Today me and my Mum visited Mompesson House in Salisbury. It is not far from where my Mum lives so we thought we would go there rather than somewhere further away as it is supposed to rain today.


==Where is and what is Mompesson House?==

Mompesson House is in Salisbury City Centre, near to the Cathedral. The house is one of the smaller National Trust properties which was featured in the film Sense and Sensibility. It was the home of Barbara Townsend and the house has an exhibit of some of her artwork.


==Arriving at Mompesson==

As the house is in the Cathedral Close there is no parking available for the house on site. However, there are many car parks in the city centre both private and council owned and there is a multi storey which is about a five minute walk away from the house. Parking is per hour and we paid £2.20 for a two hour visit but we did also have a few things to do in Salisbury too.

The house itself is well signposted and when you arrive you enter an entrance hall where you either pay your admission fee or show your membership card. The lady in here was very nice and gave us a quick idea of which way to go around the house.


==The House==

There are rooms open to the public both downstairs and upstairs. Downstairs there is the dining room, library and drawing room and upstairs there are two bedrooms and a small gallery.

The dining room was the first room we entered and we were greeted by another friendly member of staff. In here there is a lot of glass on display and this is a large part of the houses history and one of the aspects that the house is famous for as it is home to the Turnball Collection which is a display of 18th century drinking glasses. These were interesting to look at in the dining room as it was nice to see what sort of designs were around in those times and as we were in the dining room it was nice to imagine the glasses being used there.

Next we went into an exhibition room which was housing a number of paintings by Barbara Townsend. Most of these were watercolours and I think this was my favourite room in the house because there was lots to see and I thought the paintings were nice. It was nice to see some of the paintings were of the local area and I enjoyed reading about how she didn't like to exhibit her work and that the paintings were found in a suitcase in a relatives attic several years later.

The drawing room housed a few paintings and more glasses but there wasn't really a lot to see here so we moved on to the library which was interesting as I love the way all houses back then seemed to have walls and walls of books. We didn't stay very long in here and only had a quick glance because another visitor was sort of blocking the way with the guide!

We then went upstairs. Personally I thought the stairs were one of the best parts of the house. The staircase is made of oak and is very wide and it looked very grand. Upstairs there are two bedrooms which were both quite interesting. One is home to an eighteenth century dressing table which was interesting. The guide there told us all about how it opened out and showed us pictures which I thought was nice to look at. She told us that the dressing table still worked and opened up which was rare for a piece of eighteenth century furniture.

The gallery is home to various pieces of art including a large portrait of Charles II and some still life. There are also some pottery vases in here that my Mum liked.


==The Garden==

The garden is a walled garden and is in proportion to the house. There wasn't a great deal to see out here and a lot of the flowers were the same. This took us less than five minutes to walk slowly around. There is also a tea room in the garden but we did not visit here.


==Shop==

There is no National Trust shop on site however there is a very good sized one in the city itself which is less than a five minute walk from the house. There is a very good selection in here including books, gifts, food, ornaments and homeware.


==Did we enjoy our visit?==
Yes, but the house only took around half an hour to look around so therefore I was pleased we hadn't travelled far out of our way. I would recommend a quick visit if you are in the area as it is a nice place to go for half an hour and there are some wonderful views of the cathedral however it is quite expensive for a place where you really couldn't spend more than about an hour.


==Admission to Mompesson House and Garden==
Members: Free
Adults: £5.90
Children: £2.95
Garden only: £1


==Summary==

A nice example of a smaller National Trust property in Salisbury. A nice place to wander round for an hour.