After a nice lunch at another nursery (Laurel has them all memorised) we preceded to Wisbech. Wisbech is a largely unchanged town, characterised by its lovely Georgian architecture which flanks each side of the river Nene.
We parked on a street called the North Brink (north of the Nene); not surprisingly, the other side was called the South Brink. We were there to visit a National Trust property, Peckover House, originally built in 1722 by a wealthy Quaker family who ran the banking business in the town.
The Peckover family, like many Quakers, were committed to social justice principles, and supported the efforts of one of the locals, Thomas Clarkson, to abolish slavery. Clarkson was a close friend of William Wilberforce (of "Amazing Grace" fame), and both worked to stop the slave trade. Some of Clarkson’s letters and papers were on display in the house.
The house was furnished in Victorian style, fairly simply, as befitting its previous Quaker owners. Around its fireplaces and on parts of the ceiling, were highly decorative rococo plaster and wood carvings. We toured through a drawing room, bedroom, library, kitchen and breakfast room, before going out to the garden. (No pictures, as the National Trust sell postcards and do not permit photos of interiors.)
The walled garden is listed as having “many fine Victorian features, an orangery, summerhouses and fernery”. It also had a croquet lawn (pictured below), many fruit trees and the most magnificent English garden.
For all of you garden lovers (especially those who have recently toured the gardens of the UK and may be missing them) we are currently working through our collection of photos taken in the Peckover gardens and preparing a commentary on them. This will be the subject of our next post.........
1 comment:
Lovely shot of baby Hannah.
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