Westwood Manor, Manor house and museum in Westwood, United Kingdom
Westwood Manor is a stone manor house dating from the late 15th century, located in the small village of Westwood in Wiltshire, England, and managed by the National Trust. The building features carved plasterwork ceilings, oak-panelled rooms, and mullioned windows that give it a distinctly medieval feel.
Thomas Horton, a cloth mill owner, held the estate in the early 16th century and put money into both the house and the nearby parish church. The property passed through many hands over the following centuries before Edgar Lister took ownership in the early 1900s and carried out careful restoration of the interiors.
Edgar Lister filled the rooms with furniture, musical instruments, and tapestries he gathered over many years, and these objects are still arranged much as he left them. Walking through the house feels less like visiting a museum and more like stepping into a home that someone recently left.
The manor opens to visitors in the warmer months and guided tours run throughout the day, so arriving early gives you more choice. It is worth checking the National Trust website before your visit to confirm opening days, as they can vary during the season.
Edgar Lister taught himself Florentine needlework techniques to restore and re-cover much of the upholstered furniture in the house with his own hands. The results of that work are still visible in the rooms today and make this one of the few houses in England where the owner personally stitched the textiles on display.
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