United Kingdom
Uffington

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Travelers at this place
    • Day 12

      Burghley House

      August 12, 2018 in England ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

      Biggest house west of the Pennines. Why wouldn’t we go.

      House built by Robert Cecil, Chief Minister of Elizabeth I and is big enough to have its own postcode.

      Had it’s usual ups and downs and like a lot of places is now a charitable trust to avoid death duties.

      Terrific place, muralled within an inch of it’s life with over 400 paintings on the wall. Current Marquise is married to a Director of Christies so that must help with the appraisals.

      Walk, walk, walk and more to see.

      Having a Rover P6 trial on the front lawn, lots of beautifully kept cars and people sitting around hoping someone will admire them.
      Usual sort of day out.

      Pouring with rain for part of the time so held up with all the local mothers and a zillion babies in the cafe.

      For all our sakes the rain did clear it was off to the gardens.
      Read more

    • Day 4

      Burghley House, another little gem

      May 25, 2019 in England ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      So, another gem found in the English countryside! The home of the Marquise of Exeter was definitely worth the visit. We got there right as it opened, no sleeping in today (except it opened at 11 am which was perfect for this group!). It took us a little bit to get our bearings and to make sure we were going the right way. You’d think everything was in a different language as often as we all look at each other with - “do you know what to do” look! The grounds around the house were slowly filling up but for the most part, it was a perfect visit. The house itself was built by Elizabeth the first’s finance minister. He never really lived at the house, but the rooms in how they went from Elizabethan to Victorian era decorations was very cool. Taylor really liked the bell room, she felt that she could get through all her Netflix shows if she could get the boys to listen and fulfill their supposed duties! Like Blenheim, the current Marquise still lives here in the lower private rooms, but all the main floor estate rooms are open to view. There were so many cool stories, like the fact that it has one of the best maintained Japanese/Chinese porcelain collection in the western world - the funny thing is that most of the pieces were hidden behind sealed up walls or being used as doorstops. There is also a massive collection of 1600 and 1700’s paintings - why? Well, first, they had the money to buy them, duh! But even better is that when the Marquise got into massive debt in the 1800’s, he had to sell a lot of his assets. Funny thing is that most of the older paintings were out of style and no one would buy them so he sold all the 1800’s paintings. A simple thing like that has left the estate with a crazy collection by today’s standards! Another funny story is that it was the 9th Marquise I think, that was won gold at the 1928 Olympics and was featured in Chariots of Fire (A whole new reason to go back and watch now Doc! Saw his medal and his shoes!). Finally, hearing stories from the guides about how one of the daughters during Queen Victoria joked about how her and Albert never came to breakfast and very rarely made it out of bed!!! Good ole Victoria! It’s good to be the Queen!

      This is another great place to stop, and mom, you’d be so proud, after paying for 4 entrances to Blenheim, I found a coupon that allowed for us to get a buy 1 get 1 at Burghley and Castle Howard, our destination tomorrow. Woohoo, it’s the small victories!
      Read more

    • Day 4

      Taking time to enjoy the gardens

      May 25, 2019 in England ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

      After our house tour, we weren’t really in a rush to get to York (a 2 hour drive), so we decided to tour the grounds. Our time at Blenheim touring the grounds was only because Denise and I got lost, so this time, map in hand, we headed to the gardens. It was another beautiful day and the whole community was out enjoying the gardens and the surrounding park. You can see from the pictures the surprise garden where the Marquise hid pipes to surprise his guests with spouting water. Great fun! We ended our visit with some really good ice cream (Tay’s vanilla, yes, the vanilla, won the day! Brandon, I’m sorry you didn’t get to taste it, YUM!) a coke and a lazy walk back to the car. Not a bad way to start the day, waking up at 9, having a great breakfast, visiting a manor house for 3 hours and ending with some ice cream. Hard to go wrong from here!Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Uffington

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android