Elton Hall, Cambridgeshire

Mon 3rd Jun 2024

09:00 am

Lecturer: Guided tour

We are delighted to be offering a day trip on Monday June 3rd 2024 to Elton Hall and gardens near Peterborough.

Elton Hall, a romantic and part Gothic house has been the home for generations of the Proby family. The house, which is still lived in by the family, contains numerous treasures including paintings from the early fifteenth century to works by the ninteenth century artists Alma Tadema and John Everett Millais. In addition there is also an extensive porcelain collection and, within the large library, a copy of Henry Vlll's prayer book.

The garden has been significantly restored during the last 40 years and was chosen as the garden of the year 2021 by the Historic Houses Judges ‘Choice Garden'. Mature hedging, topiary, glorious herbaceous borders, a sunken lily pond and an orangery garden delight visitors throughout the summer.

The trip is planned for Monday June 3rd, a day the hall and gardens are not open to the general public thus providing us with a degree of exclusivity.

The cost of the trip is £52 and will include a coach journey starting from the Clifton park and ride tram site at 9am and arriving back at approximately 5pm. The visit includes a private guided tour of the house, coffee on arrival and a soup and sandwich lunch at a site cafe some 300 yards from the main house. The trip will include plenty of time for us to explore the extensive gardens.

The estate adjoins a small commercial garden centre, the carpark of which the coach will arrive at and depart from. On arrival coffee/tea and biscuits will be served in the Mulberry Café situated on the site and at which a soup and sandwich lunch will later
be served within a specially cordoned off area for our members.  After coffee, hour long guided tours of the house will take place at staggered intervals for groups of no more than fifteen people at a time. The groups and time slots will be sorted out prior to the visit the details of which will be communicated before the start of the trip. When not touring the house, members can enjoy exploring the extensive gardens.

It is planned to leave by 3.30pm thus arriving back at the Clifton site at approximately 5pm. In the event of very inclement weather, it may be possible to leave at a slightly earlier time.

Accessibility
The café, gardens and toilets are disabled friendly but there is a 300-yard walk from the café to the house along a flat, gravelled path. This path and paths within the garden are suitable for wheelchairs and mobility aids and there are, I understand a reasonable number of benches situated within the garden for use by visitors. However, unfortunately the house is not suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs or mobility aids as there are several flights of stairs to be climbed in order to enjoy a tour of the house.

More information will be issued later in January when booking will open for members and their guests. As with any such
trip we will operate a first come first serve basis, as the coach numbers are limited to 50 people.