Tag Archives: National Trust

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Exploring more than 1000 years of history and heritage in Somerset and west Wiltshire

Well, if you take into account an iconic landscape, Cheddar Gorge, that we drove up on the next to last day, then it’s millions of years. But let’s not quibble. More of that later.

Steph and I have just spent an excellent week (5-13 September) exploring National Trust and English Heritage properties in Somerset and west Wiltshire. From our home in North Tyneside it was a round trip of almost 700 miles (by the routes we took) to the cottage we rented (through Vrbo) in Prestleigh a couple of miles south of Shepton Mallet in central Somerset. An excellent location for moving around this region.

Over the week, we visited nine National Trust properties in Somerset and west Wiltshire (plus Cheddar Gorge that is owned and managed by the National Trust on the north side) and the two on the way south, plus four properties owned by English Heritage.

Once in Somerset, we were rather lucky with the weather, especially over the first four days when there was hardly any rain. The second half of the week was more unsettled, but with judicious use of the weather radar maps and forecasts, we could decide which direction to head to and avoid the worst of the showers. And it worked out just fine.

I’ll be posting separate stories about some of the properties we visited, and at the end of this post I have provided links to photo albums that I made for each one.

Heading south on 5 September, we split the journey over two days, stopping off at the National Trust’s Dunham Massey west of Manchester, and spending overnight at a Premier Inn in Stoke-on-Trent, only a couple of miles in fact from where I attended high school in the 1960s.

Then, the next day (Saturday), we revisited Dyrham Park (also a National Trust property) in south Gloucestershire a few miles north of Bath , a property we had first visited in August 2016 on a day trip from our former home (until five years ago) in north Worcestershire.

Dunham Massey is an early 17th century mansion, home of the Booth (Earls of Warrington) and Grey families. Lady Mary Booth (1704-72), only daughter of George, the 2nd Earl of Warrington, married her cousin Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford in 1736, and their son George Harry (the 5th earl) inherited the estate, which includes a large deer park and extensive gardens, with the estate passing to the Grey family.

Dunham Massey

Dyrham Park was created in the 17th century by William Blathwayt, and has strong links to Britain’s colonial and empire past. Since our first visit, the house has undergone some serious refurbishment after the leaking roof was fixed, and we had the impression that there was more on display in the house today than almost 10 years ago.

Dyrham Park

On the third day (Sunday) we headed east to the outskirts of Salisbury to explore Old Sarum Castle, a hilltop fort that was occupied for at least 5000 years, and where William the Conqueror, post-1066, built a fine Norman Castle. It’s also where the first two Salisbury cathedrals were built, but only the footprint of the second remains. What is particularly striking (apart from the great views over Salisbury and its cathedral spire) is just how much earth was moved to construct the hillfort. The Iron Age ramparts are high and the ditches incredibly deep. Wandering around, there is a deep sense of history over the centuries.

Old Sarum Castle

Returning west from Old Sarum we headed to Stourhead that was built on the site of Stourton Manor in Wiltshire from 1717, by Henry Hoare I, son of Sir Richard Hoare who founded a private bank in 1672, now the UK’s oldest private bank and still in the ownership of the Hoare family after 12 generations.

Henry I began construction of a large Palladian mansion, but died before it was completed. It was his son, Henry II (also known as Henry the Magnificent) who made alterations to the fabric of the building, filled it with treasures, and created Stourhead’s world-famous garden.

Stourhead

On Monday we headed northeast into Wiltshire once again to visit Lacock and The Courts Garden. And as I was plotting a route home on Google Maps I discovered that the preferred routed passed within a couple of miles of Farleigh Hungerford Castle, so we made a detour there.

Lacock is a fine country house built on the foundations of a medieval abbey, and is full of the most wonderful treasures. It was the home of 19th century polymath William Henry Fox Talbot (right) one of the inventors of photography, developed through his keen interest in botany. There is an interesting museum at Lacock celebrating Fox Talbot’s work. On reflection, this was one of the best visits of the week. The National Trust also owns most of the houses in Lacock village, and after visiting the Abbey we took a short walk around. As you can see from those photos, it’s no wonder that the village has served as the backdrop for numerous film and TV productions.

Lacock

The Courts Garden in Holt is a delightful English country garden, divided into a number of ‘rooms’. Major Clarence Goff and his wife Lady Cecilie bought The Courts in 1921, developing the garden very much in line with the ideas of renowned horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll. Major Goff gave The Courts to the National Trust in 1944, but he and his daughter Moya remained life tenants at the property. In the mid-1980s, the Trust began to take a more active role in management of the garden.

The Courts Garden

Construction of Farleigh Hungerford Castle began around 1380, and it remains one of the most complete surviving in the region. Over the centuries it became an elegant residence, and was lived in until the late 17th century. There is remarkably well-preserved chapel with wall paintings and painted tombs, and another with elegant marble effigies of Sir Edward Hungerford (d. 1648) and his wife Jane.

Farleigh Hungerford Castle

On Tuesday we headed south, no more than 23 miles from our holiday cottage, to visit three properties close by: Lytes Cary Manor, Tintinhull Garden, and Montacute House.

Lytes Cary Manor dates from the 14th century, but has been added to over the centuries. The Lytes family finally sold the estate in 1755, and it was occupied by numerous tenants subsequently until Sir Walter Jenner and his wife Flora purchased it in 1907. They added a west wing, and designed a garden inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement. The house was left to the National Trust in 1947, and is filled with their personal possessions.

Lytes Cary Manor

Tintinhull Garden was the work of two 20th century gardeners, one amateur the other professional, around a 17th century house (not open to the public). The property was bought by Phyllis Reiss and her husband, Capt. F.E. Reiss in 1933. Phyllis died in 1961 and left Tintinhull to the National Trust. Twenty years later renowned gardener Penelope Hobhouse (right) took on the tenancy of Tintinhull and built on Reiss’s earlier garden design.

Tintinhull Garden

Montacute House is an elegant Elizabethan Renaissance country house, completed in 1601, and just a few miles from Tintinhull. Only the ground floor is currently open to the public since conservation work is making the stairs and upper floors safe to view. Most of the artefacts and paintings on display have been assembled by the National Trust, and they have been fortunate to acquire many portraits of the Phelips family who built and occupied Montacute. The house is surrounded by extensive gardens. However, we didn’t explore the gardens to any extent since thunderstorms were threatening.

Montacute House

The following day we made the longest excursion (a round trip of 110 miles) to visit Dunster Castle and Cleeve Abbey on the north Somerset coast west of Prestleigh. It was a miserable drive there and back: lots of traffic along narrow and winding trunk roads. But the grandeur of Dunster and the exceptional preservation of Cleeve made up for the driving.

Dunster Castle was originally founded after the Norman conquest of 1066 when William I gave the land to the de Mohun family who built first a timber castle on an earlier Saxon mound, during the Norman pacification of Somerset. Only the 13th century gatehouse remains from the original castle. Much of the medieval castle was demolished at the end the First English Civil War in 1646. Over the centuries Dunster became the elegant country residence of the Luttrell family who had lived there since the mid-14th century, with views over the Bristol Channel and surrounding hills. The family lived at Dunster until 1976 when it passed to the National Trust.

Here is a 5 minute potted history of Dunster Castle.

Dunster

Cleeve Abbey, just a few miles east of Dunster, was founded in the late 12th century by the Cistercians. It is remarkably well preserved, with many buildings more or less intact. In fact it was acquired by George Luttrell of Dunster Castle in 1870 with the intention of preserving what remained and making it a tourist attraction. Only the footprint of the abbey church remains after the abbey was suppressed in 1536 as part of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. There is a floor of exquisite 13th century tiles.

Cleeve Abbey

On Thursday we headed northwest to explore two National Trust properties southeast of Bristol and north of Weston-Super-Mare.

Tyntesfield is one of the most opulent houses we have visited. Victorian Gothic Revival in design, it was built by William Gibbs (right, 1790-1875) who made a fortune mining and exporting guano (bird poo) from the Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru, about 235 km south of Lima, for use as fertilizer in British agriculture. As they say in Yorkshire, ‘Where’s there’s muck, there’s brass‘ (meaning ‘dirty or unpleasant activities can be lucrative’). The house has an enormous collection of family possessions, more than 70,000 apparently. Opulent as it was, Tyntesfield was a family home. It was bought by the National Trust in 2002 as the house and estate were in danger of being auctioned off piecemeal.

Tyntesfield

A few miles west of Tyntesfield stands Clevedon Court, a mid-14th century manor house and home of the Elton family since 1709. The National Trust owns the buildings, but the family has responsibility for the interiors and possessions. While there are many pieces of furniture and paintings and the like to attract one’s attention (including a collection of rare glass), what particularly grabbed mine was the fabulous collection of studio pottery made in the Sunflower Pottery close by the house by Sir Edmund Elton, the 8th Baronet. I’ll have more to say about this collection in a separate post.

Clevedon Court

Although not the quickest route back to our cottage, we took a diversion to drive through limestone Cheddar Gorge, somewhere that has been on my bucket list for many years. It’s three miles long and, in places, 400 feet deep. From the number of commercial outlets at the bottom of the Gorge, it’s a location that must receive an overwhelming number of visitors each year.

On our last day, 12 September, we headed east again to Old Wardour Castle, which was built in the 1390s for John, Lord Lovell. It’s an unusual hexagonal castle with a similar courtyard. It was partly demolished in the English Civil Wars in 1644 when Henry, Lord Arundell accidentally detonated a mine. He was the owner of the castle and was attempting to retake it from Parliamentary Forces. In the late 18th century the 8th Lord Arundell abandoned Old Wardour Castle and built a country house, New Wardour Castle, close by which can be seen from the top of the south tower. Much of the castle is accessible, and English Heritage has placed many information boards around the site in addition to a possible audio tour. They constructed a banqueting hall beside the old castle as somewhere to entertain guests visiting the ruin.

Old Wardour Castle

And that was the end of our visits. We departed early the following morning (Saturday) for the long haul north to Newcastle, with a couple of stops on the way. It took less than hours, and we were home by mid-afternoon, reflecting on a very enjoyable week in Somerset and Wiltshire, a part of the country that we knew very little about before this trip.

Photo albums:

 

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Trust in the landscape . . .

Regular readers of my blog will know that I often write about visits that Steph and I have made to National Trust properties since we became members in 2011. Most of these visits have been to the grand (and not-so-grand) houses that the Trust owns, like Cragside in Northumberland, Belton House in Lincolnshire, Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, and Kingston Lacy in Dorset to mention just four of the grandest that we have visited (clockwise from top left).

The National Trust manages >600 properties across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. But I guess that many overseas readers may not realise that the National Trust is also one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, with almost 250,000 hectares of farm land and 780 miles (1,260 km) of coast.

Besides properties like Cragside, Seaton Delaval Hall, Washington Old Hall, Crook Hall Gardens, and Souter Lighthouse here in the northeast of England, the Trust also manages large stretches of the Northumberland and Durham coasts (including the Farne Islands), Penshaw Monument, Hadrian’s Wall, and where we were last week, Allen Banks and Staward Gorge, just 10 miles west of Hexham off the A69 (which connects Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle).

Allen Banks (and Staward Gorge) is a deep valley of the River Allen, that flows north from the Pennine uplands, to join the River South Tyne less than half a mile away. Close by is Ridley Hall, originally a 16th century property that has been redeveloped several times over the centuries, and the building standing there today dates from the mid-18th century and the late Victorian period. Ridley Hall is now a residential and conference center.

Allen Banks was part of the Ridley Hall estate, and it was in the early 19th century that Susan Davidson (nee Jessup, and daughter of the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and a family link to another National Trust property, Gibside in Co. Durham) laid out the paths and trails along the river. Today, Allen Banks comprises some 250 ha of ancient semi-natural woodland that is a haven for wildlife, and is noted in Spring for its carpets of bluebells and wild garlic or ramsons (Allium ursinum).

Our walk (the orange and brown trails on this map) last week south from the car park (which used to be the walled garden of Ridley Hall) was along the west bank of the River Allen. There has been little rain for the past few weeks so the river was running quite low. Just beyond the car park there’s a fairly steep but short climb and thereafter until we reached Plankey Mill beside the river, the footpath runs more or less along the flat, with just a few moderate inclines. It was around 4 miles in total, as we came back to the car park along the same route.

But what a joy to be wandering through these woods in the late Spring just as all the magnificent beech trees were coming into leaf.

There’s a sturdy bridge across the Allen at Plankey Mill, and there we sat and watched a dipper scurrying among the rocks.

We first visited Allen Banks in the middle of October 2022, and took the footpaths on the eastern bank to reach Morralee Tarn (the purple route on the map). it’s quite steep in places, and we did lose our way since we didn’t have the map with us, and assumed the tarn would be at the top of the rise. In fact it’s half way up. I don’t recall seeing any signposts, although once we encountered the path it was clear which way we should have been headed.

Once back at the car park last week, we enjoyed a picnic in the shade of one of the beeches, before setting off on the A69 back to Newcastle. It’s certainly an easy excursion to Allen Banks. The car park holds about 30 years, and non-members of the National Trust must pay a parking fee. There is also a toilet on site.

Allen Banks – well worth a visit.

 

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400 years of prosperity . . . then along came Henry VIII (Updated 4 April 2025)

Founded in the early 12th century, Fountains Abbey – lying alongside the River Skell just to the southwest of Ripon in North Yorkshire – became one of the most prosperous of the many Cistercian abbeys in Europe.

However, in 1539, Henry VIII and his henchman destroyed Fountains Abbey at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. With its wealth plundered, and the lead roofing removed and sold, Fountains Abbey soon slipped into complete disrepair and became a ruin – a ghost of its former glory. Today the ruins, cared for in a partnership between the National Trust and English Heritage, receive hundreds of thousands of visitors. I wonder if, like me, many of them wonder what it must have looked like in its heyday, and perhaps, in the silence, imagine for a fleeting moment the plainsong of monks at prayer.

But the community at Fountains comprised both monks and lay people who tended the fields and looked after flocks of sheep (the Cistercians built their wealth on wool) leaving monks time for daily mediation. The abbey also took in visitors and the sick, and several of the ruined buildings were used for this purpose. Today there is a small museum in what was once the Porter’s Lodge, with a timeline of the abbey’s development and ultimate downfall. At it’s dissolution it was valued at around £1160, the equivalent today of tens of millions of pounds.

Most of the buildings have lost their roof, but one – the Cellarium (storeroom or undercroft) – has an impressive and beautiful vaulted ceiling. Whether there originally was glass in the windows, I’m not sure although I would expect so.

Close-by are the Guest House Bridge and monks’ latrine building – the Reredorter, strategically positioned over the River Skell in which effluent flowed away, without contaminating any sources of drinking water.

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The Refectory opens on to the Cloister, across from the Church and its impressive Tower.

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And then there’s the Church and Tower, dominating the whole site. No wonder that Fountains Abbey has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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In the 18th century, the pools and gardens of Studley Royal were created to the east of the abbey ruins, where visitors could stroll and take in the views. At another Cistercian Abbey – Rievaulx – not that far away from Fountains Abbey, a viewing terrace was also built in the 18th century to facilitate access to the abbey ruins.

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When we first arrived at Fountains there were several parties of school children, a number of whom were making the most of being in the open air, running around and making rather a cacophony. After about 20 minutes, however, peace descended and we could then appreciate the magnificence of this ruined abbey in the relative silence it demanded. Very spiritual.

I wrote this post just after we made our first visit to Fountains Abbey in July 2013. And then, the following year at the end of March, we stopped by on our way north to visit our daughter and her family in Newcastle.

And although we moved to the northeast over four years ago, we hadn’t made another visit to Fountains until a couple of days ago on the 2nd.

On both previous occasions, the weather was overcast, and on the March 2014 visit particularly cold. Not so this week. With a promising weather forecast ahead of the journey south (a round trip of 152 miles), we set out from home around 09:15 arriving at Fountains just before 11:00. In time for a welcome cup of coffee in the National Trust’s excellent restaurant.

While there was some low cloud and mist on the drive south, it didn’t last much south of Durham on the A1(M). We did wonder whether the weatherman had got it wrong. Oh ye of little faith!

It was a glorious day, hardly a cloud in the sky, and although there was a cool breeze at times, it was a perfect Spring day.

And how different the ruins of the abbey looked in the bright sunshine, and the water gardens at Studley Royal. Here is a small selection of photographs I took on Wednesday. There’s a full album of photos here.

 

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Unsurpassed beauty, nature, and thousands of years of history: the value of our heritage charities

For many years, Steph and I toyed with becoming members of the National Trust. But as we were living overseas, and only coming back to the UK each year on leave for just a few weeks, we didn’t think it was worth the membership cost.

However, when I retired in April 2010 and we moved back to the UK, we became members in February 2011. Since then, we have visited 153 properties, mostly historic houses and gardens, but also some of the most beautiful landscapes protected by the Trust, such as the White Cliffs of Dover and the Durham coast. 

We received gift membership of English Heritage (which cares for 400 historic places) at Christmas 2014, and made our first visits as members by April 2015. We had visited Witley Court, Worcestershire near our home in Bromsgrove several times before becoming members, and Belsay Hall, Dunstanburgh Castle, and Rievaulx Abbey when visiting our younger daughter in the northeast of England. Now that we live near Newcastle upon Tyne, we have in fact explored more English Heritage sites than National Trust locally; compared to further south, there are relatively few National Trust properties here.

Visiting these heritage sites gives us a purpose to get out of the house, benefit our physical and mental welfare, and to explore and learn more about the history of this nation of ours.

Over recent years, we have also taken week-long breaks or longer in various parts of the country to visit many of the heritage properties there. Such as Scotland in 2015, Northern Ireland in 2017, Cornwall in 2018, Kent and East Sussex in 2019, Hampshire and West Sussex in 2022, North Wales in 2023, and East Anglia in 2024.

This map shows all the National Trust and English Heritage properties we have now visited. You will have to zoom in to see more of the detail. There are also links to properties managed by partner organizations like the National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, and Cadw in Wales, as well as a few other sites not affiliated to any of these.

On this page, you can find a list of all 239 properties we have visited, by region, with links to a blog post I wrote, perhaps a photo album, or the official website. In any case, my blog posts are lavishly illustrated by my own photographs. There are also regional maps.

Just under a year ago, I wrote about some of the favorite places we had visited. Today’s blog updates the numbers somewhat.

The National Trust was the vision of its three founders in 1885: Octavia Hill, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, and Sir Robert Hunter.

Last week, on 12 January to be precise, the National Trust celebrated its 130th anniversary, and launched a 10-year strategy to 2035, People and Nature Thriving.

