Half term in Shropshire

We spent a very happy half-term weekend in Shropshire. Some of our friends had been to the area a few years back and recommended it for a short break, so we decided to follow their advice.

We stayed in a cottage (a converted mill) -- in the hamlet of Vennington, about 30 minutes from Shrewsbury. It was lovely -- lots of wooden beams and floors, white walls and a wood burning stove, just perfect for cosy nights in.

As for sightseeing, we visited Ironbridge -- to admire the iron bridge, of course. It is quite hard to imagine that this now picturesque, steep valley was the heartland of the Industrial Revolution -- but it was.

There are several museums to visit in and around Ironbridge, but being on a short break, we visited just one -- Blists Hill. This is a living museum, which recreates a small Victorian town, complete with mine and working steam railway. The 'residents' (staff who are dressed in the clothing of the day) are very knowledgeable and eager to answer any questions that you might have. We really enjoyed our visit here, finding the museum both informative and entertaining. This is a really good way to engage young people with history.

We also visited Shrewsbury, which is a lovely medieval market town. We spent a long time wandering round the abbey, which is beautiful, and enjoyed lunch in one of the cafes on the market square.

Finally, we managed to fit in two National Trust properties -- one on the way there and one on the way back. Attingham Park is a Palladian mansion -- we particularly enjoyed the extensive and very interesting 'below stairs' area here. Wightwick Manor is a Victorian manor house, built and furnished in the style of the Arts and Crafts movement.

We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend in Shropshire and, if you are looking for a short break somewhere in the Midlands, would certainly recommend it.

Grey's Court -- and autumn

We had a lovely afternoon out on Sunday.

We decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and visit Grey's Court, a National Trust property near Henley-on-Thames. We have been here many times before and it really is beautiful -- the Tudor house is set in charming grounds with lots to see and do. Particular highlights are the kitchen garden (full of fruit and vegetables, which are used in the on-site cafe), the 125-year-old wisteria, and the house's kitchen (spacious, homely and surprisingly modern).

After wandering round the house and grounds, we popped into the cafe. It had been very busy, but we managed to pick up some Victoria sponge cake and brownies, which we enjoyed with a cup of tea. We finished up with the ubiquitous trip to the National Trust shop -- filled with tempting things, which we managed to resist buying.

When we got home, we had a candlelit supper, which got us talking about how much we love this time of year -- cosy evenings, the autumn sunshine, pumpkin hunts, Advent treats, the run up to Christmas... The list goes on and on!

Birthday celebration

We had a lovely celebration at the weekend for my husband's birthday.

Firstly, we visited Broughton Castle -- a sixteenth-century moated manor house near Banbury. This is a beautiful place to explore. The castle itself is very interesting to wander round and the staff are welcoming and helpful. The gardens, which run down to the river and are full of cottage garden flowers, are lovely too. Broughton is privately owned, which seems to result in an unusually relaxed experience. Visitor numbers are small compared to the many National Trust properties that we have visited and there are some nice touches, such as guests being able to borrow picnic blankets to sprawl on the lawns. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip here.

Later on in the evening, we had dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant in Abingdon -- the Zabb Thai. The food, as ever, was beautifully cooked and tasty, and the service was superb. We love this place!

A Cotswolds day out: Banbury, Farnborough Hall and Farnborough village

Yesterday, we had a good day out.

We started off by driving to the market town of Banbury and doing a bit of shopping there. We then stopped off at Cafe Veneto to get some lunch. I wouldn't particularly recommend this place. The staff were friendly enough, but the service was very slow and our paninis, when they finally arrived, were tiny -- half the size of those offered by other cafes and one-and-a-half times the price. We left rather disappointed and somewhat hungry.

We then drove on to Farnborough Hall, which was the main purpose of our day out. This is a National Trust property which is rarely open to the public, as it still has a tenant in situ. The house is very beautiful -- eighteenth century, with stunning plaster-work ceilings and many interesting pieces of furniture. Only three ground floor rooms plus the staircase are open to visitors, but we felt that they were well worth the trip. The (very friendly) tenant was manning the front desk and encouraged our youngest daughter to play the piano in the library, which was lovely. We also enjoyed wandering in the grounds and poking out noses into the various Palladian structures there -- hunting lodge, game store, etc. The views from both the house and grounds are spectacular.

We then made our way to Farnborough village and enjoyed delicious homemade cakes and tea in the village hall. We also visited the church, which was very pretty and peaceful, and spent some time admiring the Cotswold stone cottages in the village.

All-in-all, a very enjoyable day out.

Eltham Palace

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated  my birthday with a day trip to Eltham Palace, which is near Greenwich.The last time we visited was when our oldest daughter was a tiny baby, so more than fourteen years ago...

