Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Exhibitionist podcast. I'm Vicky from Museum Mum. And I'm Catherine from Cultural Wednesday. Together we are co -hosts on this friendly insider's guide to the best exhibitions, museums and historic places to visit in London and beyond. Between us we visit hundreds of cultural places a year. We're here to share what we've seen so you know what's worth the travel.
Speaker: Get ready to fuel your curiosity and wanderlust with the exhibitionists. This week, six places does break your journey. But first, Vicky, how are you? I am surprised the summer holidays have come about quite so quickly. I think this is a very timely episode for us. Now, I can't believe that it's summer holiday time already and coming up to breaking up. I'm not sure where the time has gone. Do you have any plans for the summer?
Speaker: Yes, in theory, we are going to go interraling all of us all together, the the cultural young men and Mr Cultural Wednesday and I. We want to go to Vienna and beyond that we have no plans. So on Monday, planning starts.
Speaker: That sounds really exciting and something I really want to do when my kids are older too. We're just, I'm saying just in the UK, like it's an apology, actually it's been fantastic, sort of discovering more of the UK in the last few years. And we're going to a place we've never been, we're going to Northumberland. Oh, Northumberland is wonderful. I was at university in Newcastle and spent a lot of time in Northumberland way back in the last century. It's the most beautiful county.
Speaker: Well, I might have to get you some tips from you because a lot of places I want to see have been there a lot longer than the last century. So I'm sure you can still give me some ideas. Yeah, Hadrian's Wall's not moved.
Speaker: I know about. Thinking about the journeys that we have ahead, should we start recommending that we've got six cultural places we think you should break your long journey? Because obviously, even with or without kids, a long motorway journey can be very tiring. And having somewhere interesting to stop that isn't a kind of dire service station, and you can refuel not only just with food and things, but also culturally.
Speaker: Actually, for me, really make a special moment in the holiday. Yes, I quite like a cultural pit stop, we call it. Yes. Because the cultural young men have gone to university at opposite ends of the country. We're spending quite a lot of time on the motorway network at the moment.
Speaker: And which is your first recommendation for a cultural pit stop? My first recommendation is Stowerhead, which is moments away from the A303 just at the time when you really, really need coffee. I've been there and thought it was absolutely beautiful. Could you let people know what they can expect and what the highlights are?
Speaker: Yes, so it's a house in the state, it was created in the 1740s and it was described at that time as a living work of art. It's one of the very first landscape gardens, it's got a lake, it's got temples that are reflected in the lake, it's got trees that obviously change all the way through, it's particularly spectacular.
Speaker: in autumn. It's got grottos. It has a Palladian house. I confess that I've actually never gone into the house, but it promises a fine collection of Chippendale furniture, if that's what you want. And it's got a kitchen garden as well. And crucially, it has a cafe because it's National Trust. And so it has the National Trust cafe, so you know exactly what you're getting.
Speaker: I suppose that's the good thing about the National Trust cafes is you do know what you're going to order usually before you get there if you've been there a few times. Stourhead was a really, it was quite spectacular actually. I wasn't expecting much. I was just like, oh, we'll just have a little walk. But actually the scenery is so beautiful. Even the kids who are obviously not massive landscape lovers were like, oh, this is so beautiful. So just even though a sort of 40 minute walk around the lake is very memorable.
Speaker: Yes, and if you have dogs, which neither of us do have dogs, but if you have dogs, you can take your dogs and take them for a walk, which is also good on a long journey. As I said, it's owned by the National, run by the National Trust, and so it's free if you're a National Trust member, which both you and I are. £19 for a grown -up if you're not.
Speaker: And we've realised that we have a lot of National Trust pit stops, mainly because we've picked places which are literally just off the motorway. You shouldn't expect to add more than maybe 10 minutes or so to your journey either side from going to these places. So they're literally right off the motorway. And the National Trust is great because it has this huge network. If you've got the membership,
Speaker: is included in a membership, so you're not paying anything extra. But I think we'll include some non -national trust places at the end. But the next one I wanted to recommend, I did quite recently, actually, on the way back from the west country, which was Dyrham Park. And that's near Bath. It's just off the M4 at junction 18. And it's a very grand baroque 17th century house with ancient parkland and garden. Does Mr Darcy live there?
Speaker: You can imagine him, and it's definitely... That's enough for me. It's quite unusual for a pit stop in terms of when you get there. The car park is actually quite far from the house, but you have this spectacular walk over this steep and sloping parklands, and you get views of the house from the very moment you set off. Can you imagine your Lizzie Burnett?