Today, the National Trust looks after more than 250,000 hectares of farmland, 780 miles of coastline and 500 historic places, gardens and nature reserves.

And despite the best (or worst) efforts of campaign group and forum Restore Trust to undermine the credibility, management, and success of the National Trust as a charity, the National Trust is overwhelmingly supported by its members (as evidenced from the support at last November’s AGM held in Newcastle), and provides a warm welcome for its thousands of members and visitors at all its sites.

As I was drafting this post, I realised that I’d first visited a couple of properties, Dovedale in Derbyshire and Little Moreton Hall near Congleton, in Cheshire more than 70 years ago, and another, Biddulph Grange, decades before the National Trust acquired the garden.

The Stepping Stones in Dovedale. That’s me, on the right beside my mother, along with my brothers and sister and cousins. I reckon this photo was taken around 1951.

My father was the staff photographer at the Congleton Chronicle, and I remember visiting Little Moreton Hall with him when he took this photo and others of the Manley Morris men in 1954.

The Manley Morris Men at Little Moreton Hall on 8 May 1954.

As to Biddulph Grange, Dad (and Mum) would visit the hospital on Christmas Day and take photos of Santa visiting the wards. Even after we moved to Leek in 1956 and Dad was no longer with the Congleton Chronicle, they would return to Biddulph Grange each Christmas until the early 1960s.

And attend some of the social functions held there for staff and friends. When Steph and I visited Biddulph Grange together for the first time in 2011, there was on display an album of photos about the previous history of the property as a hospital. I recognised many as taken by my Dad. Including this one at a staff summer dance. My mother is standing, fifth from the left, on the fourth row. I snapped this one on my phone.

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That was the year that was . . .

New Year’s Eve, and another year coming to a close.

We just celebrated our fifth Christmas here in the northeast, on the eastern outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne and a few miles inland from the North Sea coast. I thought I’d take this opportunity to look back on some of our 2024 highlights.

In the walled garden at Cragside, a National Trust property near Rothbury in Northumberland, in early December.

We’re both now in our mid-70s and fortunately keeping in reasonably good health. Steph has her daily yoga session before breakfast. I try (but don’t always succeed) to take a daily walk locally. As often as possible—weather-permitting—we head out to explore more of the glorious landscapes here in the northeast of England.

This past year, we’ve explored some new beaches just 10-15 miles north, at Cambois (pronounced Ka-miss) and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, as well as returning to one of our favorite haunts: Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre, where there is always an abundance of bird species to observe. And it was there, around August, that I was able to tick one bird off my ornithological bucket list: a kingfisher, that we watched for almost 30 minutes from the Wildlife Centre café, as it flew from branch to branch beside the lake, occasionally diving for fish. What a sight! It’s only taken me almost 70 years!

On the beach at Newbiggin at the beginning of November

At the end of June we headed south of the River Tyne into Teesdale to visit one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the country, at High Force on the River Tees.

Afterwards, we headed up to Cow Green Reservoir in the hope of seeing some of the special Teesdale flora there, but they were past flowering. But we did enjoy crossing over into Weardale to the north, and exploring upland landscapes that were new to us.

Crossing north from Teesdale into Weardale

In mid-August we set off early one bright and sunny morning 55 miles north towards the border with Scotland, to visit four ancient sites. First of all there was the site of the Battle of Flodden Field, fought in 1513 between King James IV of Scotland and King Henry VIII of England, and in which James was killed.

The site of the Battle of Flodden Field. near Braxton Hill.

From there we headed to the Duddo Five Stones Circle, dating from the Neolithic/Bronze Age, and from where there are panoramic views of the Cheviot Hills to the south and the Lammermuir Hills to the north.

Then it was on to two castles managed by English Heritage at Etal and Norham, the latter overlooking the River Tweed, which is the border between England and Scotland. In fact, all four sites were within an easy 10 miles of each other, but it was nevertheless quite a full day. I wrote about those four visits in this post.

There is just a handful of National Trust properties in the northeast, among them Gibside (west of Newcastle), Seaton Delaval Hall (close to home), Wallington, and Cragside, all of which we visited this year.

Each Christmas we try to visit one of Trust properties to see their Christmas decorations. And this year it was Cragside and Seaton Delaval in early December, where there was the most enormous bauble hanging from the ceiling of the main hall (which was destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 19th century).

Other excursions south of the Tyne took us to York in early March to meet up with my nephew Nicholas and his wife Metta from Edmonton, Canada. Nicholas is the younger son of my late elder brother Edgar and wife Linda. Philippa joined us on this trip as she hadn’t seen Nicholas since he was a small boy. We enjoyed a satisfying pub lunch before taking a walk around the city walls.

In April, we headed south again, calling in at Mount Grace Priory for a welcome cup of coffee before heading on to our destination, Byland Abbey. En route, we stopped off at the Church of St Mary the Virgin beside the A19 trunk road south that we’d often passed but never taken the opportunity to stop. I wrote about both visits in this post.

The west front of Byland Abbey

We have to travel much further afield now to find National Trust and English Heritage properties new to us. So in September we spent a week in East Anglia, visiting twelve properties over six days. I wrote about that trip here. We rented a small cottage on a farm near the Suffolk market town of Eye.

It’s hard to choose a favorite property, but if ‘forced’ to it would be Blickling Hall. What an awesome view along the gravel drive to the entrance of this magnificent Jacobean country house.

Our big trip of the year was our annual visit from early May to June (just over three weeks) to stay with Hannah and family in St Paul, Minnesota. After our last road trip in 2019 I had wondered if we’d make another one. But nothing ventured nothing gained, we decided to hit the road again, crossing Utah and Colorado, and visiting some of the best national parks and enjoying some spectacular desert and Rocky Mountain landscapes. You can read about that trip in this post.

Flying into Las Vegas, we immediately headed to the Hoover Dam, then traveling north to Zion National Park, and on to Bryce Canyon National Park. Heading east we visited Arches and Canyonlands National Parks near Moab in eastern Utah. Then we crossed over into Colorado taking in the ‘Million Dollar Highway’ south through the San Juan range before arriving at Mesa Verde National Park. From there we headed east to Denver for the flight back to Minneapolis-St Paul.

Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Zion NP
Zion NP
Zion NP
Bryce Canyon NP
Bryce Canyon NP
Arches NP
Arches NP
Arches NP
Canyonlands NP
Canyonlands NP
Ouray and the start of the Million Dollar Highway
The Million Dollar Highway
The Million Dollar Highway
Mesa Verde NP
Mesa Verde NP
I-70 to Grand Junction, CO
Chimney Rock National Monument
Chimney Rock National Monument
Chimney Rock National Monument
Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River

Without doubt Bryce Canyon National Canyon was the highlight of the trip, but only just ahead of all the other fascinating places we visited.

We had a delightful time with Hannah, Michael, Callum (then 13), and Zoë (12), and their doggies Bo and Ollie, and cat Hobbes (sadly no longer with us).

Enjoying the warm weather in St Paul, we spent much of our time relaxing in the garden, taking walks around the neighbourhood, or sitting on the front patio in the late afternoon/early evening just watching the world go by on Mississippi River Boulevard (Hannah’s house is just 50 m from the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River), savouring a gin and tonic (or two).

At the end of July, Callum and Zoë flew over to Newcastle to spend a couple of weeks with us, but more importantly to hang out with their cousins Elvis (now 13) and Felix (now 11), Phil and Andi’s boys.

Arrival at NCL on 25 July

They all went camping (a first for Callum and Zoë) to Bamburgh on the north Northumberland coast, and we spent a day with them.

Enjoying fish and chips
At Souter Lighthouse
Beach fun at Bamburgh
Beach fun at Bamburgh
Noodle and Rex
Zoe, Elvis, Felix, and Callum
Saying goodbye

All too soon, their visit came to an end, but it seems plans are afoot for them to repeat the visit in 2025.

We enjoyed a couple of outings with Elvis and Felix during the year—they are so busy with all their extracurricular activities—to Belsay Hall, and we enjoyed a performance of the Alice in Wonderland pantomime in Newcastle just before Christmas.

We spent Christmas Day with Phil and Andi and family followed, on Boxing Day, by a brisk walk at Souter Lighthouse and Marsden Beach.

I’m sure there must have been other things we got up to but I don’t recall. These have certainly been many of the year’s highlights.

So as the year comes to an end, I’ll take this opportunity to wish all my followers on this blog (and others who come across it by chance) A Happy, Peaceful, and Prosperous New Year 2025!

My blog activity was much reduced this past year, just 30 stories posted with 46,000 words compared to previous years, although on average each post was longer.

I’m not sure why I’ve been less productive. While I felt quite elated mid-year about the General Election win by Labour, having booted the Conservatives out after 14 years in power, I have to admit to becoming rather depressed at the beginning of November when Donald Trump reclaimed the US presidency. His occupancy of the White House does not bode well for 2025.

 

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Christmas at Cragside

We first visited the National Trust’s Cragside (near Rothbury in central Northumberland)—home of Victorian engineer, industrialist, inventor and entrepreneur William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (right)—in 2011, not long after we became members of the National Trust. Since we moved to the northeast in October 2020, we have been back there several times, most recently yesterday to see how the house had been decorated for the Christmas season.

Each December over the past 13 years, we have visited one or more National Trust properties to enjoy the seasonal decorations that have become part of the Trust’s calendar. Some very traditional, others a little more quirky, whimsical even, and perhaps not to everyone’s taste. I’m surprised some of the Christmas displays haven’t already compelled advocates of Restore Trust [1] to reach for their pens and fire off a letter of complaint to The Telegraph!

But we enjoyed our visit to Cragside, and the staff had gone to great lengths to open up several rooms, and brought the Spirits of the Forest inside.

“Imagine that the Armstrongs’ servants have decked the halls and trimmed the trees for their jolly festivities, but as day becomes night, the House falls under an enchanted spell.  The carefully cultivated landscape has gone wild and is reclaiming the House. Rooms are bursting with trees, woodland animals are roaming the halls, foliage is growing down the furniture and the enormous marble fireplace in the Drawing Room is being transformed into a cave by the crag” (Source: National Trust website).

Inside the house, National Trust staff and volunteers (especially Yvonne and Sandy on the door) gave everyone a warm welcome.

On the ground floor, we followed a route through the butler’s pantry (champagne on ice), the kitchen (where someone had been busy making mince pies), into the dining room (where a tree had reclaimed the dining table), and the library where Armstrong peered down from the wall at the havoc that the Spirits had inflicted on his domain. I wonder what he would have made of it all? I hope he would have been impressed by the lengths the staff and volunteers had gone to bringing Christmas cheer inside.

The entrance hall
Butler’s pantry – champagne at the ready!
Kitchen
The dining room
the dining room
Someone’s been at the prot
The library
The library
Hallway

There’s one feature in the dining room that has always attracted my attention. Either side of the fireplace are two pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows.

Moving to the first floor, the main staircase was sheathed in foliage and lights, but that didn’t prepare for the spectacle to come in the Gallery and Drawing Room.

The Gallery (normally lined with marble busts and cases of stuffed birds and other natural history elements) had become a forest, with Christmas trees on both sides, and the occasional owl making an appearance. The busts had been left in place to peer through the foliage.

Cragside’s Drawing Room is impressive. It must be 30 m long at least, 15 wide, and heaven knows how high, with a glass roof allowing diffuse light to enter. The walls are lined with portraits of all sizes. But this Christmas it had become a cave, with a stream flowing through. There was even an otter peaking out from under the stream’s bank.

On 28 November, 2000 lights on a 42m giant redwood close to the house were switched 0n. Although the lights were on during the day, they can hardly be seen in this image on the right.

After enjoying the house, and the weather continuing bright and calm, we headed across the estate on foot to the formal garden. And afterwards, we took the Carriage Ride, stopping for a ‘picnic lunch’ (in the car) overlooking Nelly’s Moss Lakes (which Armstrong built to provide a head of water for the hydroelectricity he installed in the house).

National Trust Cragside

Then, by about 14:45 we completed the Carriage Ride circuit, and headed back home, about 30 miles south.

This is the link to more photos in an online album.

[1] Restore Trust is a British political advocacy group which seeks to change policies of the National Trust. The group has aimed to bring resolutions to the National Trust AGM in an effort to restore the [National] Trust to what it sees as “its core purpose”, and has criticised the National Trust’s work on rewilding and social inclusion which Restore Trust’s organizers consider to be “woke” (from Wikipedia).

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Time traveling through the east of England

Steph and I returned recently from a very enjoyable week discovering ten National Trust (NT) and two English Heritage (EH) properties in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire.

We’d booked this holiday way back in February, staying in a small cottage (The Bull Pen) on Hill Farm, Suffolk, 8 miles south of the market town of Diss (which lies just over the county boundary in Norfolk).

The Bull Pen was ideal for two people. A bit like Dr Who’s Tardis really, deceptively spacious inside.

It was a long drive south from Newcastle: 289 miles door-to-door, on the A19, A1/A1(M), A14, and A140.

But we nearly didn’t get away at all. To my dismay, I discovered that the car battery had completely drained overnight. No power whatsoever! I have no idea how that happened.

Anyway, a quick call to the company that provides our maintenance and call-out contract, and a patrol man from the AA was with us by 08:30. Diagnosing a dead battery (but no other indicative faults) he fetched a new battery from a nearby depot, and we were on the road by about 09:45. Not too much of a delay, but with my wallet lighter by £230. Unfortunately, battery issues were not covered by our maintenance contract.

That wasn’t the end of our travel woes, as I will explain at the end of this post. On the way south (and on the return) we encountered significant hold-ups along the way. We finally reached our destination just before 17:00.

We had six full days to enjoy the 12 visits we made, two per day. Much as I enjoy the stunning architecture of the houses we visit, and the interior decoration and furnishings, it’s often the small details that I like to capture in my photography: a piece of porcelain, a detail on a fireplace, wallpapers (I’m obsessed with those since many have survived for 300 years), a particularly striking portrait, elaborate plasterwork on a ceiling, and the like. And these feature in the many NT and EH images I’ve accumulated over the past decade.

In the accounts below, I’ve highlighted some of the features that caught my attention. I’ve posted links to full photo albums in a list of properties at the end of this post.

And rather take up much online space providing comprehensive historical details, I’ve made links to the NT and EH websites where the property histories are set out in much more detail (and better than I could summarise).

7 September
We headed northwest into Norfolk to the Oxburgh Estate, passing the Neolithic flint mine site of Grime’s Graves on the way where flint was first mined almost 5000 years ago.

I’ve been to Grime’s Graves twice before. The first time was in July 1969 when, as a botany and geography undergraduate at the University of Southampton, I attended a two week ecology field course based at a community college near Norwich. The Breckland, with its sandy soils over chalk, has a special floral community, the reason for our visit. But while we were botanising we also took a look at this significant Neolithic site.

Grime’s Graves is dotted with the remains of numerous flint mine pits.

Then, around 1987, while we were holidaying in Norfolk, Steph and I took our daughters Hannah (then nine) and Philippa (five) to Grime’s Graves, where they descended the 9 m into one of the pits down a ladder to observe the mining galleries. How times have changed! Today, English Heritage has recently opened a custom-built staircase access to one of the pits, and descent to the depths is carefully monitored, hard hats and all. There is also a small visitor center with an interesting exhibition about the site and its history.

It’s fascinating to learn how our ancestors mined the valuable flint, using deer antlers to carve their way through the chalk, searching for the most valuable layers of flint at the deepest levels, and opening horizontal galleries at the pit bottom.

Then it was short journey on to the Oxburgh Estate, just 13 miles, where we arrived in time to enjoy a picnic lunch.

Home of the Catholic Bedingfield family for more than five centuries, Oxburgh is a beautiful moated mansion, built by the family in 1482. But obviously refurbished in various styles over subsequent centuries.

It has survived turbulent times, from the persecution of Catholics under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, through the 17th century civil wars. The family still live there.

Oxburgh featured in a BBC series, Hidden Treasures of the National Trust. On display is a rare mezzotint print by Jacob Christoff Le Blon made around 1721/22, showing the three children of King Charles I, based on a painting of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. Click on the image below to enlarge.

Its significance had not been realised for a very long time, hidden away as it was in a dark corner at the bottom of a staircase.

Along some of the walls in upper floor corridors are a series of painted and embossed leather wallcoverings, sourced from antique markets around Europe in the early 19th century by the 6th baronet.

On display in one of the rooms are some exquisite silk embroideries created by Mary, Queen of Scots when in captivity at Hardwick Hall between 1569 and 1584. They came to Oxburgh in the late 18th century. It’s remarkable they are still in such good condition, although obviously very carefully conserved.

8 September
This was one of the longer journey days, almost to the north coast of Norfolk, to visit Blickling Hall and Felbrigg Hall.

I had a sharp intake of breath—of admiration (marred only slightly because one of the towers was covered in scaffolding)— when I first saw Blickling Hall, at the end of a long  gravel drive, a stunning Jacobean mansion built in 1624.

There was an earlier Tudor house believed to be the birthplace of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII (and mother of Elizabeth I).

This red brick mansion was built by Sir Henry Hobart (1560–1626) after he bought the estate in 1616. Seems like he enjoyed it for just a couple of years before his death. It passed through several generations of different families, eventually becoming the property of William Schomberg Robert Kerr, the 8th Marquess of Lothian (1832–1870), when he was just nine years old. It was during his tenure that many internal changes were made.

The 11th Marquess (right), Philip Kerr (1882-1940), Private Secretary to WW1 Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, and latterly UK Ambassador to the USA (where he died) and once a pro-Nazi Germany enthusiast, is however central to the story of the National Trust. Why? He was ‘the driving force behind the National Trust Act of 1937 and the creation of the Country Houses Scheme. This enabled the first large-scale transfer of mansion houses to the Trust in lieu of death duties, preserving some of the UK’s most beautiful buildings for everyone to enjoy, forever.‘

Inside the Hall there are some remarkable rooms, particularly the Long Gallery, which became a library in the 1740s.

What caught my particular attention? In the Lower Ante-Room, the walls are hung with two impressive Brussels tapestries (in the style of the paintings of David Teniers – probably the III) dating from around 1700. I was immediately drawn to the bagpiper in one of the tapestries.

Outside, the estate stretches to 4600 acres (1861 ha), but close to the house, we explored just the parterre, the temple and the Orangery.

Felbrigg Hall is only 10 miles north from Blickling. Originally Tudor, it was added to over the centuries. But it has a distinction not held by many NT properties. The last owner . . . Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer (right), commonly known as the Squire, inherited Felbrigg from his father. He devoted his life to preserving Felbrigg, finally bequeathing it [and all its contents] to the National Trust in 1969.

