Houghton Hall in Norfolk was built for the first British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. It's Grade I listed and is a key building in the history of Palladian architecture and is surrounded by 1,000 acres and its estate borders the Sandringham estate.
We visited at the start of September and cycled there from Hunstanton and eventually got there after a bit of drama (more on the drama here) It was a beautiful day, once the downpour happened and we'd dried out. And it's an impressive looking country house. There's plenty to do there and we hardly scratched the surface so I can see it being somewhere we'll go back to.
In this post I'm focusing on just part of what we saw, the hedges and huts. Yes there's a lot of H's at Houghton Hall.
As we walked through the grounds we saw this sign. Hmmmnnn.
And not knowing what to expect, we headed in and found ourselves on this path.
As we turned the corner we saw this redder hedge. Assuming this hedge was called Sybil (like you do!) we explored further.
We worked out it was an S, but it's only when I looked on the internet that I saw it's a hedge that spells Sybil. My first thoughts weren't that far off after all.
We returned to the grassy walkway encased with hedges and headed towards the Skyspace installation. The path that led us there was edged with box hedges that merged into each other like bubbles.
At the end of the path, there was this very large hut with a walkway around it. So off we went.
At the top there was a doorway on its own. So in we went.
We weren't sure what to expect, but I don't think either of us expected this.
It had the sky framed perfectly. We stood there for a while just watching and wondering. Then we realise there was still so much more to see and hurried off.
This was the view along the hedged, grassy path. It was unusual, but really did lead you along.
It wasn't long though before we saw another sign and headed off towards another hut.
And sure enough, there was the hut.
It looked like a normal garden shed and totally out of place in such a grand estate. But closer up, it wasn't quite what it seemed.
It wasn't wood at all, but what I think is concrete - I haven't found out much more about it yet. To me, it looks as if a shed has been filled with the stuff and then removed to leave the hut - what do you think?
Either way, this part of Houghton Hall - part of the Sculpture Park - was interesting, thought inspiring and most unexpected. It was somewhere that brought a smile to my face, and there was lots more to see before cycling back - but I'll save that for another day.
