Step Into Ashdown's Story

The National Trust is blessed with many beautiful houses in its care as well as stunning landscapes of coast and countryside. Many of these are well-known and well-visited. Chartwell, Waddesdon, Hardwick, Cliveden, Wimpole, Stowe… They feature on the NT website, in lists of the top places for history fans to visit, as houses associated with famous people or with TV adaptations. They have shops and cafes and an army of staff, paid and volunteer, waiting to welcome visitors.

At the other end of the scale are the unheralded places. Sometimes there is a sense that the National Trust isn’t keen for people to visit them. They aren’t open often. You don’t necessarily get to see much of them. They have very few facilities, sometimes there is no guidebook; there’s one postcard on sale. They don’t take card payments on site and you have to book in advance if you can find the right button on the website. You have to really want to go there to get past all the obstacles to your visit.

Ashdown House is one such place. It’s hidden, secret, almost lost in the wood that surrounds it. It’s open twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2pm between the months of April and October. Oh, and you have to book online in advance. When you get there, you can only see the exterior and the grounds, the hall, staircase and roof terrace. No rooms. Entry is by guided tour only. There’s only one loo and no cafe or shop.

Do you still want to go there? You should, as it is one of the most stunning seventeenth century properties in the National Trust’s ownership and it has a history to rival any grand manor house or stately home. Royalty, courtiers, Jacobites, rebels, sportsmen and women, lovers and warriors have all walked through these doors. It is set in an ancient and beautiful landscape where you can walk for miles in restorative nature. It’s sublime.

By now, you will have realized that this blog is not affiliated to the National Trust. I love Ashdown immensely and have done for over 20 years but I’m not blind to the fact that that for various reasons it cannot offer visitors the sort of experience they expect from a National Trust property. Come anyway. Hopefully the knowledge and enthusiasm of the volunteers and the fascinating story we tell will make up for the need to visit Ashbury village if you want a cup of tea.

We open on Wednesday April 1st and I’ll be there to invite you to step into Ashdown’s story.