Speaker: Exactly. I'm going. It does have a mobility bus. I say that because they could tell my kids were very tired, so they let them have a little ride on the bus. So if you are feeling tired, you can do that way. But it's also meant to have deer.
Speaker: But when we were there, unfortunately, there's an illness, they've had to cull the deer. So luckily I hadn't made a big deal about seeing deer because I would have had to explain what happened there. But normally... On their holidays.
Speaker: And yeah, the deer are on their holidays and they are hoping to reintroduce them. But the house itself is really interesting. It's, like I said, it's got this grand baroque interior. It's one of the best baroque interiors left in the UK. So you've got your paneled room, you've got gilt leather wall coverings. Oh, this is leather leather wall.
Speaker: Yes, you'd like this one. It's got the grand staircases, and it features a bit of a TV star. It's been in pole dark, it's been Rains of the Day, the Pursuit of Love series, a year or so back it was in that. But what actually I find really interesting is what they've done with the interpretation in the last year or so.
Speaker: So they really thought differently about the house and how it was funded and actually started to tell that story to the to the visitor. So it's it's still it's very fun like for example when you go into the the grand entrance there's a bird giant bird cage suspended and you've got the sound of birds singing and in each room they've got a little box full of things you can touch.
Speaker: And so Museum Girl was touching those. And each one has a little Delft style tile, which describes the room and that sort of thing. But what they have done as well, walked into the wealth and where it came from. So it was built for William Blathwaite, who was not only Secretary of State to King William III, but he was also Surveyor and Auditor General of the colonies. So they're really looking into
Speaker: his relationship with the Empire, the fact that his fortune was made in some way through the Empire. They haven't linked him directly to slave ownership, but obviously he was responsible for administering and the growth of the Empire and the slavery which underpinned that.
Speaker: And so they've really thought sensitively about it. It's really quite clear the video tells you about this relationship. But also there's some objects before which they just wouldn't have mentioned at all. So there's two painted gold stands which feature enslaved figures and they're kneeling and they're chained. And before they were just on display and nothing was said about them.
Speaker: But now they've kind of almost give you a warning, you know, there's these really racist and dehumanizing stereotypes. This was of the time and things like that. So they haven't taken them off. But what they've started to do is actually put this into the context. So it's a really, it's really thought provoking place to visit. I did leave a bit angry, to be honest, because not with the National Trust, but
Speaker: you know, with the fact that we do often go around these houses and we don't think about where the money came from and at what cost and who was paying the price for them. So you can go and you can still enjoy it as a grand beautiful place, but you can also start to think a bit more sort of deeply as well. Yes, I suspect that the truth of the matter is that vast quantities of money never always come at a human cost.
Speaker: Well, yeah, somebody's making doing the work somewhere. And yeah, so anyway, it's got beautiful garden as well. It's got a formal garden. It's the Parkland. They've just put a brand new play area in it, which is fantastic. But it's quite far from the house. You kind of almost have to choose if you're going to the house or the playground. And we were in the house. It does have a cafe. You'd be very pleased to hear. Excellent cakes.
Speaker: Yeah, of course. I think they'd have to shut if they didn't have cakes at a national trust. And they do run a lot of activities. They've got the Summer of Play, which is the National Trust outdoor themes and art activities, which are taking place at a number of places. They're taking part as well. OK, so if you're not a National Trust member, how much would that cost you? It's £18 .70 for adults and £9 .40 for children. And does it have a motorway junction?
Speaker: It does have a motorway junction. It's just off the M4, a junction 18. Okay. Well, for my next one, we're going to go to the M1. We're going to go just off junction 29 of the M1 to Hardwick Hall. And it's actually so close to the M1 that you can see it from the road. So it literally is moments. Have you been to Hardwick Hall?
Speaker: No, not yet. I think, is this the place that I'm not sure if they've got playgrounds? Is this the place that I'm thinking about? I'm not sure because the cultural young men have not been a playground age when we visited, but it certainly has. It's got a lot of outdoor space in which you can run.
Speaker: And I think that's the thing is that sometimes when you're trying to look for places to stop, it's easy to say, Oh, it hasn't got this, but actually, you know, it's obviously worth me just going along and letting the kids run free and, uh, and giving it a go. What can I expect when I go? It's got fantastic gardens, but the main thing is the house. It was built by Bess of Hardwick, who was an incredible woman. Um, she married three times. First of all, she married to William Cavendish, who was much older than her.
Speaker: and who was treasurer of the King's court, so not short of a bob or two. They had a mass of children and their descendants went on to be the Dukes of Devonshire, so that's sort of a measure of the wealth of the family. And then she married a second time and then she married a third time to the Earl of Shrewsbury.
