Wightwick Manor & Gardens

Wightwick Manor

Wightwick Manor is the one of the best surviving of a house built and furnished under the influence of the Arts & Craft movement. The Manor was built in two stages in 1887 & 1893 and designed in the old English style and filled it with Morris & Co furnishings. His son, Geoffrey added Pre-Raphaelite paintings and sketches but in all other ways preserved a unique house with a special charm. The eastern half of the building is richly decorated with back & white timbering, in stripes, swirls and quatrefoils and with banks of spiral Tudor-style chimneys crowning the gabled roofline. 
The industrialist Theodore Mander, a paint and varnish manufacturer commissioned the project and Edward Ould was the Liverpool architect.

Inside the Manor
A great parlour is the centre of the house mimicking the form of a feudal hall with a beautiful open timber roof painted by the talented Charles Kempe. Following on through the great parlour is the Billiard Room and the Dining Room.
There is an interesting exhibition on the first floor entitled 'The Nature of Design' celebrating 150 years of William Morris. The collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and sketches are breathtaking. The collection includes works by Burne-Jones, Millais and my favourite Rossetti. Also, on the first floor are the two nurseries, one for the day and one for the evening which would have been shared with the nanny. 
The kitchens are the last rooms you see which have been recently restored along with a Caribbean herb garden. 

Wightwick Gardens
The gardens are designed by Thomas Mawson, a leading Arts and Crafts horticultural designer. The garden consists of formal borders and hedges with roses and yew hedges and wild orchards. There is also a very pretty, albeit small lake and a new woodland walk for you to enjoy.

A new car park was opened in 2010 with a joining reception. I must admit the tour guides within the Manor were excellent. They were filled with a passion for the Manor and all its contents which was admirable. The reception and tea room staff were, on the other hand, another matter.  There is a little bridge which was inspired by the Mathematical Bridge over the River Cam at Queen's College Cambridge. The bridge crosses the road into the bridge garden which, to say the least, was the biggest disappointment. 
I had a really superb day at Wighwick Manor. The guides, as I have previously mentioned, were really superb which really made the day as did the Pre-Raphaelite collection.

You might like my blog post: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - an Intro
You should follow me on twitter here