17 September 2016 - Willow House Caravan Park, York

I tentatively lifted the blind this morning to find no mist and no rain, just a few thin strips of blue sky suggesting we might be in for some better weather. After managing to extend our stay by a couple of days and catch up with Chris’s brother on the phone, we set off  toward the first of our day’s destinations: Beningborough Hall, Gallery & Gardens less than ten miles away.

Gardens at Beningborough

This National Trust property is this year celebrating 300 years of existence, having had a chequered past no more or less than most of the Trust’s other properties and today was as busy with visitors as I am sure it has been most of the summer weekends.

Beningborough was built in 1716, replacing an earlier Elizabethan manor house in the parkland which was sited further down the River Ouse. The Bourchier family, who were wealthy landowners, had lived in this earlier manor house since 1556. One hundred glorious years followed, with trips to the continent and great hauls of continental treasures and ideas being brought back to Beningborough. The 6,100 acre property passed through Bourchier hands to the Dawnay family, distant cousins.

The Dawnay years through the late 19^th century were some of its glory years. Lady Victoria Dawnay was the granddaughter of Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl and Prime Minister in 1830 and he of Grey’s Monument in Newcastle, and daughter of General Charles Grey, Equerry and Private Secretary to Prince Albert and then Queen Victoria; she knew how to entertain with style. But time reduced the family’s wealth and the house fell into decline, such are the demands of constant repair and maintenance to these sorts of properties.

In 1916, under instruction from the absentee landlord, Guy Dawnay, a colleague of Lawrence of Arabia, the estate was put up for sale. It was purchased as an investment by a Cambridgeshire farmer for £137,000, then broken up and sold on. The Estate remaining today is a mere 365 acres, comprising the Hall, Home Farm and the parkland, and was purchased by Lord and Lady Chesterfield in 1917 for the princely sum of £15,000.

The main entrance

This was a rather sad time for the house; the owners were ill-matched and surely a marriage of convenience. Enid Wilson, Countess of Chesterfield (1878 – 1957) was just twenty two years old, half the age of her husband, Edwyn Scudamore-Stanhope, 10^th Earl of Chesterfield, when they married in 1900; she preferred the rural lifestyle and horse racing while he preferred to pursue a very separate life in London and work as a peer in the House of Lords. I have my own thoughts regarding this, given that the military auxiliary workers who lived briefly in the house during the Second World War always saw her in the companionship of a female riding companion, however I may well be barking up the wrong tree. Certainly no children ever graced the marriage however that may not have been a matter of choice.

The rear view

The Earl had died back in 1933, well before the house was seconded by the military to accommodate the Canadian air-force bomber fliers. He had climbed the ladder of importance starting as a practising barrister before his father died, becoming Treasurer of the Household, Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, Lord Stewart of the Household, Master of the Horse and finally a Knight of the garter in 1915. And all the while poor old Enid rode about quietly with her companions, rarely if ever in his company, although she did make alterations to the house.

After the war it took many years to put the house back in good repair and the estate entered a period of gradual decline, yet again. When Lady Chesterfield died in 1957, without issue, the house and estate passed to the government in lieu of death duties at a cost of £29,250. Beningbrough came to the National Trust in 1958 but following a great four day sale, the house was almost devoid of contents. 

Attempts to find a suitable tenant and make it a successful visitor attraction failed and by the mid-1970s, visitor numbers were less than 2,000 a year and the property was running at a deficit of £30,000 a year. Someone came up with an innovative idea; to found a partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and it was this that turned its fate about. This was a most fortunate turn of events because Yorkshire lost more country house estates last century than any other county.

The Stables

Today we arrived mid-morning to find the house did not open until midday, so spent an hour and a half wandering around the delightful gardens, and lingering in an exhibition of maps in an upper room of the stable block. After an early lunch, we spent a couple of hours exploring the house, armed with audio guides and quizzing the room guides. The top floor of the house is given over to several exhibitions and some fine portraits from the National Gallery. On the bottom floor, an elderly man placed pieces by Schumann on the piano, adding to the atmosphere in this fine old house. I sat for a while on a window seat behind him, whilst waiting for Chris; a robin joined me on the window sill.

Outside we found the sun had found its way from behind the clouds, and we wandered about the grounds again, now busy with day visitors, and spent some time chatting with a volunteer who was directing the celebratory planting of 100,000 bulbs, adding to the snowdrops planted in February, all part of a project to create a walk through 300,000 bulbs planted to mark the 300^th year of the Hall. 

This lovely chap had visited New Zealand, as so many English folk we run into have, but his visit had been a little different. He and his wife had arrived the very day of the second devastating earthquake in Christchurch and had their travel plans altered by the tragedy. He had come away with a wonderful impression of Kiwis, although had missed seeing Christchurch, a city he had been looking forward to visit. His story was quite moving and a different take on the usual stories coming out of those eventful days.

The afternoon was far too advanced for us to contemplate our Plan B for the day, so we set off home, calling in to Tesco once more for fuel and provisions, in readiness for the next day’s touring, very glad we have a couple of days more to enjoy this part of Yorkshire.