Rattling On...

Sudbury Hall...

Sunday saw us off to Sudbury Hall on a lovely bright, if cold, day. It's about thirty miles from home and a pleasant drive. We went to the Museum of Childhood a few weeks ago when the hall was closed and decided on a return journey to see the rest. I'm glad we did.

I loved this place, it's elegant and stylish and a little understated. If you don't look up...the ceilings are incredible! Many of the interior shots for Pemberley (BBC Pride and Prejudice) were shot here, like Mr Darcy's study and the lovely hallway where Lizzie sees the portrait (not there now!!).

As always I loved the Downstairs, the kitchens and storerooms and such. My favourite room was the little bedroom at the end of the above pictures. Look at the size of the curtain pole...

I've posted lots of pictures on my Flickr if anyone wants more elegance. This Hall is well worth a visit, both inside and out and if you want to travel from the car park in style there's the option...

Sudbury Church was also open as there was a flower festival in full swing. Of course we went and I'll show you that tomorrow...

Calke Abbey...

Yesterday we went to Calke Abbey. It was heaving it down with rain when we set off, very windy and 2^oC. The house is just over 50 miles away and it was a horrendous drive, the roads flooded and littered with bits of tree-some of them quite large. We carried on undaunted thinking it was bound to be better when we got there.

Wrong. Well, it was three degrees warmer but just as windy and rainy. They'd delayed opening the house, and the church and gardens were closed 'due to the weather'. So, don't expect any pictures of the outside of the house, for those you'll have to click on the link and look at some ones taken in lovely sunshine!

Here, then, is a picture tour of the stately home abandoned in the early 1920s and left since then exactly as it was (sort of, explanations to follow)...

You first enter the working part of the yard, with stables and smithy...

After the working yard you meander through a bit of woodland towards the front of the house. I imagine in fine weather it's lovely, there are bluebells and what I think were cowslips but we didn't hang around...

Now we get into the house. It was gloomy and bloody freezing, not much Downton Abbey going on here. This must have been what it was really like back in the day when electric lights and central heating were but fantasies, because there's little of either. The house really has been kept as it was when handed to the National Trust in the 80s. Everything was catalogued and photographed and put back where it was found. The decision was made to keep it as a little slice of time, a country house in decay.

However, it was a little unsound and was going rotten with damp. So some structural work was done, and rot eradicated. Ceilings had to be replaced and even the original cracks were replicated when the new ones were put back in! Wallpaper was taken down, cleaned to kill the damp, and rehung. Hover over pictures for a brief explanation-if there is one...

The house is stuffed with stuff, the family over the generations were avid collectors, to the point of it becoming a problem. The last in the line was obsessed with taxidermy and if he couldn't shoot it himself he bought it in. Not to my taste.

The paintwork is scuffed, the carpets worn, someone loved the colour red- it's all over the place. The girls liked it here, after seeing Mr Straw's House I thought I'd love it as well. But I was lukewarm. Maybe the appalling weather affected the viewing, on a sunny day it would all look different, but then it was raining when we went to Mr Straw's as well. It just didn't have such a human feel to it for me, though it's fascinating all the same.

As things have gone rusty, dusty and mouldy (albeit if it's been cleaned and 'fake' cobwebs put back...really!) so has the house lost some soul. It doesn't, on the whole, look like the family are out for the day and may return at any moment. It's more like a creepy film set. Left me a little depressed to tell the truth.

The restaurant is ok and the grounds look amazing, we'll go back to see those and the church when the weather plays ball. As we left, after first taking a worng turn and driving up to the front of the house (whoops, but the attendant just laughed) we had to go over a cattle grid. It was overflowing with rain water and could just have been a big hole for all we knew.

We listened to the Disney CD in the car and sang along to all our favourites. Supercalafragilistic, expialidocious....

Little Moreton Hall...

On Sunday we went on our latest National Trust visit. This time to a building that's over 500 years old, and is the most crooked little house you ever did see. That's little in the relative sense, stately piles-wise. It is amazing and I wanted to share just some of it with you, so this post is long... but mainly pictures (hover over them for a brief description).

The house has a moat and is arranged round a little cobbled courtyard...

The windows are incredible, all leaded with tiny little panes. The long gallery runs along one side and is a tour de force, it is also a display of wealth.

The wood panelling and carving are beautiful, the walls ooze history, even the floors are interesting. Upstairs it looks like someone has used concrete (which is all cracked from the shifting of the house) but it's the original flooring made from compacted lime ...

