Valentines Mansion, Ilford Wednesday 20^th June

We visited Valentines Mansion on 20^th June. It is situated in Valentines Park just south of Gants Hill roundabout in Ilford. There was a guided tour of the house inside and out. Then we were free to explore the gardens, lakes and grounds and to use the cafe.

Back in the late 17^th century there was a farm at this point known as Valentines farm. A lady approached the owner and offered to buy the buildings and land and he accepted. She was Mrs Tillotson, the widow of the Archbishop of Canterbury. When he died, being a churchman, he left very little money but he was renowned for his sermons. She had them printed and sold and they were so popular that they earned her £25,000, which was a great deal of money in those days. This enabled her to buy the farm, demolish the old house and build a new one for herself and her family. At that time the whole area was undeveloped, the occasional farmhouse and a row of workers cottages in Beehive Lane nearby. The new house was surrounded by its own grounds and the rest of the estate  was farmed.

Later the house passed through a succession of owners and was heavily modified. City merchant and banker Robert Surman bought the estate in the 1720s. He was heavily involved in the South Sea Bubble crisis of 1720. He owned a number of properties in Essex which he had to sell at the time of the Bubble when much of his money was confiscated by the state. (That’s an idea we could follow today). By 1724 he had recovered sufficiently to buy Valentines and created the walled gardens, dovecote and grottoes. In the 1760s owner Sir Charles Raymond, originally a ship’s captain for the East India company, spent part of his fortune renovating Valentines, giving the house its Georgian appearance. The red brick facade was replaced with yellow stock brick which was the fashion. In Regency times everything had to be symmetrical so another wing was added to the west end. There are many blocked windows but this was not because of the window tax – they were designed that way to give symmetry to the outside but were not convenient on the inside. Later a porte cochere was added to the back, obscuring the window on the staircase so it had to be fitted with coloured glass to hide the building. This meant the back of the house became the front. The front was modified, the door blocked up and the gate and drive leading to Cranbrook Road removed. A porte cochere gives cover to the people leaving their coach to enter the building.

The service wing to the west was possibly built as an orangery and later converted into a dairy and kitchen. The dairy is remarkably cold, which is great for keeping dairy products fresh but very uncomfortable to work in. The kitchen contains two large ranges. The pots are cast iron and very heavy. Even a small kettle is difficult to lift even when empty.

Sarah Ingleby, the last private resident of Valentines, died in 1906 and the council acquired the house in 1912. They also bought more land and created Valentine park. Since then, the mansion has been a home to wartime refugees, a hospital, a public health centre, and a council housing department. Finally with the help of lottery money it was renovated and used for community use, as a museum and for social occasions, weddings etc. 

Considering that much of what we see today was paid for from money earned from the East India company it is interesting to see how many local residents of Indian extraction make use of it’s facilities today.

Valentines Park is Grade 11 listed. The area around the house is known as the Historic Core and is an extraordinary survival to find in 21^st century Ilford.

The best remaining outhouse is the 18^th century dovecote. Behind it are the cafe and the walled gardens, the kitchen garden, the old English garden and the rose garden.

A dry garden has just been opened by the Queen as part of the Jubilee celebrations.

Beyond the gardens are the water features, the Horse pond which feeds the Long Water through a grotto and the Fish pond, fed by another grotto. There is lots of bird life there.

The vine at Hampton Court was grown from a Black Hamburgh cutting taken from the gardens at Valentines. The original vine no longer survives in the park but in late 2008 a cutting was brought back from Hampton Court and planted in the kitchen garden at Valentines. Thus the circle is now complete.

Valentines Mansion, Ilford Wednesday 20^th June

 We go to Valentines House and Gardens at Ilford. Discover a beautiful country house and gardens in the heart of Ilford. Visit the recreated Victorian kitchen and Georgian rooms, with gorgeous views over surrounding parkland.

Motorised wheelchairs are not allowed in the house. Two manual wheelchairs available.

Guided tour of house. £3 per person.

Valentines Mansion, Emerson Road, Ilford, IG1 4XA

Take the A127 to Gants Hill, left into Cranbrook Road, left into Emerson Road, left into Valentines carpark.

Sutton Hoo and Woodbridge May 2012

We combined a visit to the famous museum of the ship burials at Sutton Hoo with a stop at the old riverside town of Woodbridge.

We went first to Woodbridge, a beautiful market town and one of the jewels of the East Suffolk coastal area. The town sits on the picturesque River Deben estuary.

It has many historic buildings along with a wide range of shops, restaurants and other businesses.

The information centre is near the railway station  and provided a map and brochure. The small harbour is separated from the town by the railway. It holds a variety of boats and gives a stunning view of the river.

Woodbridge Tide Mill has recently been restored to full working order, grinding corn again – only the second such mill in the country to do so.

The town rises up from the river towards the market place which holds the Suffolk Punch horse museum in the Shire Hall. The Woodbridge museum is housed in one of the houses on Market Hill.

St Mary’s church is situated behind the houses in the market place and has a beautiful and peaceful setting. It is one of the great English churches with one of the best 15^th century fonts. The tower is one of Suffolk’s biggest, bold and dramatic, particularly when seen from the quayside. The church is recorded in the Domesday book. The present building dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century.

There was plenty of time to explore the town and take tea and cake in one of the charming tearooms before we rejoined our coach for Sutton Hoo which is just on the other side of the river.

After lunch in the cafe a visit to the exhibition hall showed the story of Sutton Hoo through a mixture of original and high quality replica objects. There is a full size reconstructed burial chamber with all the king’s treasures laid out around him. Visitors can dress up as an Anglo-Saxon and wear a replica of the famous helmet.

A guided walk to the burial ground shows the burial mounds where it is thought Raedwald, King of East Anglia was buried in his ship.

Tranmer House is open to the public and is furnished as it was pre-war when Mrs Pretty lived there and organised the excavation.

So many things to see and never enough time.

Chelmsford Museum 18th April 2012

Our visit to the Essex Regimental Museum on 18^th April was a revelation. There was something for everyone with the history of Chelmsford from pre-historic times, the story of the famous industrial giants who used to be there, like Marconi and Hoffmans, and the Regimental museum. Even the little girl who came with us was interested. And a small tea and coffee room upstairs was well patronised.