Charlecote Park
Home to the Lucy family for over 800 years, Charlecote Park is renowed for its royal visit by Queen Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century and for sending the young Shakespeare from Stratford to London, after he was caught poaching deer in the estate's park and sentenced by Sir Thomas Lucy.
The house was built in the 1550s for Sir Thomas Lucy, and the east front still retains some of its Elizabethan form, with gables and octagonal corner turrets. Today, however, it appears much as it did in Victorian times, as it was George Hammond Lucy and his young bride, Mary Elizabeth, who made extensive renovations to the house and gardens. They extended the west front of the house, which faces the River Avon, to accommodate a spacious new dining room and library, both adorned with elaborate plaster ceilings and stained glass windows. A practical service wing and additional bedrooms were also added, including the Ebony Bedroom where Nelson and Lady Hamilton are reputed to have slept.
Outside is the Cedar Lawn, designed by "Capability Brown", with stunning views over the deer park and river. Next to the orangery, originally used to house exotic plants but today a National Trust restaurant, is the thatched summer house Mary Elizabeth Lucy had built in the mid-1800s. Sneaking a peak through the windows, one can see that she spared no expense in creating a playhouse for her much-loved grandchildren.
We skipped a game of chess on the Cedar Lawn and instead walked past the summer house to the deer park, where we encountered the ha-ha, a ditch and wall meant to keep livestock out of the garden without need of a fence. From there we strolled down to the River Avon, gazed across to where soldiers were supposed to have camped before the Battle of Edge Hill, and then backtracked to the lake east of the house. We finished our visit with a tour of the ornamental gardens where Kassie had fun running through the mazelike paths between the flower beds.
Date of Our Last Visit: June 2005