One of the things I love about National Trust membership is having so many different places to explore. If we’re travelling, I now look to see if we can break up the journey with a visit to a National Trust property. It’s much more fun than stopping off at a motorway services. It’s also a great opportunity to visit new places and learn more about them.
During the last couple of weeks of August, hubby was working on an event in Birmingham. He was able to take the bank holiday weekend off though so we headed up to have a mini break with him. Although the journey wasn’t a particularly long one, I thought we’d leave early so we could explore somewhere new en route. Upton House looked like it was the perfect spot for breaking up the journey.
We made our way up the carriage drive towards the house and headed straight for the gardens. The slopes around the edges of the South Terrace were the perfect place to practice some hill rolling. Jessica and Sophie soon decided that they also made a perfect stage. They had lots of fun putting on an impromptu show with their teddy bears. Sophie did some singing and dancing and Jessica juggled ten imaginary balls.
I loved looking at all the beautiful flowers on the South Terrace and watching the bees and butterflies flying from flower to flower.
After a while, we made our way down towards the kitchen garden. The views of the Mirror Pool from the top of the kitchen garden were beautiful. Sophie would have loved to have made her way down to the Mirror Pool but the steps leading down would have been too difficult to manage with Jessica’s buggy even if she’d walked while I bumped/carried it down.
We managed to find a route through the kitchen gardens that seemed fairly manageable and started to make our way down. I soon realised though that while getting down was probably quite do-able, trying to get the buggy back up again would be hard work! Thankfully the girls were both content to make their way back towards the house rather than keep trying to get down to the Mirror Pool.
As I’d thought, trying to get back up the slope towards the house was quite hard work with the buggy. It was too steep for me to push the buggy with Jessica in it, so she had to get out and walk. She found it quite hard work walking up the hill. Sophie could see that her big sister was struggling, so she took her hand and said “Don’t worry Jessica, I will help you! You can do it!” It was so lovely to see how caring Sophie was with her big sister. She seems to be becoming more aware of how Jessica’s heart condition affects her and there are times when Sophie is quite protective of her big sister. I loved the way she helped encourage her big sister to walk up the hill.
Jessica had had enough exploring by the time we reached the house again! We finished off our visit by stopping for ice-cream in the Stable Courtyard before making our way back to the car to finish off our journey. Spending a couple of hours exploring the beautiful gardens and making the most of the sunshine was a lovely way to break up the journey.
Beautiful pictures of the butterflies and bees! I’m trying to work out where Upton House is, it certainly looks like it’s worth a visit!#Countrykids
It’s 5 minutes from me. Out on the A422 about 8 miles from Banbury on the Stratford road. The house isn’t the best for kids imo (lots of artwork, no playground, but there is a nature trail)
Thank you Jo and thanks Emma for the information on where Upton House is 🙂
Lovely photos! It’s wonderful when’s kids offer a bit of sibling love to another, touching moments! #countrykids
Thanks Annabel – it was such a lovely moment to capture 🙂
National Trust properties are always such a fantastic day out for the family, Upton House looks like it was a lovely place to spend the day with the girls. It’s lovely that Sophie helped Jessica back up the big hill, I bet it was a real heart warming moment for you as mum. I think Ice Creams were a much needed treat after such a busy afternoon of exploring, I bet the girls loved them.
Thanks for linking up with me on #CountryKids.
Thanks Fiona, we had a lovely day and it was so lovely to see how caring Sophie was with her big sister 🙂
What beautiful photograph – I love the one of Sophie hand in hand with Jessica. Just gorgeous1
We dropped by Upton House earlier in the year as part of a longer walk, but your post has made me wish we’d stayed longer and explored properly! We’ll have to go back.
#countrykids
Thank you – it was a beautiful place for a walk 🙂
Love the matching dresses! Where is this Upton house? I know there’s one in Poole. Is it the same one?
Thanks Vicky. It’s near Banbury 🙂
I miss visiting properties like this! Beautiful. And, I love your girls dresses, so pretty 🙂 #countrykids
Thanks Sara. I miss being able to put the girls in pretty dresses like this now that the colder weather is on the way.
I totally agree with you that places of interest are so much more interesting than over priced/stuffy motorway services. Thank you for giving us an insight into Upton House. #CountryKids
Definitely much more interesting and it means we all get a chance to stretch our legs properly and have some fresh air too 🙂
That’s such a shame about the buggy, the pool is lovely to walk around and the girls would have loved the nature trail on the car park side of the house, it’s wooden but all flat. Hope you get the chance to go back in the future, it’s another close to us #CountryKids
The nature trail sounds like it would have been fun 🙂