In 1442, the Felbrigg estate was bought by the Windhams of Norfolk, and remained in their hands until 1599 when it passed to Somerset Wyndham cousins, who adopted the Norfolk spelling of their surname.

The Jacobean front we see today was constructed between 1621 and 1624.

Felbrigg remained in the Windham family until 1863 when it was bought by wealthy Norwich merchant, John Ketton.

To the right of the entrance hall is the Morning Room (formerly the kitchen) with a fine set of paintings. Across the hall, is an elegant saloon, with a decorative ceiling, and fine marble busts, two them of arch political rivals from the late 18th/early 19th centuries: Tory William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) and Whig Charles James Fox (1749-1806).

Fox (L) and Pitt (R)

In the Cabinet Room, full of treasures from the Grand Tour accumulated by William Windham II between 1749 and 1761, the ceiling has glorious plasterwork.

But for me the real treasure can be found in one of the upper floor rooms: Chinese silk wallpaper, from the 18th century.

The estate comprises 520 acres (211 ha), and a compact walled garden close to the house, with a impressive dovecote.

9 September
We headed southeast from our holiday cottage to take in two properties: Sutton Hoo (probably one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon burial sites in the UK if not Europe), and Flatford on the banks of the River Stour where landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837) painted some of his most famous works.

At Sutton Hoo, on land above the River Deben in southeast Suffolk, there is a group of royal burial mounds which have yielded some of the most remarkable Anglo-Saxon artefacts ever discovered, dating from around 625 BCE. One in particular must have been the burial of a rich and powerful king.

In the weeks leading up to the outbreak of war at the beginning of September 1939, local archaeologist Basil Brown uncovered a remarkable find on land owned by Edith Pretty.

Edith Pretty
Outline of the burial ship
Burial mounds
View to the River Deben
Was this an Anglos-Saxon landscape?

Carefully scaping away the layers of sandy soil, the excavation team came across the shape of an 88 ft (27 m) ship within which was a remarkable Anglo-Saxon royal burial of incomparable richness, and [which] would revolutionise the understanding of early England. The treasures from Sutton Hoo are now carefully conserved in the British Museum, and further information can be found on the museum’s website.

Replicas (beautiful in their own right) are displayed in the exhibition at Sutton Hoo. What I had not realised was that the helmet that is the iconic image of Sutton Hoo (right) was made from steel (not silver as I had imagined), and found in 100 corroded pieces. It was carefully reconstructed, enabling artisans to replicate the helmet shown here.

On reflection, however, I guess I was rather disappointed by our visit to Sutton Hoo. Don’t get me wrong. It was fascinating, and being able to look over the burial mounds site from  a tower was a bonus.

But I’d expected much more from Sutton Hoo, given the prominence it has received on the ‘heritage circuit’. I just had this feeling (which for NT properties is unusual for me) that they could have made more of the experience, and perhaps English Heritage would have made a better job of presenting Sutton Hoo’s story.

Then it was on to Flatford, a hamlet in the Dedham Vale close by East Bergholt where Constable was born. Many of his most famous landscape paintings were made around Flatford, including images of the River Stour, Willy Lott’s Cottage (as in The Hay Wain), and Flatford Mill itself.

The River Stour from the bridge, looking towards Flatford Mill.
Flatford Mill
Flatford Mill
Will Lott’s Cottage – site of The Hay Wain

As the day was quite overcast, and being the early afternoon, the number of visitors there was not high. I can imagine that at certain times of the year it must get awfully crowded. We were lucky. It was quite peaceful, and we could take in the atmosphere of the place. Several people were exercising their artistic talents, in attempts to interpret The Hay Wain.

10 September
Framlingham Castle was the home of the Bigod family (who came over with William the Conqueror in the Norman invasion of 1066), and the first timber fortress was constructed in 1086 by Roger Bigod, Sheriff of Norfolk. The first stone buildings date from the late 12th century.

Changing hands with, it seems, some regularity (as the Bigods were not always compliant with the king’s wishes), Framlingham eventually became the property of the Earls and Dukes of Norfolk for 400 years.

Mary Tudor was at Framlingham when she became queen in 1553.

Framlingham is unlike any other castle I have visited. Why? There never was a keep, just a curtain wall and 13 towers, enclosing a series of residential and administrative buildings. Protection was afforded to the castle by two very large defensive ditches.

In 1635, the castle was purchased by wealthy lawyer Sir Robert Hitcham, who left instructions in his will for the castle buildings to be demolished and a workhouse for local people built. The workhouse buildings are still standing.

English Heritage provides access to the castle walls, and visitors can make a complete circuit with some very fine views both internally and over the surrounding landscape that once provided a hunting park for the castle.

We really enjoyed our visit to Framlingham, and in the exhibition there’s a great animated video history of the castle (rather like the one we saw at Belsay Hall in Northumberland earlier this year).

In need of some sea air, we headed east to Dunwich Heath and Beach, just 16 miles. It’s a site of lowland heath, but when we visited the heather had more or less finished flowering. But the gorse species were still in full flower. So we made a walk of around 1½ miles, hoping to see some of the iconic birds that make Dunwich Heath their home, such as the Dartford warbler and stone curlew. It was very windy, and the only birds we encountered were a couple of pairs of stonechats.

Looking south towards the Sizewell nuclear power stations site.
Looking north towards the small town of Dunwich.

We made it to the extensive beach. The Sizewell nuclear power stations site lies just under 3 miles south of Dunwich Heath.

11 September
This was the longest excursion we made during our holiday, a round trip of 137 miles to two proper near Cambridge: Anglesey Abbey and the Wimpole  Estate.

Anglesey Abbey, a fine country house on the eastern fringes of Cambridge, had its origins in the 12th century under Henry I. The religious establishment was dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, and at the beginning of the next, the Fowkes family that had acquired it some years earlier converted it to a family home. And it passed between various families over the next three centuries or so.

Until 1926, when the estate was bought by Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairchild (right) and his brother Henry. Born in Massachusetts, their father was a British engineer who main a fortune in the USA in the railways, and who married the daughter of an oil tycoon Henry Huttleston Rogers, one of the world’s richest men. Fairchild and his brother inherited a huge fortune. No wonder they could afford the Anglesey Abbey estate (with Lode Mill), and refurbish and furnish it with treasures from around the world.

Having enjoyed an excellent cup of coffee in what seemed to be quite a new Visitor Centre, we headed off into the grounds, towards Lode Mill, and the various gardens (Walled, Dahlia, and Rose) that Fairchild had laid out. I’ve never seen so many statues in one place before.

Lode Mill
The main entrance
The dahlia garden
The Temple Lawn
A ceramic wall hanging in the front door porch

After enjoying a slow stroll there, we went indoors where only two main rooms on the ground floor were open plus the dining room. Renovations upstairs had closed that part of the house to the public.

In the Living Room there is a remarkable clock, which also featured in one of the BBC series about hidden treasures, and attributed to James Cox (1723-1800). Click on the image below to enlarge.

After lunch we headed southwest to the Wimpole Estate (comprising some 3000 acres or 1215 ha), where there has been settlements for 2000 years from Roman times.

The large mansion that we see today was begun in 1640, and has been the home of many families over the centuries.

We arrived there just before the heavens opened, and took shelter in the Visitor Centre before making our way up to the hall itself and on to the walled garden, one of the biggest and best that I have seen at many NT properties.

Wimpole rear view
The Walled Garden
The Walled Garden
The Yellow Drawing Room
The Chapel

In the last decade of the 19th century, Wimpole was acquired by Lord Robartes, 6th Viscount Clifden, who settled the estate on his son Gerald in 1906. Also owning Lanhydrock in Cornwall (another NT property we visited in 2018), the 7th Viscount was unable to afford the upkeep of both, and put Wimpole up for sale.

From 1938 Wimpole was first rented and then bought by Captain and Mrs Bambridge (right). After the Captain’s death Mrs Bambridge continued to live at Wimpole, and bequeathed the property and contents to the NT on her death in 1976.

The house was essentially empty when the Bambridges took on Wimpole. One NT volunteer told us that just a pair of sofas in the Yellow Drawing Room were the only items left behind.

So how did the Bambridges not only acquire Wimpole but have the resources to refurbish and furnish it with some priceless treasures that fill every room? Mrs Elsie Bambridge (1896-1976) was the younger daughter of novelist and Nobel Laureate in Literature, Rudyard Kipling, and the only one of three siblings to survive beyond early adulthood. Kipling lived at Bateman’s in East Sussex that we visited in May 2019.

Just take a look at the photo album at the end of the post to appreciate just what it must have cost to turn Wimpole into the home that Mrs. Bambridge enjoyed for several decades.

12 September
This was our final excursion, to two properties, Ickworth Estate (1800 acres or 730 ha) and Melford Hall, south of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

Ickworth was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It came into the Hervey (pronounced ‘Harvey’) family in 1460, and remained with them for the next five centuries.

In 1700, Ickworth was inherited by John Hervey who became the 1st Earl of Bristol. The house we see today was completed by Frederick, the 5th Earl (later to become the 1st Marquess of Bristol), thus fulfilling the vision of his father, the 4th Earl and Bishop of Derry in Northern Ireland. Click on the image below to enlarge.

Before heading into the house, we took a long walk down to the walled garden (where a large wild flower meadow had been sown) and then to St Mary’s Church where members of the Hervey family are buried. The 4th Marquess bequeathed Ickworth to the Treasury in 1956 in lieu of death duties (and it was then passed to the National Trust, ref. my earlier comment about the National Trust Act of 1937).

The 7th Marquess (1954-1999) inherited a fortune 1985, occupying an apartment in the house on a 99 year lease. However, he frittered his inheritance away on a very flamboyant lifestyle, to say the least, and sold the lease to the NT which now wholly owns Ickworth. The East Wing has been a luxury hotel since 2002.

The Walled Garden
The Pavilion in the Walled Garden
Ickworth Church
Ickworth Church
Entrance Hall
Pompeian Room
Pompeian Room
In the Library

Melford Hall is a 16th century mansion some 13 miles south from Ickford. It’s not known with certainty who actually built the hall. It has been the home of the distinguished naval Hyde Parker family since 1786, and the 13th Baronet and his family continue to live in the South Wing.

We enjoyed wandering round the small garden surrounding the hall (there is a larger park) before exploring just the North Wing of the house. There was a significant fire there in 1942 but that was successfully repaired without having to demolish any other parts of the building.

Famous writer, illustrator and famed mycologist Beatrix Potter was a distant relation of the Hyde Parkers, and often stayed at Melford from 1890 onwards. Her bedroom is open to view and a number of her illustrations (including one of a mouse in her bed there) are displayed around the house.

And that was the last of our visits. What an enjoyable week, getting to know a part of England that we’ve hardly visited before. All was left was the long journey home. Driving in this part of the country was no joy. Such heavy traffic and congested roads. I wasn’t looking forward to the return journey north, but as I’d already worked out a diversion around that earlier hold-up in West/North Yorkshire on the way down, I was hopeful of a trouble-free trip back home. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be the case, as you can read below.

However, do take a look at the photo albums below to appreciate the beauty of the properties we visited over six days. Truly a travel through time across the east of England.

Photo albums

The journey
Once our battery problem had been sorted, we set off around 09:45, heading south on the A19 and made good time reaching the services at Wetherby just over an hour later. A quick comfort stop and a coffee and we set off again. Just as the A1(M) downgraded to a dual carriageway A1 south of Ferrybridge we hit stationary traffic, and then took around an hour to crawl through roadworks where a bridge was being repaired on the northbound carriageway. Traffic was backed up at least 5 miles in each direction.

That was our main holdup heading south, just some slower traffic around Huntingdon and Cambridge, but not really something to write home about.

Having experienced that hold-up near Ferrybridge, I decided to look for an alternative route for the return, and found that I could join the M18 eastbound south of the roadworks, skirt Doncaster in its inner ring road, and join the M62 west which would bring us on to the A1(M) north of the roadworks.

But on the return journey we hadn’t expected the unexpected. Around 10:30, on the A1 near Stamford in Lincolnshire, we ground to a halt, and after about 10 minutes my satnav advised a diversion at the next exit, just 100 m ahead. Which I took. So did others. And we found ourselves crawling through the town center, cars parked on both sides of the street, and huge articulated trucks heading north and south trying to pass each other. The town went into gridlock, and it took more than an hour to reach the north side of the town and re-join the A1.

I later discovered that the A1 had remained closed for the next 6 hours, and the traffic backed up at least 10 miles in both directions. A woman had fallen, jumped, or been pushed (?) from a bridge, and died. The site became a potential crime scene, so the police closed the road completely, eventually redirecting traffic through other diversions. One hour through Stamford was frustrating, but nothing compared to being stuck on the A1 as so many others were.

We encountered several other serious hold-ups further north, and had to make three more diversions, arriving home just after 5 pm. What a journey, and certainly a disappointment after such a glorious week in East Anglia.

 

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“You don’t stumble upon your heritage. It’s there, just waiting to be explored and shared.” Robbie Robertson

Steph and I are enthusiastic members of the National Trust (NT, since 2011) and English Heritage (EH, since 2015). And we have now visited 145 National Trust properties, and 43 from English Heritage. As well as a smattering of others owned by the National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, and the Welsh heritage organization, Cadw, as well as some not affiliated with any of these organizations.

On this map, I have included all of these properties. You can also expand the map to full screen by clicking on this icon [ ] in the top right corner of the map. Just zoom in to explore in more detail, and click on each icon for more information.  They are also listed by region as well on this page.

Until three years ago, we lived in north Worcestershire, and visited many (almost all?) of the NT and EH properties within a 50 mile radius. Since 2020, we have lived in North Tyneside and have been exploring what the northeast has to offer. The NT has fewer properties close to home here in the northeast, although it does manage some spectacular stretches of coastline (as elsewhere in the country).

As you can see from the map, there are several regions of the country that we have yet to explore in any detail. We’ve still to visit the Lake District where the NT is well represented. English Heritage has more properties here in the northeast, but we’ve hardly scratched the surface yet.

Later this year we will spend a week in Norfolk and Suffolk, and have already planned which NT and EH properties to make a beeline for.

It’s hard to choose which have been my favorite visits over the past 13 years. Nevertheless, here are a few choices according to some rather arbitrary categories. The web links will take you to the stories I posted on this blog after each visit or to albums of my own photos.

Our heritage organizations are custodians of many fine properties, which frequently reflect the history of wealth accumulation over the centuries by the families that built and lived in them. As the National Trust is increasingly showing (and rightly so in my opinion, although it’s an approach not unanimously appreciated) how such wealth was accumulated, often off the back of nefarious activities like slavery. Also, even since we became members of the National Trust, visitors now have much more access than before, and photography (without flash) is now widely permitted. And that has made my visits all the more enjoyable.

So, here goes . . .

If I had to choose one property for its ostentation, it would have to be Waddesdon Manor, the former family home of the Rothschild family, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. We visited in August 2014.

The North Front and main entrance
Waddesdon Manor, home of the Rothschilds
The Parterre from the first floor

What a treasure trove! Magnificent! It’s quite easy to be overwhelmed.

However, coming close behind must surely be Kingston Lacy in Dorset, Belton House in Lincolnshire, and Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland. And, of course, there’s Penrhyn Castle outside Bangor in North Wales that we visited for the first time last September.

Many of the houses have quite spectacular interiors, and I’ve taken quite an interest in those architectural features and furnishings. In 2016, we took a trip south from Bromsgrove to Claydon House in Buckinghamshire.

On arrival I discovered that, due to copyright considerations (the Verney family still live in one part of the property and own many of the furnishings), photography is not permitted inside the house. However, after a chat with the National Trust house manager, and explaining my blog and interest in design features of the house, I was given permission to photograph these and never published any photo until I’d been given clearance.

The carvings throughout the house are some of the finest in the country and work of 18th century carver and stonemason Luke Lightfoot (1722-1789).

In terms of carved woodwork, examples of the exquisite craftsmanship of Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721) can be seen at Petworth in West Sussex, Lyme in Cheshire, Belton House, and Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire.

Many properties have significant collections of paintings. There’s one that has particularly attracted my attention. It’s the enclosed courtyard at Wallington, where bright Pre-Raphaelite murals by Victorian painter William Bell Scott, several depicting local scenes and personalities, cover the walls. They are simply exquisite.

Over the many visits we’ve made, I’ve taken an interest in wallpapers, particularly those designed by William Morris. I guess one of the best examples has to be Wightwick Manor near Wolverhampton, which we visited in 2014.

I don’t have any photos from there since photography inside the house was not permitted. But here are some examples from Standen House in West Sussex.

During our visit to Northern Ireland in 2017, we spent a week visiting as many National Trust properties as possible. And there’s no doubt about it. Castle Ward, overlooking Strangford Lough, must be the most architecturally quirky anywhere across the nation.

Built in the 1760s by the 1st Viscount Bangor, he and his good lady wife were unable to agree on architectural style. So the southwest face is Classical Georgian while the northeast is Gothic. And this is repeated throughout the house. Quite extraordinary.

If I had to choose any others, it would be for the eclectic possessions accumulated by their owners and never discarded, at Erddig near Wrexham and Calke Abbey in Derbyshire. Or the active collecting of Charles Paget Wade at Snowshill Manor in the Cotswolds (below).

All of these heritage properties have claim to historic fame in one way or another. Where history was written. On reflection I have given that accolade to Chartwell, near Sevenoaks in Kent, the home of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. What a life lived!

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect, but was quite overwhelmed at the access visitors had to all areas of the house, to a huge number of Sir Winston’s possessions, and those of his wife Lady Clementine. Even Sir Winston’s huge collection of paintings. It was quite overwhelming.

Being a scientist, I’d always wanted to visit two properties in particular: Down House in Kent, the home of Charles Darwin; and Woolsthorpe Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire, the birthplace of 17/18th century polymath, Sir Isaac Newton.

I was a little disappointed with the Down House visit. I felt that English Heritage hadn’t made as much of presenting the property as they might have.

And, due to Darwin family restrictions, photography was not permitted inside. Nevertheless, as a student of evolution, it was a privilege to wander around the house and gardens, knowing this was where Darwin formulated his theory of the origin of species.

The legacy of 18th century landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (right) can be seen at multiple properties across the country. He was born in Kirkharle, Northumberland, just over 19 miles (30 km) northwest of where we now live.

For me, there are two standout landscapes that Brown designed, one of them—at Croome Court in Worcestershire—being among his earliest commissions. The other is at Stowe in Buckinghamshire.

The parkland at Croome has the Croome River that was hand dug over several years, against the backdrop of the Malvern Hills. Quite spectacular, and being one of our ‘local’ heritage sites, Croome became a favorite of ours when we lived in Bromsgrove.

