mytravelbugbite

Temple Newsam house is a stately home set in a large area of parkland in South Leeds. Built in 1518 the house is now owned by Leeds City Council and is open to the public to view. The grounds are extensive and a great place to go for a walk or play a game of cricket, however, as Fraser and I only had limited time we stuck to the house and farm.

The house is, in my opinion, a little ugly from the outside. Inside it delivers all the grandiose you could want from a British stately home. No pictures are allowed inside the house unless you have prior permission but there are many rooms to explore and see all the vintage furniture. Wallpaper features heavily throughout the house, whoever decorated it obviously had a thing for intricate designs on the walls. I liked the fact that if a bedroom was decorated in a particular design, the adjoining dressing room was also done in the same design.

Inside they also had a couple of rooms showing the houses silverware and crockery and an exhibition area. At the time we went the exhibition was about how the house was used as a rehabilitation centre for soldiers after the war, which was very interesting and highly moving.

Just outside the house is Home Farm. This is a fully active, rare breeds farm and by luck we picked the most perfect time of year to visit. Being spring meant the farm was full of babies, some just a few days old. We saw chicks, lambs, piglets, calves, a kid and a pair of donkeys (although they had no baby). We spent a long time cooing over the babies and taking far too many photos before leaving.

Temple Newsam is a fine example of a Tudor British stately home and is definitely worth visiting if in the local area. The addition of the farm makes it a sensible choice if wanting to go with children (or big children like us) as you get the cultural factor of the house but then also the educational and cuteness factor of seeing the animals. Although we didn’t explore the grounds on this occasion we did see lots of people out jogging or walking their dogs and this is an incredibly scenic place to enjoy outdoor past times also.

For information on prices or exhibitions you can visit the website here.