Inside Shugborough Mansion & Patrick Lichfield’s 36-Room Apartment

When we visited Shugborough Estate in August, there was one fairly major part of it that we didn’t see: the Mansion.

Patrick Lichfield’s private apartment was closed that day and, after what felt like several miles of walking around an absolutely enormous estate, we decided to save the house for another visit.

Then somebody commented on our YouTube video and suggested that we go back to see the apartment.

Well, we didn’t need much persuading.

So this time we returned to Shugborough with a much more focused plan: take the shuttle to the Mansion, explore the house properly and, most importantly, finally see where Patrick Lichfield actually lived.

Getting to the Mansion

We’ve already covered parking and the wider estate in our previous Shugborough blog, so I won’t repeat everything here.

The important thing to remember is that Shugborough is huge. The Mansion is around 1km from Visitor Reception and, having learned our lesson last time, we weren’t planning to walk all the way there again.

This time we waited for Ernie, one of the little electric vehicles that takes visitors between the Visitor Reception/car park area and the Mansion.

Of course, giving a vehicle the name Ernie led to a slightly confusing conversation.

John asked the driver whether he had a rubber ducky.

“I’m not Ernie. I just drive Ernie,” he laughed.

So John moved on to the obvious follow-up question: did Ernie the bus have a rubber ducky?

Apparently not.

Personally, I think somebody needs to rectify this.

Ernie has both forward- and rear-facing seats. On the journey to the Mansion we ended up sitting in the rear-facing ones, which led to a surprisingly complicated discussion with John about whether we were travelling backwards.

We weren’t.

Ernie was travelling forwards. We were facing backwards.

The shuttle also has a ramp and space for a wheelchair, making it a useful option for visitors who can’t manage the distance between Visitor Reception and the Mansion.

Practical information for visiting Shugborough

We found plenty of disabled parking on our previous visit. Accessible toilets are available at several points around the estate, including Park Farm, the Plant Centre and Midden Yard, and there is also a Changing Places toilet.

The Mansion is around 1km from Visitor Reception, so the free shuttle is particularly useful if walking distance, fatigue or stamina is an issue.

We used our National Trust membership, so admission was included. One thing worth knowing is that you need to show your membership cards again when entering the Mansion, even though you’ve already shown them when entering the estate.

Shugborough also has wheelchairs available to borrow, pre-bookable mobility scooters/Trampers and the Zen Den for anyone who needs somewhere quieter to step away and regulate their senses.

For more detail about the car park, toilets, accessibility and the wider estate, have a look at our first Shugborough blog, where we covered all of that in much more detail.

Finally going inside Shugborough Mansion

Ernie dropped us near the servants’ quarters and we walked around to the front of the Mansion.

We headed inside and showed our membership cards again.

One of the volunteers gave us some of the history of the Anson family, who have been associated with Shugborough for centuries.

George Anson joined the Royal Navy at just 14 and eventually became Admiral of the Fleet, circumnavigating the globe between 1740 and 1744.

I did have to check that I’d heard the age correctly.

Fourteen!

Mirrors, vampires and very grand rooms

The rooms inside the Mansion are exactly as grand as you’d expect, with ornate ceilings, huge windows, elaborate furniture and some extremely impressive mirrors.

One of those mirrors also allowed me to establish something important.

I could see myself in it.

Therefore, I’m not a vampire.

Good to know.

George pointed out that if I had been one, he’d have had to get the garlic out.

It’s reassuring to know your family has a contingency plan.

Ships, views and a familiar deckchair location

There are reminders of the Anson family’s naval history throughout the house, including model ships and other objects connected with life at sea.

Looking out of one of the Mansion windows, I recognised the spot where John had sat in a yellow National Trust deckchair on our previous visit and pointed it out to him.

That was enough to resurrect the deckchair conversation — and, inevitably, Margaritaville.

Some subjects simply refuse to go away.

There were also displays involving knots and semaphore, maps and objects connected with voyages and naval life.

A grandfather clock with a difference

One of my favourite things inside the Mansion was an extraordinary grandfather clock.

It doesn’t simply tell the time. It has a moving ship built into it.

As I described the figures on the clock to John, I mentioned Neptune holding his trident.

John immediately knew who I meant.

