Calke

Calke village barely exists but the main focus of interest here is the hall known as Calke Abbey. In 1985 the National Trust bought Calke Abbey, a large Baroque-style mansion built between 1701 and 1704 on the site of an Augustinian priory founded in 1133. However, it was not until 1989 that the Trust was able to open the house to the public, because this was no ordinary building. It was called ‘the house that time forgot’, as since the death of the owner, Sir Vauncy Harpur-Crewe in 1924, nothing had been altered in the mansion. In fact, the seclusion of the house and also the rather bizarre lifestyle of its inhabitants had left many rooms and objects untouched for over 100 years. There was even a spectacular 18th-century Chinese silk state bed that had never been unpacked.

Today, the Trust has repaired the house and returned all 13,000 items to their original positions so that the Abbey now looks just as it did when it was bought in 1981. The attention to detail has been so great that none of the rooms have been redecorated. Visitors can enjoy the display of silver and trace the route of 18th-century servants along the brew house tunnel to the house cellars. The house stands in its own large park with gardens, a chapel and stables that are also open to the public. There are three walled gardens with their glasshouses, a restored orangery, vegetable garden, pheasant aviaries and the summer flower display within the unusual ‘auricular’ theatre. Calke is home to lots of wildlife including fallow deer, weasels, stoats, barn owls, little owls, tawny owls, woodpeckers, common toads, butterflies and beetles.