As Christmas Day draws near we have been out to see the lavish and imaginative decorations currently transforming the rooms of our nearest National Trust properties, Charlecote House and Baddesley Clinton Manor, Warwickshire.
Of all National Trust houses Baddesley Clinton is my favourite: it’s the one I can imagine living in – or the place where I’d like to take an extended creative retreat!
Rich with stories from different centuries, full of ingenious priest holes (which today manage to look like highly tempting children’s dens) it also has plenty of ghost tales and testimonies of curious & possibly supernatural experiences from staff, volunteers and visitors alike. So no wonder it earned a place in my book ‘Paranormal Warwickshire’.
And here are a few images of Charlecote House. This house features in my book ‘Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire’ with its oft-repeated tale that young William Shakespeare was caught there by the owner and local magistrate Sir Edmund Lucy, poaching his deer in the park.
The poaching tale most likely isn’t true but tantalising hints in ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor‘ do suggest some kind of mischievous connection with an aristocrat caricatured as Justice Shallow…
Once inside the house, we can take delight in all the glorious decorations.
Warwickshire (National Trust) at Christmas 2025
For those who would like to support me on this journey do please buymeacoff.ee/scskillman and I’d be very appreciative!
About Me
I live in Warwickshire, a county in central England, just south of Birmingham, together with my husband and son; and my daughter currently lives and works in Australia.
I was born and brought up in Orpington, a town on the southeastern edge of London. My first job was as a production secretary with the BBC. Later I lived for five years in Australia before returning to live and work in England.
My published output includes two mystery novels Mystical Circles and A Passionate Spirit, one non-fiction writers’ guide Perilous Path, and four highly illustrated nonfiction books for history publisher Amberley: Paranormal Warwickshire, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire, A-Z of Warwick and Paranormal Gloucestershire. I’m now working on a gothic novel, and researching a new nonfiction book, Paranormal Worcestershire.
scskillman.com 
I like Baddesley Clinton best because of the moat and the approach is pretty in the spring.
When I was Warwick’s poet laureate I wrote a poem based the marriage of Ada Christina Lucy and Lord Fairfax in 1892. She was heiress to Charlecote Park, losing her status as a landowner on her marriage. I’m sure you’ll have seen a portrait of her inside the building. She was holding a child – not her own – as apparently they did in those days!
I enjoyed your photos very much.