Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #1 :: Charterhouse, Coventry

Hi there everyone 😀

We are just back from the most lovely, very full and festive, pre-Christmas week spent exploring in and around York.

In the week before we went we definitely made the most of our National Trust membership … visiting three different properties. Two were for the first time and two were decked out for Christmas.

Charterhouse - Coventry
The Charterhouse is a medieval monastic house surrounded by acres of tranquil green space. This Grade I listed, 14th century building has quite the story to share. Founded in 1381, Coventry Charterhouse has served many different purposes. From a 14th century monastery to a family home and later as a garden that produced exotic fruit for wealthy locals. Former notable inhabitants include Robert Dudley, famous favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, and John Whittingham who cultivated the nursery and walled garden for food production. In more recent years, the house has a whole new tale to tell, with tenacious members of the community coming together to save the building from sale and possible demolition.

It was our first visit to Charterhouse and we had no idea what to expect. It really was a bit of an oasis of calm.

The property is a lovely building, with the key interest inside being the ancient wall paintings …

For me the garden was of much more interest, even at this time of year when there isn’t really that much to see …

There was still a bit of colour in the rose garden …

… and the vegetable beds …

The building in the corner is the old Apple Store …

The area around the fountain was particularly tranquil …

We spent a while in the cafe where the food looked delicious. We didn’t have lunch on this visit but it was definitely a lovely spot and somewhere we would want to try out.

Back outside and It all looked very pretty in the winter sunshine …

Upon the recommendations of the NT staff we had a walk over to the London Road Cemetery and Paxton’s arboretum …

We had been given a leaflet which detailed a number of the residents resting places … as well as some impressive tree specimens …

We had a good wander and found reading about the people who were buried there really interesting …

It really was a lovely wander in the autumn sunshine. Not something we were expecting to do but really enjoyable all the same …

I’m really glad we visited. We really enjoyed it. There isn’t loads to do there but I’m sure we will make another trip when there is a bit more to see in the garden … and to take advantage of the cafe 😋

I will tell you about our visits to Upton House and Hardwick Hall in my next posts 😀

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