The gardens are very attractive but not extensive..

 

And as I said, there's a moat around the house. Which in days of yore might not have been as attractive as it is today...

The garderobe (lavatory) is on the second floor, with an unglazed window, it juts out over the moat and the seat is suspended over fresh air. There's a bunch of lavender on the wall to hide smells and a bucket full of sheep's fleece bits to wipe your bum on. Tres eco. Don't suspect much hand-washing went on either.

The visitor toilets are somewhat less rudimentary and the Hall had the best eating facilities we've encountered so far at a National Trust house. The car park was free and there's a brand new shop and reception centre, very swish.

Elder daughter went on a school trip here when she was around 8 or 9. Since then she has wanted to live there. After yesterday's visit she wants to do so even more! (She'll be 20 next week)

Up in the clouds...

I drove to John Lewis yesterday, it's an hour away and the journey is quite a pleasant one for most of the way.

You leave town on what is considered to be the most dangerous road in Britain, which is where I kept stopping to take these pictures. If you clicked on the link you'll see two others in the top ten lead to my hometown...

I suppose I'm just used to driving on them and know most of them very well, if you want to go anywhere you have no choice but to get used to them! On the whole it's motorcycles and young drivers who have the accidents.

A friend of mine was coming home on this road one day when the car in front of her went over the wall and down a steep hill. She stopped (no-one else did) and was very afraid of what she'd find.

As she got closer she could see a leg hanging out of the driver's window and she called out 'Are you ok?' There was a pause then came the reply. 'Thanks, love. I'm just on the phone to the police.'

I went on my special shopping trip to buy fabric which my Mother is going to whip up into some summer outfits for me. She very kindly volunteered (ahem) to copy something I already own. I can sew. But I wouldn't necessarily wear the finished product in public, though I used to quite happily in the past. I must look for the photos I know are lurking somewhere as proof...

Sudbury Hall...

Yesterday youngest and I went daytripping to Sudbury Hall, which you'll recognise from the inside as it was used for the Pemberley interiors in the BBC Pride and Prejudice series. You just can't escape Jane Austen.

It's 30 miles from home but there the sun was shining,  it was 7 degrees warmer (a full 12C) and not a raindrop in sight. Unlike what we left behind us.

We hadn't gone to see the hall this time, but the Museum of Childhood which is attached to it. It opened at 11 which is exactly when we arrived and it was heaving with small children whose families were letting them run riot, and some not so small ones who were even worse. Why take 10/11 year old boys to a museum and let them play tig games?

I took my camera in and did take a few pictures but the lighting was poor in general and some stuff I found hard to see...

...these bedroom mock-ups were on the ceiling. Frankly this is the sort of thing I find fascinating, but standing with my head thrown back is not my idea of fun. The middle room was most like my 70s experience of childhood. Abba poster on the wall, spacehopper and Scalextric track on the floor. My cousins-over-the-road had such a track (complete with grandstands, crowds and all sorts of other accessories) and we spent many a happy hour racing.

There was quite an emphasis on Victorian childhood with this schoolroom and a fireplace children can actually get into to see what it was like for sweeps.

There were clothes like these mourning outfits, play and party outfits. Lots of Victorian toys like massive dolls' houses, Noah's Arks, tin trains and wax dolls.

Then there was a leap to modern day toys with just a sketching over inbetween with some WW2 toys and such. I think adults would have liked a lot more stuff and a lot more detail, at least I would. The whole place is very geared to child visitors, which is a good thing, but for the cost of entry to these things nowadays there really should be more for those really into social history. Like me.

I would have loved to have seen more room mock-ups with the toys and clothes in them, with much more detailed information. Kids always skip those bits anyway so it wouldn't matter to them. The grounds are lovely and we'll be going back to see the Hall and gardens another time, maybe when more flowers are out.

We had to get back to go to the dentist and of course the nearer to home we got the more the clouds took on a different aspect.

Unsurprisingly it was still raining.

Sunday Scrapbook...

Yesterday Youngest and I had a trip out. The National Trust is dusting off its properties for Spring and we thought we'd get in early.

Sadly only outdoor photography was allowed, due to some of the contents being privately owned and permissions not yet granted.

If you think you recognise some of the views you may well be right. You just might know this place as Pemberley.

