Stamp collecting in Somerset

Read this blog: The one where Robert imposes a culture limit

Saturday 6th September 2025

We had decided to make the most of Matilda’s life membership of the National Trust by visiting a few properties on our way down to Penzance for our annual visit to Tresco and the Isles of Scilly. We booked to stay in Taunton for two nights to break the journey and Matilda identified several places within easy driving distance.

Our first stop was Lytes Carey Manor which is well-known for its Arts and Crafts inspired garden.

It was originally built and extended by the Lytes family over a period spanning five centuries before financial difficulties forced them to give up their home in the 18th century.

After a period of neglect, Sir Walter and Lady Flora Jenner acquired the property in 1907 and started to restore the manor and grounds aiming for “grandeur on an intimate scale”. We felt they had been quite successful in their endeavours.

Our next stop was Montacute House, just a twenty minute drive away, which the National Trust describes as a “masterpiece of Elizabethan Renaissance architecture and design”.

An imposing three-storey building, Montacute House has tall windows; is topped by Dutch gables and surrounded by one of the few surviving Elizabethan compartmentalised gardens featuring lawns, flower borders and clipped yew hedges.

It was built in about 1598 for Sir Edward Phelips, a prominent lawyer and politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1604 and 1611, and subsequently Maaster of the Rolls from 1611 until his death in 1614. He was also the prosecutor in the trial of the men involved in the Gunpowder Plot.

A particularly attractive feature of the gardens is the enclosing wall complete with turrets and garden pavilions.

Originally, the east or garden façade looked onto a vast entrance court and a large gatehouse, since demolished stood between the two remaining pavilions.

Built under the instruction of William Arnold, a master mason, the house is constructed from Ham stone, a warm, honey-gold coloured Jurassic limestone so called because it is quarried from Ham Hill in Somerset. Montacute positively glowed in the early autumn sunshine.

On entering the house, you are greeted by an impressive Ham stone screen which was installed to separate the servants’ working quarters from the family living area in the Great Hall.

The decoration in the Great Hall includes the coat of arms of Elizabeth I as Edward Phelips’ hoped to entertain his monarch, but unfortunately this ambition was never realised as she died within two years of the house being finished in 1601.

Unfortunately due to restoration work, only the ground floor was open to the public. Although the parts of the house which were open were very opulent, we both agreed that we would have been disappointed if we had paid full price entry and we may have to return to see it in all its glory when the upper floors have reopened.

At this point, Robert declared himself to have reached his limit for culture for one day and we went to Taunton in search of food. As there was a T20 game being played at the county ground there was almost a carnival atmosphere in the city.