Speaker: and all her husbands died and all her husbands left her all the money. And so she was an extraordinarily wealthy woman. She was the wealthiest woman possibly other than Elizabeth the First. So these two Elizabeths were the wealthiest people. And she built this house and it's the first house that is what's thought to be the first house that actually used an architect as opposed to just sort of
Speaker: building in a hodgepodge fashion. It was thought about and created and it's on a ridge. You can see it. You can see it for miles around and it's got vast quantities of glass. At that time in the Elizabethan era, glass was hugely expensive and quite technically hard to do. So people at the time said that it was more glass than wall.
Speaker: sort of like the Crystal Palace of its time. Yeah, absolutely. And it's got sort of right at the top of the building, it's got E .S. is written all over the sort of the roof line. So there's absolutely no way that you're going to mistake the fact that it was built by Best of Hard Work. And then inside, it's got incredible tapestries. It's everything you want from an Elizabethan house.
Speaker: but it was also lived in right up until 1960. And so there's part of the house that is the last duchess that lived there. And that in itself is incredible that it makes you realize that Dukes and Duchess of Devonshire, probably even the current ones, just live an amazing life and know so many people and were at the cutting edge of art, fashion, politics, the lot. It's an absolutely incredible house.
Speaker: And then when you go outside, the gardens are all sort of you, Elizabeth, not gardening, Herbie. It's a truly amazing place. You really feel that you're walking in history. I am absolutely sold. I'm adding that to my list for the next time I'm going up the M1. Excellent. Well, that could say it's also National Trust. If you're not a National Trust member, it's £17 for a grown up and it's open every day.
Speaker: So Catherine, I'm going to take you to near Wolverhampton, just off the M6, and it's an Elizabethan farmhouse. Its nickname is The House That Saved the King. Oh, I'm, I'm reading a book about Charles II at the moment. I think I might have just read about this. It's Mouldsley Old Hall. Oh, I've never been. I didn't know you could visit.
Speaker: Well, this was this was one I discovered quite recently on the way back, we were in North Wales and so we stopped off here. And I was actually so impressed with it. It's a really nice size for a stopover. It's actually relatively compact. So we've talked about quite grand places with like giant parkland and and that sort of thing. And this is actually a kind of much more
Speaker: humble farmhouse. I mean, they still would have been wealthy, but we're not talking a gentry or anything. With a small amount, it's got a woodland and gardens as well, but it's very compact. It's right next to the car park, which always helps. So it tells two stories really, really well.
Speaker: The first one is, it was the hiding place of Charles II who, after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester, he sought refuge here. Now, at this point, there was a bounty on him, so he could have been turned in, but his loyalists hid him. And when you visit, you can enter what they call through the royal door, and there's nothing special about it. It's the back door, basically. They obviously didn't want him coming in through the front door.
Speaker: No fanfares through the back door. And this very humble door he apparently describes in his biography to Samuel Pepys. At the upstairs they have the bed that he slept in fully clothed, obviously ready to escape with a moment's notice. And the house was searched by parliamentarians while he was there. And so you can see where he hid. And it's... Oh, scary priest holes.
Speaker: Yeah, so it's underneath what they call the frippery, basically your linen cupboards. The floorboards were pulled up and he was put under there. And apparently he was over six foot, a very tall man. And so he hid under these very, very shallow floorboards, but apparently described it the best place he was ever in. And it did save his life, that place. And they've lifted the floorboards and lit it so you can imagine him crouching there.
Speaker: Can we go back? A frippery. Is a frippery a cupboard where you keep your smalls? Yes, apparently so. I learnt that from this place. I love that. That is just, it's a top fact. Exactly. I'm no longer going to have a knicker drawer. It's my frippery. Your frippery. I don't know if it's just for sheets, but you can call your pants drawer whatever you want, Catherine. Oh, sheets. Okay. Well, in that case, it's no longer a blanket box. It's my frippery.
Speaker: The other story they tell really, really well is actually about Tudor life and everyday life. And they have costumes, interpreters. So when we went in, there was somebody in the kitchen who was showing people what they would have eaten. So he had, he was explaining the origins of a square meal. So he was showing the square plate.
Speaker: And there was, you would obviously like dressing up Catherine, there was dressing up. Oh, in grown up style as well, grown up style is excellent, always important. Definitely. But they also had samples, so they'd gone to historic places and looked at their Tudor knitwear and then had volunteers recreate ones that then you could touch and put on.
Speaker: Which was a really nice touch as well. How do I get there? So it's definitely, oh in the playground, they don't have a playground but what they do have is they have a three -storey tree house which is big enough for adults to go up around this old oak, ancient oak. Clients and dressing up for grownups and ancient knitwear. I'm going, I'm going.