Sadly, Mr Darcy wasn't emerging from the lake as we walked around it. Nor were Mr and Mrs Gardiner getting into their carriage by the archway. Nonetheless it's a great day out. Nice toilets, always an indicator of quality. As well as the decent coffee shop.

I shall be returning later in the year, as the National Trust are renovating the Butler's quarters and some Edwardian bedrooms. I went into the just-started butler part and it was fascinating even in that grubby state. I stood and talked to the volunteer for ages (No2 sloped off to look at the 17th century bedrooms) and was the only visitor down there. Obviously Downstairs isn't such a pull to most people!

There's quite a bit of interactive style activity if that's your thing. Dressing up clothes, a stage with chairs lined up and the original 'programme' from 1903. A nursery bedroom full of toys that can be touched and played with; giant dominoes, teddies on the iron bed, a spinning top and large dolls' house.

The other thing that I loved, and which is very unusual, is that you could walk through a lot of the rooms. As in they weren't roped off and you could really look at everything; like the armchairs where the flock had worn off the material as they'd been sat on so many times. Or the Jacobean bed where you could feel the drapes and run your fingers over all the carvings. Great for people like me who like to see original things warts and all, not just the fancy stuff.

One thing, though, don't drink before you go. There has been a bit of subsidence somewhere in the distant past. Floors slope, a staircase lists to one side and many things are a good six inches off level. It's a bit like being on a cross Channel ferry and you feel like you have to compensate by walking on a bit of a tilt.

Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 59

"My dearest sister, now be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know every thing that I am to know, without delay. Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"

"It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."

It would take a strong woman to resist...

Sunday Scrapbook

Yesterday was cold but bright, lovely for a good long walk. Coco and I combined this with taking my (new) computer back to the mothership as it wasn't behaving very well at all. I left it with them for a while then we went back to collect it. For some reason I took it back in the box, meaning it was bulky and a pain to carry...

I now have my internet security back after it mysteriously uninstalled itself during an update, and I am advised not to bother with the browser I was persevering with. It must have crashed on average about every twenty minutes, including each time I typed into the Google searchbox.

Now all I have to do is transfer all my bookmarks across. There's no easy way, it's just a matter of going through the list. The long list. Maybe it's time to do a selective cull of all the 'interesting' things I've bookmarked along the way and now can't remember why!

Tomorrow I'll announce the giveaway winner and hopefully have one of the finished projects to share. Still working on the other...

Jumble...

On Saturday I went to a jumble sale, one of only a handful I've ever been to. I remember the very first one I went to, with my Mother, my across-the-road-Aunty and my across-the-road-cousin. I was maybe eight and he ten or so. It was in a church hall not far from where we lived and was in aid of Boys Brigade funds.

I remember seeing the trestle tables laden with clothes and such, but the most vivid memory is of a potato masher on a stall with kitchen equipment. Kitchenalia has always been a point of interest.

I seem to think my Aunty bought something (cousin was in the Boys' brigade and I was later in the Girls' Brigade) to show solidarity, but my Mother didn't.  She doesn't like second hand, vintage, retro. Unless it's wooden furniture, where she spots the most incredible bargains and works wonders doing them up. She is also a great spotter for me and will happily haul stuff back to hand it over with incomprehension.

Anyway, when we were all leaving my Mother and Aunty started discussing the event. My Mother said she didn't like that kind of thing and it had left her feeling chatty. I'm not sure whether this is a regional thing, but it doesn't mean talkative. It describes feeling itchy and uncomfortable, as if you are suffering an infestation of bugs. I've seen it written in a book once, it was in relation to the trenches in the First World War and so is an old world. But you get the idea of how the jumble sale made her feel.

For some reason this made my Aunty start laughing, they were both giggling and shaking, with tears running down their faces. It was the first time I understood that adults were just the same as children and laughed in inappropriate places. I loved that they found it all so funny, though I couldn't understand my Mother's objections.

You're either vintage or you're not. It's not genetic, obviously!

So, on Saturday, I bagged some great finds. A pristine 12 cup cafetiere for £2, perfect for get-togethers. Some vintage pillowcases, ripe for crochet edging, and a thing for 50p. Not really sure what it is, but I have ideas for its future use.

The church hall where it was held was heaving, they must have made a small fortune from the 30p entrance fee alone. The atmosphere was electric. Bargain hunters and closet antiques dealers in equal measure. You can't beat it for an afternoon's fun, and I never once felt chatty. Except in the conventional sense.

There will be snow on the hills...

