Newstead Abbey, was never actually an Abbey but a Augustinian Priory that was built in the 12th century, housing around 12 monks. Then along came Henry 8th with his order of dissolution of Monasteries and kicked them out and sold the property as a domestic home to the Byron family. Skip forward a few hundred years to the most famous of the family, George Byron, the poet. The house is now set up mostly as a tribute to him, with items of his furniture on his, along with other personal effects and paintings. Byron was later to sell the house after getting into financial difficulties and the house was owned by two further families before finally being gifted to Nottingham Corporation in the 1930s.
The house and gardens are now open to the public. Entry is £10 pp car parking £6. There is a cafe and a shop on site.
We visited the house on the free Nottingham days out event which gave free entry to the house, just paying for the parking. The house is not huge, but most of the rooms
are furnished. Due to Byron’s financial difficulties the house wasn’t well looked and has a certain shabbiness about it. The gardens had a certain charm, but again the lack of money shows again.
It made for a pleasant afternoon out though on reflection if you were paying the house fee the car parking charges would have seemed an excessive additional charge.
