Anglesey Abbey

07/09/2007 by pete.

Today I took my parents to Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire. We got there about 12.45pm, had some lunch in the restaurant and then took a look round the house.

There wasn’t too much of the original priory (it was never actually an abbey) buildings left, except  a room that was used as the Dining Room, which had original stone pillars and a vaulted roof. A couple of rooms had oak panelling, but it been brought from elsewhere and only put up in the 20th century. So the house was more interesting for its contents than its fabric. There was a good collection of paintings (Gainsborough, Constable, Landseer, Claude, etc.) and some fine furniture, including some very elaborate clocks. But I definitely got the impression that it was all designed to show off the former owners collections, rather than a house with an interesting history and a ‘lived-in’ feel. So I was a little disappointed.

The gardens looked very good, but we didn’t have too much time to spend exploring them. There was a whole area dedicated to Dahlias.

We had an icecream in the restaurant before we left, and got home about 5pm.

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