Day Trips around Bath 6/5/23

 8am - Cortados and croissants at Mokoko in Bath

• Took the #3 bus return
• Found unique Strawberry/Raspberry hybrid fruit in the market in town

10am - Stop by Bathampton nursery to pick up compost bags for the garden 11am - Drive to Stourhead to view the manor house and gardens

• lunch in the stable courtyard
• relax by the lake and watched ducks and swans
• marveled at the sky high rhododendrons that populate the property
• saw 650 year old oaks planted when the original castle was still standing
• went in St. Peter’s church on the property - established in 1252

Unique adaptation of a British Phone Box

Found unique Strawberry/Raspberry hybrid fruit in the market in town

Our tour of the Stourhead Manor house and gardens

Read more about Stourhead

These trees are 650 years old. Planted when the original 13th century Stourhead castle stood on this site

We explore the interior of the Stourhead manor house acquired by the very wealthy Hoare family in 1727 - who accumulated their wealth and stature in the private banking business in London. 

Now preserved as a National Trust heritage site since 1947.

The Popes Cabinet circa 1585.
The cabinet was sold around 1740 by a Roman convent and purchased by the banker Henry Hoare II (1705–85) during a grand tour and displayed at his house at Stourhead in Wiltshire

We take a refreshment break in the former stable courtyard and enjoy a Blood Orange G&T!

Now on to St Peters Church - this private family chapel was established in 1251 and a vicar has been in place since 1316.

The Spread Eagle is the family crest of the Hoare family. This image is everywhere! In stone, carved wood and even kneeling cushions in the chapel.

Francis takes her place in the family pew and rests her knees on the Baroness' cushion. Comfy?

Out of the chapel and into the vast landscaped gardens (2600 acres)

Giant Rhododendron trees are everywhere in multiple colors

We finish are tour of the grounds with the Bristol Cross.  

Bristol High Cross is a monumental market cross erected in 1373 in the centre of Bristol. 

It was built in Decorated Gothic style on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon cross, to commemorate the granting of a charter by Edward III to make Bristol a county, separate from Somerset and Gloucestershire. It was dismantled and moved to Stourhead Manor in 1764. 

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