Littlecote House is situated in the County of Wilshire not far from Hungerford village.
Today we took a short drive down the road to Littlecote House which was the HQ of the 101 1st Airborne when stationed in the UK prior to the Normandy landings. The 101 1st Airborne is also know as the Screaming Eagles and the Band Of Brothers series was based on this outfit. For those that do not know they were involved in every major European battle of World War 2 and why their story is so interesting and worth knowing.
The property is half hotel and half museum and is owned by the Warner Leisure Group. It is great to see the property still being used and there were many American guests who no doubt had family members stationed here as this is not a well known tourist hot spot. The cost for 1 night is 760 GBP which is for two people and full board so this is not cheap. There are cheaper options in the newly developed part of the property, but this lacks any history I suppose.
The kitchen garden is still in use and what supplies the hotel kitchen on a daily basis. The garden is protected by a moat type construction know as a ha ha which keeps the cows and any wildlife out of the gardens.
King Henry the V111's royal seal shown in the stained glass window.
This house goes back to Queen Elizabeth the 1st and was built in 1592 and this was the home of her attorney John Popham. Around the corner is the set for Wolf Hall as Henry V111 and Jane Seymour met here.
The Dutch room is a fascinating room that has all the wall panels painted including the ceiling. I am not sure what period this date back to as this was painted by Dutch prisoners of war. Apparently there is a spider hidden in the painting and I could not fid it. I think it is these types of rooms having open unprotected displays why there is no children or dogs allowed on the property.
The last original Crowell chapel left in the UK is part of the main manor house. You have to tread carefully upstairs as you can literally see the cracks in the floor and feel it move underneath your feet.
Littlecote House is reportedly the 3rd most haunted house in the UK where a baby was tossed in the fire place making sure there were no descendants left to inherit the estate. The estate is meant to be cursed with one owner who promised to never sell the property publicly was forced to do so when he wet bankrupt owing the bank and creditors over 700 million GBP back in the 1980's.
As I mentioned earlier in the post his was the HQ and home for the 101st Airborne for a couple of years prior to D Day. The officers stayed in the main house and the NCO's and soldiers slept in the stables. They used to host dances for the local women in the great dance hall which still shows how big this was. I took no photos as this was full of gaming equipment (table tennis) for the hotel guests and was quite boring.
The house was actually quite cold and guess someone is saving on the heating bill because the entrance fee is free. This I was not expecting as there is no such thing as free stuff anymore. We finished the trip off with tea and scones in the great hall which had a wood burning fire place.
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