Three Bride Valley Secret Houses
Mon 23 Jun 2025 10:15 AM - 5:30 PM BST
South Eggardon House, DT2 9EP
Description
Enjoy exclusive owner-guided tours of three contrasting houses in Dorset’s beautiful and undiscovered Bride valley.
Discover Grade II* South Eggardon House, a 16th-century farmhouse with a 19th-century extension. The house retains some of the original features including stone-mullioned windows and a 17th century stone porch. The house retains some unusual 16th-century ceiling beam mouldings, large open fireplaces, and a 17th-century bakehouse and service extension. Surrounding the house are 5 acres of formal and informal gardens designed around a 2,000-year-old yew tree and lake, a water garden with streams and large herbaceous borders at their best in late June.
The Old Rectory © Mike Searle / The Old Rectory Litton Cheney
Later, visit the Georgian Old Rectory, a beautiful mid-18th century stone house perched on a narrow shelf cut into the side of a hill above a thickly wooded area below the house and with a wild and romantic atmosphere, animated by crystal-clear springs that burst from fern-fringed hollows in the hillside. The house has original 18th- and 19th-century features and was the home of the 20th-century painter and engraver Reynolds Stone who was inspired by the surrounding trees, ivy and hart's tongue ferns. The inspirational garden has been partly redesigned by the acclaimed designer Arne Maynard.
After lunch at the Chesil Beach Manor Hotel, explore Grade I 17th century Kingston Russell House, which was clad in its white Georgian stone facade in 1730 giving it a Vanbrughian quality. The house is on land granted to the Russell family by King John and was subsequently in the ownership of the Earls of Bedford. The house was sympathetically restored in the early 20th century with an entrance hall in the manner of William Kent, the reinstatement of original panelling that had previously been removed and the hanging of early 19th century scenic Chinese wallpaper in the Dining Room. The magnificent formal gardens were laid out in 1913 when the Carolean wing was extended with two additional three-storey wings.
Tickets £100, including a two-course pub lunch at the beautiful Chesil Beach Manor House Hotel. Lunch options to be made available to attendees in May 2025.
Location
South Eggardon House, DT2 9EP