After spending a few days in Cornwall, travelling back home, we arranged to meet friends who live in Exeter. One of them is a volunteer guide for the National Trust at Killerton an 18th-century house in Broadclyst just outside Exeter. The house and extensive grounds are open to the public and there’s plenty to see and do including a coffee shop in the converted stables so we decided to meet our friends there for lunch.
The house was owned by the Acland family up to 1944 and is open daily between 11am-4pm. Here is a link which will tell you more about The Family. The mansion is Georgian and once inside the decor and furnishings takes you back to the 1920’s and 30’s. As soon as we stepped through the front door into the entrance hall we were warmly welcomed by one of the volunteers who gave us a brief history of the house and also told us about the fashion collection held at Killerton. More about that later.
The Music Room was our first stop and was most definitely 1920’s/30’s style. I loved the palm tree which dominated the room. Maybe there was also an Aspidistra plant but I didn’t spot one.
Whenever we visit stately homes I always look out for little details especially family photographs. These caught my eye as not only are the poses so typical of the time, the reflections in the table are great – it was obviously very highly polished!
A library was an absolute must for all these well-to-do families and the Acland family was no exception. Th only difference at Killerton is that a good many of the books were ‘modern’, from the 20th century.
Leaving the dining room we crossed a corridor which originally took the family out onto the side terrace. These days the visit continues through to the very splendid staircase to the first floor and The Fashion Collection.
The fashion collection, which was started by Paulise de Bush in the mid-20th century, found a home with the National Trust at Killerton in 1978 and now consists of over 20,000 pieces. In 2022 the theme of the exhibition is ‘the healthy country life’ focussing on when people dressed for sporting activities often having their sportswear designed by tailors and specialist outfitters. Loved the knitted bikini dating from the 1920’s …not very practical! As well as the sportswear there was also dresses and ball gowns on display which took my eye. I was particularly interested in the two black dresses from the Art Deco period, so elegant. The two dresses in the picture below were very intricate and at the time would have cost a great deal of money to be designed and made with such attention to detail.
Going back downstairs, the last room we went into was the games room. Most of these large family homes had a full-size billiard table, presumably to keep ‘the men folk’ happy where they could dicuss the state of the nation whilst enjoying a glass of port or two between frames.
Coming to the end of our visit to the house we thanked the volunteer who was still welcoming visitors and we headed along the drive towards the chapel. The grounds at Killerton are extensive with miles of paths, landscape gardens and acres of parklands and woods but that day there was quite literally a storm brewing. It wasn’t the weather for wandering around outside in fact one of the grounds people told us they would probably close the gardens to visitors for safety reasons.
Not wanting to miss the chance to visit the Grade I listed chapel in the grounds we decided to head there before lunch.
If I’m being honest, the exterior of the chapel is quite austere. If didn’t help that there was tarpaulins and a hoarding around the building for health and safety reasons as the roof is in need of repair. An appeal has been launched so hopefully the target will be reached and work can begin.
The layout of the interior of the church is unusual in that the pews face each other rather than the altar. It was Sir Thomas Acland’s wish that family, staff, tenants and children should see each other. It was expected that anyone connected with the estate would attend Sunday service. Sir Charles Dyke Acland took this even further in that if someone did not attend a groom would be sent round to the house to ask for an explanation. It’s one way to ensure the church was always full unlike these days …
With the wind getting ever stronger we paused just long enough for me to take a couple of pictures of the carpet of cyclamen encircling a couple of trees and a shot of the very early flowering magnolia by the entrance to the chapel grounds. With that we walked back to the Stables coffee block to meet our friends for lunch. We had a lovely catch-up over a delicous bowl of home-made soup before heading back to the car and home.
We will definitely go back to Killerton to explore the gardens and I think we’ll time our visit for the autumn to enjoy all the colours of the wonderful trees there. We will however try to pick a day when there isn’t a gale-force wind blowing!
Travels with the Booths.blog 