Last month, i visited Gawthorpe Hall, which is an Elizabethan country house that was redesigned in the 1850s by Charles Barry (designer of the Houses of Parliament). The hall is located in Lancashire. The hall houses portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery and Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, which belonged to Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth. The house is maintained by National Trust and Lancashire County Council. I went to explore it on a dry but cloudy day.
The hall is thought to have originated as a pele tower or fortress dating from the 14th century to defend against invading Scots. The land has been occupied by the Shuttleworth family since the 12th century, but the existing house dates from 1600 and was updated in 1850.
There is a small garden at the back of the house, and there are acres of woodland to explore.
The first room upon entering the house is the dining hall with its beautiful fireplace and detailed ceiling.
Th volunteers explained some of the items in the room, such as souvenirs that the family brought back from Italy. These were displayed in cabinets in the dining hall.
The hallway is a smaller intimate place with a staircase to the first floor.
The other main room downstairs was the living area with beautiful panelling, fireplace, and carved ceilings with high detail decoration.
The rooms upstairs at Gawthorpe Hall contained information about the residents and a collection of textiles from Rachel Shuttleworth, who collected textiles from around the world and was a teacher of them. She also was involved in social charity. Some of the rooms were dedicated to her collection of textiles and some of her own work. The house became a craft house, and she was active in educating people about textiles and creating them.
I took a photograph of some of the collections, which included her own work and examples from all over the world.
Another room upstairs was dedicated to the women of Gawthorpe Hall and their mark on society and social welfare. Many of them contributed to helping disadvantaged people and providing services for the war and for health and wellbeing. One of the women, Freydis, was one of the first women pilots in World War II and continued to fly into her 80s. Marianne was inspired by botany and travelled the world without a chaperone and donated her paintings of plants to Kew.
Another beautiful room upstairs in Gawthorpe Hall is the long gallery, and I loved the wallpaper in this room.
Thre were also a couple of bedrooms to see with old bed.
I visited the beautiful living room downstairs on the way out as it was busy with people on the first viewing.
Gawthorpe Hall was interesting to visit and included some nice rooms with a lot of beautiful panelling and collections of interesting items.
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