Baddesley Clinton

                   

Baddesley Clinton is a grade 1, 15th century moated house which lies in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside just off the main road from Warwick to Solihull. Packwood house lies only about a mile or two west of Baddesley but I will cover that in a separate blog. Both places like Charlecote are very close to where I live so it's nice to be able to just pop out for a walk here and there when time allows and to have the choice of places to visit. If you have more time and feel up to a longer walk, you can do the Packwood House to Baddesley Clinton walk, or the other way around :)  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356403631718/

                                       
Baddesley Clinton was built by stone quarried on it's own land and has belonged to the Ferrers family for 500 years until it came under the care of National Trust in the 1980's who manage the property now and allow all us lovely people to visit.
                                                 

I love it here in Spring and Autumn, Sping because of the bright coloured daffodils and Autumn because of the changing colours of the trees and bushes and the reflections in the water. Oh before I forget, don't forget to visit the church here too, especially in Spring as there are loads of daffodils, it's very pretty.
         

There is a lot of history in this place,The people of Baddesley Clinton like Coughton Court and other 'well to do' gentry in Warwickshire, remained Roman Catholic recusant's and hid Catholic priests in the Protestant Reformation who were under the threat of a death sentence if found . These priests were hid in what is called Priest holes, the picture below shows one of such rooms at Baddesley . They were often very small areas, built behind wooden panels or even in toilets. You did what you had to to stay alive. There is much more to learn about this property but I will leave that for you to find out yourselves should you visit.

The grounds of Baddesley are very pleasant to walk around, in Spring as I said before you will see the daffodils but also the rhododendrons, I love rhododendrons, the best place to see these flowers is in Norfolk at a place called Sheringham Park in the second half of May, http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sheringham-park/  If you climb one of the towers they have dotted around,  you can look down across the trees, it's like a beautiful carpet of flowers, it really is a beautiful picture. I lived in Norfolk for a few years so Sheringham was one of my local places to visit then, well worth a visit if you are in the area. 

Right sorry, back to Baddesley :)  I must not forget the lambs in Spring running around in the field in front of the moat house, I love Spring and  Baddesley is very pretty at this time of year.

A picture of the lambs in Spring at Baddesley taken with my little pocket camera.

And of course the Daffodils 

A view of the garden within the moat from inside the house taken during the Summer months.

A walk over the water, love the reflections in this, just wish I had my proper camera with me that day.

Baddesley also has a well stocked kitchen garden to walk around, I always try to guess what they are growing.

                                Autumn at Baddesley, a walk around the lake.

A sneak look inside the beautiful Moat House

                                                        The Great Hall

This room has been used as an art studio and the paintings are really good.

I think there used to be some stairs here         

                                                            The chapel

                  This is the amazing wall on the right hand side of the chapel                                        

Inside the kitchen is always one of my favourite places to explore. I am often surprised how little some of the things we use today have changed.

                                                        The dinning room

For more about Baddesley Clinton, I guess you will have to visit and check it out yourselves :)

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/baddesley-clinton/