Looking east along the ha-ha to the Church of St Magdalene

We visited Stowe just the once, but there’s no doubt that it is one of the finest examples of so-called ‘natural’ gardening that flourished under Capability’s supervision.

The view from in front of the East Lake Pavilion across the Octagon Lake to Stowe House
Looking west down the Grecian Valley from the Fane of Pastoral Poetry
The Temple of Concord and Victory
The Palladian Bridge from the west
The Palladian Bridge
The Temple of Ancient Virtue taken from in front of the Temple of British Worthies

Steph is a very keen gardener, so our garden visits are always a pleasure. I guess Sissinghurst in Kent, designed by Vita Sackville-West and her husband, would be at the top of our list.

A close second has to be the Arts and Craft garden at Hidcote Manor on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, the inspiration of Lawrence Johnston. Since there are so many fine heritage gardens it almost seems unfair to choose just a couple.

Cragside, near Rothbury in Northumberland was the first house to be powered by hydroelectricity. Home of William, 1st Baron Armstrong (a wealthy engineer and industrialist, eminent scientist, inventor and philanthropist), Cragside has many other innovations throughout the house. And equally impressive, 150 years later, is the estate of trees from around the world that have now matured into such magnificent specimens.

National Trust Cragside
Cragside
Cragside

And while I’m on the topic of technology, I guess anyone has to be impressed by the industrial technology that led to the construction of the bridge across the River Severn at Ironbridge in Shropshire in 1779.

Also Thomas Telford’s suspension bridges at Conwy (below) and over the Menai Strait, both completed in 1826.

Over the years, I’ve become quite an aficionado of parterres that were popular design features at many country houses. My favorite is the one at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, which was the heritage property closest to our home when we lived in Bromsgrove, just seven miles. We’d often pop over to Hanbury for a walk in the parkland, and take a look at the parterre in all seasons. It certainly is a credit to the garden staff and volunteers who keep it in such fine shape.

A number of properties have literary links, and a couple were the homes of Nobel Literature Laureates. Of course, I’m referring to Rudyard Kipling at Bateman’s and Sir Winston Churchill at Chartwell.

The front door and garden (7)
The House (6) from the Rose Garden (12)
The Hall

Rudyard Kipling was named after the village of Rudyard in North Staffordshire, just a few miles from my home town of Leek. Kipling’s parents had met there.

Bateman’s is an elegant Jacobean mansion in the East Sussex countryside, acquired by Kipling in 1902 and remained the family home until his death in 1936. Our visit to Bateman’s in May 2019 inspired me to reach into Kipling’s novels, which I hadn’t before, and subsequently enjoyed.

I found visits to a couple of National Trust properties quite emotional, sufficient to bring tears to my eyes. In November 2018 I celebrated my 70th birthday, and Steph and I spent a long weekend in Liverpool, taking in The Beatles Childhood Homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

When I was inside John Lennon’s home at ‘Mendips’, 251 Menlove Avenue in the Woolton suburb, I was suddenly overcome with a powerful emotion. Hard to explain, but I felt myself welling up. As a teenager in the 1960s, The Beatles were very much part of my formative years.

The other place where this has happened was at The Firs, the birthplace of that great English composer Sir Edward Elgar. We’d toured the cottage, looked round the small garden, then headed back to the fascinating museum. It was when we were watching a short documentary film about Elgar to the accompaniment of one of his most memorable compositions, Variation IX commonly known as Nimrod from the Enigma Variations, that I once again felt tears coming. Music can be such a powerful stimulus.

I wrote recently about a successful birding walk around the parkland and woods at Wallington in Northumberland. But there’s one site where the birding opportunities are out of this world. In the Farne Islands just off the Northumberland coast.

Puffins, with guillemots closer to the cliff edge.

Steph and I visited there in 1998, and have plans to revisit again this year. The islands have been closed to visits for the past couple of years because of bird flu that had seriously depleted some of the colonies. We also look forward to birding on the Suffolk coast at Orford Ness later this year.

All the heritage charities maintain an impressive portfolio of castles, some more complete than others. The northeast is particularly rich in castles. Many were reduced to ruins, or slighted, centuries ago following conflicts.

But if I had to choose a couple to put at the top of my list, they would be Caernarfon Castle, owned by Cadw, and which we visited last September during an enjoyable week’s holiday exploring North Wales, and Dover Castle, owned by English Heritage.

Caernarfon (below) is one of four castles built by King Edward I in the late 13th century.

Of the four (the others being Conwy, Beaumaris, and Harlech), Caernarfon is the most complete, and Cadw allows access to much of the castle. Although it was a grey day when we visited, there were relatively few other tourists and we easily had access to all parts.

Speaking of access, English Heritage has innovatively opened up Kenilworth Castle and Hardwick Old Hall (below) by constructing internal stairways and viewing platforms that just expand one’s appreciation of these buildings.

The Derbyshire landscape west of Hardwick Old Hall.
Looking down six floors in the Old Hall. And the magnificent plasterwork on the walls.

Of the many ruined abbeys and priories we have visited, Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire stands out for me (closely followed by Fountains Abbey and Whitby Abbey). I guess it must be to do with Rievaulx’s location in the valley of the River Rye. The monks knew just where to build!

View of the Abbey from Rievaulx Terrace
View of the Abbey from Rievaulx Terrace
The Day Room
The Day Room
Tiers of gothic windows
Rievaulx Abbey

However, there is one church where worship is still celebrated today, and is quite outstanding. That has to be St Mary’s Church in the village of Kempley in Gloucestershire. The interior walls are decorated with beautiful frescoes.

St Michael and the Virgin.
The north wall with its paintings of the Wheel of Life, and those of St Anthony of Egypt and St Michael and the Virgin, either side of window.
Six of the 12 apostles on the north wall of the chancel., St Mary’s Kempley

The British landscape is blessed with the remains of ancient cultures going back thousands of years, from various standing stones (like Stonehenge and the Avebury Ring), ancient villages (Chysauster in Cornwall), and Iron Age settlements and hill forts.

Impressive as Stonehenge and Avebury are, there’s something about the Calanais Stones in the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. I first came across these standing stones in the summer of 1967, and Steph and I visited them during our tour of Scotland in 2015.

Of all the Roman remains throughout these islands, Hadrian’s Wall (and all its associated forts and watchtowers) has to the number one attraction. And it’s on our doorstep.

Housesteads from the air (Source: English Heritage)
Hadrian’s Wall, near Housesteads fort
Underfloor heating at Chester’s Roman Fort (English Heritage)
Underfloor heating

In February 2022, on a bright but sunny day, we decided to walk a short length of the Wall, from Steel Rigg Car Park to Sycamore Gap (below). And we saw the iconic tree before it was maliciously felled in 2023.

Undoubtedly there are so many more properties to choose from, and I’m sure my choices won’t be to everyone’s taste. But the heritage is out there to explore and enjoy, and that’s what Steph and I will continue to do, come rain or shine.

 

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Birding at Wallington

Over the past 12 months I have been afflicted by a bad back that has also affected my legs and mobility (finally—after an MRI scan last August—diagnosed as spinal stenosis). Consequently, I’ve not been walking quite as regularly as I used to. Well, not as far on each walk as I had enjoyed up until about March last year, and I’m still using a stick for support.

However, with medication and exercises, my condition has improved thank goodness, and I enjoy getting out and about again, trying for about 2 miles each time. But, when I’m feeling up to it, and the weather looks promising, it’s always a pleasure to enjoy a longer walk.

And that’s precisely why Steph and I headed out into Northumberland last Monday to the National Trust’s Wallington, just under 23 miles northwest from home, a drive of around 40 minutes depending on route and traffic. Even though the temperature was only around 6°C, it was bright and sunny, a gentle breeze, and there was some early Spring warmth in the sunshine.

Leaving home around 09:45, we arrived at Wallington before 10:30 and headed immediately to the café for a welcome cup of Americano. It was our intention to complete the River Walk through the grounds of Wallington (around 45 hectares or 111 acres) and along the upper reaches of the River Wansbeck (which rises 5 miles or so further west above Sweethope Lough).

The walk around the Wallington estate has been shut temporarily on several occasions in the past few years. Intense named storms have become a feature of our winters in recent years, and have brought down trees. The National Trust had to close paths until the fallen timber could be made safe.

The stepping stones over the Wansbeck were closed as one of the stones had been washed away, so we had to by-pass that section of the walk. The last time we tried to take the River Walk (in December 2020) we couldn’t cross because the river was in spate.

The walk was a little over three miles. Click on the special symbols in the map to see some of the birds seen at those points on the walk, or other landscape features we came across. And because Monday was such a fine day, I decided to take my binoculars in the hope of seeing some of the birdlife so common through Wallington’s woods and on its ponds.

Quite often I’ll leave my binoculars at home, and regret doing so after we catch sight of something interesting.

Along the path beside the Garden Pond, there’s a newly installed sculpture of an owl, carved from one of the downed trees, standing in open woodland (mainly of beech) but with lots of understorey bushes.

I had wondered if—and hoped—we’d see nuthatches (below) scurrying along the branches and picking out insects above our heads,

It’s a bird I’ve seen on only a few occasions, but that particular habitat was just right for nuthatches.

Then, a very small bird alighted on the branch just a few meters in front of me, and in full sunlight. I was fortunate to bring my binoculars to bear on this little bird, and I had a brief view before it flew off.

My immediate reaction was that it was a goldcrest, the smallest bird in the UK. But as it turned its head towards me, and the sun caught the feathers on its head, they appeared a much deeper reddish-orange rather than yellow. And its cheeks seemed whiter than I’d seen in a goldcrest. A firecrest was my next reaction.

I checked my bird books and online photographs when we arrived home. Although it seems that firecrests are quite uncommon in Northumberland, I’m now convinced—more than ever, and having compared images of a goldcrest and a firecrest side by side—that I saw a firecrest. Here are two images sent to me by my Northamptonshire friend, Barry Boswell (whose beautiful bird images I have used in other blog posts).

Goldcrest (L) and firecrest (R)

On the Garden Pond there was a small group of little grebes or dabchicks, several moorhens, and a flock of about 30 mallard ducks.

We walked through the walled garden, and enjoyed the crocus lawns at their best on the upper terrace, before heading through the gate that led to the River Walk path.

As I mentioned, we couldn’t cross the Wansbeck at the Stepping Stones, so had to walk along the road until we came to the fine 18th century hump-backed bridge, and then took the path alongside the river on its southern/western bank. Having left the road, we had a fine view of the bridge behind us.

Given the state of the river, with tranquil stretches interspersed with shallow rapids, I was hopeful that we might see a dipper or two.

And we weren’t disappointed. Just as we approached the footbridge, there was a solitary dipper sitting on a stone in mid-stream, preening itself. And taking no notice of us whatsoever, we had a great view for at least five minutes, before we crossed over the footbridge close by.

On the opposite bank there is an interesting piece of bespoke artwork depicting wolves, Nothing Exists Alone, which you can only appreciate fully from the right angle.

Click on this next image to read the description more easily.

Then we took the path away from the river and climbed towards the thick woodland on the brow of the hill (with a great view of a wren at the side of the path), ending up at the wildlife hide.

Wren

There was a range of bird feeders there, attracting a range of tit species (great, blue, coal, and long-tailed) and some chaffinches.

Making our way back to the house, we saw another nuthatch in one of the large trees, and a pair of beautiful teal ducks on the Middle Pond.

Then, as we were making our way back to the car park, we saw a large flock of chaffinches on the bird feeders close to the entrance drive, one of the largest flocks I’ve seen in a long while.

Of course these weren’t the only birds that caught our attention as we wandered round the River Walk. There were numerous blackbirds and robins, as well as crows and jackdaws in the fields.

But this Wallington walk will be remembered for that flash of reddish-orange early on. I wonder if others have spotted a firecrest there as well?

 

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A final commission . . .

Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726)

Among the pantheon of English architects of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Sir John Vanbrugh (dramatist, herald, and fervent Whig) is surely one of the most extraordinary since he never—apparently—received any formal training. His commissions included Castle Howard (for the Earl of Carlisle, in 1699) in North Yorkshire, and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in 1705.

Perhaps his most elegant—and final—commission was Seaton Delaval Hall (on a much smaller scale than either Castle Howard or Blenheim), designed for Vice-Admiral George Delaval and begun in 1718. Both Delaval and Vanbrugh died before the house was completed.

The Hall stands between the small communities of Seaton Delaval and Seaton Sluice in Northumberland, and just under 10 miles (as the crow flies) northeast from the center of Newcastle upon Tyne. It’s only six miles by road from our home in North Tyneside, and is our nearest National Trust property.

Admiral Delaval purchased the estate from an impoverished cousin, but the family had owned land in this area since the Norman Conquest in the 11th century. Seaton Delaval Hall has had an interesting history and was occupied by various branches of the extravagant Delaval family. In 1822 there was a catastrophic fire which gutted the central main block, which has remained derelict ever since. Now a Grade 1 listed house, it is owned by the National Trust.

Like Blenheim and Castle Howard, Seaton Delaval Hall reflects Vanbrugh’s baroque design penchant for buildings with symmetrical wings on either side of a central block.

Here are three aerial images of the Hall taken recently (courtesy of local photographer John Fatkin [1]) that brilliantly show this symmetry.

The north entrance of Seaton Delaval Hall, with the grand stables block on the left (east) side, and accommodation on the right (west). Courtesy of John Fatkin – Coastal Portraits.

The Hall from the east.

The grand South Portico, with the gardens to the left.

The Hall stands within an area of just under 8 hectares, and is surrounded by a 2m high Ha-Ha wall, 360 x 220m, with rounded bastions at each of the four corners. These bastions each had a statue on a pedestal, but these have been removed to other parts of the garden. The Church of Our Lady (originally Saxon) lies within the Ha-Ha wall, and was the private chapel of the Delaval family (in the trees in the bottom left corner of the photo below).

Just to the west of the South Portico there is a small formal garden, and beyond that a magnificent parterre that must be at least 50m, if not longer. The grounds have undergone extensive renovation in recent years.

The main entrance to Seaton Delaval Hall is through the gates off the Seaton Delaval-Seaton Sluice road, the A190, round to the car park on the east side. It’s then a short walk to the South Portico, with its magnificent ionic columns.

The entrance from the north courtyard.
The east wing stable block.
The west wing from the north entrance.
The south portico.
Heading towards the south portico.
The south portico.
Ionic columns of the south portico.
The broken pediment.

Inside, one is greeted with a scene of devastation: blank walls, evidence of fire, walls devoid of panelling or plaster. The roof is a modern addition. Even so, strangely enough, one can still appreciate how magnificent it must have looked in its heyday. Some features survived the 1822 fire and still on display in the main hall, which leads to another door opening on the north side, and into the main courtyard.

Either side of the entrance hall are quite spectacular spiral staircases which provide access to a first floor balcony from which to observe the destruction of the fire two centuries ago.

The basement rooms, which were servant quarters and the like, have been recently refurbished somewhat and can be explored.

The East Wing has a set of magnificent stables. I do not recall what the rooms above were once used for.

In our last visit to Seaton Delaval we were surprised—and pleased—to see that the West Wing had been opened, with a series of furnished rooms to view, and Delaval paintings and other possessions on display. On our previous visits going back to 2013 this wing had always been closed.

The gardens are not extensive, but paths have been opened up over the past couple of years or so to allow more access to explore the area within the Ha-Ha wall.

[1] You can find more of John’s stunning images around the local area on his Facebook page, Coastal Portraits by John Fatkin, and on X/Twitter at Coastal Portraits – It’s Grim up North.

 

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Nunnington Hall – from 13th century manor house to 20th century family home

There has been a manor house beside the River Rye in the small village of Nunnington (lying within the Howardian Hills National Landscape of North Yorkshire) since the 13th century.

Built from a light colored coral rag Jurassic limestone, the Nunnington Hall estate occupies around 5 acres (2 ha) and is surrounded by a walled garden. The house has changed in character over the centuries, as each resident (owner or tenant) stamped their mark on its architecture and layout. It has been owned and managed by the National Trust since 1952, although it remained a family home until 1978.

Source: Historic England Archive 20838_044

In Tudor times there were distant royal connections, and during the 17th century English Civil Wars, Parliamentarian troops were garrisoned in the Hall.

A wealthy cloth merchant, Ranald Graham (right, created Viscount Preston in the Peerage of Scotland in 1681, died 1689) bought the Nunnington estate in 1655, and it remained in the family until the mid-18th century when the direct Graham line became extinct. Sublet and allowed to deteriorate, it was offered up for sale in 1839 in a semi-derelict state, and bought by William Rutson (1791-1867) whose family had made their fortune through colonial trade and slavery.

The five children of Susan and Peter Clive and their cousin Michael in the Oak Hall at Nunnington Hall.

Nunnington Hall was inherited by Margaret Fife (née Rutson, the great-niece of William Rutson) in 1920, and she set about the renovation of the Hall with her husband, Colonel Ronald D’Arcy Fife, funding the project from the sale of another Rutson property, Newby Wiske near Northallerton. One of their adopted daughters, Susan Clive, raised her family at Nunnington Hall, until moving to a house in the village.

I first visited Nunnington Hall in the summer of 1968, but recall very little of that visit, since only a few rooms were open to the public, and then only twice a week. It was only after the family vacated the Hall that the National Trust opened more of the house to the public, and more frequently.

In 2013, Steph and I stopped off on our way back south after visiting family in Newcastle.

Unlike Worcestershire where we lived until 2020, there are just a few National Trust properties near our home (since 2020) here in the northeast. And not all open for the Christmas season. I wrote briefly about our various Christmas visits after last year’s to Ormesby Hall near Middlesbrough.

So, on Friday last, we made the 162 mile round trip from North Tyneside to enjoy Nunnington Hall decorated in its Christmas finery. Being the first day of the Hall’s Christmas season (only each Friday to Sunday until just before Christmas), it was a delight to see many of the rooms brightly lit with Christmas trees and candles.

Let me take you on a brief tour of the house in 2013 and last Friday, highlighting some of the features that particularly caught my attention. A photo album of all the photos taken during both visits can be viewed here.

The entrance was suitably decorated for the Hall’s Christmas season, and we headed straight for the tearoom (with waitress service, unusual for National Trust tearooms) for a welcome cup of coffee before beginning the tour.

A kitchen or a Great Hall in earlier centuries, by 1921 the Stone Hall had become the entrance hall on the west facade of the building. One wall is hung with shooting trophies (mainly antelope of one species or another), with the skins of big cats on another. A huge fireplace (which was lit on our recent visit) dominates a third wall. And for Christmas, there was a tall (maybe 15 foot) tree, a Fashionable Victorian theme, with one of the volunteers (dressed as a butler) offering a small sherry or cranberry juice to each new visitor.

