Upton House

Upton House stands in the Warwickshire countryside, eleven kilometres northwest of Banbury. A long, low ironstone building, it began as a hunting lodge in the 17th century and grew into a grand country seat. The National Trust now cares for the house, its gardens and its art collection. The estate once covered the vanished hamlet of Upton, cleared for pasture around 1500. The Danvers family owned it until 1688, when Sir Rushout Cullen bought the land for £7,000 and built the present house about 1695. The house is worth the journey for its remarkable art. Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted, assembled Old Masters and English porcelain during the 1920s and 1930s. His sister Nellie Ionides collected fine ceramics, and the family later gave everything to the nation. Highlights include works by Canaletto, Hogarth, Stubbs, El Greco and Bruegel. A unique Art Deco bathroom lined with aluminium leaf adds to the interior’s interest. The collection is displayed as if the house were still a private home in the 1930s. Visitors find rooms arranged as galleries. The Dining Room shows sporting pictures alongside embroidered chairs made by the 3rd Viscount Bearsted. The Long Gallery combines three smaller rooms and holds Dutch Masters and English porcelain in display cases. The Picture Gallery Passage leads to a room once used as a squash court, now hung with 15th- and 16th-century paintings. Beyond the house, terraced gardens slope down to a lake with water lilies. A rare bog garden occupies the site of medieval fish ponds, planted by Kitty Lloyd-Jones in the 1930s.