Not because of Greek or Roman mythology.

Because he’d seen The Little Mermaid.

Whatever works.

A door made from books

Then we found something I thought was particularly clever.

At first glance it looked like rows of old leather-bound books, but it was actually a door into the library, with book spines continuing across it.

I may have got slightly carried away at the time and called it a secret entrance.

Looking at it afterwards, I’m not entirely convinced it’s particularly secret from the other side!

But it is still a wonderfully clever door.

The library itself is lined with books and contains some fascinating old volumes, including a Bible. Displays also explain some of the conservation work involved in looking after collections like these.

And finally… Patrick Lichfield’s apartment

This was the main reason we’d come back.

Patrick Lichfield — the 5th Earl of Lichfield — was a professional photographer and lived in his private apartment at Shugborough until his death in 2005.

We’d missed it on our first visit because it wasn’t open.

This time it was.

Unfortunately, this is also the point where the photographs stop.

The rooms contain Lichfield family objects which are on loan, while many of the images displayed are copyright owned by Getty, so photography isn’t permitted inside.

So the camera went off.

And you’ll have to take my word for what came next.

Don’t imagine a little flat

Calling it Patrick Lichfield’s “apartment” gives completely the wrong impression.

We were told that it contains around 35 or 36 rooms spread over three floors.

That’s not an apartment in any sense that I recognise!

It was fascinating because, unlike the grand historic rooms elsewhere in Shugborough, this felt much more like somebody’s home.

There was a very 1970s kitchen, complete with Tupperware, and an old service lift used to send food from the kitchen to the formal dining room. It was also used to bring fruit up so Patrick Lichfield could make his own jam.

We saw Lichfield’s study and photographic equipment, which was particularly interesting given his career as a photographer.

There was his dressing room, where we discovered that he apparently wore size 8½ shoes.

There were carpeted bathrooms — something that immediately dates a bathroom to a particular era for me.

And then there were his DVDs and videos.

Among them were Only Fools and Horses, One Foot in the Grave and Dad’s Army.

It was one of those little details that somehow makes a famous person seem much more ordinary. Whatever else Patrick Lichfield did in his life, he also apparently sat down and watched some of the same television programmes as everybody else.

The Bird Room

Then there was the Bird Room.

At the moment, this contains rather a lot of taxidermy.

It’s certainly memorable.

Whether it would be the room I’d choose to sit in with a cup of tea is another matter.

Because photography isn’t allowed, I can’t show you any of this, but I’m genuinely glad we went back and saw it for ourselves.

Accessibility inside the Mansion

Our previous Shugborough blog goes into much more detail about accessibility across the wider estate, where the sheer distances involved were the biggest issue for us.

This visit was much easier because we had deliberately planned around the Mansion. Rather than trying to cover the entire estate again, we used Ernie to get there and concentrated on the house.

The shuttle having a ramp, wheelchair space and a choice of forward- and rear-facing seating also makes it considerably more useful than it might first appear.

For us, approaching Shugborough this way worked far better.

It also reinforced something we said after our first visit: there’s no reason to try to see all of Shugborough in one day.

It’s simply too big.

Breaking it into separate visits meant that we could actually enjoy the Mansion instead of reaching it after we’d already walked ourselves into the ground.

Was it worth going back?

Definitely.

On our first visit, the Mansion and Patrick Lichfield’s apartment were the two big things we’d left unexplored.

This time we got to see both.

The Mansion itself had far more interesting little details than I expected — the moving ship clock and book-covered library door were particular favourites — while Patrick Lichfield’s apartment was completely different from the grand historic rooms surrounding it.

And I’m glad somebody left that comment on our first video suggesting that we go back.

Otherwise we might never have discovered that a 36-room home can apparently be called an apartment.

Or, indeed, confirmed that I’m not a vampire.

Both useful pieces of information.

Watch our full Shugborough Mansion visit

Want to come around the Mansion with us — and see what happened when John met Ernie?

You can watch our full visit below, including the Mansion, the moving ship clock, the unusual library door and everything we’re allowed to show before the camera has to be switched off at Patrick Lichfield’s apartment.

Planning your own day out? See our full UK carer ticket and disabled admission directory — carer policies, disabled parking and access notes for every place we have reviewed.