Christmas at Carrick Hill #Christmas #CarrickHill #Adelaide

Carrick Hill in Springfield is a time capsule.  Bequeathed to the Government of South Australia by the owners, Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Hayward, most of the furniture, art, crockery and even clothing on display belonged to the Haywards.  It passed to the state government in 1983 after Sir Edward's death. In 1986 it was officially opened to visitors as a house museum.

The home was built from 1937 to 1939, following the marriage in 1935 of Edward Hayward and Ursula Barr Smith. During their honeymoon in England the couple bought a large number of pieces (including staircases and panelling) from a Tudor mansion in Staffordshire called Beaudesert that was being demolished at the time. They wanted to re-create a 17th Century manor house in the antipodes. (facts taken from the Carrick Hill brochure)

I visited Carrick Hill on Friday and fittingly, the home was decorated for Christmas.

The central room in the house, boasts the staircase from an English Tudor Mansion.
The house was designed around this staircase.

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Sir Edward Hayward was born into the family who owned the largest department store in the city, John Martin's.  Hayward started the Christmas Pageant during the great depression in 1933. The pageant began with just 8 floats.  In 2015 the pageant boasted 64 floats and 173 sets. The Adelaide Christmas Pageant has become the largest event of its kind in the world, attracting crowds of over 400,000 and televised to millions around the world. (figures via wikipedia)

The central room at ground level, with dining room, library, sitting room, flower room and phone booth running from it.

The dining room decked out for Christmas

The table set for Christmas lunch.

A Frank Brangwyn oil.

 The Haywards extensive art collection is on show. The collection includes Russell Drysdale, William Dobbell, Nora Heysen, John Dowie and many more local and international artists.  Carrick Hill hosts many art exhibitions through-out the year in the upstairs gallery.

Carrick Hill is home to one of the largest collections of William Morris material in Australia.

I adore this kitchen, particularly the aga stove. 

Original crockery of the Haywards.

"Modern" vinyl flooring.

The view from the kitchen window

Breakfast tray

In the days when you just had to have a separate room for taking a phone call. This "phone booth" leads to the cellar.

Bounty in the cellar.

Library

Sitting room

Sitting room with grand piano.. entertainment in the days before television, computers, smart phones and tablets!

The master bedroom

 Fancy some breakfast in bed?

Just one of Ursula's stylish dresses

This bathroom would have been state-of-the-art in the late 1930s. It even had a heated towel rail.

Not a bad view from the bathroom window.

"His" dressing room... and more William Morris.

Polo anyone?

In the next post I'll show you more of Carrick Hill's gardens and the wonderful "The Art of Gardens and Gardening" exhibition running until 31st January 2016.