Led by the current owner, Lucy will take you through the rooms of this beautiful recently restored Georgian manor house whilst explaining the history, restoration and details of their very impressive art collection. The gardens are well worth exploring with a formal around the house, a kitchen garden, a walled garden and fine terraces.

Lunch or breakfast is available in the café, which should be booked independently in advance

Monday 14th October to Thursday 17th October 2024

We are very excited to be offering a guided trip to St Ives in the autumn. Julie Hadley, our Programme Secretary who has accompanied several trips to St Ives with various groups, has put together a lovely itinerary and arranged a fantastic guide - Greg Humphries, who will really bring the St Ives and Cornish art scene to life. This is a marvellous opportunity to discover and learn more about the wonderful art and artists of our Cornish neighbour.

Click here for a full itinerary

Potential Itinerary

Monday 14th October

11.50: Meet Totnes train station

12.04: Train Departs (1 change at St Erth)

14.58: Arrive St Ives

Check into accomodation, late afternoon stroll through St Ives

Early supper at Porthmeor Beach Café

Tuesday 15th October

Breakfast at your residences or cafés

10.00: Meet at central location (place to be decided) for short introduction to The History of St Ives as a centre of 20th Century art by our guide Greg Humphries

10.45: Guided tour of the Barbara Hepworth museum

Lunch

14.00: Meet at Tate Gallery in the amphitheatre for introduction to the building of the Tate Gallery St Ives by Greg Humphries.

14.30: Guided tour of the Tate St Ives

19.00: Supper at the Beach Restaurant

Wednesday 16th October

Breakfast at your residences or cafés

09.30: Meet at The Royal Square to pick up mini bus and our guide Greg Humphries.

Travel to Penlee House, Penzance

10.15: Guided tour of Penlee House Gallery and Museum

11.45: Depart Penlle House for Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens

12.00: Arrive Tremenheere

Lunch/refreshments

12.30: Guided tour of Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens

14.30: Depart Tremenheere

15.00: Arrive Bernard Leach Pottery

16.00: Guided tour of Pottery

17.10: Depart Bernard Leach Pottery

17.15: Arrive back in St Ives - The Royal Square

19.00: Supper at The Mermaid

Thursday 17th October

Breakfast at your residences or cafés

Pack and store cases to collect later

The morning is free to explore and visit St Ives at your leisure. There are many private
galleries and studios, a list of options will be provided, or it might be possible to arrange a visit to one of today's St Ives' artists for a talk in their studio. Barbara Hepworth sculptures are in various locations around the town, it might be fun to see how many you can find.

Make sure you buy a Cornish pasty or crab sandwich to refresh you on the journey home, or perhaps have a snack in the Porthgwidden Beach Café before collecting cases ready for departure.

13.50: Meet at the station for a 14.03 train back to Totnes, changing at St Erth.

16.41: Arrive Totnes!

The Box, Plymouth’s new award winning museum, art gallery and archive is hosting a major new exhibition in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of famous portrait painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was born in nearby Plympton St Maurice.

Running until 29th October, our events secretary Jane Chubb has arranged for a self drive visit with a talk by specialist Dr Jenny Parker from Plymouth University.

Caradoc Doy, our guide and lecturer for the day, is an international expert in 19th century plant hunters. He will. Begin the day with an illustrated talk at the Victory Hall, Broadclyst, on the Veitch Nurseries and plants introduced to this country by the Veitch family. Following this, we will have a brief visit to the nearby familly graves before a short drive to Killerton House.

There will be free time to explore and have lunch or a picnic before Caradoc gives us a guided tour of the garden, when we will see many of the plants and trees referred to in his lecture. £25 per person (Non National Members will need to pay an additional entrance fee of £12.50 directly to Killerton).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

David Tovey is an expert on Cornish artists and has a collection of over 400 in his lovely vicarage home, with many other interesting and beautiful artefacts. The garden too with sculptures is worth seeing. 

The visit was so popular in April 2019, we are repeating it.

The Head Gardener will guide us round this unique combination of three centuries of garden design, covering fifty acres of recently restored landscape and formal gardens:

-The Landscape garden, designed in 1750 by Coplestone Warre Bampfyld is over 40 acres and includes Georgian pleasure grounds, classical temples and a Great Cascade.

-The formal gardens with terraces, rills and the Great Plat – a great sunken parterre are supreme examples of the Lutyens/Jekyll partnership.

- The Victorian Shrubbery with a nineteenth century yew tunnel.

The house itself is open for visitors to view several rooms with their traditional architecture and original paintings. There is also a contemporary art gallery, a second hand bookshop and a garden centre.

Lunch is available in the Stables café, or bring a picnic. £32 per person.