Odstock Manor and Wilton House
Fri 11 Apr 2025 10:30 AM - 4:30 PM BST
Odstock Manor, SP5 4JA
Description
Enjoy exclusive tours of two contrasting houses; a delightful south Wiltshire country manor and one of the grandest English Treasure Houses.
Enjoy an owner-guided tour of Grade II* Odstock Manor, a late 17th century house with some 18th century alterations. The house has a six-window asymmetrical front with a tablet displaying the carved arms of the Webb family dated 1567. Features include original ovolo-mullioned windows and early 18th century fittings including fireplaces with attractive friezes and egg-and-dart moulded architraves with cornices, and stone Tudor-arched fireplaces with carved spandrels. There will be time to visit the nearby Early English parish church, which has a nave and chancel only and a solid square tower of stone and flint in a chequer-work design. The treasure of the church is the Elizabethan pulpit which has panels carved with Tudor roses and marigolds and which bears the date 1580.
Later visit one of England’s finest Treasure Houses, Grade I Wilton House, the seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years and built on the site of a 9th-century nunnery. Our exclusive tour, on a non-public opening day, will cover the history of the house including the architectural changes made after 1630 by Inigo Jones. The south front is in severe Palladian style, built of the local stone. We will tour all of Jones’ State Rooms including the Single and Double Cube Rooms and the Colonnade Room which was formerly the state bedroom and has fine 18th-century furniture designed by William Kent. The four formal gardens, landscaped in 1632 by Isaac de Caus include one of the first French parterres seen in England. There will be time to explore the landscaped parkland and 18th-century Palladian Bridge over the Nadder. Our day will conclude at the unique Lombardic church where we will be met by a local guide.
Tickets £92 including two-course lunch with tea or coffee at the Greyhound Inn, Wilton. Lunch options to be made available to attendees in March 2025
Location
Odstock Manor, SP5 4JA