I did get out and about yesterday, I went to Leek. I didn't listen to the local radio or read any weather news on line. I mean, obviously there had been a bit of snow overnight, and the car did need quite a bit of elbow grease to shift the ice. But I hadn't realised some roads were closed and others dangerous in places. Like the one I went on, where there were a couple of cars in the ditch where they'd gone off the road on the ice and were on their sides...

I carried on regardless, knowing that the further away you get from here, the better the weather becomes, and the pictures will show you...

It looks like two different countries never mind two counties. The sun was out in Leek, there was no snow or ice but the pavements had been gritted (ahh, the irony) and people were rugged up and complaining they were cold. Good job they don't live here.

The flea market was in full swing and I bought a couple of bits, including a fab 70s cake platter. That the cat jumped onto and is now in bits in the bin...

Back home and I bought the new vacuum cleaner. Much cheaper than the last effort and supposedly a 'pet' machine, as in it picks up pet hair. Frankly as long as it picks up anything at all it will be an improvement, and I'll report back after test driving it.

Dark satanic mills...

The sun put in an appearance yesterday and I went into the garden to see who was out and about. The mouse was in his spot at the end of the garden but too quick for me to get a photo of. But the robin, this is the friendly one, followed me around and kept his eye on me.

So, on Tuesday night I did it. I went along to the WI for a taster session. It's not the local one, it's a few miles away and held in a proper old village hut. I think they must have heard I was going as there was apparently the best turnout they've had for a long time. I have to say I really didn't think they did the singing thing any more, but the President asked 'Could you play Jerusalem, J' and we all arose...

There was a lady there who gave us a lesson in card making, with cunningly folded paper arranged in a spiral. She was a no-nonsense sort (bossy) who had about six pairs of scissors for forty odd women. But we all got it finished in the end. 

Net month is the Christmas party, we have to take a gift for under the tree and the competition is for a handmade card. Guess who'll be entering that one.

I shall give it a few goes and decide whether to join as a full member. To be very honest I had hoped there would be a few more younger members than there were, and of course they are all very traditional  members (not like Kirstie's Disparate HouseWIves from her show the other night). But there you go... it was fun, sometimes unintentionally so, and there were some genuinely friendly ladies there. 

I know it's possible to set up your own branch, and that's very appealing, but I think a working knowledge of the whole affair is desirable if not essential. So watch this space, for now I'm off to re-acquaint myself with the words to Jerusalem. As is JJ, the other new person (an Irish lady) who sat near me and asked afterwards 'What was that bloody song?' 

A bit more retail therapy...

On Saturday it didn't rain and the sun almost came out. Which was good because I had a day out in Manchester where I met up with Emily and Emma for a bit of retail therapy. Yarn therapy really as we were off to a newish yarn shop in the Northern Quarter, Purl City Yarns.

I got the direction to the cafe, where we were meeting, from the internet and it had given me quite a roundabout route, but it did mean I got to see this great mural on the side of a building. The next one along had been demolished so someone has cheered up the space with a bluetit!

I bought some special yarns to make things for myself, but also got loads of chunky for Christmas projects for the girls. They saw me making something for the upcoming Holiday Swap I'm in and said they'd like what I was making as well. I'll know the pattern in my sleep as I made one last year as well. All will be revealed when they're all finished.

On Sunday I went to The Dome to a Christmas shopping event (I went to one last year as well). There didn't seem to be quite as many stalls as last year but the ones there were all excellent and seemed to be doing good trade. I couldn't resist a few things but what I came away with most of was inspiration. A good part of the stuff on sale was handmade and really great quality, but the displays were the things that set them apart. Some people just have a way with presenting things, don't they?

As it was Remembrance Sunday there was a minute's silence when the chimes of Big Ben were played over the Tannoy. There were also some young opera singers there performing occasionally between the christmas music and after the silence one of the sang 'White Cliffs of Dover'. It was very moving. Especially considering what the building used to be in a former life.

All in all a fun weekend. Which is the very best kind...

Sunday Scrapbook

As some people were less than appreciative of yesterday's food recommendations (ungrateful lot) I thought I would take you on the walk Coco and I did yesterday evening...

It was very dark, and we were very muddy by the time we got back home...

Semi Detached Suburban...

 Oh, oh, oh, I was so not disappointed by yesterday's outing! It was exactly, perfectly right up my alley. I took loads of pictures, there was only artificial light so some of them aren't fantastic. But you'll get the idea.

