Southwest England Trip Report from Family of 5

Day 4:

The Salisbury tower tour was our big thing for this day, and we had really been looking forward to it. It was spectacular. Especially when you get up into the spire area and see all the ladders to get to the tippy top of the spire.

My husband and I took turns for the tour. First I went with my 9-year old son (who loved it) and then my husband went alone while I watched the other two. I knew the climb would involve some pretty intense heights and open stairs, but wow, you really do get up there. There was a middle-aged man on my tour who looked very athletic but decided to opt out of continuing the tour when he saw the open spiral going up. I did okay but I understand why people emphasize that the heights are intense.

Afterward we walked the Close which for some reason I didn’t find very compelling, then popped into Mompesson House (National Trust) which was interesting to see. We then went to evening Mass at a local church and slept again in Salisbury.

Note: I had put Old Sarum down as a “maybe” for our Salisbury stay, though we didn’t end up doing it as I saw mixed reviews. I saw it when we were up in the spire and it actually looked more interesting than I expected. Maybe I’ll return another time.

I also considered Boscombe Down Aviation Museum, however we’ve done a lot of aviation museums so decided to skip this.

Day 5:

We drove an hour to Bowood House and Gardens which we LOVED. The house was more interesting than I expected, mainly because of the docents who told us really cool stories, from showing us how part of the house was demolished because the owners couldn’t continue the upkeep and the National Trust had turned it down because they also weren’t interested in maintaining it, to showing us the metal cast of Napoleon’s face from his corpse as well as the locket of hair from Edward’s beard that the princess cut off when in Henry VIII’s crypt at St. George’s at Windsor.

We also loved the gardens and walks, and of course, the playground was epic. Our kids were over the moon. We spent the entire day at Bowood, then when it closed, drove to Corsley for our lodging.

Day 6:

This day was rainy all day, so we nixed our original plan of going to Stourhead. We had originally planned to stop by Lacock Abbey after Bowood the day before (they are very close to each other) but because the kids were loving Bowood so much, we didn’t go. So we decided to drive back up and do Lacock Abbey and village. Worth seeing, especially since it didn’t cost us extra (it’s National Trust).

We slept again in Corsley.

Day 7:

We were originally going to stop by Nunney castle (free) but I had read that you could no longer walk across the bridge because it’s dangerous and falling apart. So we went straight to Wells to the Cathedral. I absolutely loved Wells and the Cathedral, and it was my favorite Cathedral of the trip. We did a joint ticket to the bishop’s palace and gardens which was a pleasant and interesting walk, and then we also went to the Vicars Close, which was so neat. It was like walking around a movie set. Seeing the overhead path connecting to the cathedral was so interesting as well.

We also enjoyed walking around the town of Wells, and the kids enjoyed the Flapjackery for some treats.

We then drove over to Glastonbury Abbey, which was probably the most underwhelming place of the entire trip. I love ruins, and I’m known for this among my friends/family, but there seemed to be no audio and also no story explaining things. They seemed to just rely on the idea that was a really impressive place once upon a time so it’s important, but didn’t really tell stories about the place. We didn’t stay long.

We then went up to Glastonbury Tor, which was absolutely awesome. The weather was a little gray and rainy and very windy, but the climb up there was beautiful and the view was fantastic. I would love to return when the weather is nice.

We drove back to Corsley for the night.

Day 8:

We moved Stourhead to this day instead of going to Lyme Regis (I purposely left this as an option to cut in the middle of the trip, because Lyme Regis makes sense for a stop in the future if we head out to Cornwall area). Stourhead was so much better than I expected, and I already had great expectations!

I have not seen the movies that make this place extra special for some (I guess it’s the anniversary for Pride & Prejudice, which was filmed there?) so there wasn’t a bias. It’s a gorgeous place and I had no idea there was a house there. There was so much art and a ton of activities for the kids. We spent most of the day there, then stopped at Montacute house (national trust) which was a very interesting house that used to be a priory.

Then we drove to our next base in Galton in the afternoon. We settled in, then checked out Lulworth Cove (only 10 minutes from our airbnb) and absolutely loved it. Such a gorgeous place, and the walk is easy.

Day 9:

We drove to Corfe Castle (National Trust) which was another place that greatly exceeded expectations. They are ruins, but it’s a spectacular sight, an interesting hike from the parking lot, and shares a lot of interesting stories that add to the mystique.

We then drove 15 minutes over to the town of Swanage and had some gelato and checked out the beach, but we stayed less than an hour overall, as we didn’t particularly like the town.

Next we headed to Old Harry Rocks (National Trust, so free parking). This was a bit of a longer walk with the kids, but beautiful, and the views and rocks are incredible.

