If you happen to have an upcoming free weekend, bookmark the time for a trip to Wiltshire. In Salisbury, and around Wilton and Tisbury, you will find a wealth of cutting-edge art, fine food, cultural goings-on and appealing places to stay. The area is brimming with national landmarks, privately run country houses and enterprising, modern restaurants.
Base yourself in Salisbury, then make the day trip to Tisbury via Wilton – but of course your weekend can be schemed in any number of ways.
Set off from Salisbury, and head to Messums Wiltshire, the rural offshoot of Messums art gallery in Mayfair. The Tithe Barn, a recently restored 13th century monastic space, variously transforms to accommodate exhibitions – a room of busts and heads on modern plinths to being decked in tapestries. Whilst the barn is dedicated to the ‘handmade’; the second gallery, that has a glass-side with views of rolling fields, is filled with two-dimensional work. Stay for London-standard coffee and breakfast at the Mess restaurant, where good food is served from pleasing ceramics and – best of all – you can sit outside, with a view of the barn and whatever sculptures are currently on display.
Next head to Old Wardour Castle – just a twenty-minute drive away. Old Wardour Castle was built in the 14th Century and partially destroyed during the English Civil War – it has now existed as a ruin longer than it was a living, breathing castle. It looks out to New Wardour Castle, a Palladian Manor – where the most impressive, sizable flat is owned by Jasper Conran. Today, New Wardour Castle considers Old Wardour Castle its ‘very own folly’. Old Wardour Castle has been artfully landscaped under the instruction of Capability Brown, and is positioned lakeside – with exquisite views from the Banqueting House, an 18th century pavilion – and has an ancient grotto and towering trees. You can even get married there.
Book a late lunch at either the Beckford Arms or the Compasses Inn. Both, should you wish, you can stay at. They are both fantastic – but in entirely different ways. Whilst the Beckford Arms is elegant and stylish, the Compasses Inn is ‘olde worlde’ with its thatched roof and candlelit interiors – it’s like you’ve gone back in time. Very happily – they take their food seriously. The pub is owned by a former Soho House manager, Ben Maschler (the son of Fay Maschler, the Evening Standard’s restaurant critic) and their scotch eggs, turbot or whatever you like – are spot on.
The Beckford Arms, dressed in tumbling ivy, is a delight to set your eyes upon. Its owners, Dan and Charlie, are formerly of Babington House, so it, too, has elements of the Soho House. The place has a wealth of walks emerging from the hotel, so after a lunch, don some wellies and Wiltshire is your oyster.
En route back to Salisbury, and when travelling up Tisbury Highstreet, stop off at the Beckford Bottle Shop. The shop has garnered cult status in the area for its impressive selection of wine. It bills itself as ‘a modern wine shop with old fashioned values’ and supplies The Beckford Arms and the Hinton Saint George in Somerset to name a few. If you’re not in a rush, on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening the shop curates a selection of British cheeses and charcuterie to accompany their wines.
On the road back to Salisbury, stop off at the Italianate Church in Wilton; it is called the Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas and it looks like it has been plucked from a hill in Florence. Inside it has a Byzantine golden mosaicked apse – just like San Marco in Venice. You’ll rarely see anything quite like it in the Britain.
Wilton House, the country seat of the Earl of Pembroke, is spectacular but a difficult beast to tame – its opening times are a maze. Plan your visit strategically, go for one of their fantastic art auctions or consult the visiting timetable thoroughly and phone ahead to check that it will definitely be open ahead of your visit. The art collection is spectacular – and the fact that is has been used as a film set for all things from The Crown to Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander speaks for itself. This year there will be an exhibition ‘Cecil Beaton at Wilton’ as well as Lord Pembroke’s Classic and Supercar collection which will be well worth a look.
On Sunday, back in Salisbury, go to the cathedral to see the Magna Carta – the best preserved of the four surviving manuscripts – and a cornerstone of British law today. Ideally time your trip with a service to hear the remarkable organ. You will be able to admire Salisbury Cathedral’s spire, the tallest in England, from all around – so tall that it lights up by night to forewarn planes passing close-by.
Where to stay
If you are in Salisbury, you can stay at the Wardrobe in the Cathedral Close which is a Landmark Trust property. From the second-floor apartment of the now-disbanded Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, the sitting room gives way to a lofty view of Salisbury Cathedral. It also has an enviable garden space that a one-night stay will give you access to. The wardrobe, which has been a house since 1600, is situated a stone’s throw from the Cathedral between Arundells and across the square from Mompesson House (also worth going to see – it is run by the National Trust).
