Newark Park

Not to be confused with the better known Newark in Nottinghamshire, Newark Park is a National Trust property in South Gloucestershire, and a comparatively rare place for me personally, a house in the West Country that I hadn't visited before. Having two evenings in Bath sorted with gigs my friends had to decide what to do with me in the afternoons. So one of those things was to dodge the roadworks and find this property - which is very much in a backwater.

We arrived with a bit of time to spare before the house opened. Given the windy weather we thought sheltering in the tea room might be a good call. It would have been, if the marquee was open. But while they were selling teas and refreshments out of a little kiosk, the flimsy marquee was deemed unsafe so the small gaggle of early attendees had to find any windbreaks they could on the estate to sup their hot drinks.

Apparently the house has three peacocks but we only saw two.

Well, two peacocks unless the third is the topiary one....

The property, like many National Trust estates, has an interesting history. It was originally built as a hunting lodge to be a place of entertainment for a follower of Henry VIII. Clearly a lad, the guide commented how a number of lady "entertainers" came here. He was clearly pleased with his euphemism until Lorna innocently enquired as to what entertainment the ladies engaged in. 😂

So only the front of the house is a Tudor original, it not being residence, just a party place. But it became a Georgian house by being squared off and so much enlarged. But it fell on hard times and into the hands of the NT who were willing to let it crumble into a romantic ruin until a rich American architect decided to rent it and restore it as project at the end of the 20th century, leaving what there is today.