The girls and I drove the 55 or so miles to Worksop to Mr Straw's House...

It was bought by the Straw family in 1923 for about £700 and they paid £100 to have it decorated in the highest fashion of the day. That decor has never been changed or replaced since the day they moved in. 

The Egyptian themed stair carpet was inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb and this one is a replica made for the house so that people can actually walk on it. Even the faded colours were duplicated. I assume the original is in storage.

The kitchen had me hyperventilating, especially the contents of the cupboards-all that vintage packaging was just too much, and it's all exactly as it was left in the house. There's also a large cupboard full of foodstuff in the attic.

The bathroom was spartan to say the least, but I love that cupboard. You can tell two bachelor brothers lived here for the last fifty years of their lives. No TV, no radio. No frills.

The bedrooms reminded me of ours here at home, in a good way. Ok, we don't have peeling wallpaper, but we have tartan blankets, crochet, old fireplaces... I bet lots of people would take the contents of these lock, stock and barrel. I would.

There is Stuff jammed in everywhere. Jam made from the product of the orchard and allotment (still there but partly used for car parking now) is in jars on the floor. The two sons' WW1 uniforms, the old pump vacuum cleaner, the deck chair taken on holiday to the same place every year.

It reminded me far too much of corners of my own home. Far. Too. Much.

In the back garden, past the outside toilets, is the greenhouse. This contains a large collection of cacti and succulents, some of which are direct descendants of the Straws' own collection.

The tea chest in the greenhouse, as with many things in the house, came from the family grocer's business in the town. Mr Straw Senior married into a family that already had a butcher's shop and a pub/inn. They were a well off and well respected local family.

William straw died in 1990, leaving the house and all its contents to the National Trust. Everything is how he left it. The drawers are full and the wardrobes crammed with clothes, including the two bachelors' mother's things, with her bedroom and parlour remaining untouched since 1939 when she died.

The NT volunteers carefully remove everything each winter, clean it and check for damage, then return it to exactly the same place. How I would love that job, looking at the minutiae of someone's life held forever in a time capsule. 

I could go on forever about how much I loved this house, it's so worth a visit if you could get there (and it's very close to the station as well). This is my kind of history and I could move in there tomorrow!

A bit of carpet treading...

On the only decent day this week we went for a trip out to Hardwick Hall, known also to many as Malfoy Manor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

It is a National Trust property full of original tapestries and furniture from the 17th Century, because of which most of the curtains are kept closed and it appears gloomy. Which is a real shame as the windows are magnificent and it should really be a cheery place.

The floors are covered in rush matting, as they would have been all that time ago. It's made locally and sections are spliced in as necessary, producing an interesting effect. It smells lovely as well.

My favourite bits of the house, though, were the ones depicting the 1930s set up of the last inhabitant, Evelyn the Duchess.

The bath mat is gigantic. I want one. Not many mod cons for a Duchess, very frugal in fact and no central heating either. The bedroom was lovely and cosy but too dark to take a good photo.

The dressing room had a lot of her personal effects...

... and period music was playing.

In the rest of the house the rooms are very well set up with very good guides who had interesting snippets. There were games and quizzes and dressing up for younger visitors, and older where the ruffs were concerned! The kitchens are now a cafe and the polished copper pans made me want a kitchen just like that. With the servants...

The gardens and orchards are lovely and you are allowed to wander freely and picnic anywhere. There is also the old Manor House where Bess of Hardwick grew up. It's right on the doorstep and is now ruins but is an excellent contrast of early beginnings against the splendour she achieved through a few judicious marriages!

The drive up to the house through the parkland is long and winding and the views are fantastic.

On the way out, just down the lane, there's a lovely pub where we had lunch. And there's a mill and stone mason's yard you can visit as well. A really good day out. And we are now the owners of a National Trust Family membership, so lots more places to go in the next year I hope.

Better than crop circles...

A nice bit of patchwork for Friday. 

I have to say this looks more impressive in real life, it hasn't photographed particularly well. What I really needed was a helicopter for a nice aerial view.

The moors have been having a bit of a selective trim. They used to set fire to them but (for possibly obvious reasons) this doesn't happen any more and is more of an accidental event these days.

I will be away for a week from tomorrow. I have lined up posts to appear as usual, they are all things I've seen while out and about the last week. I'm not sure I'll have internet access, but please leave any comments you feel appropriate (!) and I'll scour them all on my return. Likewise with my reading of my blog list...