We found Eltham as interesting now as then. It was a royal palace for centuries, dating back to the time of Edward II, and Henry VIII spent much of his childhood there. Only the great hall of the original medieval palace remains, but this has been incorporated into the modern mansion, and it is really stunning.

The modern house that stands now was built in the 1930s. It is a beautiful mansion, with an enormous, wood panelled entrance hall. It is really interesting to see a stately home from this contemporary period when what you are used to visiting is ancient houses from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even the kids were impressed -- they really enjoyed seeing something newer and different.

The gardens surrounding the mansion are also beautiful and we spent an enjoyable half hour strolling through them. We finished off with lunch in the newly-built visitor centre, which was very good. There is also an outdoor adventure playground, which will be of interest to families with young children.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our day out at Eltham Palace, and I would certainly recommend a visit.

Half term fun

It was half term last week and we had some great family fun. Here are some of the things that we got up to:

• We visited Waddesdon Manor and really enjoyed wandering around the grounds in the autumn sunshine, playing on the adventure playground (the kids!) and having tea in the courtyard restaurant.
• We followed our time-honoured tradition of visiting Waterperry Gardens and doing the pumpkin hunt. The kids are really far too old for this now, but we've done it for years and they don't seem to want to let the tradition drop just yet -- plus it's a great excuse for a yummy treat in the tearoom!
• We went to see The Pantaloons' latest play -- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -- at the Cornerstone Theatre in Didcot. It was rather different from previous plays that we have seen by this company -- much less comic, which isn't surprising given the subject matter -- but still very good.
• Some of us went to see the latest Marvel creation -- Dr Strange. We really enjoyed the film. It wasn't quite all action -- there was a passing reference to some 'deeper' issues (for example, how do you cope if you lose the ability to do the one thing that gives your life meaning), which made it a bit more interesting, plus the cinematography was enthralling (views of Nepal and Hong Hong) and the special effects impressive. Tilda Swinton was also great!
• We popped into Oxford and wandered around Christ Church Meadow, which was very beautiful. We followed this with a browse through the books and a coffee at Blackwell's.
• We made our Christmas pudding and mincemeat. This is another time-honoured tradition -- a job that we have done during October with the kids since they were tiny. Now they are old enough that they can do the making themselves without any assistance from us! We use recipes that have been in the family for several generations and it's a great way to kick off the festive season.
• The kids carved a pumpkin -- we always have a lighted pumpkin on the dining table at Halloween.

It's been quite a busy half term. Now it's time to go back to school and relax!

Milton Manor: a lovely stately home in Oxfordshire

We had an interesting trip out over the bank holiday weekend. We went to visit Milton Manor, which is a small stately home, situated in Milton village, not far from where we live.

The house is privately owned and is only open for 30 days a year. We have visited once before—probably around eleven years ago now—but it was when the children were very young and so we didn't actually go into the house, but just enjoyed the grounds. We have been keen to visit the inside of the house for a while now and so were pleased to see that it was open on a day that we were free.

The guided tour was given by (who we took to be) the lady of the house. There were very few visitors (maybe ten of us in total), so it was all rather lovely and intimate. You were free to ask questions and positively invited to sit on the chairs. As our hostess said: ‘Well, they are made for sitting on!’

The house is very beautiful, if rather dilapidated (peeling exterior paintwork, silverfish in the wallpaper, a broken pane of glass in one of the windows, etc.). It was built in the eighteenth century by Inigo Jones, and the Gothic library and the private chapel are particularly impressive.

There are things to see and do in the grounds too. You can pet the ponies and the llama, cross the stream on the rope bridge, visit the tree house and walk in the surrounding woods. When we visited there were pony rides for children and teas for sale in the stables.

We had a lovely time, and it was good to see a small(ish) private home open to the public and run in such a relaxed and friendly way.

Birthday celebration

I had a lovely birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago, and felt very spoilt as the celebration extended over two days!

On the Saturday, we visited Lacock Abbey, a National Trust property in Wiltshire. Some of you may know that some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed in parts of the old abbey. The cloisters were used, and one of the abbey rooms served as the potions classroom in the early films. At the time of filming, one of our friends was the house steward for Lacock and had to admonish Alan Rickman for repeatedly bursting through the ‘potions room’ door! (The repeated impact was causing damage to the ancient wood.) All of this was highly entertaining fare for our kids, of course.

Despite the fact that the weather was wet and miserable, we had a great time at Lacock. The house itself is beautiful and exemplifies several different periods of architecture. The abbey was also home to pioneer photographer William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1800s, and so there is an interesting photography exhibition on site. The National Trust owns not only the abbey, but also Lacock village, which we thoroughly enjoyed wandering round. We especially enjoyed the opportunity to explore inside one of the ancient houses in the village (currently a gift shop) and to visit the old tithe-barn, which is particularly impressive. We also enjoyed lunch (and tea) in the NT café – the food comes highly recommended.

