Cliveden House

 Family-friendly if you’re a millionaire.

On our way from Kent to Broadway, we got caught in traffic trying to get around London, so by mid-afternoon, we were looking for a place to stop and take a break. Cliveden House (pronounced klivden) is located about halfway between London and Oxford, so we decided to stop there and have a look around. It is a National Trust property, so admission and parking are free if you are a member. Cliveden House is an active hotel, but as a visitor, you park away from the main building and walk the rest of the way to the house. Fortunately, the walk is not unpleasant, and you pass a very attractive fountain on the way.

The Fountain of Love

When you arrive at the main building, they don't exactly welcome you in. You must find your own way around the building to get to the other side where the grounds are. Having made your way around, the grounds are pleasant, but your children will not appreciate it. There are lots of pretty estates and gardens in England, and this is also one.

After wandering the fields a while — we could use a good walk after several hours in the car — we finally decided to enter the hotel building. We were not welcomed, but we asked whether we could have a cup of tea and something to eat. Once we decided to spend money there, everyone was super nice to us. We were seated quickly and shown the menu, and after we ordered tea, we took a look around the room we were in. Absolutely beautiful, with John Singer Sargent’s finest work, a portrait of Nancy Astor on display. The tea was among the best I have ever had — better than the one we had had at the Goring Hotel 2 years earlier — so if you want to experience a traditional English afternoon tea, this is a better choice (better and cheaper) than the Goring.

This is what a £25 cup of tea looks like.

I exaggerate a little. You don’t just get a cup of tea for that price.  You also get a full selection of sandwiches, scones, and sweets. It is practically a full meal, so if you look at it that way, considering the décor and the service, it isn’t bad value for money.

Kids typically don't like gardens, and adults typically don’t like shelling out £25 for a cup of tea (and some sandwiches), so probably shouldn’t be tops on your list of places to visit while in England. However, if one of your goals is to experience a formal English afternoon tea, Cliveden House is an excellent place for that, I totally recommend it for that purpose. Take the afternoon and stroll the grounds and enjoy. Your children may get bored with the strolling, but they will enjoy the tea. Spoil yourself!

There is also a hedge maze you can promise your kids if they're good.

Fountains Abbey

Klaus with K (license)

Of the three abbeys we visited — Hailes, Easby, and Fountains — Fountains Abbey was the biggest and best preserved. Fountains Abbey in its day must have been truly magnificent. The most obvious feature of the abbey is its 160-foot tall tower, which despite having been destroyed by Henry VIII, still towers over the valley. Approaching the abbey from the visitors’ center, the tower can be seen rising above the walls of the valley, and you don’t realize that you’re looking at just the very top of a tall tower until you walk the quarter mile to valley edge.

The tip of the iceberg:

The rest of the tower:

But big as the tower is, the abbey itself is massive. While some of the abbey has been reduced to foundations, as was most of Hailes, there are still substantial portions standing, including most of the church:

Can you imagine the size of the stained glass window that went in there?

But there was more — much more — to the abbey than the tower and church.

Cloister court:

Great cloister (there is a cross way down at the far end):

And in addition to the remains of the great abbey, for the price of admission (free to National Trust members), you get to walk the entire grounds of Studley Royal Park, a designated World Heritage Site. Personally, I’m not big into looking at plants, so gardens don’t really excite me, so I stayed with the kids while Melinda checked out the Studley Royal Water Garden.

Iain Gilmour (license)

Overall, Fountains Abbey was the biggest and best of all the abbeys we visited. While there is no reason to restrict yourself to visiting just one abbey, if you can only visit one, visit Fountains. We visited Hailes Abbey, in the Cotswolds, first, which is the poorest preserved of the abbeys we visited. However, we are glad we did, since its audio tour was probably the best (though Fountains was also very good). However, if we had visited Hailes Abbey after Fountains, we would have been sorely disappointed, so if you are visiting more than one abbey on your trip to Britain, visit Fountains Abbey last. We liked Fountains Abbey so much, we went back for a second visit.

Count this a definite recommendation for Fountains Abbey.