Bank holiday Monday spent at Hatfield House

This week’s sunny bank holiday was, for me, spent at the grand Jacobean house of Hatfield and amongst its leafy grounds. Hatfield House, just 20 minutes from King’s Cross by train, is most famous for being the childhood home of Elizabeth I. It is however, the grander palace built by the 1^st Earl of Salisbury in the early 1600s, after he deemed Elizabeth’s house old fashioned, that people visit today (one wing remains from Elizabeth’s era and is now called the Old Palace– it wasn’t until we had been around the whole house that we realised that what looked like a small out-building was in fact where she grew up!).

The House is still splendidly decorated, with State Rooms rich in paintings, fine furniture and tapestries, the Grand Staircase with its fine carving and rare stained windows in the private chapel. It was the gardens, however, which were the highlight of the visit, being a bright day as it was on Monday. The gardens begin formally, with topiary, borders and a fountain, before extending to the woodland garden, with its bluebells, magnolias and wild flowers, dotted with British sculptures. There is also the extensive park, where an oak tree marks the place where the young Princess Elizabeth first heard of her accession to the throne.

  
The remainder of Elizabeth I’s palace

  
Images my own

Hatfield’s 2014 visitor season runs from 5 April – 28 September 2014. Find out more here.