Shropshire and Staffordshire's Finest
Historic Houses

Weston Park

I had the treat of being asked to a day and a night of Curt di Camillo's magnificent country house tour of Shropshire - and a dip into Staffordshire. The tour was based at Weston Park, a house I know quite well. On the wall of my room was a portrait of my Granny's childhood friend and neighbour, Joan Bridgeman - so it felt very good to be staying in this wonderful house. The American grand tourists were given the full stately treatment, with hot and cold running butlers!

The Hall

Weston is a treasure house. The building itself was partly the creation of Lady Wilbraham, who may even have been its architect in 1671. Much of the present interior owes its appearance to Mary, 6th Countess of Bradford. It was she who created the palatial dining room, which must be one of the grandest country house rooms in the Midlands.

Weston

The Dining Room

My bedroom

Lady Joan Bridgeman

After an opulent Edwardian-scale breakfast we set off for Millichope Park, home of Frank and Antonia Bury. Frank's ancestors came to Millichope in 1896. The house was built between 1835 and 1840 in a cool Greek Revival style. The grounds are like a scaled-down, but equally picturesque, Stourhead. The house is approached along a drive through a miniature ravine. The original entrance to the house was through a Piranesian rustic level, which we were taken to see - deep under the present lofty central hall. You now enter the house from the courtyard, with its exciting new Classical work. The gargantuan central hall is dominated by a chandelier by the inimitable local polymath, Hugh Kennedy.

Millichope

The house from the park

Curt di Camillo

Millichope

In the evening our destination was a house I know and love very much, Chillington Hall - the sight of which, from a mile away down the avenue, is unforgettable. There have been Giffards at Chillington for a millennium - and they have, no doubt, given the same generous hospitality to generations of visitors.

The Saloon at Chillington Hall

Chillington has a monumental interior with work by Francis Smith of Warwick, the Atari brothers and Sir John Soane. The present chatelaine, Cres, has made the brought the huge rooms to new life with warm colours and expert picture hanging.

The Dining Room table quaked with silver and glass - this feast was the culmination of a marvellous week put together by the unflappable Curt di Camillo.

John Giffard under the portrait of his ancestor by Batoni

The Dining Room at Chillington

On leaving Weston I knew the grand tourists had enjoyed their  week-long feast of Shropshire and Staffordshire's historic houses.