DAY TRIP : GAWTHORPE HALL
NATIONAL TRUST GAWTHORPE HALL
AN AFTERNOON OUTING
Gawthorpe Hall was not so much a day trip for me, as a pleasant afternoon out.
It was the last Friday of Easter week and I wanted to get out of the house and see something.
The National Trust doesn’t have a lot of properties in the North West of England, but Gawthorpe Hall is probably the closest to where I live.
Its only a twenty minute drive from home and yet I had never visited before.
So my decision was made, a half day trip at least to Gawthorpe Hall.
THINGS TO KNOW
When planning my outing I did the most obvious thing and checked out the National Trust website.
There’s a page for Gawthorpe Hall which includes opening times, facilities and prices, all useful information when planning your day trip.
For my visit, on a Friday, the house was open from 12pm until 5pm. However it seems to be closed on most Mondays and Tuesdays, so it is worth checking before you visit.
The entry fee was £6 for adults, £4 for concessions and children were free. Its also free for National Trust members.
Payment is made on entry to the house, which also has a little gift shop area in the entrance hall.
The small car park was also free.
There isn’t a tea room, although while I was there a mobile van was outside selling drinks.
Dotted around are a few picnic tables too, so you could take a packed lunch if you are planning a longer day out.
GETTING THERE
Gawthorpe Hall is located close to the small town of Padiham, in East Lancashire, England.
There are good road links, particularly if you are travelling from the M65 motorway, as I was.
The postcode provided on the website worked perfectly for my sat nav.
That said the entrance is quite unassuming and crept up on me, so its a good job the computerised voice spoke when it did or I would have driven past.
It turns out Gawthorpe Hall is a really easy day trip for me.
Gawthorpe Hall, Burnley Road, Burnley, England BB12 8UA, United Kingdom
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Passing through the entrance gateway I followed the single lane track for quite a distance, behind several other cars. There were passing places along the way to allow for cars that were leaving.
It wasn’t extremely busy, but popular enough, especially in the Easter holidays. I was able to wander around without feeling particularly crowded by people and would see plenty of rooms when it was just me in them.
Having parked up it was a short walk up a gentle hill to the house.
You pass by the barn, with picnic tables, a bike park and the toilet block. You can carry on to the house in that direction too.
But the path up the hill avoids steps, which is the one I took.
That passes a gate that has a drop off point for the less mobile. I’m not sure how people with mobility issues would manage here. The house has three storeys and I spotted plenty of steps in the gardens. So I would recommend a bit more research if that is an issue for you.
Once through the gate I was met with the view of the splendid, cube like, Gawthorpe Hall.
For a taster of what Gawthorpe Hall has to offer check out my YouTube Short video
THE GARDENS
My day trip to Gawthorpe Hall coincided with typical Easter weather in Lancashire. That would be rain!
The house is surrounded by small formal gardens, but beyond that is woodland.
The garden and wider grounds are open from 8am until 7pm, so you can just explore them.
With light rain I didn’t venture into the woods and contented myself with the gardens for a first look at the house.
However I can imagine a day trip to Gawthorpe Hall in the summer would be worth it just to explore the woodlands. As its close I might make a return trip when we get a bit of summer sunshine.
GAWTHORPE HALL
History
Gawthorpe Hall was the ancestral home of the Shuttleworth family.
Built in the years around 1600, it was designed at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I but completed as that of King James I began.
It therefore has a mixture of Elizabethan and Jacobean styles which would become more obvious once in the house.
However there is no disguising that Elizabethan history with the external architecture of Gawthorpe Hall itself.
It may not be a large house, but it is still very stately to look at.
The Shuttleworth family actually only lived in the house for about 90 years, before it was leased to local tenants.
However in the Victorian era of the 1800s the Kay-Shuttleworth family returned to the house and carried out some renovations.
The first Lord Shuttleworth was created in 1902.
He died in 1939, whilst his two sons, the second and third Lords were both killed in action during World War II. The house therefore changed hands four times in the space of five years.
The family eventually gave Gawthorpe Hall to the National Trust in 1970.
Dining Room
I began my self guided tour of Gawthorpe Hall on the ground floor.
