Packwood House is a timber-framed
Tudor manor house in
Packwood on the
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...
border near
Lapworth
Lapworth is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, which had a population of 2,100 according to the 2001 census; this had fallen to 1,828 at the 2011 Census. It lies six miles (10 km) south of Solihull and ten miles (16&nbs ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
. Owned by the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
since 1941,
the house is a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. It has a wealth of tapestries and fine furniture, and is known for the garden of
yews.
History
The house began as a modest timber-framed farmhouse constructed for John Fetherston between 1556 and 1560. The last member of the Fetherston family died in 1876.
In 1904 the house was purchased by
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
industrialist Alfred Ash.
It was inherited by Graham Baron Ash (Baron in this case being a name not a title) in 1925,
who spent the following two decades creating a house of Tudor character. He purchased an extensive collection of 16th- and 17th-century furniture, some obtained from nearby
Baddesley Clinton. The great barn of the farm was converted into a Tudor-style hall with
sprung floor
A sprung floor is a floor that absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best kind for dance and indoor sports and physical education, and can enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries. Modern sprung floors are ...
for dancing, and was connected to the main house by the addition of a Long Gallery in 1931.
In 1941, Ash donated the house and gardens to the National Trust in memory of his parents but continued to live in the house until 1947 when he moved to
Wingfield Castle
Wingfield Castle in the parish of Wingfield in Suffolk, England is a fortified manor house which was the ancestral home of the Wingfield family and their heirs, the de la Pole family, created Earls and Dukes of Suffolk. It is now a private hou ...
.
Gardens
The famous
Yew Garden containing over 100 trees was laid out in the mid-17th century by John Fetherston, the lawyer. The clipped yews are supposed to represent "The
Sermon on the Mount". Twelve great yews are known as the "
Apostles" and the four big specimens in the middle are 'The
Evangelists'. A tight spiral path lined with box hedges climbs a hummock named "The Mount". The single yew that crowns the summit is known as "The Master". The smaller yew trees are called "The Multitude" and were planted in the 19th century to replace an orchard.
The Yew Garden is entered by raised steps and a wrought-iron gate. The garden path follows an avenue of trees, which leads up a spiral hill
where a wooden seat is placed beneath a yew tree. This vantage point provides views of the house and the Yew Garden.
Some of the yews at Packwood are taller than .
The soil on the estate has a high level of clay, which is detrimental to the trees during wet periods. As a result, parts of the garden are often closed to the public while restoration work is undertaken
The house and gardens are open to the public throughout the whole year as of 2013.
Packwood House, National Trust
Gallery
File:PM packwood1.jpg, The stable block
File:PM Packwood2.JPG, The view from the garden
File:Packwood Yew Garden 2019.jpg, Yew Garden from the path to the Mount
File:PM topiary.JPG, Yew trees looking south towards Sermon on the Mount
File:PM topiary150.JPG, View of the house and yew trees from The Mount
File:PackwoodHouseLongGallery.JPG, The Great Hall
Footnotes
Sources
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External links
Packwood House, National Trust
Further reading
''A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 5 (1949) from British History Online''
{{Authority control
National Trust properties in Warwickshire
Grade I listed buildings in Warwickshire
Tudor England
Historic house museums in Warwickshire
Gardens in Warwickshire