Calke Abbey

We stopped overnight after the party and decided to visit Calke Abbey before travelling home. Calke Abby is a Grade I listed country house near Ticknall, Derbyshire, owned by the National Trust

The site was an Augustinian priory from the 12th century until its dissolution by Henry VIII. The present building, named Calke Abbey in 1808, was never actually an abbey, but is a Baroque mansion built between 1701 and 1704.

The house was owned by the Harpur family for nearly 300 years until it was passed to the Trust in 1985 in lieu of death duties. Today, the house is open to the public and many of its rooms are deliberately displayed in the state of decline in which the house was handed to the Trust. I have not visited a NT property quite like it and I am not really sure how I feel about it, I'm not big on stuffed birds and animals and I think nearly every room and several pieces and a couple of the rooms were like a Tring Museum! However the walled garden, greenhouses, parkland and Church we lovely oh and the scones :)