The Smoking Room, a few steps up from the Stone Hall, was Lord Preston’s bedchamber in the 17th century, but was adopted by Colonel Fife. The walls were painted Georgian green by Margaret Fife, and its theme was an indulgent Georgian Christmas. On our 2013 visit, this room was set up as a small dining room. And beyond the main room, in a small withdrawing room, the walls are covered in 18th century prints, and the ceiling decorated with original coats of arms.

From the Smoking Room, you step into the large Oak Hall with its stone floor, stone fireplace, and elegant, low-rise staircase leading to the first floor. This was an open courtyard in Tudor times, but was enclosed by Lord Preston in the late 17th century. There was a Tudor feast theme last Friday.

There are several paintings of William Rutson and his horses.

L: William Rutson’s groom and horses; R: William Rutson on a grey hunter

Hanging on the walls above the staircase are three tapestries, 300 years old, and another one in the Sitting Room.

During Margaret Fife’s time, the Sitting Room was the main family room, with a balcony overlooking the walled garden, with its terraces and orchard. Peacocks also strutting around the grounds. The Christmas theme was 1980s Party Time.

One feature which caught my attention in 2013 (and still prominently on display) was the superb set of porcelain figurines—Chelsea I presume—on the mantelpiece. How I would like to own a set like that, but my pockets aren’t deep enough!

In Margaret Fife’s bedroom and dressing room on the first floor, there is a charming (but controversial) portrait of her as a young girl, hanging above the fireplace.

Colonel Fife had his own bedroom, and particular feature that you can’t miss is the Chinese-style wallpaper, decorated with birds, flowers, and fruits.

A child’s bedroom, decorated with a tree and toys completed the bedrooms that were open. Wood-paneled, I seem to remember from our 2013 visit that there were carvings or graffiti in the wood made by Parliamentarian soldiers in the 17th century.

Schoolchildren from the nearby Slingsby Community Primary School had created the snowman exhibit in another bedroom.

The Nursery had a 1940s Rationing theme. The walls were covered with another impressive wallpaper, and a delightful doll’s house stood in one corner.

The attic floor under the eaves houses a couple of exhibitions. One of these is the permanent home of a collection of miniature rooms, donated to the National Trust by Londoner, Mrs Carlisle (known as ‘Kitty’). The models are truly exquisite in the amount of detail, even handwriting on miniature letters. The other exhibition, Fields, Folds, and Farming Life on display last week was a collection of photos and videos of farming life in Yorkshire by photographer Valerie Mather.

After a short (and rather muddy) walk around the garden, our visit to Nunnington Hall came to an end, and we headed back home.

But with just one other feature in the landscape to find: the Kilburn White Horse (map)The origin of the horse is disputed, but it appeared in November 1857, cut into the hillside above the village of Kilburn. Some credit the local schoolmaster and his pupils. The top soil was scraped away, and the horse covered in limestone chippings. It has needed regular maintenance over the years.

The Kilburn White Horse can be clearly seen from a distance, particularly from the A19 between Thirsk and York.

We made our way down the escarpment to the car park just below the horse, but from there you can only see the horse’s legs and part of its body.

I can’t finish this post without mentioning the spectacular climb into the Howardian Hills.

We had traveled south from North Tyneside on the A19 as far as Thirsk, where we took the A170 towards Scarborough. Just under six miles east of Thirsk, the A170 ascends the notorious Sutton Bank, with its 25% incline and hairpin bends. It’s such a challenge for some vehicles that caravans are banned from this stretch of road and have to find an alternative route on to the moors. Even HGVs struggle up the Bank.

Here’s some footage I made of the ascent and descent (almost 5 minutes, and available in HD).

 

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Potatoes have no special chemistry to induce romance . . . but they brought us together

Saturday 13 October 1973, 11:30 am
Lima, Peru

Fifty years ago today, Steph and I were married at the town hall (municipalidad) in the Miraflores district of Lima, where we had an apartment on Avenida José Larco. Steph had turned 24 just five days earlier; it would be my 25th in the middle of November.

Municipalidad de Miraflores, Lima

It was a brief ceremony, lasting 15 minutes at most, and a quiet affair.  Just Steph and me, and our two witnesses, John and Marian Vessey. And the mayor (or other official) of course.

John, a plant pathologist working on bacterial diseases of potato, was a colleague of ours at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, who had joined the center a few months before I arrived in Lima in January 1973.

Enjoying pre-lunch drinks with Marian and John at ‘La Granja Azul‘ restaurant at Santa Clara – Ate, on the outskirts of Lima.

The newly-weds.

It’s by chance, I suppose, that Steph and I got together in the first place. We met at the University of Birmingham, where we studied for our MSc degrees in Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources.

Steph arrived in Birmingham in September 1971, just after I had finished the one-year course. I was expecting imminently to head off to Peru where I had been offered a position at CIP to help curate the large collection of native potato varieties in the CIP genebank. So, had I flown off to South America then, our paths would have hardly crossed.

But fate stepped in I guess.

My departure to Peru was delayed until January 1973. So I registered for a PhD with renowned potato expert Professor Jack Hawkes (right, head of the Department of Botany and architect of the MSc course), and began my research in Birmingham while CIP’s Director General, Richard Sawyer, negotiated a financial package from the British government to support the center’s research for development agenda, and my work there in particular.

It must have been early summer 1972 that Steph and I first got together. Having completed the MSc written exams in May, Steph began a research project on reproductive strategies in three legume species, directed by Dr Trevor Williams (who had supervised my project a year earlier on lentils). And she completed the course in September.

By then, she had successfully applied for a scientific officer position at the Scottish Plant Breeding Station in Edinburgh (SPBS, now part—after several interim phases—of the James Hutton Institute in Dundee), as Assistant Curator of the Commonwealth Potato Collection. But that position wasn’t due to start until November.

Our VW Variant in Peru, around May 1973 – before receiving a Peruvian registration plate.

In early November I took delivery of a left-hand-drive Volkswagen for shipment to Peru. On a rather dismal Birmingham morning, we loaded up the VW with Steph’s belongings and headed north to Edinburgh. She returned to Birmingham in mid-December for her graduation.

Then, just after Christmas 1972, we met up in a London for a couple of days before I was due to fly out to Lima.

At that time we could not make any firm commitments although we knew that—given the opportunity—we wanted to be together.

Again fate stepped in. On 4 January 1973, Jack Hawkes and I flew to Lima. Jack had been asked to organize a planning conference to guide CIP’s program to collect and conserve native Andean potato varieties and their wild relatives.

Potato varieties from the Andes of Peru.

While I stayed in a small hotel (the Pensión Beech, in the San Isidro district) until I could find an apartment to rent, Jack stayed with Richard Sawyer and his wife Norma. And it was over dinner one evening that Jack mentioned to Richard that I had a ‘significant other’ in the UK, also working on potato genetic resources, and was there a possibility of finding a position at CIP for her. Richard mulled the idea over, and quickly reached a decision: he offered Steph a position in the Breeding and Genetics Department to work with the germplasm collection.

With that, Steph resigned from the SPBS and made plans to move to Lima in July, with us planning to get married later on in the year.

In the CIP germplasm screenhouses in La Molina. Bottom: with Peruvian potato expert Ing. Carlos Ochoa.

A couple of weeks after I arrived in Peru, I found an apartment in Miraflores at 156 Los Pinos (how that whole area has changed in the intervening 50 years), and that’s where Steph joined me.

In our Los Pinos apartment, Miraflores in July 1973.

A few weeks later we found a larger apartment, nearby at 730 Avda. Larco, apartment 1003. Very interesting during earthquakes!

Around mid-August 1973 we began the paperwork (all those tramites!) to marry in Peru. Not as simple as you might think, but on reflection perhaps not as difficult as we anticipated.

While we were allowed to post marriage banns in the British Embassy, we had to announce our intention to marry in the official Peruvian government gazette, El Peruano, and one of the principal daily broadsheets (El Comercio if memory serves me right), and have the police visit us at our apartment to verify our address. I think we also had to have blood tests as well. This all took time, but everything was eventually in place for us to set the wedding date: 13 October.

Some friends wanted to give us a big wedding, but Steph said she just wanted an intimate, quiet day. So that’s what we organized.

In the week leading up to our wedding, we had to present all the notarised documents at the municipality. After the ceremony, we signed the registry, hand-written in enormous volumes (or tomos). There was a bank of clerical staff, all with their Parker fountain pens, inscribing the details of each wedding in their respective tomo. A week later we collected our Constancia de Matrimonio (with some errors) which detailed in which tomo (No. 83, page 706) our marriage had been recorded, as well as photocopies (now sadly faded) of the actual page.

My work, collecting potatoes, took me all over the Andes; not so much for Steph who only made visits every other week or so to CIP’s highland experiment station (at over 3000 masl) in Huancayo east of Lima, and a six hour drive away.

However, Steph and I explored Peru together as much as we could, taking our VW on several long trips, to the north and central Andes, and south to Lake Titicaca. We also delayed our honeymoon until December 1973, flying to Cusco for a few days, and spending one night at Machu Picchu.

At Machu Picchu, December 1973.

In May 1975, we returned to the UK for seven months for me to complete my PhD, returning to Lima just before New Year.

With Jack Hakes and Trevor Williams at my PhD graduation on 12 December 1975 at the University of Birmingham.

Christmas Day 1976 in Turrialba.

Then, in April 1976, we moved to Costa Rica where I worked on potato diseases and production, based in Turrialba, some 70 km east of the capital city, San José. Under the terms of our visas, Steph was not permitted to work in Costa Rica. I became regional representative for CIP’s Region II (Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean) in August 1997 when my colleague, Oscar Hidalgo (who was based in Toluca, Mexico) headed to North Carolina to begin his PhD studies.

Our elder daughter Hannah Louise was born in San José in April 1978. Later that year, we took our first home leave in the UK and both sets of grandparents were delighted to meet their first granddaughter.

24 April 1978 in the Clinica Santa Rita, San José, Costa Rica.

On home leave in the UK in September 1978.

With Steph’s parents Myrtle and Arthur (top) in Southend-on-Sea, and mine, Lilian and Fred, in Leek.

We spent five happy years in Costa Rica before moving back to Lima at the end of November 1980, and began making plans to move to the Philippines by Easter 1981.

However, in early 1981, a lectureship was created at the University of Birmingham, in the Department of Plant Biology (formerly Botany, where Steph and I had studied), for which I successfully applied. We left CIP at the end of March and had set up home in Bromsgrove (about 13 miles south of Birmingham in north Worcestershire) by the beginning of July.

4 Davenport Drive

A decade after we were married, we were already a family of four. In May 1982 Philippa Alice was born in Bromsgrove.

30 May 1982 in Bromsgrove hospital.

During the 1980s we enjoyed many family holidays, including this one in 1983 on the canals close to home.

Many other family holidays followed, in South Wales, in Norfolk, on the North York Moors, and in 1989, in the Canary Islands.

In Tenerife, Canary Islands in July 1989. Steph is carrying the binoculars that I bought around 1964 and which I still possess.

Hannah (left) and Philippa (right) thrived at local Finstall First School, shown here on their first day of school in 1983 and 1987, respectively.

My work at Birmingham kept me very busy (perhaps too busy), but I particularly enjoyed working with my graduate students (many of them from overseas), and my undergraduate tutees.

All in all, it looked like Birmingham would be a job for life. That was not to be, however. By the end of the 1980s, academic life had sadly lost much of its allure, thanks in no small part to the policies and actions of the Thatcher government. We moved on.

By 1993, we had already been in the Philippines for almost two years, where I had been hired (from July 1991) as head of the Genetic Resources Center (GRC) at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, some 65 km south of Manila in the Philippines. I moved there ahead of Steph and the girls (then aged 13 and nine) who joined me just after Christmas 1991.

Meeting fellow newcomer and head of communications, Ted Hutchcroft and his wife at our joint IRRI welcoming party in early 1992.

In 1993 I learned to scuba dive, a year after Hannah, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Philippa trained a couple of years later.

Getting ready to dive, at Arthur’s Place, Anilao, Philippines in January 2003.

Steph was quite content simply to snorkel or beachcomb, and we derived great pleasure from our weekends away (about eight or nine a year) at Anilao, 92 km south from Los Baños. In fact, our weekends in Anilao were one of our greatest enjoyments during the 19 years we spent in the Philippines.

Steph became an enthusiastic beader and has made several hundred pieces of jewelry since then. In Los Baños we had a live-in helper, Lilia, and so in the heat of Los Baños, Steph was spared the drudgery of housework or cooking, and could focus on the hobbies she enjoyed, including a daily swim in the IRRI pool, and looking after her garden and orchids.

Steph and Lilia on our last day in IRRI Staff Housing #15 on 30 April 2010.

Hannah and Philippa completed their school education at the International School Manila (ISM) in 1995 and 1999 respectively, both passing the International Baccalaureate Diploma with commendably high scores.

Graduation at ISM: Hannah and Philippa with their friends from around the world.

Traveling to Manila each day from Los Baños had not been an easy journey, due to continual roadworks and indescribable traffic. It was at least two hours each way. By the time Philippa finished school in 1999, the buses were leaving Los Baños at 04:30 in order to reach Manila by the start of classes at 07:15.

In October 1996, Hannah started her university degree in psychology and social anthropology at Swansea University in the UK. However, after two years, she transferred to Macalester College, a highly-rated liberal arts college in St Paul, Minnesota, graduating summa cum laude in psychology and anthropology in May 2000. She then registered for a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Minnesota. Philippa began her BSc degree in psychology at the prestigious University of Durham, UK later that same year, in October.

Hannah’s graduation in May 2000 at Macalester College, with Philippa and Michael (Hannah’s boyfriend, now her husband).

Once Hannah and Philippa had left for university, IRRI paid for return visits each year, especially at Christmas.

Christmas 2001. Michael joined Hannah for the visit.

While my work took me outside the Philippines quite often, Steph and I did manage holidays together in Hong Kong/Macau and Australia. And, together with Philippa, we toured Angkor Wat in Cambodia in December 2000.

But Steph also accompanied me on work trips to Laos, Bali, and Japan. She also joined me and my staff when we visited the rice terraces in northern Luzon in March 2009.

Enjoying a cold beer as the sun goes down, near Sagada, northern Luzon, Philippines.

Overlooking the Batad rice terraces in northern Luzon in March 2009.

However, we always used our annual home leave allowance to return to the UK, stay in our home in Bromsgrove (which we had purposely left unoccupied), and meet up with family and friends.

Philippa was awarded a 2:1 degree in July 2003, and the graduation ceremony took place inside Durham Cathedral. She then headed off to Vancouver for a year, before returning to the UK and looking for a job, eventually settling in Newcastle upon Tyne where she has lived ever since.

Outside Durham Cathedral where Phil received her BSc degree from the university’s Chancellor, the late Sir Peter Ustinov.

Hannah married Michael in May 2006, and finished her PhD. We flew to Minnesota from the Philippines.

15 May 2006, at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Como Park, St Paul.

PhD graduation at the University of Minnesota.

Philippa registered for a PhD in biological psychology at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne where she was already working.

Professionally, the period between 2001 and my retirement in 2010 was the most satisfying. I had changed positions at IRRI in May, moving from GRC to join the institute’s senior management team as Director for Program Planning and Communications (DPPC). I worked with a great team, and we really made an impact to increase donor support for IRRI’s research program. However, by 2008/9 when my contract was up for renewal, Steph and I had already agreed not to continue with IRRI, but take early retirement and return to the UK.

But not quite yet. IRRI’s Director General, Bob Zeigler, persuaded me to stay on for another year, and organize the celebrations for the institute’s 50th anniversary. Which I duly did, and had great fun doing so.

But as our retirement date approached in April 2010, I was honored by the institute’s Board of Trustees with a farewell party (despedida) coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the very first Board meeting in April 1960.

14 April 2010 – IRRI’s 50th celebration dinner and our despedida.

Friday 30 April was my last day in the office.

With my DPPC friends. L-R: Eric, Corinta, Zeny, me, Vhel, and Yeyet.

We flew back to the UK two days later, arriving on Monday 3 May and taking delivery of our new car, a Peugeot 308, the following day.

Philippa and Andi flew off to New York in October 2010 and were married in Central Park. She graduated with her PhD in December.

By 2013 we had been married for four decades, and were well-settled into retirement, enjoying all the opportunities good weather gave us to really explore Worcestershire and neighboring counties, especially as National Trust and English Heritage members. And touring Scotland in 2015, Northern Ireland in 2017, Cornwall in 2018, East Sussex and Kent in 2019, and Hampshire and West Sussex in 2022.

We were, by then, the proud grandparents of three beautiful boys and a girl.

Callum Andrew (August 2010) – St Paul, Minnesota

Elvis Dexter (September 2011) – Newcastle upon Tyne

Zoë Isobel (May 2012) – St Paul, Minnesota

Felix Sylvester (September 2013) – Newcastle upon Tyne

And how could we ever forget a very special day in February 2012, when Steph, Philippa and my former colleague from IRRI, Corinta joined me at Buckingham Palace for an investiture.

Receiving my OBE from King Charles III (then HRH The Prince of Wales) on 14 February 2012.

With Steph and Philippa outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.

With Corinta and Steph in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace after the investiture.

Since 2010, we have traveled to the USA each year except during the pandemic years (2020-2022), and only returning there this past May and June. We’ve made some pretty impressive road trips around the USA, taking in the east and west coasts, and all points in between with the exception of the Deep South. Just click here to find a list of those road trips.

In July 2016, a few months after I broke my leg, Hannah and family came over to the UK, and we got together with Phil and Andi and the boys for the first time, sharing a house in the New Forest.

Our first group photo as a family, near Beaulieu Road station in the New Forest, 7 July 2016. L-R: Zoë, Michael, me (still using a walking stick), Steph, Callum, Hannah, Elvis, Andi, Felix, and Philippa.

And they came over again in July 2022, to our new home in the northeast of England where we had moved from Bromsgrove in October 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In our garden in Backworth, North Tyneside, August 2022.

L-R: Felix, Elvis, Zoë, and Callum, at Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland in August 2022.

So it’s 2023, and fifty years have passed since we married.

During our visit to the USA this past May and June, we met up with Roger Rowe and his wife Norma, along the Mississippi River at La Crosse in Wisconsin.

Roger joined CIP in 1973 as head of the Breeding and Genetics Department and was our first boss. Roger also co-supervised my PhD. So it was great meeting up with them again 50 years on.

