Home > House Visit: Hall near Barnstaple
House Visit: Hall near Barnstaple
Our house visit this year will be to Hall, which is near Umberleigh just south of Barnstaple. The house has been and continues to be owned by the Chichester family and Clare, a Chichester herself, assisted by her husband Michael will show us round and introduce us to the fascinating family history that surrounds the property. Indeed the hall and stairs could double for the set of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Ruddigore. The visit to the hall and grounds will be concluded with tea in the Servants' Hall, much grander than Downton and more reminiscent of college hall, where we are required to observe the "Regulations", which include a forfeit of one penny for whoever wipes their knves or forks on the table cloth".
Gerald & Fiona Wilson will host this event on behalf of the Society. They have already done the tour and can highly recommend it.
For those who wish, we shall meet up beforehand for a pub lunch at the Rising Sun at Umberleigh, which is close by. For the adventurous or those wishing to reduce their carbon footprint you can travel by train leaving Exeter St Davids at 11.19am and disembarking at Umberleigh for a short walk to the pub. For the return trip we are planning to catch the train at Chapelton at 5.41pm arriving back at Exeter at 6.54pm. The walk from the house to station takes about 25 minutes. Transport between lunch and Hall is TBA, but if those coming by car would indicate whether they can take passengers from the pub to the house that would be very helpful.
The tour starts at 2.30pm on Friday 15 May and we shall meet for lunch from 12.30pm onwards.
The cost is £20 per person, which includes the afternoon tea. Lunch and rail travel will be paid individually.