Overview

I visited with my family and my rollator / wheelchair (convertible). The ticket office is in the car park and the attendant there saw my mobility aid and told us he was phoning through to the house to ask them to help me / reserve a wheelchair. Whilst this was very proactive and well intended, it would’ve been nice to have been asked my specific access needs and preferences. We were told at this stage that my rollator would not be allowed in the house and I would have to use a wheelchair. Level access into the house is via the gift shop. A friendly member of staff opened the other half of the door to let me in (door is otherwise narrow). She apologised profusely that my rollator couldn’t enter the house - it’s not a size issue, but the house owner is concerned about wheels bringing dirt onto floor coverings. I would argue that shoes, walking sticks, etc are just as likely to bring in dirt, so perhaps this is a little misguided… And the manual wheelchairs offered won’t be suitable for everyone’s needs. But this is a private home and I recognise the need to be a good guest. After declining use of a supplied manual wheelchair (3 available) , I opted to walk around slowly using my walking stick (so that I could move around under my own steam and look at things) . The staff were more than happy to look after my folded rollator in the shop, even though I offered to park it outside. I walked up about 8 steps (with bannister left & right handed) then was escorted by staff to the official entrance point / start of route around house. This did mean walking about 30-40% further to complete the tour of the house. House staff were very helpful and there were chairs dotted around to rest on, though not in every room. There is one audio visual room with a short film playing - lots of seating here and room for wheelchairs, but the sudden change in lighting levels may disorientate some. The sound of film was loud enough for me with mild-moderate hearing loss. To access the cafe with my rollator there is a level entrance round the corner of the building from shop door, down a tarmac slope. Along the internal corridor to the cafe is a very clean disabled toilet with plenty of space and good lighting. Inside the cafe, the tables and chairs are fairly close together, so a little difficult to navigate. I chose to sit on my rollator at a table, to be space efficient - there wasn’t really space to park it. There are two outdoor seating areas with more space around the tables. Two out of three garden walk routes are marked as accessible. We found the paths were mostly flat, very close mown grass with decent drainage, or well trampled down gravel - fine for my aid in both rollator and manual wheelchair mode. The arboretum seemed to have some paths with loose gravel and more undulating surfaces. I opted not to try entering the maze, as it had a thick gravel surface and looked narrow for my mobility aid (no room for people to pass me). There are several benches in this area, but we didn’t see many seats elsewhere in the gardens.

Transport & Parking

5

We parked in the main car park, but could have had a barrier raised to access disabled parking much nearer to the house. It’s worth noting that if you walk / roll from the main car park to the house, there is a section of gravel outside of the house that may hamper some folk. I was able to push through with a little difficulty. If you opt for the disabled parking next to the house, you’ll avoid this and everything is smooth tarmac.

Access

2.5

Toilets

5

Staff

4

All staff were lovely and very helpful. Though perhaps a little extra training for ticket sales staff into the wide variances in access needs would help them to help guests better.