Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne, Dorset
Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne in East Dorset, has a bit of an ancestral connection for me, although sadly not with the wealthy Bankes family, who owned the great house for more than 300 years.
However, my 3-great grandfather Neri POOLE is recorded in the J G Harrod’s & Co Postal & Commercial Directory 1865 for Wimborne Minster as “Woodman Kingston Lacy” – I suppose this could have been anywhere on the 8,000 acre estate.
Would my ancestor Neri Poole have seen this tree when he worked here as a woodsman in the 1860s?
Neri was a forester and gardener all his life and lived at Holt near Wimborne at the time he was working at Kingston Lacy. By this time the 17th century house had already been extensively remodelled (by William John Bankes, an Egyptologist and adventurer who died in 1855).
Much of the statuary at Kingston Lacy is Egyptian inspired...
Head of the family in Neri’s time was Walter Ralph Bankes (1853-1904), who was NOT one of the most famous scions of the dynasty. But I still wonder if Neri ever spoke to him (while tugging his forelock)…
The front of Kingston Lacy house...
Today Kingston Lacy is run by the National Trust. I visited on a Monday, when the house, noted for its lavish interiors, was closed. So I didn’t see the paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian and Tintoretto and the largest private collection of Egyptian artefacts in the UK.
I knew in advance the house wouldn’t be open – it’s also closed on Tuesdays. But I still feel there must be some way such attractions could be open every day in summer, as people do take their holidays on Mondays and Tuesday, too!
Similarly the other day I had to point out to a couple of visitors to Cardiff that the National Museum was closed as it was a Monday. It was their only day in the city, so they were naturally disappointed they would miss out on Cardiff’s collection of French Impressionist art.
Urns flank the front steps at Kingston Lacy
One of a pair of lions tackling snakes...
Another view of lion and snake...
Although I wasn’t able to enter the house, I did get to walk through the gardens and take lots of pictures. It was a very hot sunny day, so after taking the long walk to the kitchen gardens, we had no energy left to walk the woods where perhaps Neri would have worked.
View of Kingston Lacy from the formal gardens
Obelisks - very Egyptian...
Old gardener's boots become planters...
Agapanthus in the herbaceous border...
I think this silver-leaved flowering shrub may be Anaphalis or pearl imperial...
White daisy-like flowers - perhaps Cosmos?
Delphiniums...
Globe thistle (Echinops)...
I think this may be Hydrangea paniculata...
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) at Kingston Lacy
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) at Kingston Lacy
A wire sculpture of pheasants
Japanese Acer...
The Japanese garden at Kingston Lacy
The Japanese garden at Kingston Lacy
The Japanese garden at Kingston Lacy - dragonfly art
The Japanese garden at Kingston Lacy - dragonfly art
A touch of the wild - Centaurea (knapweed)...
I suppose this would be a shelter in a storm, a long way from the house at Kingston Lacy...
Ferns at Kingston Lacy...
Courgette flowers in the kitchen garden
A closer look at the yellow courgettes
Purple-sprouting broccoli under nets...
The kitchen garden at Kingston Lacy
Marigolds (I think Calendula rather than Tagetes)...
Sunflower...
Wisteria...
Small old cottages on the road near the kitchen garden at Kingston Lacy...
Lovely old trees...
Heading back to the house...
Those lions again...
One of an ill-matched pair of stone capitals (?) in front of Kingston Lacy house - this one shows cherubs...
The other stone capital (?) in front of Kingston Lacy house - this one shows monsters...
Sundial among Cannas and Dahlias...
A closer look at those Dahlias...
Another sundial, showing nearly 11am Greenwich Mean Time
Blousy roses in the Rotunda area at Kingston Lacy
Pink roses...
The back of Kingston Lacy house...
The coach house at Kingston Lacy
Another view of the coach house
At Kingston Lacy we saw part of the fine herd of North Devon cattle, which we had also seen earlier that morning at the Iron Age hillfort of Badbury Rings, also part of the Bankes estate. See my wildflower scramble at Badbury Rings here…
Red North Devon cattle at Kingston Lacy...
The Squirrelbasket 
Neri Poole is my great, great grandfather. His son, Walter Henry married Sarah Jane Miller and emigrated to Canada in the 1880’s.
Thank you for that! I will email you as I have a few queries 🙂
My ancestors lived in cottage 601 and the Cobb family is very much part
of the life at Kingston Lacey Mr Richards Senior showed my sister and I the
log books with them in.
How lovely to have a written record of your ancestors!
Are you in any way related to Lt Col Cobb, Chief of Surgery, at the American Army Hospital at Kingston Lacy in 1945? I found a reference on this National Trust page.
Best wishes 🙂