June 16 – 24, 2018
If you like houses and gardens, this is your tour. In June we are offering a tour with special cache taking you inside a number of private homes in the border of England and Scotland and in the Lake District.
We will be staying for the beginning of the trip at Naworth Castle (below) the home of Philip Howard which has been owned by his family since the 14th century. We are delighted to be welcomed again by Philip as Naworth is an excellent base for visiting a number of special homes and gardens – some open to the public and others where we have been invited in by the owners. Among the many places we will visit are Cragside designed by Richard Norman Shaw and wonderfully positioned on a craggy hillside. Nearby is Lindisfarne on Holy Island where Edwin Lutyens redesigned the building and Gertrude Jekyll designed a charming small garden. Jekyll also designed a garden at Bamburgh, which we visit and which was owned by Armstrong, who also owned Cragside.
Our trip will not be all houses and gardens as we will visit Philip Webb’s only church in the small town of Brampton as well as a lovely little church by Pugin in Warwick Bridge and a spectacular church by Sarah Losh on the Green in Wreary.
We are planning a day out and dinner at Castle Howard – a bit south but well worth the drive.
On another day we’ll head north to just outside of Edinburgh where we have arranged for visits to two private homes and gardens.
And then we head into the Lake District. There would be no Arts and Crafts Movement without John Ruskin and we will have time to see his own home, Brantwood, and begin to understand the importance he placed on nature.
Windermere is home to Blackwell, designed by Baillie Scott and now one of the most important Arts and Crafts Museums. There are also homes by Lutyens to be visited and gardens by Thomas Mawson.
We will begin on a Saturday and spend the next week traveling around a most amazingly beautiful and varied countryside. You may even have time for a walk on Hadrian’s Wall (below). What a spectacular place to stroll and perhaps have a picnic!
This is an area of the country rich in history and still vibrant today.