Tresco ’26: On the way

Read this blog: The one where we learn about the London Quarter

Saturday 5th to Monday 7th September 2026

Although Robert enjoys researching and organising our longer holidays, he assigns Matilda responsibility for planning the places to visit and stopover on our annual trip down to Penzance to catch the helicopter to Tresco.

This allows her to make the most of her life membership of the National Trust. Our first stop was Hinton Ampner – see feature photo.

When Ralph Dutton, the eighth Lord Sherborne, inherited Hinton Ampner in 1935 he immediately embarked upon a schedule of renovation and redecoration. Because of the date of this, Matilda had been expecting an Art Deco extravaganza and had sold it to Robert on this basis.

However, it transpired that Ralph Dutton‘s vision for his home was, according to the National Trust ‘a Neo-Georgian house combining classical inspired interiors with the elegant gardens and parkland’. It was not what we had expected but was nevertheless both grand and ornate.

Sadly the building suffered a devastating fire in 1960 but has been largely painstakingly rebuilt since. Fire damage was to become a recurrent theme on this trip.

It was undoubtedly beautiful in the autumn sunshine.

From here we drove to Mottisfont which is an eighteenth century house built around a medieval priory.

The name Mottisfont is derived from the ancient spring [see photo below] which rises in the grounds as the local monastic community held their ‘moots’ [meetings] around the ‘font’ or water source over a thousand years ago.

A plentiful supply of fresh water made this an ideal place to build a medieval community. Ironically, when we visited due to the dry weather and drought conditions the grass had suffered and the footprint of the foundations of the old infirmary was visible on the lawn. 

The site was home to an Augustinian priory until 1536. After Henry VIII’s break with Rome in 1534 he instigated the Dissolution of the Monasteries [1536 -1540] seizing land and wealth from the Cathloic church. William, the first Baron Sandys apparently swapped the property at Mottisfont for land he owned in the villages of Chelsea and Paddington. That may not have been the most astute business transaction Baron Sandys made but he also served in many positions in Henry VIII’s court including as Lord Chamberlain.

Inside relics of the property’s ecclesiastical past have been preserved as Sandys chose to keep, rather than demolish, many of the old buildings. New walls and floors were inserted into the Priory church to make rooms and the cloisters and surrounding buildings were also retained.

Stonework has been left exposed in one room. A matrix seal, used to authenticate documents sold as indulgences was found during some of the excavations and was on display. The Black Death spread across Europe in the 1340s and devastated the Priory community, killing many of the monks and draining its finances. The Pope subsequently granted the survivors permission to sell indulgences as a means of raising funds. Indulgences were church documents which forgave sin and promised the owner a faster ascent into heaven after death. Anyone who purchased an indulgence received one year and 40 days off their allotted time in purgatory. Matilda felt this was both an arbitrary and a very specific timescale.

In 1934, Maud and Gilbert Russell purchased Mottisfont. We were startled to see a model crocodile in one of the bathrooms. It was a reminder that, in less ecologically aware times, the Russell family had kept a pet crocodile in this room until it outgrew the space and had to be re-homed in a zoo.

The property is justifiably famous for the curtains in what is known as Mrs Russell’s Drawing Room, also known as the Whistler Room. These are recognised as one of the greatest examples of Trompe-l’oeil decoration in the country.

Incredibly, the walls are flat and there are no material drapes in the photo below at all – the pelmets and tassels are all painted.

We stood for some time gazing upwards and admiring this ultimate artistry.

The curtains themselves are gradually being restored and one set has been rehung [not pictured]. The design is deliberately gothic, reflecting the house’s monastic heritage and the bottle green colour was chosen jointly by Rex Whistler and Maud Russell.

Sadly, this room was Rex Whistler’s final major scheme; an inscription hidden on the cornice reads: “I was painting this ermine curtain when Britain declared war on the Nazi Tyrants, Sunday Sept 3rd 1939 RW“.

Whistler died on active service on 18 July 1944.

From Mottisfont we drove to Salisbury via Reclaim Nation, a furniture outlet offering items made from reclaimed materials which, as their advertising strapline says, “won’t cost the earth”. Our friend had asked us to make sure it was a legitimate retailer and we were pleased to be able to confirm we had visited the showroom.

We were booked to stay overnight at the King’s Head Inn, run by Wetherspoons which is a new experience for us both.