We went back to Galton, had dinner, then went out to Durdle Door in the evening (again, 10 minutes, so very easy). Durdle Door was absolutely amazing. Granted the weather was so interesting (it was broody and kind of foggy) and I just could not get enough of what I was looking at. We were there for an hour and it was just an hour of continuous awe.

Day 10:

We went to Abbottsbury Swannery, yes mostly so the kids could feed the swans, and then went to Weymouth. The swannery was novel but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. We had the famed Rossi’s ice cream in Weymouth and mostly walked around the beachy area. We liked Weymouth much more than Swanage, which is interesting because it seems Weymouth has a bit of a reputation?

We had thought of going to Nothe Fort but it closes pretty early (around 4) and we were enjoying having ice cream by the beach and taking it easy.

We decided we wanted to go to a vigil mass like the prior week, and our most local and convenient mass was at St. Mary’s Chapel on the Lulworth Castle estate. We had no idea what fortune we were walking into!

St Mary's Chapel is the first Roman Catholic chapel that was built since the Reformation and it has a fascinating story. It was built in the late 1700s with special permission from King George III, who said it had to look like a mausoleum from the outside. Super cool place.

Okay side story about the Mass, but I’m hoping someone here can explain to me what’s going on here. As we were walking into Mass, this man walked in at the same time and we exchanged greetings. Then we noticed he was the altar server during the Mass. Then after the Mass was over, a man behind us said that the altar server man owns the castle. My husband and I looked at the lulworth castle website afterward and the picture of the man who owns it (James Weld) indeed was that same man. We were blown away to read that he owns Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove, Lulworth Castle, etc as part of the 12,000 acre Lulworth Estate.

Here is my question: There are homes by Durdle Door, for example, and businesses at Lulworth…but this Weld family owns the land? How does that work? This is probably a more normal thing in England than in the US, but do they just lease land? Or people can buy within their land? I have no idea but I'm fascinated by this. It was also cool to drive through the grounds with basically no one else there.

We slept in Galton.

Day 11:

Tank museum day! So, so well done. I understand why people say not to miss this one. The way they craft all the boards with the historical explanations, quotes, interviews, etc. was excellent. Also, there was so much for the kids! We loved this place.

In the evening after dinner, we went to Durdle Door again for a walk. Then slept again in Galton.

Day 12:

We checked out of the AirBnB and drove 40 minutes to Kingston Lacy (National Trust). I was looking forward to seeing this, as it was built after Corfe Castle was destroyed. Very interesting rooms and arts, though our least favorite grounds.

We drove 2 hours to Petworth House (National Trust also), our longest leg of the trip, and absolutely loved the art in Petworth (which is much of the reason we were going). This was our one day that felt a bit much, though a lot of that was the driving, which was necessary for our itinerary.

We slept in Chichester just for the night. Had dinner at Brasserie Blanc and walked around the cathedral.

Day 13:

We went to the Chichester Cathedral in the morning for a quick look, and walked around the Bishop’s gardens, then drove to Hever Castle. This is the only repeat from our trip to England last October. We had regretted not staying there last time (we only visited during the day) and came to rectify it on our last day. We enjoyed seeing the castle again, doing the mazes, the playground, and lake walk. We were mostly relaxing on our last day and enjoying the grounds.

Day 14: Headed to the airport in the morning to fly home.

Concluding Thoughts:

Overall we felt the pacing was good. Despite many comments from people saying our itinerary sounded insane (this happened last time too), it was just right for us. Since we don't enjoy shopping or dining out very much, we probably have less outings than the average traveler. The pacing felt just slow enough to feel restful, but also interesting enough with sights to see every day.

I'm SOOOOOO glad we nixed Cornwall and going further West. Originally I wanted to get all the way out there, but as I started to plan, I realized how much there is to do that's much closer. We will do Cornwall another time!

Very interesting trip report of places I have enjoyed and places I want to get to someday. Did you book your hotels/Airbnbs beforehand, or did you decide on the fly? Glad you had a wonderful time!

Re - Lulworth. I can't speak specifically for that estate, but generally the way it works is that the estate built all the properties, and leases them out, often with lots of restrictions about how you decorate it, what improvement works you can do, even whether you can own pets, that kind of thing.
Originally they would have been mainly for estate employees or I know of cases where if you worked elsewhere you had to do a few days work for the estate each year. That In places lasted until at least WW1.
In the English Lake District Ravenglass (and several surrounding villages) is like that. Pretty much everything is owned by Muncaster Castle. Even the village hotel is owned and run by the Castle.
Re- Cathedrals. It can be a funny thing. A few weeks ago I went to Liverpool Anglican, one of England's great Cathedrals, and one I have known for decades, it runs deep in the family. Yet that day it left me cold. I don't know why. Maybe I was stressed with what else I had to do that day, maybe it was the crowds due to a big secular exhibition on. But it was really odd, a bit unsettling What was great was I ended my visit with an intimate weekday mass in the Lady Chapel. Now that was such a special service. I've only done Sunday or Evensong there before, upstairs. A wholly different experience.
If it was the crowds why did I just love Southwell Cathedral?- unexpectedly busy due to a fantastic embroidery exhibition.