We’ve been in the northeast just over three years now, and haven’t regretted for a moment making the move north. It’s a wonderful part of the country, and in fact has given us a new lease of life.

At Steel Rigg looking east towards the Whin Sill, Crag Lough, and Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland, February 2022.

Steph has taken great pleasure in developing her new garden here. It’s a work in progress, and quite a different challenge from her garden in Worcestershire, discovering what she can grow and what won’t survive this far north or in the very heavy (and often waterlogged) soil.

22 August 2023

I’ve had much enjoyment writing this blog since 2012, combining my interests of writing and photography. It has certainly given me a focus in retirement. I never thought I’d still be writing as many stories, over 700 now, and approaching 780,000 words. Since returning to the UK, I’ve also tried to take a daily walk of 2-4 miles. However, that’s not been possible these past six months. A back and leg problem has curtailed my daily walk, but I’m hopeful that it will eventually resolve itself and I’ll be able to get out and about locally, especially along the famous North Tyneside waggonways.

After 50 years together, we have much to be thankful for. We’ve enjoyed the countries where we have lived and worked, or visited on vacation. Our daughters and their families are thriving. Hannah is a Senior Director of Talent Management and Strategy for one of the USA’s largest food companies, and Philippa is an Associate Professor of Biological Psychology at Northumbria University.

Sisters!

With Hannah and Michael, Callum and Zoë (and doggies Bo and Ollie, and cat Hobbes) in St Paul, MN on 18 June 2023.

With Philippa and Andi, Elvis and Felix (and doggies Rex and Noodle) on 2 September 2023.

And here we are, at South Stack cliffs, in the prime of life (taken in mid-September) when we enjoyed a short break in North Wales.

Steph with Philippa and family on her birthday on 8 October.

13 October 2023 – still going strong!

While drafting this reminiscence, I came across this article by Hannah Snyder on the Northwest Public Broadcasting website, and it inspired the title I used.

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A Victorian in Tudor clothing . . .

Speke Hall, a National Trust property on the eastern outskirts of Liverpool (right next to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, built on former Speke estate land) is a typical half-timbered, moated Tudor manor house. Although the moat has long since dried up.

However, much of the interior is—to all intents and purpose—Victorian.

Speke Hall is a late Elizabethan house, completed by Edward Norris (son of Sir William Norris, who had begun the build) in 1598. Although, at the rear of the house, another gate also displays the date 1605.

The main entrance to Speke Hall, showing the 1598 date.

The rear of the house, with an arched stone gateway with the date 1605.

Being short on time during our visit (we’d stopped off on our way home from holiday in North Wales), we took the guided tour and missed some of the rooms that remain closer to their Tudor origins. Only in one bedroom that we viewed, above the main entrance, was there a fireplace with clear Tudor craftsmanship.

The house is also a tale of two families: the Norris family that built the house and lived there for generations; and the Watt family that purchased the Speke estate in 1795. Both the Norrises and Watts made their fortunes from the transatlantic slave trade and plantations in the Caribbean.

There were a number of tenants over the centuries, the most prominent being Frederick Leyland (right), a Liverpool shipping magnate who lived at Speke for a decade from 1867, while the current owner, Adelaide Watt (1857-1921) was living in Scotland until she came of age and could inherit the estate.

There’s a nice potted history of the hall and its inhabitants on the National Trust website.

It was Leyland who refurbished the Speke interior in heavy and dark Victorian Gothic style.

He also patronised artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and James McNeil Whistler (of Whistler’s Mother painting fame). I’m not sure if William Morris (of the Arts and Crafts Movement) was actually involved directly with the decoration of the passageway and two rooms, but three of his wallpaper designs were hung there. We’ve also seen Morris designs at Wightwick near Wolverhampton, and Standen House in West Sussex.

Daisy design – original that has deteriorated
Daisy design – refurbished

Fruit design
Trellis design

After Leyland’s tenancy came to an end, Adelaide Watt (right) returned to Speke, and although only a young woman (around 21 years of age, and unmarried) set about running the estate herself, and introducing numerous innovations to make the estate more productive.

She immersed herself in every detail of the estate’s management. Today we’d view her as the archetypal micromanager, perhaps almost a termagant. But the estate thrived.

In her will Adelaide named three members of the Norris family as estate trustees (who sold off land to Liverpool corporation), with the proviso that the estate would transfer to the National Trust after 21 years. In 1942 the estate was handed to the Trust, which took on full management from 1986.

A full album of photos can be viewed here.

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A view to Snowdonia’s foothills, and to the sea

During our recent short break in North Wales, Steph and I visited two very different gardens for the first time, Bodnant and Plas yn Rhiw, and made a quick return visit to a third (Plas Newydd on Anglesey), all managed by the National Trust.

Bodnant, a few miles south of Conwy in the river valley of the same name, is a world-famous garden home to National Collections and Champion Trees, covering around 80 acres (32 ha), and with 8 miles of trails to explore. Just click on the map below to open a larger version.

The history of Bodnant goes back 150 years or so, and is the story of the Pochin and McLaren families, who were united when Laura Pochin married Charles McLaren in 1877. Charles was ennobled in 1911 and took the name Lord Aberconway. The Aberconway family is still closely associated with the garden, and owns Bodnant House (which is not open to the public).

Like other gardens we have visited (such as Cragside in Northumberland), it never ceases to amaze me what vision the creators of these gardens had. They introduced and planted all manner of species, with many trees today reaching skywards more than 100 feet (among them various redwoods), a landscape they could only have dreamed about but never seen. It has been left to their descendants to nurture that vision alongside the National Trust.

I guess we must have arrived by about 10:30, and after enjoying a welcome cup of coffee, headed off into the garden.

Just inside the garden, beside one of the main paths, was a glorious perennial border, in full early Autumn bloom.

Given my more limited mobility over the past months, we initially decided just to walk the more accessible paths, and the various terraces that add so much magnificence to the garden, and from which there are inspiring views over the Snowdonia foothills to the west, across the other side of the Rover Conwy.

Below the west elevation of Bodnant House, there is a series of five terraces, the uppermost and another below it planted to roses. There are two large pools, a long rectangular one almost covering the length of the lowest terrace where a pavilion known as The Pin Mill (8 on the map) can be found.

Bodnant House
Pin Mill
Pin Mill

We then followed the path towards the tower known as The Poem (19), then descending to the bottom of The Dell, and crossing over the Waterfall Bridge (20).

The Dell
The Poem
The Waterfall Bridge
The Old Mill

We then walked along The Dell as far as the Old Mill (10), taking in the beautiful blue hydrangeas growing along the banks of the stream (which you can see in the video clip), before ascending towards Bodnant House and the exit.

I visited Bodnant once before, 60 or so years ago, with members of Leek Camera Club but remember very little of that excursion. I’m sure that National Trust has made great improvements in the garden with the Aberconways in the intervening decades. Our recent visit was most enjoyable.

At the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula, near the small community of Aberdaron, Plas yn Rhiw is a delightful 17th century manor house, and an estate of approximately 150 acres (61 ha).

It’s owned by the National Trust, but not open every day. As from October, it will close for the winter. So we were lucky that we found an opportunity of making our visit.

It was the home of three unmarried sisters, Eileen, Lorna and Mary Honora Keating from Nottingham, and their mother, Constance, who could trace their ancestry back to the original owners of the manor. They bought the estate in 1939. In 1946 they donated the surrounding land to the National Trust to honor the memory of their parents William (d. 1893) and mother (d. 1945). Then, in 1952, the house was given to the National Trust (although it had been open to the public before then), and continued to live there until the last sister, Lorna, died in 1981.

Honor was made an OBE in 1939 for her work with maternity and child welfare.

The sisters were passionate about the environment, and they set about refurbishing the house. The front porch overlooks a small ornamental garden, and from there to the coast and views of Cardigan Bay.

The house is like a time capsule, full of all the sisters’ belongings. Check out this photo album to view many images of the interior of the cottage.

It’s a real gem of a National Trust property and well worth making the trip along the Llŷn Peninsula (which is worth a trip in it’s own right).

On the way back to our holiday cottage, we stopped off in Aberdaron and enjoyed the view (although hazy) over Cardigan Bay, as well as along the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula.

 

 

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Traveling for 55 years

I have been very fortunate. There’s no denying. Since I made my first trip outside the UK, to the west coast of Ireland for a botany field course in July 1968, followed a year later, in September 1969 to participate in a folk festival in Czechoslovakia, I’ve had so many opportunities to travel around the globe—to more than 60 countries (sometimes on vacation, but mostly on business associated with my work in international agricultural research).

Morris dancing at the folk festival in Strakonice, Czechoslovakia in 1969. That’s me on the extreme right.

I’ve lived and worked in three countries (besides the UK of course): Peru (1973-76); Costa Rica (1976-1980); and the Philippines (1991-2010). I’ve visited several countries multiple times, and others just the once. Whenever I was traveling on business, I would also try to fit in some tourism over a weekend if possible. I have so many memories over those 55 years. Here are some that spring to mind.

The Americas
I guess I should begin this section with Peru. In 1971 I was thrilled to be offered a job in Peru, at the newly-founded International Potato Center (CIP), although I didn’t actually travel there until January 1973.

13 October 1973

So many memories. Steph and I were married in Lima in October 1973.

My work took me all over the Andes collecting native varieties of potatoes (and some of the hundreds of wild species of potato that are indigenous to Peru). And Steph and I made several road trips to the north, central, and southern Andes. I visited Machu Picchu twice, and we saw some remarkable sights and sites.

The coast south of Lima
Above Tarma on the road to San Ramon
Huascaran, Peru’s highest mountain, Ancash
Potato diversity
Climbing the Andes
Central Huancayo
Looking at a farmer’s field of potatoes in the Mantaro Valley near Huancayo.
Solanum lignicaule, 2n=2x=24, from southern Peru
In Pisac market
The street of the thirteen-sided stone.
Cuzco cathedral.
School time.
North of Ayacucho, but before the Mantaro gorge.
Arequipa’s cathedral with El Misti in the background.
On the river near Puerto Bermudez
Near Cuzco in southern Peru, 1974
Machu Picchu
Sacsayhuaman at Cuzco

It’s almost impossible to choose any one aspect that stands out. The diversity of landscapes, with desert on the coast, the high Andes, and the jungle on the eastern side. The long history of agriculture in difficult environments, and the archaeology of civilizations that go way back before the invasion by the Spanish in the 16th century.

Then we moved to Costa Rica in April 1976, living in Turrialba, about 70 km east of the capita, San José. Once again I was working on potatoes and with farmers.

We enjoyed our five years in that beautiful country, and our elder daughter Hannah was born there in April 1978.

A land of volcanoes (some very active), Costa Rica is a verdant country, and there are national parks everywhere. The bird and plant life is extraordinary, so I guess this is what stands out for me in particular.

Potato fields of var. Atzimba on the slopes of the Irazu volcano
Northern Costa Rica on the way to Monteverde.
Just after we’d taken delivery of our VW Brasilia
Typical ox carts in Costa Rica
Steph and Hannah at the Monteverde Biological Reserve
A respendent quetzal that we saw at Monteverde
Carrying Hannah on my back at Monteverde
Tamarindo Beach on the Guanacaste coast in northwest Costa Rica
CATIE in Turrialba
The Turrialba volcano from our garden at CATIE
Hannah growing up at CATIE
On a visit to the Poas volcano

My work took me to all the countries of Central America, as well as to Mexico where, until 1977, CIP’s regional headquarters was based just outside Mexico City at Toluca. And also out into the Caribbean islands, to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to Jamaica, St Kitts, Antigua, Montserrat, Barbados, and Trinidad.

In Mexico, most of my visits were to Toluca. But on one visit there, I joined the participants of a potato training course to study potato production in Mexico State, Michoacán, Puebla, Jalisco, and Guanajuato. Later, in the 1980s I also visited Nuevo Leon in the north, and Morelos south of Mexico City.

But if I had to choose one highlight, it would be the pyramids at Teotihuacán, northeast of Mexico City that Steph and visited in 1975 when we visited some friends at CIMMYT (a sister center to CIP) on our way back to the UK.

Guatemala is a fascinating and beautiful country, and I was a regular visitor. A land of lakes and volcanoes, it has a high indigenous population, who wear the most colorful fabrics.

In 1977, Steph and I flew into the Mayan city of Tikal, deep in the jungle, for an overnight stay.

On another trip I spent a few days in Belize, first in Belize City on the coast, then in Belmopan, the smallest capital city in the Americas.

The overriding memory I have of Honduras was the white-knuckle landings in Tegucigalpa. How they managed to land jets there is beyond me. What pilot skill!

I visited El Salvador and Nicaragua just once each, and then only overnight. They had virtually no potato sector.

Flying in and out of Panama City was quite a regular occurrence. It was a transit for Costa Rica from South America. The main potato area was in the west of the country near the frontier with Costa Rica (map), north of the city of David at Volcán and Boquete. A region of deep volcanic soils, it was very good potato-growing country, and one I traveled to by road from my base in Turrialba on a couple of occasions.

Potato fields in Boquete, northern Panama

It was only after I moved to the Philippines in 1991 that my work took me back to Costa Rica for the first time in about 15 years, and one other country, Venezuela, which I’d not visited before although landing at Caracas airport on several occasions. This airport is located on the Caribbean coast north of the city, and is connected by a 27 km motorway that crosses the mountains, a spectacular drive over what I assume is a northern extension of the Andes.

In the 1990s I spent a week in Caracas attending a potato network meeting, but seeing very little of the city, just the metro from hotel to meeting venue and back!

Another international agricultural research center in Cali, Colombia is CIAT (map), supported in the same way as CIP and CIMMYT (and the rice institute, IRRI, in the Philippines, that I joined in 1991). Located in the Cauca Valley, CIAT is surrounded by huge plantations of sugar cane, but the rice-growing area is nearby as well. The last time I was there (and in Peru and Mexico) was in July 2016 conducting a review of the CIAT genebank.

I was in Chile just the once, for a week in Santiago in July 1979. I’d flown down from Costa Rica to join two colleagues from Lima to carry out a short review of the Chilean potato program. Two things come to mind: wine and ABBA. Wine, because we were taken to dinner at Enoteca, a fine restaurant overlooking the city on Camino Real, where all the wines produced in Chile were on display, and we were invited to sample many of them. On one evening, while out enjoying some souvenir shopping, I heard (for the first time) the refrains of Chiquitita by ABBA emitting from one of the shops. My visit to Santiago will always be associated with ABBA.

What can I say about Brazil? It’s huge. My first visit there was in 1979 when I attended a potato conference at Poços de Caldas in Minas Gerais (map), followed by a couple of nights in Rio de Janeiro. On another occasion I attended a conference in Foz do Iguaçu (in Paraná state) close to the border with Argentina and Paraguay, and site of the impressive Iguazu Falls.

I’ve been to Brasilia twice, and once upon a time, that nearly became home for Steph and me when CIP’s Director General deliberated whether to post me to Brazil or the Philippines. In the event we returned to the UK in 1981 when I joined the faculty of the University of Birmingham.

I guess the most impressive thing I’ve experienced in Brazil is the statue of Christ at Corcovado, high above Rio de Janeiro, with the most spectacular views over the city. My dad was there in the 1930s.

I’ve been to Canada twice, the first time in 1979 (with Steph and 15 month-old Hannah) when I attended a potato conference in Vancouver, then we drove across the Rockies to meet up with my late elder brother Ed and his wife Linda in Edmonton, AB.

In the early 2000s, I made a short visit to Ottawa to meet with representatives of Canadian overseas development assistance agencies, and managed to spend a day getting to know the city, before heading back to the USA.

Parliament Hill from the banks of the Ottawa River

Over the decades I’ve traveled to the USA many times, and have now visited all states and DC except Hawaii, Alaska (although one flight touched down in Anchorage), Idaho, Nevada (I changed flights in Las Vegas), Oklahoma, Kansas, North Dakota, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. It’s such a vast country, but since 2011, Steph and I have managed several mega road trips and seen so many wonderful sights. It’s hard to pick any one. I have written about these trips and you can find a link here; just scroll down to the USA section).

But what highlights do I choose? The Oregon coast, Crater Lake, or the redwoods of northern California? Or would it be canyon country in Arizona? How about Yellowstone National Park, the Appalachians, the Mississippi River, Mt Washington in New Hampshire, or the coast of Maine? What about the Civil War sites like Gettysburg?

However, I’ve often said since we made the visit there in 2011, that if I ever got the opportunity to return, it would be to Canyon de Chelly in northeast Arizona. It’s a special place.

Canyon de Chelly, AZ
Spider Rock in the Canyon de Chelly

There’s not a lot of potatoes grown throughout the Caribbean, with only the Dominican Republic having any significant potato program, in the central highlands close to the border with Haiti. The Dominican Republic became one of the founder members of a regional potato program, PRECODEPA, set up in 1978, so I guess I must have traveled there five or six times.

I was just the once in Haiti, in the late 1970s attending a conference for about a week. We stayed in a nice hotel overlooking Port-au-Prince, and ventured out into the city just the once. Even then the city was not a safe place to wander round, and following the disastrous 2010 earthquake followed by the cholera outbreak, the country has become even more ungovernable, and not somewhere I would want to visit again. It’s one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

I also paid short visits to Jamaica, St Kitts, Montserrat (which had a small but thriving potato sector before the Soufrière Hills volcano erupted in 1995, covering half the island with ash), Barbados, and Trinidad. Before long-haul jets could make the flight direct from Europe to South America, Antigua was a refuelling stop, which I made a couple of times. And after being being bumped off a flight to Montserrat, I spent the night in Antigua at a luxury resort (the only hotel bed I could find on the island!) and enjoying a delicious lobster dinner for the same price as a steak.

Asia
Let’s turn to Asia now. I spent almost 19 years in the Philippines, joining the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1991, first as head of the Genetic Resources Center (GRC, and managing the world’s largest genebank for rice) until 2001, when I became the institute’s Director for Program Planning and Communications (DPPC). In both roles my work took me all over the world. But let’s focus on the countries in the region to begin with.

My first trip to Asia, to Indonesia in fact, was in the early 1980s, when I attended a genetic resources meeting in Jakarta, but spending a weekend at the Bogor Botanical Garden beforehand. The oil palm tree on the right below is one of the original trees introduced into Asia and became the foundation of the oil palm industry.

Bogor botanical garden
Bogor botanical garden
One of the original oil palms in the garden

Over the 19 years I spent living in the Philippines, I returned to Indonesia several times, the most memorable being in September 2005 when the IRRI Board of Trustees held one of it bi-yearly meetings there. Steph was able to join me on that trip, and along with excursions into the Bali countryside, we also enjoyed a long weekend break at our hotel before returning to the Philippines.

