Holkham Hall in Norfolk was a place I visited at the end of the foot and mouth crisis of 2001. Sadly this meant that I could not walk much of the grounds that are normally open to the public.  Instead only the formal gardens were open.  However there is still much to see at the Hall.

Holkham Hall dates back to 1734 when the foundations for the house were dug by Thomas Coke, the 1st Earl of Leicester.

The building was completed 28 years later, but unfortunately the 1st Earl did not live to see the Hall in all its finished glory.

According to the guidebook the clay for the bricks was baked so hard no single brick has ever required repointing.

The building is designed to have one central block and four wings attacked by passages to each corner of the central block.  The family lived in one wing, the children in another, and the guests in another.

You enter the house from the north, the entrance is flanked by the two lions pictured below.  The picture above is of the more impressive south front.

The first room you come into is the Marble Hall, with a high ceiling and a staircase directly opposite it is clear that this room was designed to impress and it is no surprise that all the State rooms are in this central block.  The hall is today used for concerts and recitals.

The North Dining Room is the first room we come to after the Marble Hall and is a perfect 27 foot cube except for the domed ceiling and an apse.  Dinner was served in this room as recently as just prior to World War II.

We then pass on to the Statue Gallery and Tribunes.  Here you will find an ancient Greek bust dating back to 4BC.

We then come to the Drawing Room, the Saloon and the South Dining Room.  The Drawing Room is decorated much as it was when the house was first completed in 1773 - I guess they must have really liked it or really disliked change.  The Saloon is still used for entertaining today.  And the South Dining Room was once known as the State Bedchamber Apartment where people would wait to meet the occupier of the Green State Bedroom.

The next room is the Landscape Room and contains, not very surprisingly, a number of paintings of landscapes.

We then come to the Green State Bedroom where both Queen Victoria and King George V stayed.

The Green State and North State Dressing Rooms are the next rooms we come to.  We then come to the North State Bedroom where there are a number of family portraits on display.  

The State Sitting Room which was originally the dressing room of the North State Bedroom is what we come to next.  The room is hung with tapestries and it is the last of the State rooms. 

We then come to the Old Kitchen which was in use until the outbreak of World War II.  It now contains for display utensils that have been used in it over the centuries.  The huge iron range dominates the room and is still in working order today.

The guidebook also gives a glimpse of one of the private rooms of the family which is of course not open to the public.

After visiting the house there is still plenty to see.  The fountain above graces the formal gardens and in case my photo is too blurry it is actually St George and the Dragon.  It dates from the mid nineteenth century and was created by Charles Raymond Smith.

The grounds as mentioned above were mainly closed on my visit but the formal gardens were open as was the Bygones Museum which is well worth walking around and is situated in the grounds of the Hall itself.