Madresfield Court trip

The first of our Friends' trips took place last week to the little known Madresfield Court set in glorious rural Worcestershire with the dramatic backdrop of the Malvern Hills..
Madresfield Court is a moated stately home which has been in the Lygon family for nearly 900 years and is currently home to the 29th generation of that family.
The house is an architectural masterpiece and played a significant part in nurturing the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as acting at least in part as the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh and Brideshead Revisited. It also contains a fine collection of paintings, furniture and ceramics.
It's possible to book a guided tour around the house, but it's not open to the public in the way many other stately homes are, there's no cafe, and a very basic shop.
Our tour was booked for 2.30pm, so having left Swindon at 10am, we arrived at Madresfield at 11.30am. On ringing Madresfield Court, we discovered they didn't want us to arrive before 1.30pm because otherwise we'd spoil the experience for the other group who had a morning tour.
It was suggested we went to Malvern for a couple of hours, so we could grab a coffee and eat our packed lunches, it's difficult to convey the splendour of the hills there

 As we left the coach, the driver decided to turn the coach round, and unfortunately hit the lamp post in the centre of the car park, removing a wing mirror and shattering some of the windscreen, this meant that we couldn't be driven to Madresfield Court in this coach, so by the time we returned to the coach, we had a different coach and driver.
While in Malvern, we walked through Priory Park and admired the wooden sculpture carved into a damaged cedar tree by Tom Harvey. Initially you just see a leg, and then from different angles, there's lots more to see

 and a close up

 Prior Park also has a band stand.

 This is Prior park an impressive Gothic building housing the council offices

 Refreshed by the trip to Malvern, we were quickly at Madresfield, here people are seeing their first views of the house

 and here it is:

 Is this a better view?

 There's lots of wonderful topiary in the garden

 The nearer you get to the house, the better the views of it. I like this one

 There are busts in the grounds

 This is the entrance to the house with the most glorious Wisteria around the entrance.

  That's the last photo because there's no photography allowed inside, however I've found photos of the interior here it's worth a look. 11 May was the first day of Malvern Show, which meant there was a lot of traffic to negotiate to get home. However, it was a wonderful day out.
Next trips: 13 June Hauser and Wirth and 13 July The Watts Gallery