Speaker: It has your name all over it, I think. It does. It is... They do activities for families, so when we went there was a little fairy house trail, so they'd hidden six fairy houses and each one had a little different theme and Museum Girl just absolutely loved looking for them and working out what they're about. I've never understood the attraction of fairy houses. They didn't seem to be a thing when the cultural young men were tiny.
Speaker: But I was at the Roald Dahl Museum this week and there was a small person and they discovered a fairy door just by my left shoulder. I was nearly crushed in the rush and they were so excited. So I'm a convert now for that young person who was just so excited.
Speaker: think it's that whole thing about secret other worlds that maybe they're the only ones to discover opening the door and looking through and talking to the people and it was fantastic
Speaker: Oh, so yeah, this bump was a temporary trail. I don't think it's there all the time, but they do a lot of family activities throughout the year. They also had lawn game set up. Museum Boy loves a hula hoop, so whenever he sees one, he's very happy. And they do have a cafe as well. And it's great because you can just go for an hour or so, and you do feel like you've stepped back into the past. Excellent. How much is that if you're not a National Trust member?
Speaker: So it's £11 for an adult and it's £5 .50 for a child. OK, I'm going to take you to another National Trust property. This time it's off the M11, junction 12 of the M11. Or if you're going up the A1, it is junction 9 and it's Wimpole Hall and Estate.
Speaker: It has a house, I mean it's a big grand country house, it's got all the stuff that you would expect of a big grand country house. Lots of paintings by Reynolds, which I particularly love, but for me the main thing, or the main thing has always been, because we've always met friends, it's been a good halfway place between Norfolk and Hitchin, hello Anne if you're listening,
Speaker: to meet and for boys to roar around the gardens. Within the grounds, they've got a rare breeds farm with all the relevant sheep and cows and things that you can see. They've got some particularly spectacular chickens, I seem to remember. They've got kitchen gardens. I always love a kitchen garden. And then I also remember climbing frames, which again, grownups could use, which were great.
Speaker: We've been there a few times, actually. It's a really great place in terms of the space. It just feels quite vast and a lot of freedom. And in the spring, when the lambing season starts, you actually need to book because it just gets so popular. But you can go and see all of these rare breed sheep and pigs. And it's a really, really nice way to show kids nature.
Speaker: And the playgrounds, the one they have near the cafe, I don't know if they've changed it since you've been, it's actually got very small equipment now. But somehow Museum Girl Stull managed to spend like well over an hour making friends and playing there and Museum Dad had a coffee in peace. So he was like, we need to go back again soon.
Speaker: It's always that moment of calm. Mr. CW always likes the secondhand bookshops that the National Trust properties quite often have.
Speaker: Yeah, I try not to. I've got a bit of a book habit. Every now and again, I'm like, oh no, more books. I counted. I've got 80 books in my unread book pile at the moment. And that's only the physical books. That's not the electronic books that I also have. So that's... I'm trying to... Maybe stay away. But they just sneak in.
Speaker: The other reason we've been to Wimpole, and they do run it fairly regularly, is that I think it's called the Big Tree Climbing Company. You can pay, I think it's about £25 per person and harness up. And it's from any age, I think it's from six to 106. You can harness up and climb into one of their giant ancient trees. So Museum Dad and Museum Girl did that last October and went into an ancient oak.
Speaker: And you've got harness, you've got a helmet, you've got a trained instructor to help you up, and it's just a fantastic way of really engaging with the landscape, and really fun for all ages as well. I commend, I grew up on a fruit farm, so I grew up climbing trees, and it's a truly, truly marvellous thing to do, especially if you're with all the health and safety equipment.
Speaker: I was going to say, I'm sure you don't have those. But I have the broken bones to prove it. Oh no, I didn't know that. I'm sorry, I won't mention tree climbing again. No, I have many. That's the, I think the hazards of being a tomboy. I think I've always been a tomboy in the 60s and 70s. So how much is it for non -members? It's £9 if you're not a member of the National Trust.
Speaker: Yeah. I'm not being in the house. So I think next time I'm going to, I go, now you've described what's inside the house. I'm going to try and pop in as well. So where are you taking us next? Is it another National Trust property? Oh, I'm going to throw in a non -National Trust. Oh, it's radical. Mix it up a little bit. I know. I'm going to take you to just outside Dudley. It's three miles in the M5 and the M6. So it's a double motorway options there. And it is the Black Country Living Museum.
Speaker: Ooh, that sounds a bit expensive though, for a pit stop.
