Chastleton House

On Wednesday we grabbed the chance of a quite pleasant day to walk over to Chastleton House. This is the closest of the National Trust sites. It took us about 2 hours to walk over through some very pretty farms, past some quizzical cows, sheep and horses.
We sat and ate a picnic lunch in the Chastleton Church yard. There are no services of any sort, not even a tea room at this house. Sheelagh is thinking of sending an irate letter as a new member of the organization. She likes her tea rooms.

We were given a 1:15 entry time to this one of my favorite places yet. William Jones, a wealthy wool merchant, started to build his dream house on the site of a medieval house which had a very well located piece of land. From 1606 to 1612 he built this lovely house which looks over the rolling Cotswold countryside.

His family has never made a great deal of money since he passed on. The family cared for the house with limited resources for 400 years. Because they were not rich, the furnishings and decorations have stayed very much the same. In 1991 the last members of the family finally handed the house over to the National Trust. The NT have not changed anything but have repaired the leaky roof and that sort of thing.

The house has a basement and 4 floors. The rooms were created with care and creativity. The ceilings were very ornate and the walls were hung with large tapestries. The floors are covered with oak boards up to 15 inches wide. The wall paper is very busy and the beds have matching canapes. The kitchen, which was used up until 1955, was a large fireplace and a refectory table. The ceiling is black from smoke. There is a large set of dark pewter plates and cooling utensils.
The gardens are lovely with topiary and lawns and flower beds. There are many flowering trees.
We really liked this house in spite of the state of the place. There were about 4 rooms that I thought would make a perfect office for me. The top floor ran the width of the house with a curved ceiling. It was used for an exercise room for the family.
After we got home we were tired out. It was a fine day.