We had a lovely lunch time tour of Pitchford Hall where by coincidence we had the same guide that took us on our previous tour in 2018. Our guide is a fountain of knowledge and Mr C and I had the privilege of a lengthy conversation with her as we enjoyed mince pies and mulled wine after the tour of the house. We enjoyed seeing how the restorations are progressing since our previous visit.

It was rather chilly outside and dark inside the house due to the time of year so I don’t have as many photos from this visit as I did on my previous visit.

More detailed information and photos from my previous visit can be found on the following links:

• Pitchford Hall
• Pitchford Hall tree house
• Pitchford Hall orangery
• Views around Pitchford Hall

The Library is the principle survivor of the 11th Duke’s work and is one of the most important Gothic rooms of circa 1800 in the country. It is 122 feet (38 meters)long, entirely fitted out in carved Honduras mahogany and treated as if it were a church, with slender clustered columns supporting a ribbed vault. *

The Library is one of the more important country house collections, rich in manuscript and printed material relating to Catholic history. It comprises ten thousand books and was collected by the 9th and 11th Dukes.*

*From the Arundel Castle guidebook

Oxford’s libraries are among the most celebrated in the world, not only for their incomparable collections of books and manuscripts, but also for their buildings, some of which have remained in continuous use since the Middle Ages. Among them the Bodleian, the chief among the University’s libraries, has a special place.

First opened to scholars in 1602, it incorporates an earlier library erected by the University in the fifteenth century to house books donated by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. Since 1602 it has expanded, slowly at first but with increasing momentum over the last 150 years, to keep pace with the ever-growing accumulation of books and papers, but the core of the old buildings has remained intact.

These buildings are still used by students and scholars from all over the world, and they attract an ever-increasing number of visitors, for whose benefit this guide has been written.*

• * History of the Bodleian Library