Another Nostell Visit

Last week I went to stay with mother in Marsden for a bit of R&R which was lovely, and while I was there we did a bit of Trust visiting too. I decided I really wanted visit Nostell Priory again, I had been there in January for the Housekeeping Study Days but I hadn’t seen it open and ready for the public.

Nostell Priory

We managed to drive there without getting too lost and when we got there were loads of ’50 Things’ activities taking place in the Estate, and hundreds of cows! It was lovely to see the Estate in use, and full of people. Nostell Priory, the house that stands today, was built by the Winn family in the 1700’s.

The 18th Century Saloon

The thing I was most taken with in January were the amazing plaster and painted ceilings, they are so beautiful, with really intricate details and colors including gilded parts.Rowland Winn, the 5th Baronet took over the building and decorating of the house from his father, and he hired Robert Adam to do much of the work on the interiors, including many of the ceilings.

The  State Dining Room

The collection of objects and furniture at Nostell is amazing, they have so many beautiful things! Much of the furniture was made by Thomas Chippendale specially for Rowland and this house.

An embossed Leather Chair

Seeing all the rooms properly the whole effect was stunning! I can’t decided which was my favorite room, but it could very possibly be the State Bedroom, which has beautiful hand painted wallpaper, installed in 1771 and matching furniture, as well as this stunning hand embroidered bed spread! The guide said it was believed to have all been worked by one person. The bed itself was installed in the room in the 19th Century and designed to match the existing Chippendale furniture.

The bed spread from the State Bedroom

I love being able to just get in the car and drive to different places, and working for the Trust means as a reward we get in for free so it makes for a brilliant day out! I have been to quite a few different properties lately and plan to go to a lot more when the re-enactment season is over (not that I’m wishing it away of course!).

The Tapestry Room

The last room on the tour of the house was a mini exhibition on how the House Team look after Nostell, and it was really well done. It talked about the agents of decay, and had examples of each, as well as a mini room set out to show what a Deep Clean of a stately home looks like. This was all in the room which also house an amazing Doll’s House, decorated inside to match the rooms of the main house!

The lovely Doll’s House at Nostell Priory

The Doll’s House was made for the Winn family in 1735 by Thomas Chippendale. I can imagine the hours of fun the Winn family children must have had playing with such a beautiful thing!

Nostell has a very different feel from Hardwick, but it too is really beautiful, with an amazing collection. I bet there House Team feel just as lucky to work there as I do to be at Hardwick!

 

 

 

 

Housekeeping Study Days

I have just been lucky enough to go on a little holiday full of a lot of learning; the National Trust Housekeeping Study Day. This four-day course covers all the basics about conservation and care of collections to give us …

National Trust online

I thought I would share with you some of the pages I use regularly in my work here at Powis, as well as a few of the really interesting National Trust blogs that I follow!

A great source for high quality images of National Trust properties and a selection of their collections in National Trust Images. I use this site a lot in finding pictures for my blog, as well as choosing great images for the posters I make for events at the castle. It also helps add to my list of Trust properties I can’t wait to visit!

As I have mentioned before Powis Castle is on Facebook and Twitter, and so are many Trust properties, as well as the Trust as whole, and there are pages for different areas of the country, so you can see what is going on nationally, locally or just at one place.

National Trust Twitter page and Facebook and the Welsh Twitter page and Facebook. Have a look for your local areas page too!

Now to the blogs, these first two are interns who were on the day out at Heelis I blogged about earlier. Chloe is based at Plas Newydd and Sofia is based at Polesden Lacey.

It is great to read their blogs and learn a bit about what others in my situation are doing and thinking, and they are also new to the Trust so it is interesting to see how they are finding things working of the organisation. They are getting up to all sorts of fab and exciting things and are both at lovely properties! More to add to my list!

The National Trust Press Office blog is great for finding out what is happening nationally with the organisation, all the stories that are in the news and some that aren’t from an insider’s perspective! Treasure Hunt shines a light on some of the lesser known treasures of the National Trust, giving detail about the objects past and reasons as to why they are so valuable. It is a really interesting blog and make me feel really pleased to be part of the organisation responsible for caring for such treasures, and thankful that the Trust exists to do so.

The nest two are conservation specific blogs that go into great detail about a huge variety of different conservation tasks that take place constantly across the organisation, and some very unique to the property tasks as well. These are really informative and I love reading about things that I have not had chance to try my hand at yet, as well as reading about tasks to which I have done similar things to as well.  The first blog is written by the Conservation Team at Knole, and the second by the Team at Nostell Priory.

And of course all the blogs feature gorgeous scenery and stunning objects for you to feast your eyes on! Enjoy!