Erddig is a gem of a property (Erddig Hall)

Member Name: jillycat

Product:	Erddig Hall
Date:	09/10/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful parkland gardens lots to see and do

Disadvantages: Your car could get bumped by an apple!

Why we visited
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We visited Erddig this September on holiday this National Trust property was a good half way stop for us on our way to North Wales from Yorkshire. As it was a stop of point we only had a couple of hours at the property which really with a property of this high standard is too short in hind sight but I think we will definitely revisited this property if we have the opportunity

For the purpose of this review I am going to focus on some areas more than others this isn't a reflection of the quality of this tourist attraction merely a reflection of what we had time to do.

Where is it
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It is on a bus route from surrounding areas i.e. Wrexham alight at Felin Puleston, and it is then a 1 mile walk through Erddig Country Park.
By road it is 2 miles south of Wrexham. Signposted A525 Whitchurch road. A483 exit 3. We had an AA route finder map to get there and get out of the property. On the way into the property we found the brown tourist information signs to be very helpful. Unfortunately we seemed to come out of a different exit/entrance to the one we went in and go thoroughly lost so make sure your navigator understands map reading to help you out as mine didn't!

The parking is amid an orchard garden area and is plentiful in my opinion. But if you are very precious about your car make sure you don't park under a tree as the orchard is full of apples and they may land your car.


About the property
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The property was gifted to the National Trust in 1973, prior to this it had been in the Yorke family since 1718. The house was initially constructed in 1684-85. The House is as the internet proudly states is the "Winner of UKTV History 'Britain's Best' Historic House, with state rooms displaying original 18th and 19th-century furniture and furnishings".
The property is set within the grounds of a stunning 485 hectare (1,200 acre) country park, bordered by the River Clywedog. The house overlooks a restored formal 18th-century walled garden, with Victorian parterre, Yew Walk and National Collection of Ivies

The house contains the original 'upstairs, downstairs' story, which is celebrated by an unusual history between the family of the house and servants which is chronicled by a collection of portraits pictures and prose.

There is a striking collection of outbuildings used by the servants, including kitchen, laundry, bake house, stables, sawmill, smithy and joiner's shop

The park also has some working horses the ones we saw were all Shire horses you can book carriage rides around the grounds.

Our experience
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Having flashed our national trust cards we entered this rambling property. The entrance fee covers a map of the area and I do think this is called for in this case.

As you go in you walk past the cycle hire shop. I think we visited this property again and had more time we would probably take advantage of this. They seemed to have every combination you needed including mountain bike tandem bikes, bikes with child seats and tag along bikes the prices were based on an hourly rate I can't remember how much unfortunately

You are then taken in via some of the out buildings to the main courtyard. Of this are a few exhibitions and outbuildings contain some farm machinery. The toilets and café are also of this square of out buildings. We choose at this time to visit the café as we were all hungry after a couple of hours in the car.

Café
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This is upstairs but there is a lift for disabled access and pushchairs. This is a self service café severing hot and cold meals snacks etc.
We both choose to have a salad mine was a ploughman's and hubby had a ham salad. Our son had a National Trust children's box that came with a sandwich, drink, piece of fruit and a small cake. We had two drinks and this total approximately £18. All of the food was lovely and fresh the salads had a nice mix of vegetables. The cheese and ham had been prepared that day.

House
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We went through to the house after our lunch the entrance takes you through the stable yard. We paused here for several minutes to admire the wonderful shire horses in the stables. These beautiful horses are in use today still and visitors can pay to be taken on rides around the grounds. One of the staff was polishing up one of the coaches as we went through and I think if you do have time this would be a great thing to do.

We then went into the hall. The staff were very friendly at the entrance as our son attempted to escape back to the horses and passed us a children's guide to the house to enable you to find different bits.

The tour takes you from the below stairs area of the servants with the various rooms for the butler and kitchen staff. In this area there is also a scale model of the house. This is incredibly detailed and helps give you a sense of scale to the house and the tour.

Once upstairs you visit what is referred to as the "rooms of parade". These rooms are a set of rooms that all interlink and were used for formal entertaining. The idea of these was to be imposing and a designed to impress the visitors to Erddig. These rooms are fabulous to look at and certainly impressed me. Some of the areas are behind Perspex to prevent people touching them especially some of the fine Chinese wallpaper. This was probably just as well as our son wanted to touch everything and head off into the various rooms a full pace. One of the things about these rooms is they were laid out to face the magnificent gardens and you can look out and get a sense of the majesty of the gardens from several of the windows.

