Chelmsford & District National Trust Supporter Group

Report by Keith Otter

I’m beginning to think that the M25 must be an unlucky road for our Group. On our June outing to Brighton and Bramber our coach suffered a burst tyre on the M25, resulting in a 2½ hour delay which meant we never got to Brighton. Today’s journey was not nearly as dramatic but we did suffer severe delays caused by roadworks, so got to the River & Rowing Museum at Henley about an hour later that planned. Chris Bellamy announced that, since the Museum is so interesting, we would still spend the intended two hours there and take the time off our visit to Basildon Park.

River & Rowing Museum

Chris recommended that we all avoid “queuing for coffee” to give ourselves more time to look round the museum. There were no queues for coffee in the café so Pat and I decided to order coffees and a toasted sandwich each. We had to wait a long time for the sandwiches!

After eating we started our tour of the museum by going through the Wind in the Willows exhibition, which takes the form of a winding “underground” tunnel with displays of model animals illustrating incidents from the story. Although designed for children, the exhibition is interesting for adults as well, if only to remind us all of that well-loved story. All the models are very well made and capture the characters described in the book.

We then went to the gallery with exhibits taken from rowing history.

I was particularly taken by the display on Greek triremes. This included a small wooden model of part of a trireme made in the 1970s which proved that the three tiers of rowers all had oars of the same length. There was also a full-sized model of a small part of a trireme showing how the rowers were seated. A short video shows the Olympias, a modern replica of a trireme, being rowed at speed. Greek triremes were the fastest and most manoeuvrable warships in the Mediterranean at the time and formed the famous “wooden walls” that saved Athens from a Persian invasion.

From that display we moved to one depicting the rowed boats that formed the first shore-based lifeboats in these islands. Another display tells the story of the wherries used as ferries across the Thames and the Thames Watermen.

The rest of the gallery is devoted to competitive rowing, including particularly the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which originally started at Henley. The gallery contains some of the boats used competitively.

Pat and I only got around some ¾ of the one gallery before it was time to get back on the coach for the journey to Basildon Park. Although we had only seen a small fraction of the museum, we were glad we had eaten when we did.

Basildon Park

At Basildon Park we didn’t tour the extensive grounds but concentrated on going round the house itself. This was built in the 18th century and extensively refurbished by Lord and Lady Iliffe after the Second World War. The house, which was not in good condition, was used as a billet for soldiers during the war and after the war to house officers in charge of German prisoners of war, who were held nearby. Those billeted there did not treat it with much respect. Soldiers used statues for target practice and the officers actually managed to set part of it on fire.

When the Iliffes began their restoration it was pretty much derelict, without any glass in the windows. They set about restoring its magnificence. Today practically none of what you see as you go round the house is original to it. You would not think so, as the Iliffes had superb taste and bought appropriate old furniture and paintings. Many of them were acquired from other stately homes that were being abandoned.

I asked one of the volunteers at the entrance whether there was a particular order in which we should visit the house. She directed us to visit the library to the left of the entrance hall first and then go into the dining room via the staircase hall and follow the route through the house.

The dining room contains a long table complete with place settings. We were impressed by the four glasses by each place, one each for water, white wine, red wine and champagne. An information card showed what each piece of the cutlery was designed for. I never knew before that there were such things as oyster forks. (We obviously move in the wrong circles.)

From the dining room we moved to the Octagon Room, named for its shape. The paintings hanging here include four supposedly of apostles. I couldn’t work out which four apostles were represented. One showed a young man holding a pen. At first I thought this must be Mark but he wasn’t an apostle. And which apostle is associated with the white dove another was shown with?

Next was the Green Drawing Room. I asked the volunteer on duty there about the green damask wallpaper. Apparently it is not wallpaper at all. It is a collection of Edwardian silk curtains, which Lady Iliffe acquired when a friend as getting rid of them. The curtains had to be very carefully flattened and stretched to put on the walls. There was not sufficient material to cover all the walls. One of the paintings hides the large gap that was left.

Then it was upstairs to visit the bedrooms and the “Shell Room”. All the decorations in this room are made of shells and there are many shells in display cabinets. On closer inspection what looks like large carved wall decorations depicting vases of flowers turned out to be also made of shells.

All the rooms are spacious. I reckon Lady Iliffe’s bathroom is larger than our sitting room,

Another staircase took us back down to the 1950s kitchen. We went through that to get to the Sutherland Room, which is full of Graham Sutherland pictures. I have to say I’m not really a lover of his style. To be presented with a whole room full of Sutherland pictures was a bit overwhelming!

That led us back to the entrance hall at just the right time to start making our way back to the coach for the journey back to Chelmsford.