Photographer to share love of city's manor houses

An exhibition is planned to show off the beauty of two Wolverhampton manor houses.

Photographer Ian Hughes said he wanted to celebrate and contrast Wightwick Manor and Bantock House after paying numerous visits to both over the years.

He described them as "places of calm and beauty and of a time and culture almost forgotten".

His exhibition of photographs and poems will be at the city's cental library, from 3 to 29 August, and he said he wanted to "highlight the beauty all around us in our borough and how lucky we are to have these fantastic places to visit".

Bantock House and its 43 acres of parkland and formal gardens now serves as a museum, which is run by the city council.

It was formerly known as New Merridale Farm and then Merridale House before it was renamed in honour of Baldwin Bantock, who left the property to the people of Wolverhampton in 1938.

Inside, it has been restored to its Edwardian glory and Hughes said: "I could sit in there for hours."

Wightwick Manor, which was built by the Mander family, is famous for its William Morris interiors and other artwork.

Hughes said it was unusual because it came into the care of the National Trust when it was barely 50 years old, which he said was "something unheard of at that time".

"The history of it all is breathtaking," he said.

Hughes said he loved the parks and gardens the two houses were set in.

He also said: "Both locations still have fantastic cafes as well."

He recalled going to visit Wightwick in the 1980s and walking around the ground floor where he was greeted by a "sweet old lady" who he believed to be a volunteer.

She offered him a cup of tea and invited him upstairs to a kitchen - an area which was out of bounds to visitors at the time.

He said it was only later he realised he had been chatting with Lady Mander.

Hughes runs a Facebook page celebrating the history and architecture of Wolverhampton and said the city was "a place rich with history and a renewed vibrant future ahead of it".

He added: "People can show such negativity for the area, when in reality there is so much to be positive about."

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