A Little Curiosity
The Romans treated the spring at Bath as sacred to the goddess Sulis Minerva, and people came to ask for her help. Some wrote their requests down and threw them into the water. What were so many of them asking her to do? Answer at the end.
THE ONE TO SEE
Orford Ness, Suffolk
Photo source: Draco2008 from UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Orford Ness is one of the stranger places the National Trust looks after: a long shingle spit on the Suffolk coast that spent much of the 20th century as a secret military testing site. The concrete structures are still out there, and one of them, a 50-metre concrete ring, puzzled people for decades. Volunteer researchers have now shown that the US Air Force built it in the early 1960s as part of an over-the-horizon radar designed to detect nuclear explosions and rocket launches. Only eight structures of this design are believed to have been built worldwide. Getting there normally means a short ferry crossing from Orford Quay, which adds to the sense that you're going somewhere that doesn't entirely want to be found. One for the 2027 diary.
Closed for winter: Orford Ness has been closed to general visitors since 27 September. Open days run from May to September, so check the National Trust for 2027 dates.
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Four Worth the Drive
Grisedale, Lake District
Illustration: AI artistic impression of Grisedale
Grisedale is one of the approaches from Patterdale to the paths for Helvellyn and Striding Edge, and the valley was also mined for lead. The Eagle Crag workings on the valley side probably date back to Elizabethan times, and further up, Ruthwaite Lodge is a climbing hut that Sheffield University Mountaineering Club rebuilt from the old miners' office and smithy. An old ore track, substantial in places, runs up the valley. Worth doing on a weekday if you can.
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20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool
Photo source: Guillaume Baviere from Uppsala, Sweden, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This is the terraced house in Allerton where Paul McCartney grew up, and where he and John Lennon wrote some of the earliest Beatles songs. The National Trust has owned it since 1995 and presents it as it looked in the late 1950s. You can only get inside on a guided minibus tour, leaving from Liverpool South Parkway in the morning or Speke Hall in the afternoon, with groups capped at 15. That sounds fiddly, but it's the right way to do it. Tours are bookable through the National Trust, so check live availability before you travel.
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Trengwainton Garden, Cornwall
Photo source: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Storm Goretti brought down, damaged or left unstable more than 150 trees at Trengwainton in January, and the garden is working its way back. The National Trust has marked the loss with life-sized willow figures by Katherine Miles: a family of three leaning into the wind, the adults clutching their hats. It sounds gimmicky but works well in a garden this atmospheric. Trengwainton sits on a hillside above Penzance with views to Mount's Bay, and five sections of its walled gardens are packed with tender exotic plants, helped by Cornwall's mild climate. The top half of the Woodland Walk and Royal Meadow remain closed while the clearance continues, and replanting is due to start in October.
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Gwaenynog, near Denbigh
Illustration: Gwaenynog, Land & Legacy
Beatrix Potter stayed at Gwaenynog as an adult, visiting her aunt and uncle, Harriet and Fred Burton, thirteen times between 1895 and 1913, and the many studies she made of its walled kitchen garden fed into The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, published in 1909. Mr McGregor's potting shed from the book still stands and is Grade II listed. Gwaenynog remains privately owned and the house is not normally open to visitors. The gardens open only on limited occasions, usually in summer, and the 2026 openings have now finished, so this one is for next year.
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Hidden Gem
Benthall Hall, Shropshire
Photo source: Land & Legacy
Benthall Hall is near Broseley, a short distance from Ironbridge. The stone house was largely built around 1535, with major improvements in 1580, and it has been a family home for 500 years: the Benthall family still live here as National Trust tenants. The garden has autumn crocus displays. Next door, St Bartholomew's Church was rebuilt in 1667 after the medieval church burned down during the Civil War. The house opens Saturday to Monday in term time and Saturday to Wednesday in school holidays, and adult entry is £11 or free with National Trust membership.
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As Seen on Screen
Basildon Park, Berkshire
Photo source: Leo Leibovici from Reading, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Basildon Park has stood in for more country houses on screen than most people realise. It was Netherfield in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, it played Grantham House, the Crawleys' London home, in the 2013 Downton Abbey Christmas special and the series five finale, and its interiors became Lady Tilley Arnold's home in series three of Bridgerton. The Octagon Room featured in the Grantham House scenes and is on the visitor route. The Palladian house itself was rescued from dereliction in the 1950s by Lord and Lady Iliffe, who restored it and gave it to the National Trust in 1978. It's open daily, with the house open from 11am to 5pm.
Plan your visit → and see which other heritage sites are along the route
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Coming Up…
Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons, Harewood House
Final fortnight: the exhibition closes on 18 October. More than 60 of Beaton's photographs, mostly from the National Portrait Gallery's collection, including Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth II and Maria Callas, hung in a house with Robert Adam interiors. Entry is included with a standard Harewood day ticket, and Historic Houses members get 50% off. Don't leave it until the last weekend.
We're Going on a Ghost Hunt, Mottisfont
Mottisfont's Halloween family trail runs from 3 October to 1 November, based on the picture book: choose a bunny name or character, then work through Halloween hoopla, broomstick races and stepping stones past the warty toads. It's pitched at preschoolers and young children. Even without children, the timing is a good excuse to visit: Mottisfont began as a priory founded in 1201, and its walled gardens are known for their collection of old-fashioned roses. The trail is free with normal admission and there's no need to book.
October Half Term at Harewood House
From 24 October to 1 November Harewood is running a Spooky Tree Trail and a Spells and Sparkles Trail through the grounds, plus broomstick making from natural materials. There's an outdoor screening of Hocus Pocus on 24 October, and talks on Harewood's oldest and most extraordinary trees from 26 to 30 October. The trails, broomstick making and talks are included with admission; the outdoor cinema is ticketed separately. The house itself is closed from 19 October to 6 November, but the grounds activities continue.
Worth Knowing
Historic Houses Membership
Historic Houses membership costs £71 a year for an individual and covers entry to hundreds of independently owned historic houses, castles and gardens. These are properties that sit outside the National Trust and English Heritage networks entirely. Stonor Park and Castle Menzies are both on the list. Not every member house offers free entry: Harewood, for example, gives members 50% off a day ticket instead, so check each house's listing before you go. If you are visiting two or three privately owned houses in a season, the membership pays for itself quickly, and the properties tend to be less crowded than the big National Trust names.
Worth knowing: discount code
LAK20
Enter it at checkout to take 20% off membership, bringing it down to £56.80. It is a Lakeland discount code, so it may not last. Worth trying while it does.
A Little Curiosity: The Answer
To deal with a thief. About 130 of these curse tablets survive from Roman Bath, each one an appeal to Sulis Minerva. Many concern stolen property: the writer asks the goddess to identify, or punish, whoever took it.
That's it for this week. Orford Ness is worth planning for next season. When it reopens, make time for the Bomb Ballistics Building and give yourself longer on the shingle than you think you need. It earns it.
About Us
Rob & Ali
We are Rob and Ali, two heritage enthusiasts who got tired of spending more time researching days out than actually enjoying them. Land & Legacy is our answer: a curated guide to the heritage experiences worth your time.
We are building something bigger behind the scenes, but for now this newsletter is our way of sharing what we find.
Hit reply if you have got a place we should know about.
Until next time,
Remembering the places that matter.