Chatsworth

The last place on our list to visit in The Peak District was Chatsworth. We chose to visit this very popular " house" on our way back to Duston. As this was a bank holiday weekend anyone we spoke to said that the roads would be horrendous so with this in mind we knew that to make the most of our limited time we needed to get there right on opening time. We then would need to be in the M1 1.30 pm so that we could make the two hour trip back in time to take our rental car back by 5pm. Plenty of time you would say, but we understand you can easily have a lengthy delay if an accident was to occur.

The village close by to Chatsworth is Bakewell and we had a quick wander around. This is the home of the famous Bakewell Pudding and we would have liked a bit more time for a better look around.

"Bakewell pudding is an English commonly consisting of a flaky pastry base with a layer of sieved jam, topped with an egg and almond paste filling. There are numerous variations and several bakeries each claim to hold the original recipe. The pudding originates from the Derbyshire town of Bakewell."

The man in the Tourist Information office said that a visit to Chatsworth's Farm Shop was also well worth a visit. We just had time to call in before getting to the house by opening time at 11am. What a great place this is. The 11 th Duchess of Gloucester started this shop to sell produce from their estate. There was such an array of beautifully displayed fresh foods - meats, fruit and veg, cheeses. We couldn't resist filling our wicker shopping basket full of goodies.

We drove on to the 'house' and couldn't believe the number of people that were already parked and looking around. We decided we would start in the house and we made our way through the rooms that are opened to the public.

The following piece is from their website and explains what you can expect to see.


Chatsworth is home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and has been passed down through 16 generations of the Cavendish family. The house architecture and collection have been evolving for five centuries.

The house has over 30 rooms to explore, from the magnificent Painted Hall, to the family-used chapel, regal State Rooms, newly restored Sketch Galleries and beautiful Sculpture Gallery. In the Guest Bedrooms, meet an Edwardian Lady's Maid who will be revealing the secrets of her mistress's suitcase of clothes, or dress up in one of our period costumes.

Chatsworth has one of Europe's most significant art collections. The diverse collection is continually added to, encompassing Old Masters to contemporary ceramics and artefacts from Ancient Egypt, through to cutting edge modern sculpture and computer portraits.

After leaving the house we did a very quick tour of the house we spent an hour or so walking around the massive gardens. Of course my favourite part is always the kitchen gardens and this one was no exception with a large array of vegetables, fruit and picking flowers being grown.

The formal garden with its water features were park like and certainly on a grand scale.

You would like to read more information about Chatsworth click on the website link below. For those of you have read the book about The Mitford Girls, Deborah, the youngest sister married the 9 th Duke of Gloucester and became the Duchess of Gloucester. She was the driving force behind bringing the house back to its former glory after falling into disrepair and then opening it to the public.

Chatsworth house official website




 

Posted with Blogsy

Quarry Bank Mill

The industrial revolution played a major part in England's history and it is at this attraction that you can get to see first hand it's progression. I remember learning about this at High School during Social Studies lessons and it would have been fantastic to have been able to visit and see a place such as this.

 

This was a cotton factory, founded by Samuel Greg in the early 18 th century and it is now a working museum. It showed the whole process of turning cotton fibres into cloth. The various rooms were set up to show the different processes, starting with spinning wheel, a hand loom for weaving, and then onto the mechanisation of the whole process. At various points along the way there were people operating the equipment and explaining exactly what was happening.

The part that interested Stephen the most was the Power Gallery. This showed how water was used and developed over the years to power the machinery. It was particularly hands on for children with lots of opportunities to work with model water wheels or even create their own. In fact throughout this working museum it was very interactive for children: weaving, stamping patterns on fabric, fueling the steam engine.

We joined a guided tour to the Apprentice House. Here we learnt all about the 'apprentices', children who were indentured from aged 9 to 21 years. Ninety children lived in this house and we heard how they lived and worked basically for their keep. According to our guide children working in this factory were much better off than in many other similar places. I don't think I would have liked to have lived in such circumstances. It makes you realise just how lucky we are (and our children) to live in today's world.

