Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED About This Page:

[cubfancolleen]

You did have some luck in hitting the targets, didn't you?!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Wow, nice job! I'd say that's better than beginner's luck. You're a natural!

That's what the guy we were shooting with told me!

Although, I'm not sure what you would use that talent for.

Neither do I. I certainly wouldn't use it for anything that involved shooting something, if that makes sense? My dad does have a gun licence and he uses it for shooting rabbits, as they cause all sorts of problems where they live. He had to shoot one that was seriously ill with myxomatosis. He described what an awful state it was in and I know he was right, that he did put it out of its misery and it was the best thing to do, but I could never do anything like that...

[chezp]

Tuesday 6 May – part three: the “spooky chair”….

We headed back to the room for a very short break, as by now it was 12:30pm, and our historic house tour was scheduled for 1:00pm. When we got there, the housekeeping staff were just about to enter our room, so we explained that we’d be going out shortly.

We headed over to the historic house and the Great Hall just after 1:00pm, and discovered that there were only four of us on the tour, which was great, considering we’d seen how packed this morning’s tour had been.

Before I move on to the tour itself, here’s some history of Littlecote House, taken from the website. The first Littleote House was built during the 13th century and was inhabited by the de Calstone family from 1290. When William Darrell married into the family in 1415, he inherited the house. His family then built the great Tudor mansion.

Sir John Popham then acquired Littlecote, and I’ll explain just how later, in 1589, and built the current Elizabethan brick mansion you can see today. It was built in just three years. From 1762, the Pophams became the Leyborne Pophams, and they then owned the house until the 1920s.

During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned, and became the home of the 1st battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Airfields in the area were used for missions during the night of 5 June 1944, the eve of D-Day, as part of the Invasion of Normandy.

We started off our tour in the Great Hall, which was the main entrance to this part of the house. There are three elements to this house – the medieval, the Tudor and this, which dates from the 16th century. In here, you can still see remnants from the English Civil War, but we learnt that sadly the collection of firearms they had were sold off by the entrepreneur Peter de Savary, who first bought this place. He created what I can only imagine from our guide’s description was a pretty tacky theme park. It didn’t last long before Warner bought it in 1996.



Our guide Pauline was excellent. She’s certainly done her research. She’s a genealogist and has researched every person who’s lived here, so she certainly knows her stuff. She also explained how the table in this room was used for various Royal visitors, including King William III, King Charles II and King James I. Apparently there are rumours Queen Elizabeth I also stayed here, but there’s no proof of that. The table was finally moved to the side when Warner brought the place to give the guests more room.

Also in here are stained glass rooms that pay tribute to the story of King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, who secretly courted here. It was put in by one of Jane’s relatives, as she was actually part of the Darrell family, who wanted the story to be remembered. Here you can see the different coats of arms…



… and the initials are actually Henry’s and Jane’s, as in those days, I was a J…

This is the great entrance hall, through which all the guests would’ve arrived, and they’d be greeted by this very impressive stained glass window of St. Benedict. The coat of arms of the Popham family, who owned this house for many years, are included in this window.

The next room we went into was the Chinese Room, and this was just amazing. Pauline told us that each of these walls is valued at around £50,000, yet there’s nothing surrounding them. Suddenly I could see why this is an adults only place. It’s clear she really cares about this house, as at one point, she asked for help to move one of the sofas away from the wall to prevent it damaging it.



Then we had a look in the Orangery, where you can book to enjoy afternoon tea. It’s a beautiful place, and was originally home to an indoor swimming pool. Now look at it…



I did ask if the plants in here interfered with the ceiling, but apparently not.

From here, we moved into the library, and Pauline invited us to take a seat. Both Mark and I did, and she was disappointed that neither of us picked the “spooky chair”. She pointed it out to us, saying that people often say that they’ve seen a man sitting there, just looking at the view. It wouldn’t be the last time we’d heard stories about the place being haunted…



The bookcases in here are actually numbered, so that the librarian could easily find books when people asked for them.

We also had a look at the view from here. Apparently, there was a house in the distance, but the decision was taken to demolish it, so that they could have a better view. Definitely a good plan!



From here, we headed into the back of the house, passing this beautiful stained glass window on the way…



Next: that’s definitely what I call “brightening up” a room!

[cubfancolleen]

I agree that the view from the spooky chair is a good one - I can see why a ghost would pick it! How great that your tour was small, and sounds like a terrific guide.

[disney_duke]

I can't remember now... are these activities included in your stay, or are you paying extra for them? Either way, it's well worth it. What a tour guide! We've just begun and it's sooo interesting! I wonder if the spooky chair "feels" different than other chairs.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

I agree that the view from the spooky chair is a good one - I can see why a ghost would pick it! How great that your tour was small, and sounds like a terrific guide.

She was excellent.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

I can't remember now... are these activities included in your stay, or are you paying extra for them? Either way, it's well worth it. What a tour guide! We've just begun and it's sooo interesting! I wonder if the spooky chair "feels" different than other chairs.

The shooting is included. The tour of the house was a bargain £3 ($5) per person, which I thought was amazing value. Oh and use of the pool, sauna, steam room etc. was all included as well.

[KMB733]

A wonderful tour!! Great pictures!!

[pamcarey]

What a beautiful house and interesting tour!


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[SuperDave]

Love the inside of Salisbury Cathedral and especially the cloisters! It just seems so peaceful in the latter.

Too bad the service for dinner in the big dining hall was somewhat inept! Well at least the food was good! It doesn't seen that well organized and might help if they explained things better. And yet again, you had the same experience at breakfast as well!

