Erdigg House: The Gardens

The gardens at Erdigg were constructed in the early 1700s, in the formal style prevalent at the time, before the influence of Culpability Brown. The Yorkes included not a few antiquarians and somehow maintained the older regime through the Georgian and Victorian eras. By the time the gardens came to the National Trust, they were a mess, but ample historical documentation permitted a brilliant reconstruction, and what one sees today is very much like the original plan.

A bit of the history

Thus

Today's head gardener's notes

Obligatory tiki hut

Worth a second look

Virtually every National Trust site has a kiddie park; and
attendant humor

History of one of our favorite plants

Thus

Today's wedding photo

Great gardens

Erdigg House: The Great, The Good, And The, Um, Interesting

Shorter version: WWI was not kind to the Yorke family nor the house. In 1922, Simon Yorke, eldest son, inherited the place. He disconnected the electricity and phones, reduced the already reduced staff, forbade wheeled traffic on the estate (even prams), and lived for 40 years as a relative hermit. Interesting. Sometimes, this is how things get preserved. (Getting buried under volcanic ash also works). He died in 1966 and was succeeded by Peter Yorke, III, who is the hero of the story. He garnered support from many sources to put things aright, and it was he who gave the estate, and its incredible collection, to the National Trust in 1973. Below are a few of many pix of the upstairs, so to speak, a few with commentary.

Recently restored Victorian home organ

The tubular bells; guests were summoned to full breakfast
(9:30AM), luncheon (1PM), afternoon tea (5PM), warning
to be dressed for dinner (7PM), and dinner (8PM), each
with a different tune played on the bells

Waste not, want not...the legs here are from a disused bed

The V&A examined and restored the state bedroom and returned it to
Erdigg  on the condition it be displayed behind glass and in controlled light/
temp/humidity...said to be the 2nd best-preserved state bedroom in the Nation

Moving right along...a Victorian shower 

Now in the play room

Thus

Doll house; note same Steiff bear we saw in Ireland

Noah's Ark set

In the chapel

A display room of Victorian oddities and curiosities

Another National Trust gem

Erdigg House: Service

The great house at Erdigg is not that great. When negotiations began, the Trust did not want the house, which was structurally undermined. (It got better). But the Trust did very much want the 30,000 artifacts within. (Now the 2nd largest single collection in the National Trust). Over three centuries, the Yorke family simply never threw anything away. Moreover, the Yorkes were not that wealthy, so that in order to retain a staff, they had to treat them reasonably well. Consequently, much is known about the staff, at least from Edwardian times, and Erdigg is one of the few sites where one can see nearly all of their living and working quarters. The 18th century gardens have been restored to their original design and are an attraction by themselves. Consequently, Erdigg will get several posts here. The tour begins in the work areas, so we'll start there, proceed upstairs to the areas of the Great and the Good and the, um, Interesting, and then proceed to the gardens.

Erdigg House from the formal gardens

A really, really old Rover, so old the graphic appears Art Nouveau,
reminiscent of Hector Guimard maybe

It's easy to forget that bicycles were a late 19th century innovation, the first
chain-driven models appearing in 1885; here's an Edwardian collection, including
at least one earlier velocipede

Frozen in time...Peter Yorke not only treated his staff well, he documented them
extravagantly, and memorialized them in his poetry

One example

The family

In the kitchen

Laundry

Some of Peter Yorke's poetry

Hod for carrying firewood up the servants' stairs

You have been warned

This is a pedal-powered vacuum cleaner--worth the price of admission by itself;
you step on the pedals as with a stepper and thus work the bellows which thus
create the suction...ingenious, those Victorians!

Instructions

Interesting ceiling decor in the servants dining area

Thus

You rang, sir? Episode #403,689

Attic room of one of the senior servants

Back in the engineering sections

Transportation department

Mill

In the beautiful carpentry shop

With Peter Yorke's tribute to the joiner

And beautifully exhibited by the Trust