Best Seller Before I Die?: A day out to West Walton & Wisbech - Peckover House [NT] (i.e. Norfolk & Cambridgeshire)

Please note - post is a work in progress (partially complete - more to come as at 18-09-18)

I drove alone as my wife was stuck at home for, of all things, a visit by the chimney sweep (sorry to her). Driving being an interesting challenge with a frozen (left) shoulder but in an automatic car, not that awkward. I was taking advantage of the FREE events hosted through the Heritage Open Days scheme (this year being, exceptionally, two weekends, not the usual one - this being the first of them. I planned to do West Walton church (Norfolk) and then Peckover House - National Trust - Wisbech Cambridgeshire (but close to both Norfolk & Lincolnshire).

St. Mary's church tower in West Walton is very odd indeed in that it is entirely separate from the church of St. Mary's. The reason for the separation is that when the tower was being built in the conventional place (attached to the church) it was found to be repeatedly sinking and one can see the outline of the previous attempts to build the church on what was found eventually to be shingle that gave little or no support - hence the odd relocation for the tower some 50 metres or so away from the church!

As a comparison to what I have put above - here's what was advertised for the Heritage Open Day:

Copy/paste:

West Walton Tower, Church End, West Walton, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, PE14 7ET

Very rarely does the bell tower get opened for the public to visit. Take a walk to the top.

The great bulk of this tower, detached from its beautiful church, rears up splendidly from the level marshland around it. It was built around 1240 of Barnack stone, and the quality of both design and execution put it in a class apart from most churches, even in this part of Norfolk. It recalls work at the cathedrals of Ely and Lincoln, with its four stages of arches growing richer in ornament as they rise. The belfry holds five bells in an ancient frame.

Under additional information (see below) it also mentioned something about leaving a donation (that was a sore point for me frankly - as the whole idea of these special Heritage Open Days is that they are free and enables even people with little funds to enjoy somewhere special (sometimes only on one day a year):

Copy/paste:

Additional Information

Please do leave donations for the CCT. Thank you.
www.visitchurches.org.uk
@TheCCT

Organised by

The Friends of St. Mary's Church, West Walton - thank you for your support.

... The experience:

You're not going to believe this!

A) This was an advertised FREE day (i.e. great encouragement to travel my over 100 miles round trip for the experience of climbing this tower FREE of charge, along with FREE entry into The National Trust's flagship property Peckover House in Wisbech). So imagine my surprise and frankly disgust when (as directed by signs saying go to the church first for entry to the tower) and I am confronted by a table with a large carboy with a sign saying effectively - put your £5 donation in here. I politely refused as I did not think that this was at all fair. Frankly I got an all round impression that the organisation that ran this project - The Churches Conservation Trust was very geared-up for soliciting donations etc. There were numerous volunteers (I assume volunteers) all around the church and one very young man - who did look like a woman actually (see the video) - but a very kind and charming chap who was put in the dubious position of escorting and protecting tower-bound visitors for the day. Frankly he was not well-briefed or trained in my view (not his fault).

B) The climbing of this tower (although a great treat to be available to the general public) was a very high risk indeed and I am not kidding. - Why? Access was up a narrow winding spiral medieval stone staircase which the young man warned me got even narrower near the top and I as a designated obese person (you wouldn't say I was if you saw me) could just about get through the narrow part. It was for me difficult and frankly rather dangerous. Why dangerous? Simple - I have a heart condition and climbing stairs let alone these stairs is not ideal. Before I entered the tower I was presented (with no notice or warning on the Heritage website or any other website) with a form to sign - kind of a disclaimer form which effectively was banning people with heart conditions from going up the tower. I duly denied any problems, signed and started the climb outside and inside as it were. No way was I going to travel around fifty miles not to climb the bloody tower (well that's wrong as that's at The Tower of London - in London). All I could think was how utterly ridiculous this whole set-up was with a dogmatic woman glaring at me, willing me, to drop my five pound note in her big bottle, willing me to have a heart condition so I would not be able to go up the tower and no way was she going to get her way - even if it killed me and they had to get explosives to blow me out of the spiral staircase that I was going to get trapped in by my obesity. The crazy thing was - there were no warnings for people that suffered with claustrophobia either. I don't (well I almost did in there but I proudly kept calm) but no way would my dear wife have managed it without getting hysterical. Getting back down was like something out of a carry on movie - you try going in reverse sideways, curling in line with the tight, narrow spiral and when it widens trying to twist around to go down forwards. It was both bloody dangerous and (had I have been witnessing this from another's viewpoint) absolutely hilarious (at my expense of course). Luckily for me the young chap was a sweetheart with no trace of victim humour as I would have had - he'd have made a good Samaritan and I could judge from our considerable conversation en route (during my near death experience) that he had been brought-up as a good Christian lad in a very narrow old Norfolk way. I hope he meets a nice young lady some time and can be introduced to the wonders of heterosexual sex before he ends-up with his compass needle spinning away from due North and towards The South Pole (if you see what I am getting at). To be honest I felt blooming sorry for him - he should never have been given the job - he was far too young in mind to be held responsible for people's welfare in those ridiculous circumstances where genuinely there was a fair chance of someone ending up either falling off the frigging tower or getting stuck within it. - Ludicrous!

