Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire, England

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This Tudor-house-cum-Classical-manor was built for Sir Justinian Isham in 1655 and it belonged to the Isham family right up until 1976.

The first house on the Lamport Estate was built in 1568 by wool merchant John Isham, but only a small part of this Tudor house remains. Most of the existing building was erected under Sir Justinian Isham, who commissioned John Webb to design his new home in 1655. The striking classical entrance to the Hall came later, in 1862. But by the 1950s the house was looking worse-for-wear and so the owner, Sir Gyles Isham, began to renovate it and open it to the public. After his death the building and its contents were left to the Lamport Hall Preservation Trust. Inside you’ll find the 1655 High Room and an 18th century library, where you can see books, china and furniture collected by the Isham family. The third Baronet went on a grand tour of Europe in the 1670s and a lot of the things in the house came from this period. During the 20-th century, Lamport Hall played home to tenant families, a country club, British and Czech army officers and Italian prisoners of war. The permanent exhibition at the house will take you through all the exciting details, or you might prefer to book a guided tour of the house or gardens so you can ask questions along the way.

The gardens were first laid out in 1655 by Gilbert Clarke but a lot of changes were made in the mid 1800s. The owner at that time, the 10th Baronet, Sir Charles Edmond Isham, enjoyed gardening and introduced one of the first recorded rockeries in England to his garden in 1849, which was covered in tiny garden gnomes - another rarity in 19th-century Britain. The gnomes were mostly destroyed when he died, as per his request, but one escaped destruction and it’s on display inside. The 10th Baronet also planned the Italian Garden and the wisteria plant that’s just outside the Drawing Room. The walled garden just beside the house is now seeded with perennials and long grasses, where you will often see birds, bees and other insects enjoying the flora.