Bij Dudmaston Hall gaat het om wat eromheen ligt

We arriveerden rond lunchtijd dus alle pickniscktafels waren bezet.

Een gezellige drukte op dit grote landgoed van de National Trust.

Het huis (eind 17e eeuw) vond ik niet bijzonder.

Daarentegen zijn de landerijen, de tuinen, het meer en de beek een bezoek meer dan waard.

Dudmaston Hall

↑Rachel Hamilton-Russell (1908–1996) was the daughter of Olive, who was herself the daughter of Francis Wolryche-Whitmore and Alice Darby of Coalbrookdale. She was bequeathed the estate by her uncle, Geoffrey, on condition that it should pass to the National Trust. 

She met George Labouchère (1905–1999), a diplomat and scion of a Huguenot family, while working at the Admiralty during World War II in 1942 and was to marry him the following year. They agreed that she would accompany him to his diplomatic postings and that he would then retire to Dudmaston with her. 

Uncle Geoffrey moved out in 1966, allowing Rachel and George to retire to Dudmaston. The process of transferring it to the National Trust was completed in 1978, although they continued to reside in the house and to improve both it and the grounds.

The couple had no children and Rachel died in 1996. George outlived her by three years.

Rachel Labouchere left a memorandum of wishes with the National Trust stipulating that a tenancy would always be available to her relatives, to keep Dudmaston a family home, as it had been for over 850 years. She nominated her second cousin, Col. James Hamilton-Russell, whose descendants still live there today.

We sloten het bezoek af met een heerlijk potje thee.

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