Petworth house cannot be missed if you’re in Petworth, as it is so large. Parking is available within the grounds but it can get very busy so sometimes there is no room available. It is possible to park your car in some nearby roads. Petworth House offers experience of the historic house, the beautiful grounds with a large pond full of ducks and swans, as well as a deer park. There is a wonderful park with splendid trees and flowers. All is well kept. The house is full of history when you enter and has many old paintings and statues. There is even a very old chapel to see as well as the staff’s kitchen. 10 minute guided tours in some of the rooms are available and there are lots of staff to answer any questions that you may have. Many refreshment cafes, souvenir shops, ice cream stalls and toilets are available.

Wish the 1st floor rooms were available for viewing. I find the concept of it being a private house, charging the entrance fee, banning photography and asking for donations at the same time rather odd. Art collection is very large, lost of beautiful family portraits which are difficult to see high up on the walls. Not enough info folders, I could not get one in the sculpture hall so left with unanswered questions about several pieces there, which was a shame, as I have travelled from London on public transport to see the house (no easy thing).

absolutely stunning building and grounds, one of the national trusts bests imo. the artwork collection was insane, the cafe was banging and the GROUNDS, oh my. Saw so many deer and white stags too

A big house with extensive grounds hosting the largest National Trust art collection. There are major associations with Turner ( as in the film Mr Turner) but other significant artists are present ( I liked the one attributed to Bosch) and there is the famous carved room by Gibbons. Extensive tea rooms. House is a little way & slightly uphill from the extensive car park so ask at reception if one of your party has mobility problems - there is transport available.

The house was beautifully decorated for Christmas, full credit to the staff for putting this together. We used the online guided tour for the house which with the information guides in the room is really interesting. The Deer park walk is really lovely and worth visiting the site for alone.

There is no doubt that Petworth House and Gardens is a fabulous place. Gorgeous views, steeped in history, stunning art. Now the sad bit. There are some amazing paintings in the collection, however, some are hung so high there is no way to see them and the rooms are so badly lit, even those at eye height are hard to see. I understand that space is limited and that artificial lighting is expensive but it is really such a shame. Guides did their best with tiny torches but you could never see the full impact. I wonder if it may be better to reduce the display collection to enable better viewing? The paintings could be on a rotation and that would also draw people back to see something fresh etc.

Overall we felt disappointed with our visit. Firstly the room guides were great and very knowledgeable, so full marks there, however for us there wasn’t enough of a connection and story to the family history. It was like walking through a museum of period art but devoid of any furniture and personality. The highlight was the kitchen with all the pots and pans and cooking technology of the time and the guide brought it all to life brilliantly. Some lovely ancient Roman and Greek sculptures as well as more modern repros. However other stately homes we have visited do a much better job of bringing the family history to life and give you that connection and you leave having learnt something new. We didn’t see any of that at Petworth. Gardens still looking good in January. Some of the rooms are closed in Winter for restoration so we may return in the Summer.

An interesting place, said to house the NT’s largest art collection. We are not art lovers, but found the limited rooms open interesting and well presented. If you like JWM Turner, they have 27 examples of his works. The house itself was also interesting, especially the servants quarters. The woodland walk had welcome Spring flowers showing their heads. Pop into the village too, it has loads of antique and art shops to browse.

We had the best day there and enjoyed the house and grounds immensely my only annoyance was the little ice cream/coffee van I asked for two ice creams in a tub and we're given the smallest scoop I have ever seen. Then charged me £6.60 for them both, absolutely disgusting ripping people off like that. I can buy a huge tub of ice cream in a supermarket for £3.00. won't get caught again!

My friend was disappointed that there was very little furniture to see and we were both disappointed that we could hardly see the majority of the paintings as they were in far too dark a setting, there being no natural light to speak of and no artificial light provision made. Guides shone torches at the eye level paintings which seemed a bizarre way of trying to light them so that an attempt could be made to view them. Whoever is in charge of the paintings needs to visit the National Gallery in London and see how they light and generally give information about their paintings so that all may be studied properly. The information folders provided in the Petworth House rooms are inadequate and confusing to use. My friend found them no help at all, especially since the photographs were so minute and difficult to match to the actual paintings. I thought that many of the paintings by Turner and Gainsborough appeared to be particularly poor examples of their work, so much so that I doubted whether a couple of the works had been correctly attributed. We didn't have time to tour the park grounds but they looked very attractive and a good place for a picnic in good weather.