blickling estate

We love Blickling and visit several times a year but the rudeness and condescension of the person who served us in the coffee shop today (green shirted with "catering manager" or similar on her badge) was quite staggering. In a visit today, my mother was spoken to with such rudeness and contempt while she was paying that we were all taken aback (the couple behind us in the queue wandered over to comiserate with us!) Quite appauling to be spoken in this way when we are paying (arguably rather inflated prices) for teas and coffees! There are excellent, enthusiastic, and dedicated people who would love to be working at the Hall in this person's stead- maybe give one of them a try! Based on what I saw and heard today, I would struggle to believe this was an isolated incident.We have contacted the trust in writing to follow this up ourselves directly.

The Bluebells in Blickling Woods are stunning! What seem like miles of blue and the scent is just amazing. It's quite a walk from the main car park to find them, but well worth it.I can't wait to see them again this year!

This is a great park and gardens, we went to see the Hellebores at their peak, as part of the festival - that was a tad OTT as there were not that many, but it was a real show. The colours were outstanding ! Whilst wondering around the dell, where the plants were, there was a great scent coming from one of the shrubs, everyone commenting on it.This was a great couple of hours even if the house was not open!

We can not recommend staying in 'The Tower' (one of several National Trust properties to rent linked to the house) in the grounds of Blickling Hall enough - it was fabulous - so well equiped and of course unique... our own 'castle' - well for 5 nights!! so we had free access to the grounds (the house doesn't open until 21st March) and all other National Trust properties in the area. Blicking Hall's facade is stunning to say the least. The gardens are not overly ornate or laid out in a grand design but on a sunny weekend a very pleasant place to walk around. We did the 7 km 'estate walk' which I'd highly recommend, as that's not that far, and it was an easy walk for us. We also did the 3 km one too! you need to venture away from the house to see the Mausoleum, see the surrounding grounds/countryside and a walk around the huge lake is lovely to do.The hellibors were pretty to look at but I'd agree, not stunning.. we prefered all the daffodils coming up and blooming amongst the trees.. really made you feel spring is almost here!We made several visits to the cafe! the locally sourced pork sausage rolls were delicious.. so tasty and all meat.. the homemade cakes/shortbread/scones/chocolate crispy/flapjack went down and a treat and all the staff we talked too very very friendly and cheerful. We found the prices very reasonable.The volunteer who manned the Mausoleum on the day we visited it recommended the 'No 1 Fish and Chips' restaurant in Cromer, when we said we were going 'out and about' and we are very glad he did as it was excellent.. so thank you to him!I fell in love with Blickling Hall when, as a guide, we had a camp in the grounds - many moons ago now! and it still has a grip over me.. a wonderful place to visit.

Thank you for letting us know that you enjoyed your visit here. As you say, there are many different experiences to be had on the property, and you seem to have sampled most of them. We might add the formal gardens, the gift shop, RAF museum and stamp shop!

We’re sorry you were disappointed by the hellebore display. We hope you did find the winter garden behind the orangerie where most of them are? They are not very brightly coloured, of course, and don’t always hold their heads up as they might! But we’re pleased you enjoyed your walk and your visit to the bookshop. And you can of course get your parking fee refunded if you do buy any refreshments in the cafes, or items in the shop. We hope you have a better time next time!

We agree that walking round the estate is a good introduction to Blickling; it needs to be appreciated in the setting of its lovely grounds. And we are very proud of our library, which is finally being catalogued properly, a task which is taking a good many years.

Thank you for your positive comments, which we will pass on to our volunteers. Giving enough information but not too much can be a difficult balancing act! We look forward to welcoming you again in the future.

We’re glad you enjoyed your visit, and sorry that you found the price prohibitive. It is expensive for a single visit, but if you are able to visit National Trust properties on a regular basis, it is worthwhile becoming a member and that is much better value!

Many thanks for your comments – we’re glad you liked our Christmas interpretations (or at least some of them!) and found what you were looking for in the craft market. We’re already planning Christmas 2015, so feedback like this is very useful.

It’s always good to hear from our regular visitors how much they enjoy walking around the estate – as you will know, there is much more of it than many of our visitors realise!

We’re so glad you enjoyed the Christmas house, our staff work hard to make it special. And the seasonal fare in the kitchen is all part of it, of course, together with Santa’s reindeer. We apologise if the scones didn’t taste fresh – they are normally, as you point out, baked daily.

Thank you for telling us about your visit here. We’re glad you thought the house and grounds looked lovely, and sorry that you were disappointed by the Santa visit. We tried to keep the cost of that down, and the alternative would have been more expensive presents, which many people would not want. We do our best, but we realise it’s impossible to please everybody!

Many thanks for your enthusiastic comments! We do think our avenue of Christmas trees is rather special, and are glad you managed to stay long enough to enjoy several of the festive events.

Thank you for letting us know how you felt. We’re glad you enjoyed the costumed interpretations, our Diggers put a lot of work into their roles and our volunteers work overtime at this time of year. We can’t open all the rooms in the house during the winter because of conservation work, which is of course an important part of the trust’s responsibility. We’ve noted your comments about the Christmas market, and will be looking at arrangements for inviting stallholders next year.