Having checked in we also tried to visit one more National Trust property – Mompesson House – in the Cathedral Close thinking it was open until 4:00. Sadly, having diverted to check out Reclaim Nation we arrived mere minutes too late for the last entry at 3:30pm. Matilda has learnt her lesson: last entry to a National Trust property is usually half an hour before closing and she has adjusted her planning and timings accordingly.

As we could not visit Mompesson House Matilda thought we should visit the cathedral again as it has a stunning infinity font which reflects the intricate carved roof and we had not been able to get a good photo of it on our last visit. However, entry was about £12 each and we felt that would make it a very expensive photograph even though a copy of the Magna Carta signed by King John of England in 1215 is on display.

Our subsequent research proved to be very illuminating. Clause 35 of this historic charter provides the first legal definition of a standard nationwide measure for beer or ale. Magna Carta states: “There shall be standard measures of wine, ale, and corn (the London quarter), throughout the kingdom…” 

Rather than specifying the individual servings at a tavern or pub, the London quarter is defined as a wholesale barrel measurement – a quarter of a “tun” barrel, equivalent to roughly 200 to 300 litres. It was introduced to ensure that wholesalers did not rip off or deceive their customers.

Robert was pleased to discover that he can now celebrate Beer Day Britain every year on June 15 on the exact anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. Any excuse.

The following morning, on our way back to Mompesson House for opening time we were lucky enough to see the 12ft high Salisbury Giant being paraded through the streets. It seemed to be a more masculine version of some May Queen celebrations, with music and dancing accompanying the procession.

Mompesson House is described as a homely and welcoming 18th-century town house with a peaceful walled garden behind.

From the upstairs windows of Mompesson House we saw a performance of the Salisbury Giant on the Cathedral Green. One of the volunteers told us that it was the Day of Dance in Salisbury. The original Salisbury Giant was owned by the Tailor’s Guild and is now on display in the Salisbury Museum.

From Salisbury we drive to Castle Drogo which has the distinction of being the last complete castle ever built in England.

It was commissioned by the retail entrepreneur Julius Drewe and designed by Edwin Lutyens who also designed the Cenotaph in Whitehall and whose work we have previously admired in New Delhi and the at Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool.

Although it looks almost medieval on the outside, the interior boasts extensive telecommunications and electrical installations. Constructed between 1911 and 1930, it included the latest technology of the day.

A hydro turbine on the River Teign provided electricity for the castle. The Turbine House was finished in 1928 and housed two Gilkes turbines. A cable ran from there up the side of the gorge and into the Switch Room.

It had a 210 volt capacity and when the river level was high it could supply electricity to the whole property. An alarm would sound if the river level dropped too low and additional power then came from batteries stored in the garages and/or a diesel generator. The castle also effectively had its own telephone exchange.

The hydro turbine was decommissioned in the 1990s but was restored in 2017. Now the cable from it runs to the biomass house in the main carpark where the electricity is used by the visitor centre.

Another innovation of the time was the electric candlesticks on the dining table: a special electric tablecloth incorporated pins/contacts under the candlesticks to create a circuit. One of Julius’s daughters said: “It worked well – but if liquid was spilled it caused “a brief panic in case the moisture short-circuited the cloth and blew the fuses.”

The candlesticks have recently been rewired are on display on the table today, but they are now powered by modern cables, not the tablecloth.

The plumbing was also state of the art for the time.

So many families lost sons who were killed in the carnage of WWI. Major Adrian Drewe was killed in action at Ypres in Belgium in 1917 at the age of 26. A touching room in the house celebrates his short life and his military career. The original wooden grave marker from Belgium was replaced by a stone cross but was returned to the family and is now preserved in the chapel.

From here we drove to Jamaica Inn where we had booked to stay the night. Matilda has recently read the Daphne Du Maurier novel of the same name and was curious. The breakfast was delicious – see Dish of the day.

The next morning we arranged to meet Angela, a family friend at Lanhydrock for coffee. As always it was lovely to catch up and the years seemed to melt away.

Lanhydrock is a magnificent country estate.

The 35 metre (116 foot) Long Gallery features an extraordinary Jacobean barrel-vaulted plasterwork ceiling depicting scenes from the Book of Genesis.

Even the gatehouse is gorgeous.

Our next stop was Trengwainton Gardens. The house is not open to the public and we felt that the gardens might have been more impressive earlier in the season or in a year when there was no drought.

The palms were however impressive.

From here we drove on to Penzance to the Longboat Inn where Robert felt he had earned a pint.

Selfie of the day:

Dish of the day: