SHUGBOROUGH ESTATE (Stafford) – official video review

TICKETING. Buy your ticket to the Shugborough Hall from the reception office (next to the car park). It will be needed to the Patrick Lichfield apartments - one of the wings of the hall. Entry time is divided into fifteen-minute intervals. Check your ticket for the time. Do allow another fifteen minute to walk there from the reception.

If for any reason you’ve already arrived at the mansion without any tickets, ask the staffer there for help. This saves you from the jogging all the way back to the reception.

The main attractions here are the hall (with Patrick Lichfield’s wing separately ticketed), the park farm, and the park itself with a few other buildings of interest.


PATRICK LICHFIELD’s APARTMENT. The apartments will bring you back to the sixties with its décor and Paddy’s works all over the place.

(It’s inevitable to only live in this wing. The costs of heating and cleaning would be unbearable had he decided to make use of the whole house, which he inherited as one of the Lichfield earls.)


Shugborough Hall, SHUGBOROUGH ESTATE (Stafford) 


SHUGBOROUGH HALL. Ground floor: a showcase of the life of Thomas and George Anson (the first of the Lichfield earls).

George is perhaps the most famous occupant here due to his circumnavigation trip in 1740 on his Centurion. Thomas is more low-keyed.

The exhibition is more of an amalgamation of the two. Consult the two separate leaflets if you’re more interested in one over the other.

The first floor is all closed. As a result, you’ll have to imagine what the master bedroom looks like.

Staffer says there have been no plans to for it to open. Only photos are available.


Clip: Shugborough Hall, SHUGBOROUGH ESTATE (Stafford) 


PARK FARM. A gruesome exhibition of some of the cruelest stock farm practices, including the sulfuring of bee hives and slaughtering details. And animal reproduction.

Much like Nelson’s Fort, you can bring your stomach to travel 500 years back by getting a ploughman’s lunch at the café here.

Interestingly, it is the park farm that you’ll be seeing a user-friendly introduction to the Anson brothers, not to be found elsewhere either in the park or the hall.


THE PARK. Lake. Arboretum. Make-belief monuments. Invasive species and efforts to eradicate.

And a “Chinese room” from our modern eyes perhaps more in the style of imaginary orientalism, but at least they tried – as inspired by records brought home by George. A very early attempt in Britain’s standard, built mid-18th century.

(Warm reminder: Another quirky imitation can be found in the lake tower in London’s Victoria Park.)


Chinese room, SHUGBOROUGH ESTATE (Stafford) 


FB chat for free advice on traveling plans.

Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours. Or find yourself in my novel, check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize.


Date of visit: 2019.10

Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger

Comments