The Covid Diaries 98 – Wilton House, Salisbury

A trip just outside Salisbury takes us to Wilton House, a stately home which is still privately owned and makes for a pleasant few hours’ visit.

Wilton: The Background

On our recent excursion to Salisbury, the Salterton Arts Review also stopped off briefly in nearby Wilton. Wilton may now be overshadowed by its neighbour, but it was once the most important place around here. In fact, the ‘Wilt’ in Wiltshire comes from Wilton!

Wilton as a settlement dates back to the Anglo Saxons. A lot of its early importance came from Wilton Abbey, founded circa 773. This was one of the most powerful nunneries in medieval England, but was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1539 during the Reformation. There are no remains today of Wilton Abbey because… Wilton House is right on top of it! Henry VIII granted the site to Sir William Herbert, later the Earl of Pembroke. He built a lovely family home here, in which his descendents still reside.

In later years, Wilton was a centre for the production of carpets. One of the Earls of Pembroke brought over two French weavers in the 1740s to teach the local people new skills. Despite several ups and downs, a carpet factory remains in Wilton today.

Wilton House, however, is the main draw, so let’s get on and take a look, shall we?

A Closer Look At Wilton House

Wilton House itself, then, dates back to the Tudor period. There is little that remains of this first iteration today. In the top image above you can see this earliest part – the central tower that is a little more ornate than the wings to either side. Since the Tudor period, several architects have had a go at Wilton House. Hans Holbein is said to have redesigned the abbey as a house, but there’s no proof of this. Inigo Jones‘ work can still be seen today in Wilton’s Palladian façade. A Victorian architect decided to go all Gothic and has been roundly condemned for it.

One of the most impressive features at Wilton today are its state rooms. State rooms were traditionally the rooms set aside for the highest ranking guests, such as the monarch. At Wilton, they include a ‘Cube Room’ and ‘Double Cube Room’ (named for their proportions) with ornately painted ceilings. There are also design flourishes introduced by Catherine Herbert, a Russian aristocrat who married the Earl of Pembroke and brought a breath of fresh air to Wilton. There are no photos allowed inside the house, but this blog post gives you a good idea of what there is to see.

The other main feature of Wilton is its art collection. There are works by Van Dyck, Lely, Rubens, Giordano, Rembrandt, Holbein, Hals, Breughel and Reynolds. We were only able to see the house on a guided tour and not all rooms were accessible, but we still saw enough top quality art to fill a good-sized museum. Our guide was very knowledgeable, and it was a pleasure learning more from her about the art we saw.

Worth A Visit?

Wilton House is a very pleasant place to visit for a couple of hours. I say this a lot when I visit stately homes – it’s not challenging. By this I mean that, particularly when the family still live in a stately home, they’re not looking to dig into questions of wealth and power and status. They are sharing their family’s history and their nice collections and gardens. So it’s somewhere you go for a pleasant outing and to see how the other half live. If you are in the mood for confronting history, I would recommend something more along the lines of this exhibition in Cambridge or this one in London.

Even in this pleasant category of stately home, however, there are certain choices which mean that it’s not quite as fulfulling as it might be. At Petworth or Holkham, for example, you can roam all over the gardens, go in the deer park etc. At Wilton House you are contained within a relatively small area of garden, which seems a bit of a shame. There are some nice features like a Japanese garden, a labyrinth and a pet cemetery, as well as a playground for the kids, so it’s not all bad, just smaller in comparison than the public areas of other estates.

So I would recommend Wilton for art and history lovers, particularly those who are already in Salisbury and fancy a day trip. Maybe take the kids, or take your granny, and plan to admire the splendour for a nice half day.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5
Implementing Covid measures: 4.5/5

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