The dining room was once the great hall of the house.
This room was renovated in Victorian times, so the ceiling and fireplace were not original to the building of the house. Even so they are a couple of hundred years old in their own right.
However the wood panelling under the minstrel’s gallery was dated 1605, which is when the building and furnishing of the house was completed.
Each of the main rooms was hosted by a volunteer. They all had a wealth of interesting information about the rooms they described and the house and its history in general.
As you passed from room to room you could build up your knowledge of Gawthorpe Hall from their stories as you explored it.
The volunteers are a real asset and well worth having a chat to.
Drawing Room
Next on the ground floor tour was the Drawing Room.
Obviously some things have changed after 400 years, but the essential décor of this room, the wood panelling, plaster friezes and moulded ceiling, were all original and dated to 1605.
I think this was possibly my favourite room in the house, just because it was 400 years old.
You could imagine people living in it through the centuries.
Second Floor
Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth, one of the first Lord Shuttleworth’s daughters, had a keen interest in collecting textiles.
She turned her home into a craft workshop and filled Gawthorpe Hall with her textile collection from around the World. She wanted people to learn and preserve the techniques used in creating them.
This history and some of her textile collections are displayed on the second floor in what would have been bedrooms.
So even if history is not quite your thing Gawthorpe Hall is worth a day trip for those with an interest in textiles.
In fairness I’m more into history, but they were still interesting to see.
Family room
Exploring an historic house might not seem like the most exciting thing for children.
However as it was the Easter holidays there were quite a few families visiting. And with the rain they were exploring the house too.
As an Easter special, I assume, there were bunnies everywhere.
I has spotted more than a few, named wooden rabbits in the garden.
Around the house there were cuddly toy versions in unusual spots.
A couple of children were being given a clipboard as I arrived, presumably to record the rabbits they spotted.
Up on the second floor was a family room, which included a dressing up box and activity table. Clearly a place for a breather half way round the house.
From what I saw the families all seemed to be enjoying their day out.
The Long Room
Up to the next floor I entered the Long Room.
This fabulous room, as the name suggests, ran along the whole length of the house.
You could easily imagine people promenading along the length of this room in days gone by.
The volunteers came into their own again here.
As the house was furnished from top to bottom, this room was dated to 1603, a couple of years older than the rooms on the ground floor.
I was fascinated by the wonderful marble fireplace which was dated 1603 and had the cypher “IR” for James Rex, or King James I. As Elizabeth I died and he succeeded to the throne in 1603 this must have been one of the first pieces of work anywhere to bear his name.
Apparently this area was staunchly Parliamentarian in the English Civil War, so the fireplace did well to survive.
Most of the family portraits were taken by the Shuttleworth family, although some are held on loan in Gawthorpe Hall.
However the National Portrait Gallery also loans paintings, contemporary to the life of the house, which helps to recreate what this long room would have looked like.
Bedrooms
Last on the tour were a couple of bedrooms.
Paintings and drawings of the house exist from throughout the ages, so the historians have been able to prove that certain original pieces of furniture were kept in certain rooms, because they have the pictures to prove it.
Fixtures and fittings were shown in paintings of the drawing room and dining room.
Similarly the wooden four poster and mirrored dressing table were known to be in this particular bedroom.
A DAY TRIP TO GAWTHORPE HALL
I arrived at Gawthorpe Hall at 1.30pm and left almost on the dot of 3pm, so it wasn’t so much a day trip as an afternoon visit.
However if the weather had been nicer I could easily have made time to explore the woodland trails too.
The house itself is full of history and worth seeing because of it. That’s the sort of thing I like anyway.
Even the textiles were nice to see, even if I personally wouldn’t enthuse about that sort of thing. I can see people spending plenty of time just absorbing that exhibition.
I there are bigger and more elaborate stately homes to see in the National Trust portfolio. Read about my trip to Lyme Park in Cheshire for a much larger house.
However if you are passing through Lancashire, with a couple of hours to spare, I think Gawthorpe Hall is well worth a look, whether that be a dedicated visit or as an add on to a bigger day trip.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.
