A visit to the the Merchants House, Marlborough and the West Kennet Long Barrow

It's been a long time.... My lovely blogging friends, I've missed you all.  There is a lot happening in my life at the moment.. I will let you know in due course.. In the mean time...

The other week we went on a short holiday to Marlborough which is situated in the north east corner of Wiltshire. We stayed at the The Castle and Ball and very nice it was too. We had such a lovely time, the area is so beautiful the landscape was food for the soul. One of the things that we did was visit The Merchants House which is an absolute gem and well worth making the effort to visit. The painted walls... Well I am lost for words.. Just loved seeing them, a privilege.

If you look carefully around the fire place you can see where the original paint had been hidden by a 'modern' fire place surround, it was not discovered until the 1990's what a thrill they would have had when they made such an amazing discovery.  The black and white decoration is amazing and we were told mathematically correct. The stripes are beautiful the paint curator matched the colours with natural pigments and mixed each paint colour up to match the original medieval colours, they were so bright and vibrant, amazing, considering that it had been painted in the 17th century, such a joy to see.

 

They also had a collection of early slipware pottery which I have a passion for.

The design, construction and planting of the garden had been carefully researched, so that it is as it would have been in the mid to late 17th century

 

The stairs were amazing the painted walls reflected the turned finials of the newel posts along the stairwell walls, note the strange little cupboards along one wall I wonder what they were used for?  The wall painting was only discovered in 1991.

(If you want to find out more about the house just click on the link above, it is amazing and there is a lot more information on the site.)

 

Another place we visited was the West kennet Long Barrow  This is me, very windswept sitting at the entrance.

Looking inside

 

This time a little further in, I was so surprised how large it is on the left and right hand sides there are several small rooms, what they were used for I don't know. they look like living and animal quarters.

View looking out of the long barrow towards Norman

 

View from the entrance

(If your intrigued click on the link above.. It is amazing.)

Best wishes to you all... Julie.