Speaker: Well, let me tell you what's there and I'll tell you the price at the end and why I think... Yes, me. Yeah, exactly. So it's an open -air museum. I love an open -air museum. Oh, I like an open -air museum. So this one tells the story of the Black country, which, to be honest, before I went, I hadn't even thought about the origins. So this area was one of the very first industrialised landscapes in Britain and it had so many... it had thousands of ironworks and forges
Speaker: as well as coal mines, that they say that the soot and the smoke turned the whole area black. So it tells the story of this industrial place and its life from the 1700s to the 1960s. And even if you don't have a connection to the area, which I don't,
Speaker: It just basically tells you about British life. And you have, so it's set around a canal. It's again, a bit of a film star. Peaky Blinders was filmed here, parts of it. And they do special nights for fans, but also it was one of the first museums to really take off on TikTok back in the pandemic. So it's quite famous and has quite a young following because of that. That's really good.
Speaker: So what it does, it's got shops, houses, workshops, and you can go into them. There'll be people working there. There'll be people talking to you. We had a school lesson. So we got given a penny to hand in for our penny schooling. And a parent was caned for talking. Obviously, no people were hurt in that demonstration. But they also do, we had,
Speaker: We went into the pub and it was a proper spit and sawdust on the floor pub. So we had some drinks in the pub with the kids. And they have on the streets, it was all cobbled streets. They had lots of street toys. So I have a lovely photo of a museum boy doing skipping rope. We actually added a huge new area since we last went. So they've just brought it back into living memory. I think they spent something like 30 million and added five or so recreated shops from the area.
Speaker: So they've got like a 1940s to 1960s high street. So they've got a record shop, you can play vinyl at and at a women's club. At the exact time that my mother was at teacher training college in Dudley, maybe I should take her. You absolutely should. I really think you should. But it's just really, I find living history museums and open air museums really accessible for everyone. Like I said, they're quite easy. You haven't got to go read, you just go and soak it up really.
Speaker: And I love industrial history. I think it's so key and core to who we are as a nation beyond anything else.
Speaker: And they really do make this one fun. So I don't think we could, there's a mine, we couldn't go down into the mine when we went, that was shut. But what they were doing was these science demonstrations where they set fire to some of the gases that would build up in the mines and there was this massive explosion. And I'm sure I felt my eyebrows singe I was in the front row. So it's a very lively and engaging place with lots going on. So bottom line, how much is it?
Speaker: Bottom line, let's talk numbers now, Catherine. It's £22 .95 from Adel, which is £16, which always hurts me, because as we know, most £16 pluses will still be at home. So I hate that. That's quite steep, but is it a one -off or is it an annual ticket?
Speaker: No, so they do something called the Unchained Path. So once you pay that, it's actually for 12 months. Oh, that sounds so bad if you're going in that area all the time. Exactly, exactly. So I've used, I stopped there on my way back from the Welsh Borders. And yeah, if you are going that way, it's really nice place to stop over and you can take a little tram ride around, you can take a bus around if you don't want to walk. And I would say give it a go, maybe take your mum and Catherine.
Speaker: Yeah, okay. Well, I'll get it from Norfolk and then take her on a road trip. Right. I think now it's time. We've done six, but we've missed out. The one we haven't covered is the one that we both absolutely love and is our number one stop. So why have we missed it out, Vicki? And what is it?
Speaker: Yes, when we did this list, we were like, hey, we have to include Yorkshire Sculpture Park. But I think both of our happy places, and we both stopped there. Any opportunity we're in the area, it's Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We've already talked about it. We've waxed lyrical about it already in our second episode on outdoor sculpture parks. So if people are interested, then I would say go and listen to that. Because that is, again, about two minutes.
Speaker: from, I can't even remember which junction, but two minutes off the M1 near Wakefield. It's really, really easy to get to.
Speaker: And I think all these places, all the places I've suggested anyway, have big brown signs off the motorway. Yes, they do. Yeah, which always helps if you don't know the area. Always aids in fraught navigation. Well, also what I found is that Google always takes you to a strange entrance. So if you do use a mapping system, try and follow us until you see the brown signs and then follow the brown signs as my top tip. That's a really good tip.
Speaker: So there we have it, our six cultural pit stops to enjoy in the UK. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Exhibitionists. If you've enjoyed the show, please hit the subscribe button and leave us a review. We've really loved sharing our thoughts with you. Thanks so much for listening. You can find us on Instagram at the Exhibitionists pod. Or me, Vicki, at Museum Mum. Or me, Catherine, at Cultural Wednesday.
Speaker: The music is Positive Hip Hop by Maxco Music from Tuzik. Catch you next time on the exhibitionists. Until then, stay curious and enjoy your cultural adventures.
