Clevedon Court

We wanted to see Clevedon Court for its great age--a manor house built originally in 1320, and pretty much unchanged architecturally--as well as for its literary associations...Thackeray, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Coleridge, etc. And we found much more.

Frontal view

Vicki holding up the portcullis for the next
timed entry

First surprise: one of the largest and most impressive glass
collections we've seen outside Murano and the V&A; the
pipes...

The rolling pins

Some miscellaneous; the collection filled the
better part of two rooms

Next surprise: baby furniture, some Medieval,
some Renaissance, some later, all over the
house

Baby rocker...back and forth and side to side

1580, I think

And another

Massive old table and chairs in the (new) main
hall (the original main hall was built 50-80
years before the main house and served as
the house's kitchen from 1320 to 1957; with
a few upgrades, hopefully)

Painting by a member of the family, showing the
trial of an accused poacher before the lord of the manor

18th century view of the manor

Family daughter Jane, with whom Thackeray
fell hopelessly in love; she figures largely in
Henry Esmond, much of which was written in
the house; the Eltons, the family that have
lived here going on 800 years, have been
quite artistic/literary at times

Nephew Arthur Hallam, the subject of
Tennyson's In Memoriam, A. H. H., one of
the 19th century's greatest literary works...
"tis better to have loved and lost..."

Moving right along, there are Coleridge and Lamb, flanked
by Bill and Dottie, other friends of the Eltons

Closer up (the light was awful); note the guy
outside, smoking 

Last surprise: the family more recently
included Edmund Elton, a noted ceramic
artist of the "Arts and Crafts" movement,
late 19th/early 20th century

The old main hall/later kitchen contains a
large collection of his work

The kitchen (1320-1957) hearth; note oven, left

And a final high/multi-use chair

View of Clevedon Court from the garden