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Tours > Southwest Lincolnshire Country Houses
Southwest Lincolnshire Country Houses
by Michael Ford, Country House Editor
What follows is a one week tour of South-west Lincolnshire by car, including excursions into neighbouring counties. The tour is centered on the village of Ropsley just to the east of Grantham.
Our challenge is to visit as many country houses as possible within a reasonable distance. The only way to achieve this is to follow an itinerary. Planning is necessary because the houses all have their own opening days and times with very few open every day and most only open for a few hours in the afternoon. The parks and gardens sometimes open in advance of the houses.
With such an aim it is best to join one or more of the organizations which allow free entry to members after payment of the initial subscription. Those to be considered are The National Trust, Friends of the Historic Houses Association and English Heritage.
 The National Trust owns many country houses and just a few castles as well as areas of natural beauty.The Historic Houses Association allows 'Friends' of the Association to visit most of their member's privately owned country houses and gardens.
English Heritage is government owned and has in its care many ancient monuments including castles most of which are ruinous but beautifully preserved. They also have a small number of country houses.
Other useful ingredients for the tour are a collection of the relevant Ordinance Survey Landranger maps; in this case numbers 120, 121, 122, 129, 130, 131, 141, 142 and 143 and from the Pevsner series of volumes, those entitled 'The Buildings of England': 'Lincolnshire', 'Nottinghamshire', 'Leicestershire and Rutland' and 'Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough'.
First Stop: Stamford
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