The Covid Diaries 26: Holkham Hall

A visit to Holkham Hall in Norfolk during late summer 2020. In which I am seriously impressed by the way the visitor experience is managed and finally get to see some deer in a deer park!

Holkham Hall: Not Just a Fancy House

You may recall from my reviews of Blenheim Palace and Petworth House that can be slightly underwhelmed by stately homes. They’re always a nice day out, with nice country park walks and lovely art to see. But I often feel that I want them to go a little further or show a little more self-reflection. Well in hindsight, I think Holkham Hall is what has been missing from my life! Of all the stately homes I have been to, this one is refreshingly different. Both in how it educates its visitors about the family, home and estate, and how it links past to present.

What is different about Holkham is that it’s not just about the Hall. I’m not sure if the flow of the day is more structured because of Covid measures, but when we arrived at our scheduled time (after wandering about in the deer park for a while – so many deer!) we were guided first to an exhibit called Holkham Stories Experience, before being given instructions on joining our guided tour of the Hall.

The Holkham Stories Experience (recently rebranded from Field to Fork, a good choice) is housed in an old stable block. It is made up of four or so rooms which cover the history of the family; historic farming methods and tools; agricultural innovation at Holkham; and biodiversity on the estate. There’s even a personalised introduction from a staff member who gives an overview of key facts. This sets the scene for the Experience and later the house tour and, importantly, helps to differentiate the various important figures in the family (Thomas Coke and Thomas William Coke among them).

The Coke Family: Farming Trendsetters

What the Holkham Stories Experience does perfectly is grounding the whole estate in the context of a continuous family tradition. This is both in terms of management of the Hall and fields, but also in terms of what seems to be quite a forward-looking attitude towards the local community and towards agricultural innovation. Thomas William Coke, first Earl of Leicester (known as Coke – pronounced Cook – of Norfolk), was a pioneer of crop rotation. He incentivised his farmers to introduce it early and is remembered with a big old monument on the estate.

The current Earl of Leicester (called – wait for it – Thomas Coke) has invested heavily in solar panels and anaerobic digestion. In fact, the Holkam Estate is actually a net contributor to the national power grid. So the means may be different, but the family identity and lineage is strong. Holkam Stories Experience makes the point well to even the casual visitor.

Holkham Stories Experience is also pretty fun. There is a game about food production, talking spades, and I learned that the bowler hat was invented here. And also that acorns used to be used as packing material: many of the trees standing at Holkham today were originally ‘bubble wrap’ for artworks sent back from the Grand Tour. I’ve never been to a stately home which has been so proud of its farming roots. Granted not all stately homes are still in private hands/in the hands of the original family, but it still stood out as a very innovative and welcome approach.

A Tour of Holkham Hall

Onwards then to the Hall. We we visited on a timed guided tour after the Holkham Stories Experience and a quick cup of tea. I think that the Covid measures actually make this quite a nice time to visit Holkam Hall. Instead of wandering at leisure we joined a small group, but had a very knowledgeable guide and plenty of space. Despite some areas being out of bounds because they are too narrow or difficult to reach, I really enjoyed my time here.

Like all of these great stately homes Holkham has a superb art collection. It favours Old Master paintings with Greek/Roman sculptures as at Petworth. We were even able to see the art in the luxurious bedroom in the ‘Strangers’ Wing’, which the likes of Elton John and Jools Holland have stayed in when performing concerts at Holkham. There’s also apparently an important library, which we were not able to see on this occasion. Also available under normal circumstances are tours of the attic and the basement/cellars. All we saw of ‘how the other half live’ was the kitchen at the end of the guided visit, but we didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything.

Having that grounding in the family history, the key characters and current residents greatly improved my appreciation for the house. Especially compared with other stately home visits. I would be happy to visit again in future to see some of the areas that were inaccessible this time around, but it was a very pleasant and interesting hour or so around Holkham Hall.

And Don’t Forget the Gardens

Finally just a note on the grounds and garden. This is another Capability Brown effort (where did this man not do the landscaping?). So it has a nice lake, lots of natural looking trees, and currently no formal garden at all. There are all the usual stately home features like a little temple, an obelisk to walk to and various outbuildings. And as I have mentioned a couple of times already, the deer park is packed with deer. There are so many of them – all different kinds – and they mill about the main lawns or by the lake at various times of day which is really quite charming.

We finished our day at the absolutely enormous Walled Garden (I think the lady at the entrance said six acres). It used to feed hundreds of people at the busiest times of year on the estate. There are many old greenhouses which are slowly being restored but are currently in an attractive state of dilapidation. And with high brick walls, the garden holds the heat in nicely. It’s a great spot to sit and rest before going back out into the winds coming off the North Sea.

Final Thoughts

So in aggregate I thought Holkham was really superb. I appreciated the effort that has been taken to acquaint visitors with the family past and present; their origins and current way of living; and their championing of agricultural innovation whether in the form of crop rotation or methane gas production. The Hall itself is lovely (which you can tell from the number of separate wedding venues advertised to visitors) and the grounds are worthy of many hours of exploration. It’s quite out of the way unless you have a car but possible to get to nonetheless. By the time you read this the 2020 season will be almost over, but if you happen to find yourself in North Norfolk during visiting season I would recommend getting along to see it!

On its own merits: 4.5/5
Implementing Covid rules: 4/5