It is worth noting that most of the rooms have no electric light in them so if you are interested in studying pictures and textiles in detail which this house has lots of you will need to visit on a light day

One of the rooms called the Small Chinese room is only open on a Wednesday and Saturday. As we were there on a Monday I can't comment on what this room is like.

You can't bring push chairs large bags or umbrellas into the house. But there is somewhere to leave these for safe keeping to be collected at the end of your tour. You can borrow front facing baby slings take your little one around the hose.

The property seems to do school trips and has an education area. I think these probably are great fun for children as we saw several groups and they and the teachers and people conducting the tours were all in period costume which look great fun and added a sense of history to our day as well.

Gardens
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There is a fine example of a walled garden with lots of herbaceous borders. There is a large pond that seems to be inhabited by loads of ducks all of which seem to know they are on to a good thing and hunt you down for bread and other tasty treats. This amused our son and so I spent most of the time with him and the ducks some of the orchard area whilst my husband wandered around the pond and got himself lost! There is also a small house in this area to call it a play house doesn't really do it justice as it is wooden with a door stained glass windows and a Childs size table and chairs inside. This was a great spot for us to pause for a while whilst our son had a snack especially as by this point it had started to rain.

There is a glass house area in the grounds and the gardens are home to the national Collection of Ivies and who knew there were so many types. You can also arrange a free tour with the head gardener of the property and they will describe in more detail the different plants and planting arrangements for you.

The park also extends into 1,200 acres of park land which includes wetlands woodlands and open countryside. The parkland has signposted cycle route that you can take. The carriage rides also go round this extensive area.

There is a second hand book shop in one of the out buildings which is a positive treasure trove of books on a wide variety of topics.

Family friendly
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The baby changing facilities are accessible to both parents and they are clean and contain a nappy bin. I had no complaints or issues using these and thought they were very family friendly.
The café is very family friendly with high chairs and heating facilities for baby food and baby food on offer as well. There is also some children's plates' bowls and cups on offer to use. They ask you to leave pushchairs downstairs rather than take them upstairs to the small café area.
The staff were one of the most family friendly we have come across and actively tried to make our visit easier with a toddle.


Accessibility
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There is a designated disabled parking area and a drop off point at the Coach halt for disabled visitors.

To access the buildings there is a ramped entrance. The ground floor of the house is accessible to wheel chairs but there are stairs to all the other areas of the house. There is a virtual tour of the house available to watch. This also has an induction loop for the hard of hearing. There are 3 wheelchairs which can be borrowed from the property for a disabled visitor.

The grounds are again only partially accessible really as the there are both grass and gravel paths and some slopes which might dependant on the wheelchair and the weather conditions make it hard to get a round.


Events
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This property holds several events during the year such as a mad hatters tea party teddy bears picnics concerts and plays. The also hold Annual Apple festival this year was the 19th year it had been running. Most of these events bar the concerts seem to be included in the normal admission price which I think is good value for money

Opening times
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The property is closed on a Thursday and Friday most of the year but is open on a Friday during July and August
House
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28 Feb-31 Mar 09 11--4
1 Apr-30 Jun 09 11--5
1 Jul-31 Aug 09 11--5
1 Sep-30 Sep 09 11--5
3 Oct-1 Nov 09 11--4
7 Nov-20 Dec 09 11--4

Garden and restaurant
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14 Feb-22 Feb 09 11-4
28 Feb-31 Mar 09 11-4
1 Apr-20 Jun 09 11-6
1 Jul-31 Aug 09 11-6
1 Sep-30 Sep 09 11-6
3 Oct-1 Nov 09 11-5
7 Nov-20 Dec 09 11-4


Prices
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Gift Aid Admission

House and gardens
Adult £9.80
Child £4.90
Family £24.50

Garden & outbuildings only:
Adult £6.40
Child £3.20
Family £16

Contact details
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Erddig
Wrexham LL13 0YT
Telephone: 01978 315151 (Info line)

Website http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits /w-findaplace/w-erddig.htm

Overall
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This is a great place to visit and if you have time which we didn't unfortunately I think there are several things to do such as carriage rides and cycling to see more of the extensive parkland. Especially to see such delights as the cup and saucer waterfall.
The house and gardens are wonderfully kept and full of lots of history and period detail. The staff in our experience were all very friendly and knowledgeable. So if you are near Wrexham give it a visit

Summary: A great national trust property in North Wales lots to see and do