Funky Cold Patina - Calke Abbey, The Unstately Home

It's the time of year when our National Trust membership cards get a battering. Today we've revisited an old favourite, the elegantly wasted Calke Abbey in Ticknell, Derbyshire. 

 Described by the National Trust as An Unstately Home and presented as an illustration of the English country house in decline, Calke Abbey is the house where time stood still, portraying a period in the twentieth century when many country houses did not survive to tell their story. Following the ethos of Repair not Restore,when the estate was handed to the National Trust in 1985 it was decided not to restore it, but rather preserve it as it was found.

The estate was bought in 1622 by Henry Harpur, a successful lawyer and rebuilt by a descendant, Sir John Harpur, around the existing Elizabethan manor house that stood on the site. The house and estate were owned by successive Harpur baronets until crippling death duties led to the estate being transferred to the National Trust in 1985.

Although a massive amount of remedial work has been undertaken by the National Trust, there's been no restoration, so the decay of the building and its interiors has been halted but not reversed so before the work of the late 1980s, everything had remained untouched for over a century.

The Harpur family amassed many treasures over their 450 year residency and very little was thrown away. Visitors are invited to peep through the windows of both the house and the outbuildings and drool over the heaps of abandoned antiques and ephemera.

Many of the grand English stately homes leave me cold. These chaotic and cluttered interiors make my knees go weak, reminding me of the home I grew up in.

Although the house was closed for cleaning, the glasshouses & outbuildings remained open to visitors. The National Trust have stayed true to the original planting schemes, only using the same plants as the natural history mad Harpur Crewe's did in the 19th Century.

The Orangery was built in 1777 and remains my favourite part of the Calke Abbey estate, I'd be quite happy to live in it.

The Physic Garden is where all the fruit and veg for the family were grown. Again, the National Trust have only planted what was originally there. 

We couldn't resist snaffling some home-grown produce, leaving a donation in the honesty box.

The subterranean Ice House was dank, dark and full of cobwebs but marvelously atmospheric. I wouldn't fancy any the ice from here in my rum. 

The algae in The Grotto (built in 1809) was almost nuclear in colour.

St Giles Church, which stands in the grounds of Calke Abbey dates back to 1129. Although referred to in literature as a private manorial chapel to the great house it originally served the parish of Calke from at least 1160 until 1834. The building is Grade II listed and was restored between 1827-1929.

With Lord Jon nursing a red cabbage and with a bag of sprouts and a couple of parsnips stuffed into my shoulder bag we explored the graveyard, marvelling at the longevity of many of those buried there. Hannah Hatten who died in 1778 at the age of 92 would have been born in the reign of James II!

I know I must say it all the time but we absolutely love Calke Abbey, it's remained in our all-time top National Trust places ever since our first visit in 2020.

Thanks for reading, see you soon!