We finished our visit to Quarry Bank with a quick walk around the gardens that were part of the Mill owner's gardens. His house was on the same site and there were extensive gardens. The National Trust has spent considerable time on reconstructing these gardens. The kitchen gardens are the latest project and they had recently unearthed a dipping pond. I wasn't sure what this might be, but the information board told us this was used to dip their watering cans into it. Garden hoses of course hadn't been invented.



 

Posted with Blogsy

Tatton Park

We had made arrangements to meet up with our friend Chris and all go off to Tatton Park for a visit. It was lovely to catch up with Chris and to meet her Mum. Chris has been over here helping her Mum move into a new place which is much closer to her sister's place. Actually her sister Kath lives in the next village to where we were camping.

We weren't sure what to expect at Tatton Park but what an amazing place it was. Once again the car parks were full to overflowing when we arrived and the place was buzzing. There was lots of entertainment for children especially in the form of antique merry- go- rounds.

The gardens had to be the highlight us, and especially the walled kitchen gardens and orchards with us all having a very keen interest in growing. Chris and I really love those high brick walls providing shelter for the kitchen garden and would just love someone to build us one for our own gardens!

The park and gardens were extensive and we spent some time wandering along the many paths. One of the highlights listed was the gunnera, a gigantic herbaceous plant that has become an invasive plant in NZ.

Other highlights were the Japanese garden and the sculptures that were all around the park and in the house itself. The theme for the biannual exhibition was Flight of Fancy. There were amazing pieces of art from flying saucers, to half an aeroplane, to an old caravan that took you on a space trip, to large floating balloons.

We completed our visit with a visit to the house. Another huge country house but with this one visiting the kitchens and associated areas of the house made it particularly interesting. This is a great place to visit and we could have easily stayed longer. With children there was even more to do which included a farmyard full of animals.



 

Posted with Blogsy

Lyme Park

There are several places nearby our camping spot that we wanted to explore and all within easy driving distant. Lyme Park was one such place so armed with a picnic lunch we headed off to find it. We are always amazed at how many other people are doing just the same thing and the car park was fairly full when we arrived close to lunch time. Picnic areas are provided so we found ourselves a table and enjoyed our lunch, watching lots of others, especially children enjoying themselves. Lyme Park is on the edge of the Peak District and was once home to the Legh family. In its heyday it was a great sporting estate. Originally a Tudor house, it was transformed into an Italianate palace in the 18th century.

Inside the house there was plenty to see as you step back in time to the Edwardian era which was promoted as its 'Golden Era'. Much of it is interactive and you could read a book in the library, play the piano, dress up and put on a play in the Long Gallery or the children could play in the nursery. The Long Gallery ran the length of one side of the building and was used for exercise on inclement days. Plays and entertainment were also a regular feature of life at Lyme Park with a stage and set being built at one end for the family performers.

 

Lyme Park's other claim to fame is that some of the filming for the BBC's 1995 TV mini serries of 'Pride and Prejudice' was filmed in the grounds. This is the reason for the large numbers of visitors to the park, with statistics showing they have tripled to 91 000 a year.

This screen shot from the series shows Mr Darcy on horse back. (He is in front of the trees to the right.)

This is Miss Elizabeth Bennett's first view of the house and when she's asked by Mr Darcy how she likes it she replies "Very well. I don't think I've ever seen a place so happily situated. I like it very much. (Screenshot from the TV series.)

 

The 'Dutch Gardens' haven't fared so well this summer due to the large amount of rainfall earlier in the summer. The areas of brown in the picture should all be a blaze of colour but the plants had to be removed as they failed to thrive in the wet conditions. This garden also featured in Pride and Prejudice, being where Lizzy walked a full circuit before encountering Mr Darcy.

 

 

The rose garden also seems to have come to the same demise as the Dutch Garden this season and was looking decidedly worse for wear due to a lack of sun.

 

The herbaceous border seemed to be faring better than some of the other gardens. Maybe it was the large bricked wall tucked in behind that was providing some extra warmth.

 

Lyme Park can also be seen in several other TV series and movies. Examples include Brideshead Revisited (1981, TV Mini-series), The Forsyte Saga (2002, TV Mini-Series), Far from the Madding Crowd (1998 TV Movie), and the long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours (TV series, episode 1146, 1990).

