Forthcoming Trips

Forde Abbey

Each part of Forde Abbey's history can be clearly read in the architecture and structure of the house and garden, we has only summarised the history the gardens are for you to discover..
Foundation
In 1136 Richard de Brioniis founded a Cistercian monastery at Brightley in Devon. However, the land was too barren for an agricultural community forcing the monks to return to the mother house in Surrey in 1141. On their journey they met their former patron’s sister and heir, Adelicia de Brioniis. Determined to honour the wish of her dead brother, she offered them the use of the Manor of Thorncombe and a site on the River Axe. They accepted and within seven years the monastery of Forde Abbey
was built.
Forde Abbey flourished as a monastery for four hundred years and became renowned as a seat of learning. The third abbot, Abbot Baldwin, became Archbishop of Canterbury before dying on the crusades and his successor, John Devonius, was confessor to King John and reputably one of the most learned men of his time. It also became a wealthy foundation and by the 14th century owned some 30,000 acres. Each land transaction was recorded in the Cartulary which belongs to the Abbey to this day.
The Dissolution
Abbot Chard, the last abbot, succeeded in 1521 and applied his substantial learning and imagination to a comprehensive restructuring of the fabric of the building. However, his work was interrupted in 1539 by the dissolution of the larger monasteries. Chard decided that discretion was the better part of valour and handed Forde Abbey quietly over to the Crown, becoming vicar of Thorncombe until his death in 1543.
The Prideaux Legacy
in 1649 the Abbey was purchased by Edmund Prideaux, Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis, fervent supporter of the parliamentary cause and, later, Oliver Cromwell’s Attorney General. He was largely responsible for transforming Forde Abbey from a Monastic residence into a private home.
Prideaux died in 1659 and was succeeded by his son, also Edmund. Despite being considered an intelligent man he made the disastrous mistake of entertaining the Duke of Monmouth one night in 1680. Five years later, after the Battle of Sedgemoor in which James II’s army defeated Monmouth’s Protestant rebels, Prideaux was suspected of having supported the invasion. On the slender pretext of Monmouth’s earlier visit to Forde, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London on a charge of high treason. The notorious Judge Jefferies demanded a sum of £15,000 to save him from the gallows.
Modern Forde Abbey
In 1943 Elizabeth Roper died and the house passed in to the care of her second son, Geoffrey and his wife Diana. Geoffrey devoted his whole life to the Abbey and its gardens, living there for almost eighty years.

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire. Waddesdon is a French Renaissance-style chateau built for Ferdinand de Rothschild in the 19th century to display his vast collection of works of art, including French Royal furniture, Serves porcelain, works by Gainsborough and Reynolds. It has one of the finest British, Victorian gardens famous for the parterre, shady walks and views, aviary, fountains and statuary.
The house and its contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957. Today, following an extensive restoration, it is administered by a Rothschild charitable trust that is overseen by 4th baron Rothschild. The house was built on a barren hilltop overlooking Waddesdon village. In 2007–08 it was the National Trust's second most visited property,

Can members of the NT please remember to bring your memberships card with you.

Greenwich

A trip to Maritime Greenwich. How you fill your day is up to you - the opportunities are endless so the only likely problem you will have is insufficient time!
Choose from the Greenwich Royal Observatory where you can straddle the Prime Meridian or Wren’s famous Old Naval Hospital. Here you will discover the Baroque Painted Hall, where Nelson’s body lay in state, and the contrasting Rococo decorated Chapel, reminiscent of Wedgwood china - these are 2 very beautiful buildings in totally different styles. Of course, leave some time for the National Maritime Museum in the Queen’s House and its adjacent wings. The Cutty Sark – the famous old tea clipper - is in dry dock undergoing restoration following the fire of May 2007.
No shortage of places for lunch – there’s even an old London pie shop in Greenwich where you can dine like a lord on steak pie, mash and gravy for a couple of pounds!

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