Bali landscape, Indonesia

In the Philippines, we lived in Los Baños, some 60 km south of Manila, where IRRI had its research center.

On the IRRI experiment station, with Mt Makiling (a dormant volcano) in the background.

Although we didn’t travel much around the Philippines (and apart from one short trip to Cebu, we didn’t wander beyond the island of Luzon), we went to the beach most months, and in March 2009, Steph joined me and my DPPC staff when we took an office outing over five days to the rice terraces in the mountains north of Manila. Very impressive.

Looking south towards Banaue town center.

In 1993 I learnt to scuba dive, one of the best things I’ve ever done, opening up a totally new world for me. The Philippines has some of the best diving in the world, especially at Anilao south of Manila.

Diving at Anilao, Philippines

But one of the best things about the Philippines? The Filipinos! Always smiling. Such friendly people. And I had great Filipino colleagues working with and for me in both the roles I took on at IRRI.

The ‘IRRI All Stars’ who helped during the IRRI Day in October 2002.

Colleagues from the Genetic Resources Center.

In 1995, I launched a major rice biodiversity project (funded by the Swiss government), and one of my staff, Dr Seepana Appa Rao was recruited to help the national rice program in Laos to collect native varieties of rice. Over five years, I visited Laos at least twice a year, taking part several times in a baci ceremony to welcome me to the country, and other visitors as well. Steph joined me on one trip, and here we are during one such ceremony at the house of my colleague, the late Dr John Schiller.

On that particular trip, we took a weekend off, flying to Luang Prabang and enjoying a river trip on the Mekong.

Mekong River, nr. Luang Prabang, Laos

IRRI had a country program in Cambodia, and I visited a couple of times to discuss rice germplasm conservation, and stayed in Phnom Penh. But after Christmas 2000, Steph and I were joined by our younger daughter Philippa (who had just begun her undergraduate studies at the University of Durham in the UK) for a mini-break in Cambodia (and Singapore).

We flew from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, and spent three nights there visiting the amazing Angkor Wat temple complex, and a boat trip on the Tonle Sap, before flying back to the capital for one night, and back to Singapore.

We celebrated the New Year in Singapore, taking in the beautiful botanic gardens. Work has taken me to Singapore on several occasions, and Changi airport has to be one of the world’s aviation destinations. How it must have changed since I was last there.

Work took me to Seoul in South Korea on several occasions, and Japan. Steph joined me on one trip to Japan in September 2009 when the IRRI Board of Trustees met in Tsukuba north of Tokyo. We stayed on for a long weekend sightseeing in Tokyo, although she got to see more than I did earlier in the week, when a series of excursions for IRRI and Trustee wives were organised from Tsukuba.

Narita airport was also a hub for Northwest Airlines (now Delta) for flights from Manila to the USA, so I would fly through there at least a couple of times a year, also Osaka.

I’ve been to Beijing in China a couple of times, taking in the Great Wall during my first visit in 1995.

With my colleague, Bao-Rong Lu (middle) on the Great Wall, north of Beijing

On that trip we also took in Hangzhou and Guangzhou. I was in Beijing again around 2005 for a meeting, and in 2004, Steph and I flew to Hong Kong over Christmas and New Year. We also crossed to Macau on that trip.

The view from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

Ruins of St Paul’s, Macau

Again, Hong Kong was one of those hub airports that I passed through many times, first at the old Kai Tak airport alongside Kowloon harbor (an interesting approach), and later at the new airport reclaimed from the sea.

I’ve only been to India a handful of times, always to meetings, and only then to Delhi and Hyderabad, so I can’t say that I’ve ever seen much of the country. There’s no doubt it’s a fascinating country, but I’m not sure it’s really on my bucket list – except if I could travel on one of those luxury trains, perhaps.

The same goes for Bangladesh, with just a couple of visits to Dhaka so I can’t say that I’ve ever known the country.

I was in Sri Lanka just the once, spending most of my time in Kandy. The hotel where I stayed was outside the city, on a hill, with breath-taking views over the surrounding hills. And I remember waking up early one still morning, and listening to the bird calls echoing all around. Magic!

I been to the north and south of Vietnam. On my first trip, I traveled to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, and on the return journey to the airport in Ho Chi Minh City, I had to cross the river in a small boat (the bridge was down) and flag down a tuk-tuk for the last 20 km or so. I caught my flight!

Then I was in Hanoi several times in connection with the rice biodiversity project, but in 2010 I was the chair of the science committee for the 3rd International Rice Congress held in that city.

Myanmar has been closed off to visitors for many years, but I was able to visit just the once in the late 1990s, to the rice genebank at Yezin, about 250 miles north of the old capital Yangon. The train ride was interminable, and the sleeper on the return journey left a lot to be desired in terms of comfort and cleanliness. Nevertheless it was an interesting visit, but compared to the cuisine of other countries in the region (especially Thailand and Indonesia) the food was not inspiring: served quite cold and swilling in oil.

I’ve been in Bangkok many times, as it where I would change flights for Vientiane in Laos, having to spend one night to catch the early morning flight on Thai or Lao Airlines. But I never got to know the country, just a couple of visits to Chiang Mai in the north (again for meetings but no tourism). The same goes for Malaysia, with meetings in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

In 2014 IRRI once again asked me to chair the science committee for the 4th International Rice Congress that was held in Bangkok, so I made several visits there (and on to the Philippines) before the congress was held in November.

Australia
I’ve been in Australia four times. As a family, Steph, our elder daughter Hannah, Philippa and I flew from the Philippines just after Christmas 1998 to Sydney, spending just under a week there, enjoying a trip up into the Blue Mountains, and watching the awesome fireworks display over Sydney Harbour on New Year’s Eve.

I made a work trip there around 2001, taking in Canberra, the rice-growing area in the Riverina, Adelaide, and Melbourne.

In December 2003, Steph and I drove from Sydney to Melbourne over the course of a week, taking the train back to Sydney, where we enjoyed a harbour dinner cruise.

At the Sydney Harbour Bridge during our Christmas vacation in Australia in December 2003

We spent New Year’s Eve on the south coast near Melbourne.

Next stop: Antarctica

The last time I was there was November 2016, when my friend and former colleague, Professor Brian Ford-Lloyd flew from Birmingham to Melbourne for three days as part of a review of genebanks.

Enjoying a stiff one on the Emirates A380 flight from Melbourne to Dubai.

Africa
Africa now, where I have visited Morocco in the north, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria in West Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya in East Africa, and Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, and Madagascar in southern Africa. I wrote this general account in 2013.

There are several international agricultural research centers in Africa: ILRI (a livestock center) in Kenya and Ethiopia; World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Kenya; IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria; and Africa Rice (WARDA) in Bouaké, Ivory Coast. I have attended meetings there on several occasions. In Ethiopia, the ILRI campus is located in Addis Ababa, and during my first visit there, in January 1993, I had the opportunity of traveling down into the Rift Valley. What I most remember about that trip, and the stay in Addis, was the incredible bird life. An ornithologist’s paradise. Likewise on the campus of IITA in Nigeria. IITA has a 1000 ha campus, and part of it has been left as pristine rainforest with its assemblage of species, some of them crop wild relatives.

Looking for wild yams on the IITA Forest Reserve.

I made my first visit to Nigeria and Ivory Coast after the genetic resources meeting in Addis Ababa in 1993. For security reasons, visitors to IITA who arrive in Lagos in the afternoon and evening spend the night there, before being escorted to Ibadan, around 2 hours by road to the northeast. I always enjoyed my visits to IITA. But Lagos airport was another thing. The situation there did improve, but throughout the 1990s, I always felt uneasy passing through, as officials (some in uniform, others in plain clothes) would often ask for a bribe.

I must have visited Ivory Coast a couple of times, the first time flying from Abidjan (the capital) to Bouaké on the national airline, a Boeing 727 that had once been the presidential aircraft! I made those visits before the disastrous civil wars of 2002-2004 and 2010-2011.

Africa Rice had to abandon its research center in Bouaké for many years, although the institute has now returned there. I planted a tree during my first visit. I wonder if it’s still there?

With Deputy Director General Perter Matlon at the tree planting.

On another occasion, I was in Ghana for a week, attending a planning meeting, and didn’t see much of Accra outside my hotel.

I’ve been in Kenya probably half a dozen times, straddled the Equator, and enjoyed the wildlife in the Nairobi National Park.

With my dear friend from CIMMYT, the late Sir Bent Skovmand (from Denmark), wheat pathologist and then head of the CIMMYT wheat genebank.

In October 2005, I was in Marrakech, Morocco to attend the annual meeting of the CGIAR, the consortium of donors and international centers. I got sick, and I had to work on a project proposal so spent much of my time in my hotel room, with just one excursion to the souk for some souvenir shopping.

Looking for silver beads for Steph.

In southern Africa, I spent several days in Lusaka, Zambia visiting the SADC genebank there. I’ve passed through Johannesburg several times, and on my transit there (on my way to Lusaka) was caught up in a car bomb incident on the day of the election that first brought Nelson Mandela to power in April 1994. On another occasion I spent a week in Durban (meetings once again) with a side trip to Pietermaritzburg, almost 90 km inland from Durban,

IRRI had a country program in Mozambique, and I was there a couple of times. The rice program joined our biodiversity project, and the CGIAR held its annual meeting there in 2009.

I was in Madagascar just the once, staying in the capital Antananarivo on the east coast, and traveling along dreadful roads north to the rice experiment station. Madagascar also participated in the rice biodiversity project.

At a training course on rice genetic resources in Madagascar in 1998.

Middle East
I had the opportunity of visiting Izmir in Turkey in April 1972, one of my first overseas trips from Birmingham, to attend a genetic resources conference. There was an excursion to Ephesus.

On another visit (also to Izmir) in the late 1970s, I spent a day in Istanbul before taking an evening flight to the UK, enjoying the Topkapi Palace and various mosques.

The Blue Mosque

I was fortunate to travel to Syria several times, to Aleppo, before the civil war pulled the country apart. Another agricultural research center, ICARDA, had its headquarters there and genebank. I even went for a job interview once. It’s a beautiful country, and I guess many of the beautiful almond orchards have probably been destroyed in the fighting. I also spent some time in Damascus, visiting the famous souk there.

In 1982, I took a party of graduate students from the University of Birmingham to Israel for a two week course on genetic resources of the Mediterranean. I wrote about that visit here.

And then there’s Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I’ve spent a few nights there in between flights but never had enough time to explore the city. When Emirates Airlines began a service from Manila (MNL) to Dubai (DXB), and on to Birmingham (BHX), we flew that route each year on home leave, and Emirates also became my airline of choice for trips into Europe. In the 1990s it had either been with Lufthansa into Frankfurt (FRA) or KLM into Amsterdam (AMS).

Europe
Steph and I have been married almost 50 years but we’ve never taken a vacation on mainland Europe. But my work has taken me there quite often, and to three countries, Germany, Switzerland and especially Italy, several times a year between 1991 and 2010.

On that first trip to Czechoslovakia in 1969, we traveled by road, through the Netherlands, southern German, and into Czechoslovakia.

I was next in Germany in the late 1980s, when I visited agricultural research institute near Hannover (also taking in the scenic town of Celle), before crossing into East Germany. I spent several interesting days at the genebank in Gatersleben (now part of The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research), before flying on to Warsaw in Poland.

There I gave a series of seminars on crop evolution and genetic conservation (focusing on potatoes) to staff of the agricultural research institute (IHAR). My hosts took me to the family home of Frédéric Chopin west of Warsaw. As we walked around the gardens, we could hear several of Chopin’s piano pieces broadcast over speakers there. His Mazurka in D Major has remained a firm favorite ever since (here interpreted by acclaimed pianist Vladimir Horowitz), and is always a reminder of that visit whenever I hear it.

I also took in Cracow in the south of the country, a most elegant city.

While I was DPPC at IRRI, my work with the institute’s donors took me many times into Europe, particularly to Germany (Bonn and Frankfurt), to Switzerland (at Bern), and to Rome in Italy.

I had a good friend, plant pathologist Dr Marlene Diekmann, who lived near Bonn, and who worked for one of the German aid agencies. Whenever I was in Bonn, we’d try and spend some time walking the wine terraces of the Ahr Valley south of Bonn.

The last time I was in Bonn was 2016 during the genebank review I mentioned earlier.

I love trains, and have often traveled that way from one European capital to another. In fact I have traveled from my former home of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to Rome, with stops in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland on the way.

One of the best trips I made was to view the Matterhorn in Switzerland near Zermatt. I had a free weekend before I had to travel on to Rome, so I took the opportunity of a day excursion from Bern.

My trips to France have taken in Paris, where I spent a very wet weekend once walking around the city. But it was worth it. And to Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast several times, the last being in 2016.

Brussels (in Belgium) has a beautiful central square, but I’ve never had much time to explore there.

For many years, Amsterdam was a hub airport for home leave flights back to the UK. In the Netherlands, I’ve spent time in the university town of Wageningen (east of Amsterdam), in the capital, The Hague, and in Amsterdam itself. A boat tour of the canals is well worth it.

My donor trips took me to Lisbon in Portugal and Madrid in Spain, which I wrote about in this blog post from 2019. Then in 2012, Steph and I visited my late eldest brother Martin and wife Pauline at their beautiful home in Tomar, north of Lisbon. What a glorious 10 days.

Central square in Tomar

I was in the Canary Islands (part of Spain) a couple of times, collecting various wild crop relatives. Steph, the girls, and me had a holiday there in 1989.

On the north coast of Tenerife

Looking over the Tenerife landscape.

However, the country I have visited most in Europe is Italy, and Rome in particular. I was once in the Po Valley southwest of Milan, looking at the rice research there. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has its headquarters in Rome, as does Bioversity International (formerly the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, IPGRI). I guess over the 19 years I spent in the Philippines, I must have traveled to Rome at least once a year for one meeting or another, and up to five times in one year. It’s a magnificent place, although my elder daughter Hannah who has just spent a few days there commented on how dirty it was, and full of tourists. But I’ve always enjoyed my stays there, and have had ample opportunity to enjoy the history and archaeology, and the fantastic cuisine.

I’ve only been in Austria, Norway, and Denmark on one occasion each, and in the capitals Vienna, Oslo, and Copenhagen. In Vienna, I spent a week at the International Atomic Energy Agency (where they have a program in mutation breeding) consulting on germplasm databases. I visited donor agencies in Norway and Denmark, but had no time for any tourism in Oslo. It was a different situation in Copenhagen where I looked round the pretty city over a weekend.

I started this blog post in the Republic of Ireland, and Steph and I have returned there three times, two with Hannah and Philippa in the 1990s, and also in 2017 after we’d spent a little over a week touring Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland was a revelation. Prosperous, and beautiful. We visited many National Trust properties over there, and I wrote about our 10 days there afterwards, with links in the post to many of the properties we visited.

Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland

In Great Britain (United Kingdom minus Northern Ireland), Steph and I have visited so many National Trust and English Heritage properties around the country. This link gives a complete list (and maps) of all those we have visited.

Since we returned to the UK in 2010, we have toured Scotland, spent time in the south and southeast of England, and in Cornwall.

South Harris beach, Outer Hebrides
Calanais Standing Stones, Isle of Lewis
Isle of Skye
Stormy weather at the Butt of Lewis
The Lizard, Cornwall
Cape Cornwall
Tintagel Castle, Cornwall
At the White Cliffs of Dover, Kent
Th whole family together for the first time, in the New Forest in 2016
South Harting from Hartin Down, West Sussex

Now that we are living in the northeast of England, we have spent time exploring Northumberland, including its incredible Roman heritage.

The Whin Sill along Hadrian’s Wall

As a small boy, I spent many holidays with my parents in different parts of Wales, and Steph and I will be returning there at the beginning of September to renew our acquaintance with North Wales after so many decades.

So, there we have it. Fifty-five years of travel. So many special experiences.

 

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An oasis of tranquillity . . . and statues

It really is! Standing at the heart of Crook Hall Gardens along the bank of the River Wear in Durham, it’s hard to believe you are only a short distance from the center of a bustling city. Peaceful hardly describes it. Just the occasional rumble as trains arrive at or depart from Durham railway station just to the north.

The River Wear alongside Crook Hall Gardens.

Since we returned from our trip to Minnesota towards the end of June, there have been few opportunities, weather-wise, for any excursions. I can’t remember when we last experienced such a dismal July (after all the hot dry weather of June); it’s been so cold and wet.

Anyway, the forecast for yesterday seemed hopeful, so we decided to make the short, 22 mile and 30 minute drive south to Durham to take in Crook Hall Gardens. The Trust acquired the property in 2022, and if I understood correctly, it was opened to the public for the first time in March this year.

Crook Hall has its own car park, free for National Trust members, that really is a blessing in a city where parking is at a premium, and not cheap. We arrived around 10:20, and headed immediately to the cafe for a refreshing Café Americano.

The gardens have been there for many centuries. In fact there is a 14th century medieval hall (which is open to the public) adjoining an 18th century Georgian house overlooking a beautiful walled garden.

Crook Hall was a family home since the 1300s, and occupied over the centuries by several families who stamped their mark on the property. Originally it was the home of the Billingham family for 300 years from 1372. Between 1834 and 1858 it was rented by the Raine family. Canon James Raine (right, 1791-1858) was a historian and librarian at nearby Durham Cathedral. He died at Crook Hall.

By 1979 the property was essentially derelict, but was taken on by Mary and John Hawgood who rescued it from oblivion. Mary believes she saw The White Lady of Crook Hall in 1989. The Hawgoods moved on in 1995 when it was sold to Maggie and Keith Bell, and Crook Hall became a wedding venue, with the gardens open to the public on occasion.

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bell’s wedding business collapsed, and in 2020 Crook Hall was put up for sale. Then, in stepped the National Trust – thankfully.

Here’s a potted history of Crook Hall from a 2020 article in The Northern Echo.

The gardens, which cover about 10 acres (or 4 ha), comprise a series of interconnected gardens, each with their own character, are a credit to the National Trust garden staff and volunteers.

Being mid-summer, many of the flower beds were in full bloom, although roses and some others were past their best. Notwithstanding, the gardens were a delight for the spirit, and by the looks on the faces of other visitors (it was quite busy considering) they also felt the same way.

A path leads up the garden from the entrance and cafe, and immediately on the right is a cotoneaster maze planted in 2000. We gave that a miss, heading instead for the Solar Wing Garden and the Walled Garden.

Entrance to the maze
Just a hint . . .
The footpath leading up into the garden.
Wild flower beds alongside the path
Looking back towards the entrance and cafe.

