Off to National Trust’s Lyveden New Bield this morning for a wander around. Looks like we were last here back in December 2017 and since then, it’s had a fair bit of money spent on it. Everywhere had received a serious makeover, there was a new car-park and the Manor House was now open to …
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Category:NT
Southwell with Dennis and Sandra
It was another one of our cultural days out with good friends, Dennis & Sandra today (our 13th!). We’ve built up quite a list since 2017, and today we added Southwell and National Trust’s Workhouse (above). Chatsworth House (November 2022)Belvoir Castle (August 2022) Kedlestone Hall (May 2021)Hardwick Hall (August 2020)Castle Howard (December 2019)The Royal Armouries …
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Canons Ashby
Off to National Trust’s Canons Ashby today to meet up with long-time mates, Chris & Gill. Ordinarily, a straightforward journey using the A43, but not so today! It’s F1 Silverstone Weekend starting later and that means only two things – chaos on the main routes plus the local villages seeing an exponential increase in through-traffic. …
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Kedlestone Hall with Dennis and Sandra
We drove up to Kedlestone Hall, near Ashbourne today, to meet up with fellow lovers of ‘days-out’, Dennis and Sandra. We’re building up quite a list of destinations since we started this with them back in 2017. Hardwick Hall (August 2020)Castle Howard (December 2019)The Royal Armouries Museum (March 2019)Bolsover Castle (October 2018)Belton House (May 2018)York …
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Hardwick Hall with Dennis and Sandra
9.55am: We drove the (just under) 90-mile journey to Hardwick Hall today, to meet up with fellow lovers-of-old-buildings and all-things National Trust, Dennis and Sandra. We last visited here back in October 2010 for a Murder-Mystery evening with Ralph and Karen (BTW, the Butler DIDN’T do it!). Hardwick is a spectacular Elizabethan house filled with …
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Calke Walk
We took a picnic to National Trust’s Calke Abbey today. Our last visit was back in May 2011 when the weather was truly atrocious! Luckily, today, it was a little kinder. What makes Calke a bit different from most other NT properties is that its name doesn’t reflect the building itself! As any local will …
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Family Weekend
Roger, Jane and Oliver joined us for the weekend! 😍 Saturday The main event for today was a picnic at Belton House and then a walk around the historic Mansion and Gardens. I think it’s our most oft-visited stately home having been there recently (ish) with with Dennis and Sandra back in May, 2018 and …
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First Visit: Farnborough Hall
Another one our of cultural days out, meeting up with Ian and Ann along the way, heading for National Trust’s Farnborough Hall. Located off the M40 between Banbury and Gaydon, the Grade I listed property (and its gardens) has been owned by the National Trust since 1960, when the Holbech family endowed it to them. …
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A Nagging Thirsk
We’re ‘up north’ for a few daysand taking in the sights! This includes a visit to the Nags at York Racecourse on Thursday! (Extra shirts packed!). I’ve only ever betted on a horse twice before in my life – back in 2004 and again in July 2006 – the former returned me an embarrassment of …
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Worthing or Rust!
Thursday Well, here we are in Worthing, having enjoyed the best journey-here-by-car ever! (maybe an over-statement) – but it was completely incident-free! We left at 8.10am, dropped into the Health Centre at home to leave a prescription; popped-in to Peter J’s for a cuppa in West Wickham and still managed to arrive at our destination …
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The Wedding Belle
It was off to Janine’s Wedding today. Her husband-to-be, Chris is from Ohio, USA, so it’s going to be a true Anglo-American event. The event is at Hedingham Castle (so that’ll please our friends from across the Pond!) and we’re making a few days of it, as the big day isn’t until tomorrow – Friday. …
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A Belter at Belton!
Wow! That’s two days in a row where the weather has been glorious! Luckily, we’d already planned a while ago to meet up with Dennis and Sandra for a day-out (plus a picnic!) at Belton House – and the great weather was now an extra bonus! Last time we were here, back in July last …
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That Lyveden Look!
