I’m not ashamed to say that one of my absolute favourite things to do is visit a National Trust property. At this point, I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m an elderly woman trapped in the body of a 25-year-old. After hearing so much about Calke Abbey and Richard and Suzanne’s work on the HumanKind project during our “Designing for Creative Lives” module, Calke was right at the top of my list of museums and historic houses to visit. Once lockdown had eased enough for museums and houses to reopen, I dusted off my membership card and got ready to live my National Trust fantasy.
The house isn’t far from Leicester, sitting just over the border between Leicestershire and Derbyshire. After a short drive up the M1, you’ll find yourself suddenly in the midst of the countryside; it always feels like such a treat to get away from the city, and Calke is just about as rural as you can get. Once you arrive, you’re greeted with what is potentially the longest driveway of all time, leading you along a leafy, tree-lined avenue before winding around the estate and through fields full of sheep and lambs. At one point, we even drove past a duck with a handful of tiny, fluffy ducklings trailing behind her.
Calke Abbey is fascinating because it’s an “un-stately” stately home. The National Trust focuses on preserving the house as it was when they found it rather than restoring it to its former glory. While many historic houses celebrate the wealth of their former owners, Calke instead tells the story of the decline of the English country estate, and as you walk through the house, the signs of decay and disuse become more and more prevalent; peeling wallpaper, cracked paintwork and plaster, and an eclectic mix of fascinating objects piled into each room like storerooms.
A particular highlight was a state bed with heavily embroidered silk bedding, and drapes which had been discovered packed away in a box in the house in 1985, undisturbed since the 18th century. Another interesting room was the former entrance hall, which included display cases rammed full of things the family had collected, such as shells, rocks, fossils, and even a crocodile skull. A big heads up, though: the house is not very vegan. It features a genuinely staggering amount of taxidermy - I had to do a lot of averting my eyes and hurrying past display cases and pretending I hadn’t just seen a stuffed puffin.
One of the best bits about visiting was, of course, seeing some of the Research Centre for Museum and Galleries’ work in action. A lot of the HumanKind interpretation had been removed for the reopening, but we still found a significant amount threaded through the property, telling stories of isolation and loneliness, kindness and compassion. There were pledges spread all around, encouraging small acts of kindness inspired by the stories of the people who had lived at Calke. My favourite room was the kitchen; it’s dedicated to Airmyne, the last member of the Harpur Crewe family to live at Calke before the Trust took over in 1984. She had lost the ability to speak after a horse-riding accident, and the room included her exercise books from speech therapy sessions, telling the story of how her brother had helped her to recover. Her favourite song - Que Sera, Sera – was also playing in the background. It was incredibly moving, and so exciting to see the legacy that HumanKind has left at Calke, embedding socially engaged interpretation into the site.
There’s so much more to say about Calke – there’s an incredibly beautiful orangery, a stunning walled garden, an ice-house, many outbuildings, a sprawling deer park, a grotto that has newts living in it – and, of course, top quality scones and a second-hand bookshop, as is customary for any National Trust house. If you’re looking for a geeky day out with a very good tea room, I highly recommend!
Written by Amy Beaumont