On the Sunday, we ate out at a local Thai restaurant – the Zabb Thai in Abingdon. The food was delicious, the venue small and intimate, and the owner very pleasant and friendly. I would definitely recommend the Zabb Thai for all lovers of Thai food out there. And the kids loved it too!

Snowshill Manor

We recently had a day out at Snowshill Manor, which is a National Trust property in the Cotswolds. This proved great fun for both us and the kids.

Snowshill is not your run-of-the-mill NT property displaying the usual array of fine furniture and artworks. Rather, Snowshill was the home of Charles Wade, a tireless collector of artefacts from around the world. The house is stuffed full of eclectic objects ranging from Samurai armour, to children's toys, to sea chests with complex locks... Everywhere you look, there is something unusual and fascinating to discover.

During Wade's lifetime, the manor house became so full that he had to move into the adjacent priest's house. You can see the living room/kitchen, bedroom and bathroom in the priest's house as Wade lived in them --and even here there are yet more objects from his collection.

The manor has beautiful terraced gardens (including a model village!) that are also fun to explore, and you can picnic in the orchard.

We rounded our day off with tea in Huffkins tea room in nearby Stow-on-the-Wold. If you haven't yet, you should try the Huffkins lardy cake -- a real treat!

Cultural weekend away

I had a lovely birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago, spending a cultural two days in and around London.

We visited two impressive stately homes:

Kenwood, in north London, has recently been refurbished. It is a beautiful Robert Adam-modelled mansion which houses a stunning collection of paintings. The grounds are very pleasant, too, and lead out to Hampstead Heath. We were lucky enough to have bright, sunny weather and so were able to take advantage of the outside tables in the restaurant area to eat lunch. Just about warm enough in the February sunshine if you kept your coats on! Kenwood is managed by English Heritage but, unusually, doesn’t charge for admission, so is great for family days out.

Hall Place and Gardens in Kent is a beautiful Tudor house with magnificent gardens displaying Tudor-style topiary. The house has an interactive display area in which both adults and children can learn a lot about everyday Tudor life. The house also hosts a programme of exhibitions. When we visited, there was an exhibition about the (now defunct) local textile printing industry. We also enjoyed lunch in the onsite cafe (not outside this time!). Once again, this was a good value day out for us – as National Trust members, we qualified for half-price admission and only paid £10 in total for the four of us.

The final element of my birthday weekend was an adult-only treat. The parents-in-law babysat while my husband and I enjoyed dinner out in London, followed by a trip to St. Martin's Theatre to see ‘The Mousetrap’ – great light-hearted fun, and very well acted and produced to boot. Highly recommended!

Holidaying in Nice

We recently came back from holiday and, between loading seemingly endless piles of dirty laundry into the washing machine (despite the fact that we did quite a bit of washing on holiday--how does that always happen??), I found time to think for a few minutes about the place that we visited.

We stayed in an apartment overlooking Nice with a beautiful, clean pool that the kids loved. Nice wouldn't necessarily have been my top choice of holiday destination (it was just one of the destinations available to us using our Tesco Clubcard vouchers--see my earlier blog post), but in fact we had a great time and it's somewhere I'd thoroughly recommend.

For a start, the weather was comfortable in August--sunny and around 30 degrees. In the past we've had problems with extreme heat (almost 40 degrees one year in Malta, for example) which the kids didn't enjoy and which has been too much, even for us. But in Nice it was warm enough to really enjoy swimming in the (cold!) pool, but not so hot as to make sightseeing a chore rather than a pleasure.

We quickly settled into a pattern that suited everyone--mornings by the pool followed by afternoons visiting some kind of attraction. And there was a lot to see in and close to Nice. Again, a real bonus, as the kids tend not to enjoy long, hot car journeys when we're on holiday.

There's quite a bit of modern art to see in the area and, although we're not usually gallery buffs, we visited a number of exhibitions and all really enjoyed them. The kids were very interested in the abstract art and were so inspired, in fact, that they started creating their own modern art with paper and felt tips when we got back to our apartment. One art museum that I particularly enjoyed was the Musee Picasso in Antibes, where the building was probably even more stunning than the art--lovely light and airy rooms, and beautiful views over the sea.

Ancient walled towns tumbling down the hillside are common in this area, and two particularly beautiful ones that we visited were Eze and Vence. We also saw a fair few Romanesque churches boasting stunning paintings and altarpieces.

