Petworth House and Park

Important notice -

Our North Car Park for the Deer Park is open from Monday 18 May. We have limited spaces so if the car park is full please come back another time. The house, café, shop, garden and main car park will remain closed until further notice.

Inspired by the Baroque palaces of Europe and nestled in the South Downs, Petworth House displays the finest art collection in the care of the National Trust.

More about this place

Family walking dogs

Which places are open and what you need to know before you visit 

We're reopening the places you love, gradually, safely and in step with government advice. Our houses, gardens and parklands remain closed for now, in line with the rules about ticketed venues. But we're opening some of our coast and countryside car parks in England, so you can get out into green spaces. You'll need to book for some of them. Some coast and countryside car parks in Northern Ireland will start to reopen from 27 May. For now, all car parks in Wales have to remain closed on government advice. Read this article to find out what's open, how you can visit, and what to expect from your visit.

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Petworth House and Park

Things to see and do

Enjoy breathtaking views towards the South Downs

Petworth Deer Park 

Find out more about what you can do in the 700 acre Petworth Park from the walks you can wander, the wildlife you can see and further information about dog walking, access and safety.

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Petworth House and Park

History

View of Petworth, West Sussex, seen over the lake, part of the Capability Brown landscaped parkland.

A snapshot history of Petworth House and Park 

Find out more about the history of Petworth from the family tree to the history of the building and even the story about the transformation of the formal garden to parkland.

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Petworth House and Park

Join or give

The West front of Petworth House
Petworth   West Sussex

Dedicate a donation to Petworth House

You can continue to support Petworth House & Park by dedicating a donation to someone special and adding your precious memories to our interactive map. A perfect way to celebrate a special occasion, such as a birthday or anniversary, your donation will help us continue to care for Petworth House & Park.

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Petworth House and Park

Art and collections

Painting of cornfields by Edward Wilkins Waite

The Virtual Petworth Park Antiques and Fine Art Fair  

The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair, due to open for three days in the middle of May, is now taking the digital route. An online virtual fair is opening on Friday 15 May with an extended run until Sunday 31 May, allowing international collectors, designers and interested members of the public to sit in their ‘lockdown’ homes and enjoy all that is on offer. Sales can begin on 15 May, when The Virtual Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair opens.

Part of a dessert service, soft-paste porcelain, painted and gilded, made by the Sèvres factory (France), 1773-4. The Egremont Collection.

Dining in style at Petworth House 

Petworth houses some of the finest ceramics in the National Trust. Our curator and collections team recently redisplayed some important 18th-century European porcelain dining services on loan from The Egremont Collection. While Petworth House is closed, and at a time when many more of us are dining at home, we have created this online version of the tableware displays for you to enjoy.

Characters from Spenser's Faery Queen watercolour by William Blake (detail)

William Blake's dreamy rendering of The Faerie Queene 

Epic and intricate, The Faerie Queene dazzled Queen Elizabeth I when it was published. Nearly 250 years later, William Blake painted the poem’s characters in ethereal watercolours. But what do the characters represent, and how does Blake illustrate them?

A photo of an open page of The 'Canterbury Tales' Chaucer manuscript at Petworth

Read a digitised version of Petworth's Chaucer manuscript 

There are incredible literary treasures at Petworth including one of the earliest copies of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'. We've digitised our copy so you can explore every page here.

The Molyneux Globe in the North Gallery at Petwoth House

The Molyneux Globe at Petworth House 

Don't miss the Molyneux Globe when you visit the North Gallery. Made in 1592, this world-class object is thought to be the earliest English terrestrial globe in existence and at its time would have been the most up to date representation of how the world was understood.

2019 #Askacurator day

You asked - our curators answered 

On September 18th, we took part in 2019's #AskACurator day, a social media event brought to life to encourage dialogue between the public and museum curators all over the world. We received some fantastic questions, which Tatjana LeBoff, Assistant Curator at Petworth and Richard Ashbourne, Assistant Curator for London and South East, have answered for you.

Our collections

Explore the objects and works of art we care for at Petworth House and Park on the National Trust Collections website

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© National Trust Registered Charity 205846 Heelis, Kemble Drive, Swindon SN2 2NA

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