Wednesday 25 May
With a booking for the tour of Wentworth Woodhouse organised we were away at a reasonable hour. Arrived early enough to go to the Wentworth Garden Centre for a coffee. This place is a destination. The complex is within the walled garden of Wentworth house, An extensive selection of garden products and a gift shop with everything you don't need but would be nice to have. The restaurant was full both times we were there. Coach tour parties of the over 60's and mothers with young children seem to be the predominant customers. It looked like the restaurant was the main attraction.
The tour of the BIG house started with a brief history which brought us to the present day. The house owner is a London property developer who has been restoring one wing for his own use. The anticipated costs are more than he is prepared to front up with so it is on the market. As you walk through you see that all of the valuable artifacts have been removed leaving only the grandeur of the architecture to enjoy. A massive place and it will be a huge asset to the heritage of England if it can be restored. The real estate agents would describe it as "A doer upper". Well worth the visit and would love to be able to see it again in 10 years. On our return journey we took a different route over the Pennines and ended up in a line of crawling traffic. Eventually negotiated our way onto the ring road around Manchester back to Stockport and a familiar road to Furness Vale.
The tour of the BIG house started with a brief history which brought us to the present day. The house owner is a London property developer who has been restoring one wing for his own use. The anticipated costs are more than he is prepared to front up with so it is on the market. As you walk through you see that all of the valuable artifacts have been removed leaving only the grandeur of the architecture to enjoy. A massive place and it will be a huge asset to the heritage of England if it can be restored. The real estate agents would describe it as "A doer upper". Well worth the visit and would love to be able to see it again in 10 years. On our return journey we took a different route over the Pennines and ended up in a line of crawling traffic. Eventually negotiated our way onto the ring road around Manchester back to Stockport and a familiar road to Furness Vale.
Thursday 26 May
Hit the road again heading South through Buxton to Kedleston Hall, just outside Derby. We entered Ashbourne from a different direction from last time we were there and it wasn't until we hit the main street I realised we had been before and then remembered there was a Waitrose around the corner. Stopped to buy a couple of loaves of bread then into the town center for a bite of lunch. As we left Ashbourne a wrong roundabout exit took us on the circular route to Derby. Road signs had familiar place names and we realised we were not far away from the Trent & Mersey canal where we were last year. We eventually made it to Kedleston hall. I found this the best of the three. Not as big, had all the features of the bigger halls, very light inside so it was easy to see the paintings and sculptures. Trip back was more direct and took us to the Fish & Chip shop for tea.
Thanks Murray for being with us and taking us to these places.
Don't know about Kedelston Hall, will have to look it up, sounds interesting.
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