Tuesday saw us back on the road. 7 miles to the north-west lies Beningbrough Hall. Henry VIII, sold the land to John Banester, who left it to his nephew Ralph Bourchier, whose family owned the land and the Manor House for centuries until it came to the National Trust in 1953.
Beningbrough Hall is one of the most remarkable Baroque houses in England, standing proud in the flat landscape. We know little about the origin of this house. It was built for John Bourchier and the construction was at least supervised by William Thornton, a talented carpenter- architect from York. The house was substantially complete by 1716.
We went through the beautiful garden of Beningbrough Hall. After the building of the present house the landscape was formalised by the planting of grand avenues centring on the house. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw the removal of the formal elements of the landscape, which was altered to the English style of “Capability” Brown.
The Laundry contains its original 19th century arrangement of “wet” And “dry” rooms. The wet room has two boilers heated by a fire below. In the dry room is an iron-framed mangle with two rollers. The room also includes a selection of irons. Outside a school class is at the moment in action – doing the washing.
We then entered Beningbrough and came into the Hall.
This is the state bed in the State Bedchamber. The paintings come from the National Portrait Gallery.
This is the Dining Room.
This is all I can show you, because than I was told that filming was not allowed in the house.
he picturesque Rievaulx Abbey was our next destination. The enormous Abbey, was founded in 1131 by Lord Helmsley for Cistercian Monks. The ruins date from the 12/13th century. When the Monastery was closed under Henry VIII the stones were used for the building of the houses around. This came to an end when in the age of Romanticism people became enthusiastic about ruins.
Before we went to Rievaulx Abbey we walked on the moors – only disturbed by gliders. We made a stop at the White Horse. The grass was cut so that the chalk ground comes through and the shape of a white horse can be seen from far away. But if you stand next to it, you can’t see anything.
Worksheet:
Die Fotos zur Reise finden Sie in meiner Gallery
Manor House = Herrenhaus
National Trust = (Brit.) nationale Einrichtung für Naturschutz und Denkmalpflege
laundry = Wäscherei
iron = Bügeleisen
glider = Segelflieger
straight from the horse’s mouth = (fig.) aus erster Hand od. Quelle