Post Christmas, it’s always good to blow away the cobwebs and begin to get back into the routine of ‘keeping active’. With that in mind, Chris and Gill popped round and we headed off to National Trust’s Lyveden. We haven’t been there since August 2011! and blow away the cobwebs it certainly did! In fact, …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 6) – Final Day
It’s our last full day here today in Cider Country – and there’s a storm a-comin’! The local forecast paints a very (very) wet picture of this area JUST after lunch. So, with welly weather in mind, we’re going to cram in TWO properties before the wet stuff hits us. On a more positive note …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 5) – Birthday Boy!
Well, here we are – In Somerset for my 61st. It was good to wake up and (when I eventually got a signal) to see all the good wishes via social media. I think for the first time, there were more ‘happy birthdays’ via the ‘interweb’ than by traditional cards. The main event for today …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 4)
First job of the day, was to ask NT to retrieve the monkeys (the brass ones) from all the rooms and sort out the complete lack of hot water. We managed to get through to them on the phone, but they were a bit lack-lustre, and even by the time we got home, we weren’t …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 3)
Today is a cultural marathon, where we’ve planned to take in the following locations. In fact, we squeezed in an extra one, so read on, loyal reader… Muchelney Abbey Somerton Lytes Cary The Royal Naval Fleet Air-Arm Museum They’re all fairly local to here, so we’re not planning to drive further than about half-an-hour from …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 2)
A slightly later start to the day as we realised that the travel clock we use for holidays was an hour behind the rest of the UK. I suspect it wasn’t changed the last time the clocks went forward. No matter, our mission for today is quite simple! – drive to Honiton and then grab …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 1)
After a good night’s sleep and leaving the laptop on overnight to download the photos we’d taken yesterday, I discovered that the router was still at it, having spent all night downloading just TWO! (shown below). For the biggest router I’ve ever seen in my life, it certainly lacked speed! After a hearty breakfast, we …
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Barrington Court – Arrival
Ahh, what a quaint property! No mobile signal and almost non-existent wi-fi (in spite of having the dwelling’s router right next to me). This week looks like it’s going to be fun attempting to post blogs! Sorry reader! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – …
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Picnic at Belton House
With enough rations to last us a month, we headed off to Belton House with Chris and Gill for a picnic and a look round. Built for John Brownlow in the 1680s and home to around 300 fallow deer, we’d last been here around 15 years ago – but as usual, I didn’t remember any …
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Downtown with Newton
What a lovely day! The sun is, at last, shining for more than a few hours – so it was time to make the most of it! With the dust blown off the picnic cutlery (and the XKR!), we assembled the essentials and headed off in the direction of NT’s Woolsthorpe Manor.Woolsthorpe Manor As every …
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Weekend with Ralph and Karen
We set of for Matlock quite early for a Saturday – 7.30am. Hopefully that would give us a good journey and get us there for 9.30. We’re staying over until Sunday when we have to get back for the Plumber! (I seem to have single-headedly destroyed the flushing mechanism in the wet-room loo!) We had …
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Birthday 2014 – Steve Serenaded/Men with Pikes/High Points/Low Points/Swans on the Bed/Pigeon Paranoia/East v West/Wow Factor 11
As the title suggests, this year’s birthday celebrations have been especially memorable. Loyal reader, read on… Even before the celebrations began today, I had a rather unexpected birthday-call the previous evening. The phone rang, and I didn’t recognise the number that came up, nor the voice at the other end. The mystery voice immediately sprang …
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Hidcote Manor Gardens
We drove over to Ian and Ann’s this afternoon. We had lunch at theirs before taking the short drive to National Trust’s Hidcote Gardens. Apparently, we haven’t been there for around 15+ years, but I don’t recall any of it at all – but it was DEFINITELY worth the visit (even though the weather was …
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