14th May- Petworth House – Away Day Visit

Visit to Petworth House Petworth is a grand 17th century house with one of the finest art collections in the care of the National Trust. Built in the Baroque style in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in 1870 by architect Anthony Salvin, increasing its splendid state rooms to display wealth, taste and royal connections to rival Versailles. There are intricate wood carvings by the AngloDutch wood carver Grinling Gibbons, as shown in the image on p7 (Charles  Latham, 1847-1912, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). In contrast to all this splendour are extensive kitchens and servants’ quarters, which can be visited before walking round the grounds, designed by Capability Brown.

There is also a café. We leave Kingston and stop briefly in Petworth town for coffee (not included in the price), before driving to Petworth House for our house tours. After this you are free to explore the rest of the house or head back to reception to book one of the free tours featured that day. We leave at 3.30pm to return home.

Date: Wednesday, 14 May Meeting Time/Place: Coach leaves:

● 9am Kingston (Rose Theatre)

● 9.15am Surbiton (opposite Waitrose)

Cost: Entry is free to National Trust (NT) and Royal Oak (RO) members. National Art Fund passes are not accepted.

For coach and guided tour: ● NT and RO members: £28.39 ● For non-members: £45.89 Accessibility: The coach will drop us off at the entrance which has level access, although some walking will be required.

We’ll visit only the ground-floor rooms.

To join us, please fill in the form in the centre of this newsletter and send it with your cheque, made payable to Kingston u3a GAS, to Jacqui Hine: jacqui@hine.org.uk, 020 8549 1924 (07754 705994 – morning of visit only). Please book early to ensure the visit goes ahead. Please keep this page for reference.