I really do like the style of planting adopted at Crook Hall, with so many different species clustered together to provide a kaleidoscope of color.

Entrance to the Solar Wing garden
Who’s smiling at who?

Adjacent to the medieval hall is a second-hand bookshop in the Georgian house, and on one wall, some of the brightest—and botanical—wallpaper I have ever seen.

Passing through a small courtyard (with a small fountain and yet another statue) we headed towards the Moat Pond at the top of the garden. The pond itself is a relatively new feature, created in 1998 beside what was a 14th century defensive dry ditch.

Turning back towards the entrance, there is a series of four gardens: the Silver and White Garden (dating from 1983); the Orchard; the Shakespeare Garden (with Will observing the garden from a corner); and finally the Cathedral Garden, with its magnificent views towards the city and Durham Castle and Cathedral. There’s also a Wooded Glade.

In the Wooded Glade

As you exit the Cathedral Garden and turn towards the maze, a side path leads to a pebble garden. Also there are informal beds of wild flowers.

Ever since we noted, in the National Trust Handbook for 2023, that there was a new property in Durham, we’ve been waiting for an appropriate day to visit. Although the weather had been forecast as showery, we only experienced (for just a short while) threatening black clouds overhead, but apart from that, a bright and sunny—and for once, warm—day. We shall return.

I have posted a full album of photos here.

 

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The walled garden at Wallington

Wallington Hall overlooks the Northumberland countryside near Cambo (map). It was remodelled in the Palladian style between 1738 and 1746 from an earlier William and Mary house (built around 1688) for Sir Walter Calverley Blackett (right, 1707-1777) by the architect Daniel Garrett. It is believed that renowned landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1715-1783, who was born in nearby Kirkharle and went to school in Cambo) advised Sir Walter on the location of the walled garden (3 on the map below), and perhaps even designed the Owl House (2) there.

After Sir Walter’s death in 1777, Wallington was bequeathed to his sister Julia’s family, the Trevelyans, and it remained in the family until 1942, when it was gifted to the National Trust.

Since returning from the USA in mid-June, the weather in the UK has been decidedly unsettled. So we have grabbed every good weather opportunity to get out and about. Unfortunately, due to my reduced mobility these days, I’m unable to walk the distances that we have enjoyed in the past. But provided my pain medication kicks in appropriately, then I can manage a relatively short walk. Around a mile or so is possible.

With that in mind, we headed to Wallington with the aim of enjoying the walled garden in mid-summer. And to compare the garden today with what it was like a decade ago.

My first impression was that the walled garden today is much brighter, so to speak, with a new fiery border along the terrace in front of the Edwardian conservatory and below the Owl House.

Here are some of the plants in that bed. What a magnificent sight to welcome visitors to the garden.

Until quite recently, the conservatory was open to visitors, indeed as recently as our visit there in mid-December 2021, but it is now closed while plans are drawn up for its refurbishment. Which isn’t going to come cheap. Perhaps it was damaged in one of the winter storms that affected the estate.

Ten years on, the garden has developed a lot, and is a credit to the hard work of the staff gardeners and volunteers. Here are two images, taken from more or less the same spot, ten years apart, looking from the water terrace at the top of the garden eastwards down the garden. In the 2013 image, the conservatory and Owl House can be clearly seen.

At least one new ‘garden room’ has been created, surrounded (like the others) by trimmed cedar hedges.

And more, it seemed to me, has been made of the small pond area at the bottom of the garden.

On the south side of the garden, another large set of beds has evolved over the decade. Here are images from 2013 and last week.

The colors are more muted this year, with the fiery varieties moved to the conservatory terrace. Here is some of the 2023 planting.

One of the gardeners explained that it’s a never-ending task to plant and replant all these beds. He mentioned that in the autumn they plant several thousand bulbs, so I think a visit next spring is on the cards to see the early color.

The terrace fountain area at the top of the garden, near the entrance, was ‘dry’ on our latest visit (bottom image below). Normally the small pond is full, and water runs through a rill across the terrace.

I believe this part of the garden is fed from a large lily pond outside the walls. It looked as though there had been work on the earth dam at the eastern end, and the water level was low. Hence the dry fountain inside the garden.

The walled garden is a 15 minute or so walk from the house through the East Wood. Alongside the lake (above) there’s a new addition: a carved owl, from the tree trunk of one of the trees brought down during Storm Arwen in November 2021. There’s apparently another carving, but we didn’t manage to find it. Both are by tree sculptor Tommy Craggs from County Durham.

There are lots of owls at Wallington. Not only on the roof apex of the Owl House (seen in several of the images above), but also adorning the gate posts of the courtyard at the rear of the house.

The owl features in the Calverley family crest, Calverley (a West Yorkshire name) being the former surname of Sir Walter Blackett mentioned at the beginning of this post.

After being cooped up inside for a couple of weeks because of the unseasonably wet and cool weather, it really was a pleasure to return to Wallington. Just 23 miles and around 40 minutes from home, Wallington is sure to be on our National Trust itinerary year after year, season after season.

 

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No regrets . . . whatsoever

None!

By November 2019, Steph and I finally decided to up sticks and move to Newcastle upon Tyne in the northeast of England, to be closer to our younger daughter and her family. Our elder daughter and family live in Minnesota, but a move to the USA was never on the cards.

We didn’t actually make the move until 30 September 2020 – right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic!

Locking up and moving out!

We were living in Bromsgrove, a small market town (population in 2001 of just over 29,000), in northeast Worcestershire, and about 13 miles south of Birmingham in the West Midlands.

We originally settled in Bromsgrove in July 1981 after returning from South America, when I joined the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in the Department of Plant Biology. Then, in 1991, I took up a position at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a renowned international agricultural research center in Los Baños, about 68 km south of Manila, staying there almost 19 years until retirement beckoned in April 2010.

Do we miss Worcestershire? In some ways. It is a lovely county, and within a 50 mile radius of Bromsgrove there are many attractions, into Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire.

Since 2011 we have been keen members of the National Trust (NT) and English Heritage (EH). Just check out the list of places (and maps) we have visited over the past decade or more.

There are fewer NT and EH properties here in the northeast, but the region has so much to offer with possibly some of the most spectacular landscapes in the country: coast, river valleys, moorlands, mountains, and a huge dose of history, especially the history and remains of the Roman occupation almost 2000 years ago.

March 2021 saw us move into our new home in Backworth, North Tyneside, and 15 minutes on the Metro from Newcastle city center. We are also just 10 minutes’ drive from the North Sea coast. The Tyne and Wear area (comprising the five metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle, North Tyneside, Gateshead, South Tyneside, and Sunderland) as well as the surrounding counties of Northumberland and Co Durham (even as far south as North Yorkshire) have so much to offer.

And since our move here in 2020, we have been out and about exploring our new home whenever the weather permits.

On this map I’ve marked all the places we have visited over the past 30 months. NT and EH properties have a dark red icon, coast and landscapes are green, other attractions are purple, and other historic sites are marked with a yellow icon. I’ve included photographs, and there are links to my blog posts and other websites where you can find more information about this wonderful corner of England.

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Three years have passed . . .

I hope I’m not tempting Providence.

So far, Steph and I have managed to avoid COVID-19. We still mask when we shop at the supermarket, when we travel on the Metro here in Newcastle upon Tyne, or anywhere we might be in close proximity with others. Mostly we are the only ones wearing masks.

And while most people feel that the pandemic is over and done with, latest data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics indicate that the virus is, once again, on the increase.

About 1 in 40 of England’s population (2.66%) tested positive at the end of March. COVID-19 has certainly not gone away, and given some of the horror stories circulating about the effects of long-COVID, it’s better to avoid infection if at all possible. Or at least reduce the risk of infection. That’s why we continue to mask.

And while we have been COVID-free, it has affected our nearest and dearest. Both our daughters and their families were struck down on a couple of occasions, even though everyone had been vaccinated.

As for Steph and me, we received our initial vaccinations in February and April 2021, with boosters in October that year, and in September a year later.

At New Year 2020, who would have envisioned that we were on the verge of a global pandemic. It was only on 31 December that the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was subsequently identified from patient samples.

Less than a month later, two Chinese nationals staying at a hotel in York tested positive for coronavirus. It was downhill thereafter, with the first lockdown coming into force on 26 March 2020. Other lockdowns followed. The Institute for Government has published an interesting timeline of the various government measures taken over the subsequent year here in the UK.

Daily life for everyone changed overnight. Although with hindsight, we now know that not all the rules that governed the lives of millions throughout the country were followed by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and 10 Downing Street staff!

Boris Johnson partying with Downing Street staff.

So, in retrospect, how has the COVID pandemic affected us?

Surprisingly little, if I’m honest. Despite all the inconveniences to daily life, the past three years have flown by. We’ve been rather busy. We kept to ourselves.

Another type of Corona . . .

Fortunately, we prefer the quiet life and since we don’t go pubbing, clubbing, or eating out regularly, we didn’t miss those during the lockdowns. And since the rules permitted exercise outdoors with one person in the same family bubble, we continued to enjoy the outdoors, with Steph joining me on my daily walks around Bromsgrove in Worcestershire where we were living at the time, weather permitting.

And once the National Trust started to open up once again, we seized the opportunity and headed off, on a glorious afternoon, to Dudmaston Hall in Shropshire, and several other properties close by before the end of September.

At Dudmaston Hall on 24 June 2020.

The first impacts of lockdown back in 2020 seem almost a lifetime ago. Deserted streets, and long queues at the supermarkets and shortages (caused primarily by panic buying in the first instance) of some food items and other basics like hand sanitizer and toilet rolls, until the inevitable rationing that was brought in.

Our nearest supermarket, Morrisons, was just 5 minutes or 1.6 miles away by car. Being the driver, the weekly shop fell to me since the supermarkets were only permitting entry to one person per household. I also took on the weekly shop for a widower friend and former University of Birmingham colleague, Jim Croft (a few years older than me) who lived close by. In fact I continued to shop for Jim right up till the day we moved north to Newcastle.

And talking of moving, by November 2019 (during a visit to our younger daughter Philippa and her family in Newcastle upon Tyne) we had bitten the bullet and decided we’d put our Bromsgrove house on the market, and make the move north.

Having appointed an estate agency (realtor) to handle the sale of our house, we waited until the New Year for the first adverts to be placed in the local press. Come mid-January 2020, a For Sale board had been firmly planted in our front garden, and we sat back waiting for a surge of prospective buyers. To our surprise—and disappointment, given the location of our house (proximity to excellent First and Middle schools, close to Bromsgrove town center, nearby dental and medical practices, and an upgraded commuter rail service into the center of Birmingham) we expected there would be more interest than we actually experienced.

By the end of March when the first lockdown came into effect, we’d received  fewer than ten viewings. Even under lockdown, the government rules permitted house viewings to continue, as long as they were managed safely (social distancing, hand sanitation, and the like; we were always away from the house in any case during the viewings that were managed by the estate agent).

However, we decided not to accept any more viewings until the rules had been relaxed. Except for one, that had been pencilled in for a week hence. After that, we sat back, wondering when we would finally be able to make the move to Newcastle. We had already decided to rent a house there in the first instance, and use it as a base to look for a new home. But until we had sold our house, it was impossible to make any progress on finding a suitable rental property.

Come the lifting of the lockdown at the end of May, almost immediately we received a request for a second viewing from that last couple. And after a little negotiation, they made an offer which was acceptable. Less than the house had been advertised for (which I never expected to get) but considerably higher than a couple of offers we did receive earlier on, or how other estate agents had valued the house. Happy times! Or at least I thought so.

But anyone who has struggled through a house sale (and purchase) will know and understand the considerable angst that the whole conveyancing process can bring. We were at the top of a chain, since we had no purchase waiting to be completed. There was one solicitor two links below in the chain of four who made life miserable for everyone. By the end of September, however, we had all exchanged contracts and completed the sale on the 30th. And moved out that same day. We had used the intervening months to pack many of our belongings and upcycled many items that we no longer wanted to hold on to.

Fortunately I had identified a nice three-bedroom house east of Newcastle in the Shiremoor district of North Tyneside, and just 10 minutes from the North Sea coast. Offering to pay six months rent up front, I had secured a ‘reservation’ on the property at the beginning of September, not knowing exactly when we would be able to move. We moved in on 1 October.

The removal van arrived at 1 pm and was on its way south once again by 4 pm.

Within a fortnight of landing in Newcastle, we had already made an offer on a four bedroom, and two-year-old house, about a mile from where we were living at the time. It should have been the simplest sale/purchase but once again the solicitors made a meal of the process. However, the purchase was completed on 13 February 2021 and we moved on 6 March.

Moving out of Cloverfield
Moving into our new home

But because of repeated lockdowns, and the rules around meeting other family members and the like, we saw very little of our younger daughter and her family for the next 12 months. Christmas morning 2020 was enjoyed outside in a socially-distanced garden, followed by a solitary lunch for Steph and me.

Unfortunately COVID also put paid to family Christmases in 2021 and 2022.

There hasn’t been a day since that we have regretted the move north. Northumberland is an awe-inspiring county. Our home is only 10 minutes from the North Sea coast. There are miles and miles of paths and bridleways (known locally as ‘waggonways’) on the sites of old mine workings and rail lines. So even just after we moved here, and given the right weather, we have headed out into the countryside, enjoying what we like best: visiting National Trust and English Heritage properties (of which there are quite a few up here with magnificent gardens and walks), and enjoying the fresh air, socially-distanced of course. Just type Northumberland in the search box or open my National Trust and English Heritage page (organized by regions) and you’ll discover for yourselves some of the magical places we have visited over the past two and a half years. Here is just a soupçon of some of those around the northeast.

Seaton Sluice harbor.
The beach at Seaton Sluice.
National Trust Seaton Delaval Hall
National Trust Dunstanburgh Castle
Druridge Bay
English Heritage Warkworth Castle in April
National Trust Cragside
The garden at Cragside
Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall, in February 2022 just before vandals felled this iconic tree.
The Whin Sill along Hadrian’s Wall
Underfloor heating at Chester’s Roman Fort (English Heritage)
The River North Tyne at Chester’s Roman Fort
Crossing the River Tyne at Ovingham
National Trust Thomas Bewick’s home at Cherryburn
National Trust Allen Banks
Whitburn close south of the River Tyne
Marsden Cliffs south of the River Tyne
National Trust Souter Lighthouse
The Millennium Bridge in Newcastle
The Tyne Bridge, Newcastle
Grey’s Monument, Newcastle city center
Grain stores at Corbridge Roman Town, National Trust
Corbridge Roman town,
Elsdon castle – 11th century motte and bailey
Elsdon Castle
St Mary’s Lighthouse.
Bolam Lake Country Park
Shaftoe Crags
English Heritage Belsay Hall
Quarry garden at Belsay Hall
Christmas at Wallington National Trust
National Trust Wallington central atrium
Prudhoe castle from the pele yard, English Heritage
Upper Coquetdale
Chew Green, Upper Coquetdale
Coquetdale
The cascade at the Alnwick Garden
Cherry blossom at the Alnwick Garden
Looking over Coquetdale
The River Tyne at Ovingham

At this time last year, we spent a week in the south of England—staying at a cottage in the New Forest—and visiting more than a dozen National Trust and English Heritage properties, our first proper holiday since the beginning of the pandemic.

We haven’t traveled to the USA since September 2019, but we are gearing up for a visit come the end of May this year.

COVID restrictions for international travel were lifted sufficiently by July/August 2022 for Hannah and family to fly over from Minnesota, and at last (and for the first time since 2016) we had a family get-together with our two daughters, Hannah and Philippa, husbands Michael and Andi, and grandchildren Callum, Zoë, Elvis, and Felix.

 

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Deck the halls . . .

Steph and I joined the National Trust in February 2011, and have now visited more than 130 of its properties in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as four in Scotland (where Trust members receive reciprocal benefits from the National Trust for Scotland).

I should add we’re also members of English Heritage, but have visited far fewer of its properties.

We’ve certainly had full value from our National Trust joint senior membership over the past decade. We appreciate how visitor policies have developed and adapted to changing expectations over that period, making its properties—and the stories they have to tell—so much more accessible. Its policy on photography (subject to any copyright restrictions) has been relaxed, so that enthusiasts like me can record our visits (no flash!) and then blog about them afterwards.

Here in the northeast of England (where we moved in October 2020), there are fewer Trust properties than in the Midlands (in north Worcestershire) where we lived for many years, and which was a great base for heading out in all directions to explore the National Trust landscape.

Unsurprisingly, the property we have visited most is Hanbury Hall, on our doorstep, near Bromsgrove.

On our last visit to Hanbury Hall in early September 2020, less than a month before we moved to the northeast.

Hanbury Hall was also the first Trust property we visited in February 2011 just after becoming members. We enjoyed all our visits there, most often to take a walk in the extensive park, see how its magnificent parterre changed through the seasons, and occasionally take a glimpse inside the house. 

I could write a whole blog just about Hanbury Hall’s parterre.

At this time of the year, however, Hanbury Hall like many National Trust properties have introduced their winter opening schedules, or indeed closing over the next couple of months or so, just opening for special occasions. For many of the properties, Christmas is one those.

And from what we have experienced over the past decade of Christmas visits, the staff and volunteers at the houses really make a great effort to embody the spirit of Christmas.

So as we creep inexorably towards Christmas 2022, here are a few reminiscences of the Christmas visits we have enjoyed since 2013. Sometimes there is a theme for the Christmas display, in others, houses are ‘dressed’ as they might have been when under family ownership. And it’s not hard to imagine just how full of the joys of Christmas many of these properties must have been, children running excitedly about (they had the space!), while parents entertained their guests, all the while looked after by a bevy of household staff. How the other half lived!

Whatever the perspective, grand or modest, these Christmas visits (or just after) are indeed something to nurture the spirit of the season.

Hanbury Hall (9 December 2013), Worcestershire

Baddesley Clinton (19 December 2014), Warwickshire

Charlecote Park (16 December 2015), Warwickshire

Greyfriars (14 December 2016), Worcester

Croome (28 December 2017), Worcestershire

Coughton Court (30 November 2018), Warwickshire

Hanbury Hall (9 December 2019), Worcestershire

In 2020, many houses were still closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic although we had been to Cragside in October and toured the house.

On 14 December visited Wallington in Northumberland. The house was closed, but we enjoyed a coffee outside in the courtyard, and an invigorating walk around the garden and park (although parts were closed due to the tree damage caused by Storm Arwen that hit the northeast at the end of November).

Wallington (10 December 2021), Northumberland

Christmas at Wallington National Trust
National Trust Wallington central atrium

Ormesby Hall (28 November 2022), North Yorkshire