to Hinton Ampner – 16th May 2023
When details for the 2022 holiday had to be amended, the proposed trip to Hinton Ampner was sadly lost from the itinerary. Since then Stella has been keen to make good that loss and accordingly, on a lovely spring morning 25 of us set off for this stunning Hampshire location. We might think only 25, but in fact this was the best attended trip since the Covid lockdown and we hope this might be the beginning of a definite upward trajectory.
A relatively short and pleasant coach journey took us to what looked to be an almost impossibly narrow gateway, but our driver negotiated it with ease and we found ourselves approaching an imposing Georgian house surrounded by elegant lawns, borders and topiary.
First stop for most was the coffee shop (after a trip to the loo, of course) before meeting with an elderly groundsman who told us where to see the best of the garden, and that the house is all a bit of a ‘fake’!
The house suffered a catastrophic fire in the early 1960s and what we see now is a modern rebuild – in the Georgian style. However, when the house was open to visitors (from 1.30) a ‘modern rebuild’ was not immediately obvious. Only the ground floor rooms were open to the public (I think because of a shortage of volunteer staff) but they were full of interesting art and artefacts, with knowledgable and helpful volunteer guides in each room. Of particular interest was the recreated ceiling in the grand dining room. We were told that before the fire, moulds had been made of all the ceiling moulding and that after the fire they were able to recreate an exact copy of what had been before. Also a young local artist had painted all the scenes in the ceiling in an Italian Classical style. It was stunning.
As also were the gardens where the rhododendrons were at their pristine best and the various borders, and the wonderful ‘cloud’ topiary hedge, were a delight.
The whole day was undoubtedly helped enormously by some wonderfully warm early summer weather (it would have been rather different had it been wet) and everything really added together to make an excellent day out.
Many thanks again to Stella.
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