Took advantage of the decent weather and made a long overdue return visit to the National Trust Ickworth House & Gardens. Couldn’t be sure of the appropriate turn off on the A14, so ended up in BSE where it was then at least sign-posted. As is now customary and blindingly transparent to all who know us, we parked up and went straight for coffee and two shared cakes. The coffee was tasty (as were the cakes) and by the time we’d finished we were ready for the walking (not really).
Anyway, on leaving the cafe, we noticed the lack of queues to enter the house itself, so despite it not being our intention we popped in to see how much of the interior, we actually remembered. An Italianate Palace in the heart of Suffolk, the Earl-Bishop’s ‘stupendous monument of folly’ has the central Rotunda as its primary focus but the building took 47 years to complete and the building’s instigator never saw its completion. Well worth another look.
The park and grounds we remembered to a degree, but we obviously didn’t see the Italianate Gardens on our previous visit. I didn’t remember St. Mary’s Church either, with its relatively plain interior. The church is the earliest building in the park, with parts of the building dating back to the 13th century, and the only reminder of the earlier parish of Ickworth, which included a medieval manor house and village. Sadly the manor was demolished in 1710, whilst the Church remained. It is located on an historic route and features in several key views and sight lines, including from the walled garden and canal towards the house.
After the walk to and around the church, we jointly concluded that it was too hot and further exploration would have to take place on a subsequent visit. We then went back to have a quick look in the National Trust gift shop and after a brief period of perusal came out with a solar powered key chain, very fetching hat and leather ‘man bag’ – these, along with our entry and refreshments made for a fairly expensive day out. Therefore, after returning home, we then proceeded to join the National Trust, adding to our English Heritage membership 🙂 . Perversely, we’ll probably only visit privately owned, independent establishments from now on!!