 

Our visit was cut short by a very heavy downpour. We had hoped to walk to the 'Cage' up on the hill as it gave excellent views of the park and it's surrounds. Originally it was a hunting lodge nd then later a prison for captured poachers.

The Cage.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Camping in the Peak District

There are just so many places to go and things to see in the UK it is hard to decide where to go. What we have decided though is that we aren't fussed on big cities so we thought another camping trip would be a good idea. Our friend Chris Rance (from Otatara Community Nursery) is also over here at the moment and has been helping relocate her Mum into a smaller place near Manchester. So with this in mind we chose The Peak District and a little village called Hayfield for our base.

Camping grounds and facilities are a little different to the NZ. ones. Many of them are owned by Clubs though non members can use them too but with an extra fee. They provide toilet blocks, and usually a covered area to wash dishes but that is all. So you need to provide for all your own cooking facilities and anything else you may require. This particular place was excellent with friendly helpful staff, who were also camping on site for the season. They had a small shop for a few basics like milk and bread, but what I particularly liked was the herb garden we all were allowed to use.

Our pitch was on a level grass area and was just for tents. Around the perimeter of the camp were powered pitches, many of them with a hard surface and they were for caravans and campers. This year they also had three 'pods', cabin like structures available. You still had to provide everything for yourself except the tent. Probably a good idea, particularly this summer as there has been so much rain.

Our tent belongs to Jessica and Andrew and is a good size, having two rooms. Our equipment is basic but adequate and it is surprising what you can cook on one little burner. This is breakfast one morning. We also did a couple of evening meals but tried out the local pubs for our other meals. It was just a10 minute walk along a footpath into the village.

 

The area is very rural and many of our fellow campers were there to enjoy the numerous walks in the area. We walked one morning up above the camp and got some great views.

 

Another morning Stephen chose to walk on his own much further and up a much steeper path to Kinder Scout. This was the site a protest several years ago when the trampers were going to lose access to many of these areas. He got some magnificent views from up here. One particular point of interest (POI seems to be the new acroymn for this on the Navigation systems!) was a place that the sheep were washed once a year. It wasn't just a place for dipping either. The photo on the info board shows them actually been washed.

We based ourselves in this camp for four nights which was great as we were able to do day trips from here and see some of the local POIs. We were lucky with the weather as rain had been predicted for the week. We had a couple of passing showers one day, and it rained during the early hours of Friday morning but had stopped by the time we were up and ready to pack up. The only downside of this camping trip was that were in the flight path for Manchester airport and the planes went all night,with those landing being particularly noisy. I don't think it would have mattered which campsite we were at, all of the areas we visited during the week were also affected by this very busy airport. (Something for all of you who live in Queenstown when they start wanting to fly in there all night.)

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Visit to Althorp

Today has been the hottest this summer so we decided that a break from the work was a good idea. Althorp is about a 15 minute drive from here so we thought this would be a good place to visit. A picnic was prepared and off we went.

This is the property that belongs to the Spencer family and they open the house and grounds for two months every year. There were plenty of other people making the most of the beautiful day and we joined quite a crowd enjoying a picnic lunch in the designated area,.

 

The Exhibition, which was a celebration of Diana's life was very well done. Unfortunately we weren't able to take photos but we did get to see her wedding dress, a large selection of some of her dresses, videos of her when she was young and lots of other interesting bits and pieces. If anyone signed a condolence book when she died this is where it will now be, a long with hundreds of others.

The inside of the house is typical of these large family mansions and this one included a large collection of paintings, many of them portraits, fine china and furniture all filling large rooms. The family can trace their line back to the 14th century and many of these 'treasures' will have been gathered over a long period. As lovely as much of it was we decided that we are just content with a more modest home.

The grounds are park like with many large specimen trees. The path leads you to the Round Oval Lake, with its island and the last resting place of Diana. At one end a temple has been built in her honour. This is certainly a very peaceful and tranquil spot and lots of people were enjoying the moment, resting on the park benches around the lake.

If you look closely can see the shrine to mark the grave on the island.

 

 

 

We enjoyed our day out, and even though the family are making the most of Diana, she did all touch our hearts and to see her final resting place was special. We even got to see the Earl himself. He was busy signing copies of his book about the Spencer family's 500 years at Althorp in the gift shop.

Posted with Blogsy