Days Out In The English Countryside - Petworth House And Park

Petworth House and Park is located in West Sussex, in the South of England. The Mansion is late 17th century and is surrounded by a 700 acre Deer Park.

The Deer Park was landscaped by Capability Brown, one of the world's finest gardeners, and the house was immortalised by J.M.W. Turner in many paintings; 19 of which I believe are on permanent display at Petworth House.

In 1947 Petworth House and Park was given to the National Trust by The 3rd Lord Leconfield with an endowment to ensure their permanent preservation.

Visiting Petworth makes a great family day out as there is so much to see. For children there are huge grounds to run around and play in, and for adults there is the beautiful Petworth House containing a gallery filled with important pieces of art history.

Petworth holds a very special place in my heart due to numerous wonderful days spent exploring the place as a whole, but nowhere on the estate more so than the galleries.

The galleries are exquisite. They house an wealth of art through the ages from ancient and neo classical sculpture to Turner paintings, and many many more. My personal favourite piece being an Elizabethan objet d'art named the Molyneux Globe made in 1592, the earliest such globe in existance.

The Globe charts voyages and exploration by it's maker Emery Molyneux and Sir Francis Drake. It was given as a gift to Queen Elizabeth I.

The kitchen houses a batterie de cuisine (the technical term for the range of tools used in a professional kitchen) of more than 1000 pieces and by Victorian standards, this kitchen was extremely state of the art.

The paintings below the portraits are by more by Turner and the intricate carving is by Grinling Gibbons. His work at Petworth is considered to be his finest. The portrait above the fireplace is of King Henry VIII.

The murals were painted between 1718-1720 by Louis Laguerre, a French decorative painter who worked mainly in Britain.