Travel - Christmas at Stourhead, Thomas Hardys Houses & Hinton Ampner

Christmas at Stourhead, Thomas Hardys Houses & Hinton Ampner

This weekend I have a long weekend at my parents’ house in Weymouth, this year we went to 3 National Trust properties, that each had Christmas displays

Image of the southside of Himpton Ampner in Hampshire UK, with greengrass, a red box and white metal bench
Southside of Hinton Ampner

Stourhead

I have visited Stourhead many a time, the house and gardens are based in Wiltshire and is about 1,072-hectare estate. The House Christmas theme was different to each room, so for example, if it was the music room then the decorations were on a musical theme. The Rooms were really lovely decorated.

 

Christmas Tree decorated with lights in a red and gold theme including fan style decorations, stocking style decorations , with presents wrapped in red & gold in a room with red statin walls at Stourhead in Wiltshire

Christmas Tree at Stourhead

Christmas Tree decorated with lights in a red and white theme including decorations of dogs, deer, horse shoes and birds, with presents wrapped in white & red in a room with light green painted walls, a grandfather clock on the left and a old bicycle at at Stourhead in Wiltshire

Christmas Tree at Stourhead

Christmas Tree decorated with lights and white style decorations in a white room with a mirror behind at Stourhead Whiltshire

Christmas Tree at Stourhead

Christmas Tree, decorated in White and Red, with a rocking horse andf other chrildrens toys, paintings on the walls, and a navity set in the background at Stourhead Whiltshire

Christmas Tree

A model of the Navity with pine cones, christmas tree branches and red berries and figures around, at Stourhead

Nativity set

Large Christmas Tree decorated with lights and snowflake decorations, with red and white ribbons, in a room with red walls, paintings on the walls and a tiled floor
Large Christmas Tree at Stourhead


 The Gardens and grounds of Stourhead are beautiful and are good for photo's my Dad uses this sometimes to take photo's for his Camera Club challenges

View on to one of the Greek style Temples in the grounds of Stourhead
View of the temples in the grounds

View towards a greek style temple, with its reflection in the lake with trees in the foreground
Temple with a reflection of it in the lake

A close up picture of a Robin on a path
A friendly Robin

View of the lake at Stourhead, with a stone bridge in the distance
View of the lake with the stone bridge

View of a greek style temple, with its reflection in the lake, in the background in the foreground a stone bridge with grass mounts
Lake view

There is a lot too and see, it's worth going any season - I went in the summer, it's was different to the winter. Even if you have an hour there is still lots of do. For more information about the house, events and opening times is on there property webpage

 Max Gate

The next two places we went to see is two homes of the author Thomas Hardy. Max Gate was the home Thomas Hardy had from 1885. Max Gate, an austere but sophisticated townhouse a short walk from the town centre of Dorchester, was the home of Dorset's most famous author and poet Thomas Hardy. Hardy, who designed the house in 1885, wanted to show that he was part of the wealthy middle classes of the area, to reflect his position as a successful writer, and to enable him to enter polite society. The house was named after a nearby tollgate keeper called Mack.

The house was decorated in simple decorations, with a couple of Christmas trees. I did not take any photo's on this visit but I did in the summer

Max gate the home of Thomas Hardy, a large red brick victorian house, with white windows and plants
Max Gate in the summer

I also received an early Christmas present of a Thomas Hardy Book, so I will hopefully start reading it soon 

The next house of Thomas Hardy is his birthplace, which is only 3 miles away from Max Gate. It’s a cottage dating from the middle 1800's

Hardys Cottage

Picture of a thatched cottage, half brick, half cob, with balck windows, with a cottage style garden at the front, with woodland tress in the background
Hardys Cottage

This cottage, where Hardy was born in 1840, was built of cob and thatch by his grandfather and has been little altered since the family left. Despite training as an architect, writing was Hardy's first love, and it was from here that he wrote several of his early short stories, poetry and novels including 'Under the Greenwood Tree' and 'Far from the Madding Crowd.

 This house was very simply decorated for the holiday season,  which was nice. There was also mulled Apple juice on offer, which was not as sweet as I thought. As well as the house, there are plenty of walks through the woods nearby and trails. The Visitor centre is run by the local council and does good coffee

Find out more on the National Trust webiste for opening times

Hinton Ampner

Image of the southside of Himpton Ampner in Hampshire UK, with greengrass, a red box and white metal bench
Southside of Hinton Ampner



 

Hinton Ampner is an elegant country manor and tranquil garden sit so harmoniously within the landscape that one cannot exist without the other. The house was lovingly rebuilt by its last owner, Ralph Dutton, after a catastrophic fire in 1960

The theme for this year’s Christmas trail is the Grim Fairy tales, there is a children’s quiz trail. I had a go at the trail which was really good, it was in the grounds though.

A Scaregrow garden and there dog sitting on a wooden pallet in a vegatable garden at Himpton Ampner
Garden scarecrow of a gardener and there dog

The house was decorated in the same theme with each room on the downstairs depicting each fairy-tale, these rooms were beautiful decorated, and the attention to detail was really good

Christmas decorated with white paper streems to repsent the Grims Fairytales at Himpton Ampner
Christmas Tree
Christmas Tree decorated with white eye masks and helled shoes
Christmas Tree with the theme of Cinderella

Christmas Tree Decorated with the theme of the fairytale of "The Elf & The Shoemaker"
Christmas Tree decorated in the Fairytale The Elf & Shoemaker

The wolf asleep in Grandmas bed, as in the fairytale Red Riding Hood
The wolf asleep in Grandmas Bed

Christmas Tree with the theme of Red Riding Hood with red deorations and wolf bits
Christmas Tree with the theme of Red Riding Hood

Christmas Tree with the theme of fairytale Rumpelstiltskin
Christmas Tree with the theme of Rumpelstiltskin

Christmas tree with the theme of Hansel & Gretel
Christmas Tree with the theme of Hansel & Gretel

Decorated China serving dish, with green jelly in it and a plastic spider in it
Green Jelly with a spider in it

Rapunzel's Tower with her golden hair let down, as it goes down the banister of the stairs with floral decorations
Rapunzels tower with her hair let down on the banister of the stairs

he small church on the estate is also good for a quick look around and is originally Saxon and is the parish church. The church does not belong to the National Trust but is free to have a look in. The shop had a good selection of gifts and house gifts as well.

All admission prices and opening times are available on the National Trust Website, App or on social media

*I'm a member of the National Trust, so I don't pay admission prices*


Pin For Later

Pinterest graphic of the post featuring one of the Christmas Trees at Stourhead, with the text box saying "Christmas at Stourhead, Thomas Hardys House & Himpton Ampner" and in small text "https://nicbakes.blogspot.com"

Nic xx 

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