It’s often the case that the estate owns all the farms and properties on its land, and rents them out to make money. That’s why these villages are often particularly picturesque - they were built by wealthy landowners so they wanted something that looks nice. Obviously these days it’s not just people who work on the estate who live there.

I remember you having a lot of trouble pulling this trip together but it worked out really well in the end. You saw so much.

Joanne, your trip sounds wonderful! I really enjoyed reading about your travels. I've been to the southwest but it was a very long time ago, so maybe I need to include it soon. Of course, I say the same thing about the SE of England. :-)

Kudos for doing all of this with kids; especially a 2 year old!

@MapLady We did book ahead of time, though I changed one of my bookings last minute (we replaced it with Chichester from a more remote farm stay) so I guess it was a mix. It seems the good places tend to get booked up ahead so it can be risky to wait too long.

@isn31c Thank you SO much for your reply. Absolutely fascinating reading this and solves a mystery in my head. I wouldn't have thought of that but it does make sense. Not quite the same of course...but the closest analogy I can think of in the US is Disney World. They have an insane amount of land and allow 3rd party businesses, also build some housing for employees, but in the end own it all. I just thought it was so interesting Durdle Door was privately owned because in the US that type of place would be federally owned I think. I also appreciate what you said about the cathedrals. That is validating!

@helen I never would've thought about that with the whole picturesque town thing. Is that what's going on with some of those Cotswolds towns where there's like 10 homes? And thank you yes on the itinerary. Once I dropped the idea of trying to fit Cornwall in it was easier. I was really sad to let go of places like St Michaels Mount and some of those SW castles, but it was just too much. I'm so thankful for the people on this forum!!

@mardee thank you so much! It is fortunately not too tough with them. We include lots of little fun things for them (like one of the AirBnBs we stayed at for 3 nights was on a farm where we got to feed and pet the horses, and feed the goat and chickens, which they were absolutely obsessed with). And it is amazing how much these historical sites cater to kids with little scavenger hunts and things.

With the Cotswolds it’s more that the area was incredibly wealthy in the 16th/17th century on the back of the wool trade but then never industrialised so the area didn’t change at all over the years. The villages developed organically but locals had the money to showcase fancy architecture in their churches and public buildings.

It’s quite unusual for coastline to be privately owned like Lulworth Cove is.

I guess the Disneyland example is not that far off, except Disney was built to make money whereas these estates were built to showcase wealth that was made elsewhere (Empire).

Wow, fascinating. Thanks Helen. I thought it was interesting there were so few homes in some of these towns, all clustered together like that. England is so interesting!

A large estate in Dorset has recently been sold to an anonymous buyer and all residents of a village owned by the estate called Littlebredy are being evicted. Public access to the estate for walking has also been shut off.

Since Covid many of these estates are being bought up my the international mega rich. They offer a haven from outside threats with housing for staff, family and friends all in one site, plus leisure opportunities like hunting. This makes them very attractive to own in case something like a pandemic ever happens again. Life within the estate can carry on as usual regardless of what happens elsewhere. But of course these people don’t want members of the public anywhere near them.

I thought it was interesting there were so few homes in some of these towns, all clustered together like that. England is so interesting!

The UK also has very strict planning laws about where you can and can’t build houses.

Re estate villages, I remember as a journalist covering the funeral of the owner of the estate of Southwick in Hampshire, an exceedingly pretty and strictly conserved village where one of the most noticeable aspects is that all the front doors have to be painted the same colour.

I see that the Southwick Estate has built a new “garden village” on its land. https://www.southwickestate.co.uk/life

There was some investigative journalism recently about the Duchy of Cornwall (Prince William is now the Duke of Cornwall) and its estate holdings. Residents were complaining about the poor upkeep of houses owned by the duchy. It’s all very feudal.

The Duchy has also just built an entire new village in Cornwall. https://duchyofcornwall.org/estate/nansleden/

So pleased that you enjoyed your holiday in this part of England.

As well as historic houses and gardens, the National Trust have also purchased scenic parts of the cost and countryside. Access is usually free but they charge for car parking - unless a member. The National Trust would enforce the preservation of the natural landscape in areas that they own.

They own considerable amounts of land - for example, on the Gower peninsula in south Wales. See:>https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/gower