The view from the tower (i.e. no view):

Some photos taken of the church and nearby tower:

Peckover House - Wisbech:

I am going to write to the National Trust (not particularly an organisation that I have particular respect for normally ...).
... Why? I hear you say. Well, simply that many of their volunteers and indeed their paying patrons (members) can appear somewhat pompous and/or smug at times. I had plenty of experience of NT members when I was selling English Heritage memberships at times (a former part time job) and how they would distance themselves from EH by indicating that NT was far superior - as were they.

Why am I going to write to them?

To congratulate them on a magnificent presentation of their flagship property Peckover House on that 'open day'.

Here's all that was great about it (and I thoroughly recommend a visit as soon as possible):

House spic and span.
Garden in full bloom and full of flowers.
Lovely cat in situ in garden.
Pianist playing beautifully in the house.
Very, very tidy everywhere.
Excellent (although few others seem to agree with me) art installation in the house - with the two artists on hand for enquiries.
Good, polite, kind attendants all trying to be helpful in very busy circumstances.
Excellent and reasonably-priced food in the cafeteria.
No snide looks or remarks from any officials as a result of us all being freebie entrants.

Update 26-09-18: I have had two lovely replies following my emailed letter complimenting NT.

Here's the proof of the pudding with some videos and pictures of what I found was a magnificent visit to a wonderful National Trust property - Peckover House on the edge of The River Nene (North Brink as it is called - what a great name for a street running along the edge of a river).

Here's a copy/paste of The Heritage Day blurb (for comparison and reference - particularly where to park free of charge):

Peckover House and Garden

Peckover House, North Brink, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, PE13 1JR

Elegant Georgian town house with wonderful walled garden

Free entry is on Saturday 8th September only

Peckover House is a secret gem, an oasis hidden away in an urban environment. A classic Georgian merchant's town house, it was lived in by the Peckover family for 150 years.

The Peckovers were staunch Quakers, which meant they had a very simple lifestyle - yet at the same time they ran a successful private bank. Both facets of their life can be seen as you wander through the house and gardens.

The gardens themselves are outstanding - 0.8 hectares (2 acres) of sensory delight, complete with orangery, summer-houses, croquet lawn and rose garden with more than 60 species of rose.

Opening Times

Saturday 8 September: 11am - 4pm

Free parking 500 yds away in Chapel Road.

(Attribution: By Wehha - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16820892)

Videos of my visit to Peckover House:

I actually took about a dozen videos but Google (blogger) doesn't let one upload anything greater than 100 megabytes (which is only a matter of a half minute of video - so hardly anything). So, such a pity - I have all those videos but you only get to see five that'll will fit ... sorry.

1) The start of my tour of the garden (spot the cat?): No sorry won't fit *.

2) More of the garden and The Orangery: No sorry won't fit *.

3) Inside the glasshouse: No sorry won't fit *.

4) Cloches and Compost: No sorry won't fit *.

5) I love Peckover deck chairs:

6) The Vertical Garden: No sorry won't fit *.

7) Introduction to the interior with the piano playing in the background:

8) More (with the piano still playing):

9) Still more (and more piano playing):

10) Art installation: No sorry won't fit *.

11) Kitchen: No sorry won't fit *.

12) Dolls' House:

* I may try to split and edit some of the missing videos at a later date.

Now for a photographic selection to give you more of an idea of how impressive Peckover House is:

Garden (and wider estate that goes beyond the garden boundary into a car park area behind the house):

Notice the cat feeding bowl:

The weather station:

The house and nearby:

Some more interesting bits at Peckover:

Above - the amazing letter from Peckover House's owner to her nephew expressing her desire to leave the house to The National Trust.

Below: A nearby list of all the properties open in Wisbech that day - compiled by The Town Council (very Helpful indeed):