Exhibitions

The rich and varied collections at Longleat House have been formed by the Thynne family over nearly five centuries. Our programme of exhibitions give you the opportunity to see items which are not normally on display, including material from the Longleat Archives and Libraries and objects too fragile to display on a permanent basis.

Family banter, playful competitiveness, discreet shared jokes and festive revelry – the exploits of a typical Christmas get-together have changed very little, even when looking back almost 100 years.

Until 4 January 2026, Longleat’s new Christmas exhibition ‘Capturing Christmas at Longleat’ is on display in Longleat House. It presents rare cine film footage shot by Henry Thynne, Lord Weymouth (the future 6^th Marquess of Bath), revealing the joy and whimsy of a family gathering in the Red Library in December 1930. Among the guests is close family friend Violet Dickinson – the subject of three short stories by Virginia Woolf, recently discovered in the Wiltshire estate’s archives.

Along with original drawings and photographs, the exhibition explores the ways Christmas was celebrated at Longleat from the late 1800s through to the end of the Second World War.

Longleat House has long been more than a private residence and has a history of opening its doors for community need. The exhibition highlights some of these unique moments such as schoolgirls of The Royal School skating across the frozen Half Mile Pond in 1940. It also reveals the festively decorated wards of the First World War military relief hospital occupying the House.

Other highlights of the exhibition include drawings of Victorian Christmas scenes by Ronald Searle and Cecil Beaton – also a close family friend – drawn to illustrate stories of life at Longleat written in 1951 by Daphne, Marchioness of Bath.

The exhibition features as part of the estate’s Festive Longleat House Tours, available as an add-on experience during The Festival of Light.