Wightwick Manor and Gardens

The legacy of a family's passion for Victorian art and design

In 1937 Geoffrey Mander MP did something remarkable; he persuaded the National Trust to accept a house which was just 50 years old.

The local paint manufacturer and Liberal MP had been left the timber-framed house by his father Theodore. Taking inspiration from a lecture on 'the House Beautiful' by Oscar Wilde, Theodore and his wife Flora had decorated its interiors in William Morris - and his Arts and Crafts contemporaries' - designs.

This house of the Aesthetic Movement was, by 1937, a relic of an out-of-fashion era. Yet, so complete was the design that it was worthy of preservation. Having given the house to the Trust, Geoffrey and his second wife Rosalie, became its live-in curators, opening the house to the public and adding to its contents. In particular they added a remarkable collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Rossetti, Burne-Jones and their followers.

So take a step back in time and visit the ever-changing family home that’s also the world’s most unlikely art gallery.

Wightwick Manor - haven of a romantic industrialist.