Where
Mompesson House in Cathedral Close, in the middle of Salisbury, Wiltshire.
What
“We are a very pretty and accessible 18th-century furnished house,” says Mompesson House’s property manager Karen Rudd. “It is named after Sir Thomas Mompesson, the local MP in the late 17th century.”
The house, briefly the residence of the bishop of Salisbury, was bought by architect Denis Martineau in 1952 and passed to the National Trust after his death in 1975.
Opened
1977. Rudd says: “After Martineau’s death, the trust opened the house five days a week. It took a year to furnish the house. We have presented it in 18th-century terms, but we have tried not to be too pedantic.” She cites the silver tea-service that belonged to the painter Barbara Townsend, who lived in the house from 1843 to 1939.
Collection
“The most important single item is the house itself,” Rudd says. “It has fantastic plasterwork, a wonderful oak staircase and a walled garden. We have furniture by Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite, fluorspar vases by Matthew Boulton – you name the names, we have them.”
Rudd believes that it is the house’s “human scale” that makes it so popular with its visitors. “Many of them can imagine living here. Unlike a stately home, Mompesson has a more intimate feel.” It also houses one of the UK’s most important sets of 18th-century drinking glasses.
Help at hand
Rudd and the house steward are the only two full-timers on the staff. There are three part-time staff – a gardener, administrative officer and a conservation cleaner. There are also about 80 volunteers.
Budget
Most income comes from National Trust credits. “Every time a trust member visits, we get £3,” Rudd says. Ordinary admission is £5.50, while a ticket to the garden is £1. Shop sales and the tea rooms all bring in valuable revenue, as do occasional film-set fees: Mompesson House had a starring role in the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility.
Visitors
In 2009, 46,000 visitors came. “It was a record year, probably helped by the fact that [former prime minister] Edward Heath’s house, just 100 yards away, was also open at the time.”
Highlights
“This is a wonderful house,” says Rudd. “Every day the light is slightly different so its landscape changes all the time.”
Sticky moment
On a day off, Rudd found a car “snugly embedded” in the 300-year-old wrought-iron railings outside the house. “Any closer and it would have been in the dining room.” Occasionally, Mompesson House has a visitor who leaves “ashen-faced”.
“They say they have sensed the presence of a ghost,” says Rudd. The case of a poltergeist that began haunting John Mompesson in 1661 – then at his house in Tedworth, Wiltshire – is well known. Mompesson, a magistrate, had confiscated the drum belonging to a drummer boy who had been disturbing the local peace. Soon after, ghostly events began at his house and followed him to Cathedral Close.
Survival tip
“The National Trust is a charity, not a rich business,” says Rudd. “If we didn’t perform to target and budget, we’d be in trouble.”
Future projects
“We hope to start opening in the winter,” Rudd says. (The house currently opens from mid-March to the end of October.) It is a time of change for the house – currently in the National Trust’s Wessex region, boundary changes will see the area amalgamated with Devon and Cornwall to form the South West division.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-mompessonhouse
Mompesson House in Cathedral Close, in the middle of Salisbury, Wiltshire.
What
“We are a very pretty and accessible 18th-century furnished house,” says Mompesson House’s property manager Karen Rudd. “It is named after Sir Thomas Mompesson, the local MP in the late 17th century.”
The house, briefly the residence of the bishop of Salisbury, was bought by architect Denis Martineau in 1952 and passed to the National Trust after his death in 1975.
Opened
1977. Rudd says: “After Martineau’s death, the trust opened the house five days a week. It took a year to furnish the house. We have presented it in 18th-century terms, but we have tried not to be too pedantic.” She cites the silver tea-service that belonged to the painter Barbara Townsend, who lived in the house from 1843 to 1939.
Collection
“The most important single item is the house itself,” Rudd says. “It has fantastic plasterwork, a wonderful oak staircase and a walled garden. We have furniture by Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite, fluorspar vases by Matthew Boulton – you name the names, we have them.”
Rudd believes that it is the house’s “human scale” that makes it so popular with its visitors. “Many of them can imagine living here. Unlike a stately home, Mompesson has a more intimate feel.” It also houses one of the UK’s most important sets of 18th-century drinking glasses.
Help at hand
Rudd and the house steward are the only two full-timers on the staff. There are three part-time staff – a gardener, administrative officer and a conservation cleaner. There are also about 80 volunteers.
Budget
Most income comes from National Trust credits. “Every time a trust member visits, we get £3,” Rudd says. Ordinary admission is £5.50, while a ticket to the garden is £1. Shop sales and the tea rooms all bring in valuable revenue, as do occasional film-set fees: Mompesson House had a starring role in the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility.
Visitors
In 2009, 46,000 visitors came. “It was a record year, probably helped by the fact that [former prime minister] Edward Heath’s house, just 100 yards away, was also open at the time.”
Highlights
“This is a wonderful house,” says Rudd. “Every day the light is slightly different so its landscape changes all the time.”
Sticky moment
On a day off, Rudd found a car “snugly embedded” in the 300-year-old wrought-iron railings outside the house. “Any closer and it would have been in the dining room.” Occasionally, Mompesson House has a visitor who leaves “ashen-faced”.
“They say they have sensed the presence of a ghost,” says Rudd. The case of a poltergeist that began haunting John Mompesson in 1661 – then at his house in Tedworth, Wiltshire – is well known. Mompesson, a magistrate, had confiscated the drum belonging to a drummer boy who had been disturbing the local peace. Soon after, ghostly events began at his house and followed him to Cathedral Close.
Survival tip
“The National Trust is a charity, not a rich business,” says Rudd. “If we didn’t perform to target and budget, we’d be in trouble.”
Future projects
“We hope to start opening in the winter,” Rudd says. (The house currently opens from mid-March to the end of October.) It is a time of change for the house – currently in the National Trust’s Wessex region, boundary changes will see the area amalgamated with Devon and Cornwall to form the South West division.
Links
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-mompessonhouse