Days Out - 2018 - Part Two

[smallhobbit]

We headed further afield for this week's visit, to just past Wolverhampton.  The drive took a bit over an hour and a half and coming back we had a break at Stourport-on-Severn to avoid some of the Friday evening traffic.  It was an interesting visit, and the one I'd been looking forward to most, but in fact for me it wasn't as good as Coughton Court - purely personal interests, it all depends what your taste in art and architecture, and historical periods are.

Wightwick Manor was built in 1887, with a further extension which doubled the size built in 1893.  It was built by Theodore Mander, who was a very wealthy Wolverhampton paint manufacturer, who was clearly out to impress.





Mander and his wife were strongly influenced by the idea of The House Beautiful and had heard Oscar Wilde speaking on the subject.  The decorations are done by William Morris, with De Morgan ceramics and Kempe Glass, Mander being a great supporter of the Arts & Crafts movement.  His son Geoffrey later collected many pre-Rafaelite paintings.  This is the Great Parlour, with William Morris wall coverings below the frieze:



And, especially for stonepicnicking_okapi  they had their own Turkish bath - apologies for the fuzziness of one of the photos:

Comments

[mafief]

Yup, clearly out to impress because I’m impressed. I like all of the details.

[smallhobbit]

I'm delighted you liked it - thank you.

[margaret_r]

A magnificent manor! Love the beams of the great parlour and the frieze. Perhaps not as impressive as Coughton Court in all but still a lovely building and a nice day out for you:)

[smallhobbit]

It was still impressive - it just lacked the centuries of history which I enjoy - not the fact the family's been around that long, but all the connections to events of the time. One thing which did strike us was there was no mention of WWI, which was slightly surprising - if nothing else many of the workers from their factory must have joined up.

It did make a good day out - I'm really enjoying having these days out, it makes the summer a bit different.