Like the room key for Littlecote House. Keys like this are pretty common in old family run hotels in Europe, instead of a credit card type key...or Magic Band! They are quite bulky, so you just leave them at the front desk, when going out.

Looked like fun at the shooting range and you did quite well for a first timer! The tour of the house looked quite interesting with a great guide!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Love the inside of Salisbury Cathedral and especially the cloisters! It just seems so peaceful in the latter.

Too bad the service for dinner in the big dining hall was somewhat inept! Well at least the food was good! It doesn't seen that well organized and might help if they explained things better. And yet again, you had the same experience at breakfast as well!

I know...

Like the room key for Littlecote House. Keys like this are pretty common in old family run hotels in Europe, instead of a credit card type key...or Magic Band! They are quite bulky, so you just leave them at the front desk, when going out.

It's interesting you say that, as we haven't had keys like that in a long time. We got proper keys at the bed and breakfast places of course, as those were people's homes.

[Cam22]

I'm catching back up on this day. What an invigorating start with the swim and sauna. The confusion at meals with what to order and what to get off the buffets would fluster me a bit. You did an awesome job with your first shooting of a rifle. The historic house is so beautiful and inviting.

[Colexis Mom]

Beautiful house!

[chezp]

Tuesday 6 May – part four: that’s definitely what I call “brightening up” a room!

We went into the Dutch Parlour next, so named because it was painted by Dutch prisoners of war during the 17th century. They were put to work in the garden, but protested they were artists, so were asked to “brighten up” this room, and I think they did a pretty impressive job of it!



Look at the door you enter through…



There are a couple of patches in here, which are interesting. This one on the ceiling…



… shows the original colour before it was all cleaned up, as apparently this was once the smoking room. How could they do that to such a beautiful room?

Then there’s this section…



Appallingly, this was vandalised a couple of years ago, and the restorer cleaned up this bit, and they’ve left it like this to highlight the difference between the two.

We went next into the brick parlour, which Pauline told us freaked a lot of people out, and with these guys sitting here, I’m hardly surprised!



You started to get some superb views of the historic gardens outside…



From here, we moved into the chapel, which Pauline described as the finest example of a Cromwellian chapel anywhere in the country. For those who don’t know, Oliver Cromwell led the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War against the Royalists. The Parliamentarians were known as being very dull, shall we say? By that, I mean they didn’t go in for colours, and I think this chapel reflects that.

We were invited to sit down, and my goodness the seats in here were uncomfortable! Apparently they gave rise to two sayings. The first was “keeping you on your toes”, as they’re quite high up, and people in those days (they were smaller than we are now, don’t forget ) would literally have been on their toes to reach the ground. The second was “dropping off”, as there’s a slight incline downwards, meaning if you started to get sleepy during a sermon, there was a danger you could literally drop off your seat!



We headed upstairs to get a closer look at the organ…



From here, you also got a better view of what’s at the front of the chapel. We’d been told the story that Peter de Savary went to sell off all the contents of a house at an auction not long after he bought the place. He was greeted by a woman, who told him not to sell anything off belonging to the baby. Now the baby being referred to died at five months old of pneumonia. There was a curse on the house you see – and I’ll explain more in a moment. He was so freaked out that he immediately went around the auction, checking to see if there was anything related to a baby, and he found the items you see here:



He removed them from the sale, and apparently to everyone he spoke to, he was adamant that the woman who came to see him with the message was the baby’s mother, and the baby died in the 19th century…

Then it was into the haunted landing, where we heard the horrific story relating to both this room and the next one you’ll see, the haunted bedroom. A midwife was blindfolded and brought to the house. She remembered as much of the journey as she could. The blindfold was taken off when she got into the bedroom, and was asked to deliver a baby. The woman’s face was masked, so she had no idea who she was.

She delivered the baby, then handed it to a man outside, who promptly put it in the fire, until it died. I know, appalling, right? Well, the story goes that the midwife couldn’t live with herself, and eventually confessed to what had happened, even though she’d been sworn to secrecy, and using the details she remembered from the journey, they worked out that the only place she could’ve been taken to was Littlecote House. She was pretty smart, and chopped a tiny bit of bed linen on her original visit, so when she was taken into the bedroom, she was able to produce it, and prove it was the right place.

No-one to this day knows who the woman was, although there are various theories, but the man was William Darrell, the owner of Littlecote House. He was arrested, but he never went on trial. You see, he had the services of one Sir John Popham as his lawyer, and he was obviously a darned good lawyer. Let’s just say that he dealt with some very important people on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I, including Mary, Queen of Scots and his friend Sir Walter Raleigh…. Oh and some little heard of person called Guy Fawkes, who of course tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. He’s the reason why we celebrate Bonfire Night every fifth of November now.

Anyway, Darrell promised Popham that if he got him off the charge, Littlecote House would be his when he died. Well, Darrell died when his horse threw him off. He claimed to have seen a ball of light with a baby’s face in it before he died, so who knows? Perhaps that poor baby got his revenge after all.. Pauline told us, to this day, horses won’t go near the sight, so maybe that’s haunted too. As William died, he cursed the Popham family, ensuring that they wouldn’t have any male heirs, and as far as anyone knows, that curse is still in existence today.

Here’s the landing…



… and the bedroom, complete with more creepy figures in it…



Next: what a choice for dinner!

[disney_duke]

Whoa. Did you know this place had such a haunted past when you first looked into it? As long as the ghosts stay away from the guest areas, then it's OK!!