Upton House and Gardens

Upton House, on Edgehill between Banbury and Stratford-upon-Avon, is a honey-coloured 17th-century house remodelled after 1927 by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted of the Shell oil family, as a 1930s weekend retreat built around his art collection: El Greco, Bosch, Canaletto, Stubbs and Hogarth hang alongside Chelsea porcelain and a rare Tintoretto, with a free Smartify audio tour. Lady Bearsted hired Kitty Lloyd-Jones, one of the first professional women garden designers, and her terraces drop steeply from the South Lawn into an ice-age valley to the Mirror Pool, with herbaceous borders, a bog garden and a woodland walk. Reviewers rate the paintings as worth hours on their own, praise the room hosts, and single out the Pavilion Cafe's coffee and cheese scones. Tips from visitors: collect a house ticket at reception on arrival, as timed entry runs on busy days; pushchairs and large bags stay in the summerhouse by the shop; and the steep steps and unguarded drops mean dogs have little to do here beyond the car park.