Nunnington Hall

Nunnington Hall is a National Trust property near Helmsley in North Yorkshire. It is a manor house, originally built in the 1500s on the site of a medieval convent, by William Parr. He was the brother of Henry VIII's sixth wife (and widow) Catherine Parr. Over the years, its owners' and tenants' individual fortunes rose and fell according to the political alliances of the times, and consequently the Hall was altered and adapted, sometimes used as a house but also as a billet for Cromwell's soldiers during the Civil War. In the 1920s it was inherited by Margaret Rutson and her husband Colonel Ronald D'Arcy Fife, who oversaw a major renovation of the property. She bequeathed it to the National Trust on her death in 1952, together with some money for its upkeep. What visitors see today is a mixture of their improvements and extensive remodelling carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries by Richard Graham, Lord Preston during his tenure. 

The Virginia Creeper on the Hall's facade was beginning to turn to its autumnal russet tones. (It was a few weeks ago that I visited so no doubt the autumnal colours are much more developed now.) It reminded me that when I was perhaps about eight or nine, my family spent a weekend away in an old hotel that was liberally covered with this creeper. It was the first time, away from home, that I slept in a separate room from my parents - and I spent much of the night awake and terrified that the hotel was on fire, due to the dancing red shadows caused by floodlighting on the creeper! 

Nunnington Hall sits on the south bank of the River Rye and there is an attractive old bridge over the water, although visitors cross from the car park via a new pedestrian bridge. I very much enjoyed looking round. It's a relatively modest size as NT country houses go, and still has lots of original furniture and other items on display. You can imagine a family living there.