Our visitors say …

Some comments from the last few years

A most wonderful experience.

I have been wanting to see this property for years. It did not disappoint!

It highly exceeded my expectations.

Our guests from overseas said, ‘it’s much better than Windsor Castle and much better value.’

Thank you – marvellous. 

Fascinating! And so good to see somewhere in its ‘unimproved state’ and especially to see the architectural principles explained.

Very much enjoyed the visit. Fascinating to see how the house was constructed.

Fantastic, peaceful, adventurous for the children.

Yes – it is a very atmospheric building – complete with crows.

Wonderful – a real surprise after walk in the park. Came with a stonemason as part of our group who was amazed.

I have enjoyed the visit immensely. It is an incredibly beautiful place, and it’s amazing to see the work in progress. Me and my family enjoyed the visit very much.

Absolutely wonderful and so much to see/learn from the unfinished house (I am a builder/carpenter!)

More than we ever expected it to be. It is brilliant, very glad we came to see this fascinating house.

The information on the walls was very interesting. I loved the bathroom.

Well presented with great information, well placed but not over-powering.

Clever floor boards & balustrades.

The explanation of the rooms and the finale of the video of what it might have looked like was very interesting.

William enjoyed the children’s quiz.

An outstanding afternoon out – everything – really impressed with the building and interpretation. Particularly enjoyed free access to wander at own pace.

Really brilliant thank you, enjoyed everything.

Thank you – that was fabulous – we must come again.

So fascinating and well explained – visitors from Seattle, USA

Our volunteers

Very friendly welcome from mini bus driver and other staff.

Nice welcome – good just to wander.

Lush community!

Many thanks to all the volunteers (and an excellent lunch!)

Wish I lived closer. Very impressed with all the Trust has achieved.

The volunteers were very kind and helpful and knowledgeable.

Friendly staff (not too much information – just the right amount from them) brilliant. Thank you so much.

What a wonderfully interesting place and what INCREDIBLE volunteers making it work!

The volunteers all clearly love Woodchester and it’s not hard to see why.

From a wheelchair user

Thank you for meeting us at the gate and letting us park by the house.

Guided Tours

Very warm welcome – interesting tour very well presented and kept interest.

So unusual, seeing how built, amazing stories.

Rarity to have building half finished, fantastic guide very informative.

Really enjoyed guided tour, brings place to life.

Maureen was our tour guide and she absolutely made our visit today!

Try and do the tour. Ideal for someone interested in architecture. We wished we’d left longer for our visit.

Excellent guide – who kept even the young children spellbound by relating things to their own lives. Thank you to all – your dedication shows.

Guided tour was excellent – very patient and informative.

Brilliant guide.

Friendly tour, provided lots of information and answered all questions.

Jeremy gave an informative tour.

Fantastic tour by Chris. Thank you.

Roger was great & knowledgeable.

Hazel gave a brilliant tour.

Great historical info from David.

Excellent tour by Maureen – very informative.

Excellent visit and welcome. Richard our guide was very helpful and informative. Thank you.

One of the best tour guides we have experienced. We are grateful for her knowledge.

Jeremy took the time to give us a personal impromptu tour, and was so knowledgable and engaging – thank you Jeremy!

We had a wonderful enthusiastic guide.

Sue and Frances who did our tour were absolutely fantastic- they worked so well together, and were truly delightful to talk to. The house is lucky to have them!

The guide brought everything to life.

Wonderful guided tour with Sarah – thank you – what a star!

Lovely gentleman greeter very helpful with the history…

Learning from the Mansion

Visitor, overheard by one of our tour guides: “Them pointy arches there, that’s Gothic, like”

Refreshments 

Didn’t know this existed – great house, lovely café and staff.

Good food.

Lovely lunch too.

Nice food.

Tea room lovely.

Refreshments – top class.

Charged well for the ice creams.

After the tour we had takeaway drinks and a huge slice of chocolate cake made locally, which was delicious!

The food is provided by another charity and is tasty and great value.

Bats

I love the bats and enjoyed the Bat Room.

Very enjoyable & informative talk on bats.

The bat viewing facilities are the best I have ever seen. Well worth the admission fee and we will definitely go back.

Feedback from a private tour

Dear John

Firstly, thank you so much for the visit to Woodchester Mansion. It was stunning, quite magnificent. Thank you, too, for your wonderful description. I can fully understand why you have a passion for the place (it would be difficult not to have) and that came out in your talks, which very much added life to the building.

Chris Povey, Bells Advisor, Gloucester Diocesan Advisory Committee

What could we improve?

Not much.

Make ice creams free!

More cold ale/beer.

Smell.

Cellar too cold and wet for my liking.

We would have had lunch in the cafe but unfortunately, you had no volunteers that day.   We do depend on our volunteers – if you’re local and can spare a little time, please come and join us.

Less waffle on tour.    … you can’t win, you can only break even!

Toilets.   We used to get lots of justified complaints about our shabby old toilets. But, thanks to a grant from the Enovert Community Trust, our lovely new toilets were installed early in 2021 and are now in use.

More heaters would be lovely in the café.  … new heaters obtained in 2019.

Remove scaffolding from chapel.  Conservation of the beautiful chapel is the ultimate objective of the plans for the future of the Mansion. It depends on the WMT raising the £2.5m necessary for the project.

Sadly, not everyone is happy

A rare complaint – We were disappointed by the visit. All we saw was an empty shell of a building. There was very little to see apart from stone walls, which was no interest to us. Had we known what it was going to be like, we would not have visited.

And finally…

You could charge more.    Be assured that admission charges are reviewed annually by the Trustees and are in line with other historic buildings in the area. We were aware that the pandemic and economic situation put pressure on family budgets and did not increase charges in 2022. In 2023 the adult admission price was raised to £9. Increases in running costs, especially electricity, have forced a further rise to £11 for adults in 2024. This charge is still in line with other local properties.