Barrington Court

The story of the magnificent Tudor mansion house at Barrington Court is a distinct tale of two parts.

The current building was completed in the late 1550s, on land that had been occupied since the 11th century, and the house was continually occupied through to the mid-1700s.
 
When it started to fall into disrepair, due to poor maintenance, its subsequent demotion to a tenant farm became the closing chapter of this first part of the tale. A fire in the 19th century further damaged the property.
 
One of the first properties acquired by the National Trust in 1907, it was leased to Colonel A Lyle and his family in the 1920s. Lyle (the part-owner of a large agricultural business) set about a complete restoration, refurbishing the house and renovating the adjacent Strode House (built in 1674). During the Second World War, the house was occupied by evacuees and then in 1986 leased to a company selling reproduction furniture.
 
In 2008 it became unoccupied and now the house is bereft of furniture, leaving both the splendour and impoverishment this house has seen over the last 400 years entirely to your imagination.
 
The gardens of the estate (designed by Gertrude Jekyll) provide many different paths to wander and there is a restaurant and tearoom serving fresh produce from the kitchen gardens. There are also many places to set down a rug and enjoy a picnic lunch under the shade of an oak while you gaze at this architectural masterpiece.

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