noticeboard at the entrance to the park, but I failed to take a picture of it and I have the memory of a goldfish, so I was completely clueless on where I was going. I didn't see the temple or the rhododendron garden. But - I did get to see the sea and it was WAY better than the Bay of Naples if you ask me.  

Sheringham Park: 4.5 out of 5
Scone: 3 out of 5
Sea view from the master bedroom: 0 out of 5