52 Weeks To Remember

Whatever the time of year, there’s always something uplifting to do at a National Trust property.

- Kate Green

Week beginning

January 6

Ashridge on the Chilterns was once the home of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, known as the ‘Canal Duke’ for his pioneering work on waterways. The 5,000-acre estate is also an important grassland habitat that includes the Iron Age hill fort Ivinghoe Beacon, part of the Ridgeway National Trail. A ‘Nature Detectives’ exhibition, open daily in January (10am–4pm), focuses on the citizen science that many wildlife bodies rely on to inform them about biodiversity health.

January 13

Much of Stourhead’s present glory is due to the work done by its last owners, Sir Henry and Alda Hoare, who, tragically, lost their only son, Harry, in the First World War and bequeathed their Wiltshire property to the Trust in 1946. Visitors can now take a Behind Closed Doors tour, available on weekdays (11am–3pm); this takes you into rarely seen rooms over four floors of Henry ‘The Good’ Hoare’s splendid 18th-century Palladian villa. Dogs are welcome in the landscape garden during January and February.

January 20

Victorian Gothic Tyntesfield near Bristol, which was saved from decay by public donation in 2002, is one of the Trust’s latest great acquisitions. This year, there is a focus on the house’s Hispanic connections—its founder, William Gibb, was born in Madrid —with many previously unseen artefacts on display. Tyntesfield is one of many properties to hold a wassailing event, on January 25 in the newly completed cider-apple orchard. Make your own rattle before taking to the fields, accompanied by traditional folk music and dancing.

January 27