A few weeks back on a Sunday our family headed over to West Sussex to Petworth House. I've been wanting to visit this National Trust site for well over a year but as it's about a 90-minute journey we needed to have enough time available to us to make it worthwhile. Petworth houses the finest collection of art in the care of the National Trust and I thought my arty daughter and I would particularly enjoy seeing this.
The Mansion
I wasn't wrong, there are some really
magnificent pieces on display and my favourite by far was the walls and ceiling
of the Grand Staircase painted by Louis Laguerre (1663 - 1721). I stood there
and gazed in wonder for such a long time. There are many other internationally
important paintings on display too with works by Turner, Van Dyck and Reynolds
to name just a few. There are also dozens and dozens of interesting classical
and neo-classical sculptures too and my girls were chuckling away at all the
body parts on display!
Of course, what the National Trust always does
well is engage the kids and they had a trail around the house to look for
stuffed dogs around the house and then if they spotted them all they got an
exclusive badge.
Most every day there is some kind of talk or
tour within the mansion and the volunteers at entry will let you know what is
going on or you can check the webpages before travelling. If you are thinking
of taking your family in the next couple of weeks then I'm sure you'll be pleased
to hear there is a Cadbury Easter egg hunt from 8th - 23rd April 2017 with a
cost of £3 per child.