Walk Out To Winter - Revisiting The Shugborough Estate

Having ventured no further than the corner shop for days, on Sunday we dusted off our National Trust cards and headed across the border to Staffordshire for a Winter walk.

At just over a twenty mile drive from home, we visit the Shugborough regularly but here's a brief history just in case you've missed my previous blog posts. 

Built on the site of a moated medieval bishop's castle, Shugborough was bought by the wealthy Anson family in 1624 for £4,000 (a fortune at the time) but it was torn down in 1693 to create a more fashionable country house. The building was enlarged in 1745 creating the Georgian mansion which stands today.

Thomas Anson (1695 - 1773) inherited Shugborough from his brother, George, who was formerly the First Lord of the Admiralty. Originally trained in law, Thomas abandoned this and decided, like many of the wealthy young men of the time, to take The Grand Tour. After his travels around Europe, Thomas came home with his head full of the beautiful sights he'd encountered on his travels with a wish to make Shugborough his own perfect paradise. His landscape creation was ground-breaking as it included some of the first neo-Greek structures in the country by architect Thomas Wright.

After Thomas's death, the family fortune leaked through the hands of his grandson, also called Thomas (1795 - 1854), who gambled his vast inheritance away. In 1842 the contents of the estate was auctioned to raise funds. In 1960, in lieu of his grandfather's death duties, the 5th Earl, the celebrated society photographer Patrick Lichfield, gave the Shugborough estate to the National Trust. For many years it was looked after by Staffordshire County Council until the National Trust took over the administration in 2019. The estate is still occupied by the Earls of Lichfield and has a working farm and several varieties of rare breeds of livestock.

Including these teddy bear-faced sheep.

This sign never fails to make us laugh.

Inspired by the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes in Athens, the Tower of the Winds was built in 1765 and once sat in the centre of the village pond until modified in 1805 to house a dairy for Lady Anson. We've visited the Horologion in Athens and it really is a perfect replica. 

If you think you're experiencing déjà vu, you're not - whenever we come back from Shugborough I look through the photos of our previous visits and they're almost identical - the only difference is the weather and what we're wearing (although I've worn the same coat for the past three years!) 

The Ruin, built in 1750, once stood next to a colonnade which was swept away by a great flood in 1795.

The Chinese House was built in 1747 and designed to celebrate George Anson’s visit to China and his triumphal return to Britain. It was based on original sketches taken from garden architecture Anson and his crew saw in Guangzhou (formerly Canton) in 1742. The scheme, which also incorporated two Chinese style bridges and a boat house was one of the first garden buildings in Britain to reflect the fashion of Chinoiserie. 

The Cat’s Monument is thought to be created in around 1750 and believed to either commemorate George Anson’s cat or Thomas’ Persian Cat, Kouli Khan. 

Erected in 1814 and cast in the nearby town of Rugeley, the not very imaginatively named Blue Bridge created a welcome splash of colour.

Built some time between 1748 and 1756, the Shepherd's Monument bears what has become known as The Shugborough Inscription, a mysterious sequence of letters carved on a lower plane and said to be one of the world's top uncracked cypher texts. Based on the brief reference made to the monument in the pseudo historical The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, some believe that there could be a connection between the monument and the Holy Grail. 

The only woman not dressed in a waxed jacket or a puffa coat, I was inundated with compliments and even got hugged by a young woman who told me that my outfit had made her day! 

The Essex Bridge, straddling the River Trent, is a Grade I listed packhorse bridge, built in the late 16th century by Elizabeth I's favourite, the Duke of Essex, who lived nearby. 

Built in 1760, the Doric Temple is a copy of the Temple of Hemphaistos in Athens and again we can verify that it's remarkably similar. 

The cold was starting to bite so we skipped the boathouse and looped back to the mansion discovering with delight that the servants quarters were open. In all the years we've been visiting Shugborough we've only managed to get inside the house once! 

There was a list of rules for the staff on display, no eye contact, no conversation, reminders to allow their betters right of way if they encounter them in a corridor and anything dropped by the family to be placed on a silver salver before offering it back. Women were reminded that followers were not allowed on the estate and any females caught fraternising would be instantly dismissed (no mention of the male staff...) 

It would have been okay for Jon if he'd been around then, his lot were gentry. My Dad's side of the family were miners for generations and Staffordshire working class, as women didn't go down the pits, domestic drudgery would have been my life!

I love how the tree was decorated with copper baubles echoing the jelly moulds and saucepans.

After a final circuit around the kitchen garden, our legs stretched and cheeks rosy - we headed back for a picnic in the car.

Wishing everyone who visits my blog, reads and comments (or just lurks in the background) a very Happy New Year.

Thanks for being there, see you in 2026!

Much love,

Vix & Jon

xxx