Coughton Court in Warwickshire is the home of the Throckmorton family and has been for the last six centuries.

Unlike many houses that change hands and have each family's style integrated into the furnishings and the building this one is a property which has remained much the same as it was 600 years ago.

The tour of the house begins in the front hall and then moves straight onto a staircase displayed with numerous portraits of the family.

The tour then continues through the lavish Drawing-room and the Little Drawing-room which contains displays of plates and dishes dating back to the 18th century.

For the very agile visitors you can climb not only to the Tower Room with its hidden hiding places but also further up onto the roof itself.  The view from the roof is especially good and I am afraid that my photos do not really do it justice. However the best of the bunch is the photo directly below.

Obviously in bad weather the roof would not be open to visitors for safety reasons. 

The tour does not end on the roof however but continues back through the building and into the Dining Room.  You can skip the Tower and roof and go straight on to this part of the tour if you are not eager to be high on the roof.

The Dining Room is in a completely different style to the previous rooms of the property seen so far and is much darker in appearance thanks to the panelling on the walls.

After leaving the Dining Room the tour continues into the Tapestry Dressing Room and Tapestry Bedroom which contain, not surprisingly, tapestries.  These rooms are rather lacking in light due to the damage the light would cause to the contents but even so you can see a lot of the detail in the items on display.

The next stop on the tour is The Tribune which contains items such as Queen Catherine of Aragon's Cape and a chemise of Mary Queen of Scots amongst others on display in the cases in the room.

The next room on the tour is the Saloon which, I believe, is the largest room on the tour.  This room is rich in items that have been gathered by the family over the years and there are helpful guides on hand to explain some of the more unusual items.  The guide will be happy to fill you in on the story of the Throckmorton coat which is on display here.

The tour then continues through the Passageway which there are displayed various books and the original abdication letter of King Edward VIII.

The main claim to fame of Coughton Court however is its connection with the Gunpowder Plot of the early 17th century.

Everyone has of course heard of Guy Fawkes who is remembered even today on November 5th.  But the leader of the plot was in fact Robert Catesby, son of Sir William Catesby and Anne Throckmorton of Coughton Court.  Other plotters were also connected to the family.

There are informative exhibitions on display telling the story of the plot and the connections with the family together with a video documentary for anyone to just sit in and watch throughout the day.

Finally to mention the gardens.  There are, as you can see from the pictures, several gardens at Coughton Court.  In fact there are even more than are pictured here but I have to think of my server space and try and limit the number of pictures that I put on display.  All of them are well worth wandering around and there plenty of seats in order to take a rest from walking and just take in the grounds.

 

Visit the official Coughton Court website here.