And a couple of the buildings that we visited really stick in my mind. First, the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Cap Ferrat--a mansion built at the beginning of the twentieth century for Baroness Beatrice de Rothschild. The gardens are particularly beautiful, inspired by different kinds of gardens from across the globe and culminating, in front of the house, in a lake and musical fountains (the water 'dances' in time to various classical pieces). The second was the Villa Grecque at Beaulieu-sur-Mer--a faithful reconstruction of a 2nd century BC Greek noble house, which was the brainchild of archaeologist Theodore Reinach.

All in all, a busy but very enjoyable holiday!

Tyringham Park

I recently read an interesting novel called Tyringham Park, written by Rosemary McLoughlin. As you will know if you read my blog regularly, I have an interest in history and particularly old buildings, spending quite a bit of my spare time visiting stately homes. Tyringham Park caught my attention because it gives an insight into the lives of the people who actually inhabited these magnificent homes.

The book is set largely in Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century. It follows the life of Charlotte Blackshaw, daughter of the incumbent lord, whose infant sister Victoria unaccountably went missing when Charlotte was just eight years old.

Despite the apparent luxury and comfort of Charlotte's life (no money worries, living in a vast and comfortable mansion, surrounded by toys, having the opportunity to ride and hunt), we learn that Charlotte's life is in fact anything but comfortable. Her father is never at home, preferring to remain in India on an army posting, rather than having anything to do with his family. Her mother, having no interest at all in her children, has abandoned them to a nanny who is utterly cruel and sadistic and regularly inflicts serious injury on her charges. Since the house is so large and the nursery confined to one of its enormous wings, no one is aware of the children's suffering. Charlotte's one joy is riding her horse, but even this is thwarted by her jealous and competitive mother.

As Charlotte grows older, her nanny is dismissed and her lot does eventually improve under the guidance of a kind and skilled private tutor. Yet as an adult, Charlotte remains scarred and haunted by her childhood, not least by the disappearance of her baby sister all those years ago.

Tyringham Park is certainly an epic novel. Its story involves a number of characters and skips between rural Ireland, the city of Dublin and new world Australia. What is particularly interesting about the story, though, is that behind such outward wealth and magnificence lie such twisted and cruel personalities. I suppose it's a historical confirmation of the old adage that no matter how much money you have, it won't necessarily buy you happiness.

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum

We had an interesting bank holiday Sunday last week visiting the 'Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum' exhibition at the British Museum. We'd bought out tickets well in advance and were looking forward to it.

The exhibition was busy. The reviews had been very good, so no surprise there. And, indeed, the exhibition was both good and informative, but not absolutely stunning, in my view. The presentation was fine, but not inspired. Rather than telling a story, as the title of the exhibition implies, this felt much more like a standard museum-type exhibition.

However, I did learn some things about Pompeii and Herculaneum that I didn't already know, despite having visited both sites a few years back. For example, I wasn't aware just how much of our knowledge of everyday Roman life is informed by the finds at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Nor was I aware that so many people still remain buried deep under the debris--only a small percentage of the populations have been uncovered.

And the artefacts on display were amazing. Things that particularly caught my eye were a baby's cradle (in tact), a loaf of bread which was perfectly preserved even down to the baker's mark stamped on the side, and a incredibly intricate and beautiful colander.

All of us (kids included) enjoyed the exhibition. Coincidentally, we also enjoyed the lunch that we ate at the British Museum--bought from a gourmet van in the front courtyard and eaten lolling on the grass in the sunshine. We later found out that the catering in the van was supplied by Benugo, who also supply the catering at our local Ashmolean Museum. Small world, it seems--or big company, more accurately!

The National Trust and Cadbury: an utterly commercial partnership

Last weekend my family and I visited one of our local National Trust haunts—Basildon Park—and our kids did the Easter trail there. These NT Easter trails are something that we’ve only recently started doing (just last year, I think), even though our kids have been around for over ten years now and even though we are regular NT visitors. I’m not sure why it’s taken us so long, really.

However, having started doing the trails, I am always rather stuck by their incongruity. They are an utterly commercial exercise. Sponsored by Cadbury, the staff greet you in large, attention-attracting tents, emblazoned with the word ‘Cadbury’ and the company’s logo. You pay a couple of pounds per child to enter and the aim (from your point of view) is to find all the clues that are hidden in the grounds of the house. Your prize, once you have completed the trail, is, naturally, a Cadbury’s egg.

The aim from Cadbury’s point of view is, presumably, some very well placed advertising. Strike a deal with an organisation that has sites countrywide which are visited by lots of people with kids over the Easter weekend and, hey presto!, you’re in the sights of a shed load of young potential customers, most of whom just LOVE chocolate.

Neat idea.

But the incongruity for me lies in the difference between the NT of today and the NT that I knew and loved as a child growing up in the seventies. I touched on this a while ago in a blog post that I wrote about NT tea rooms. Back when I was a kid, the NT was a dusty, old fashioned organisation that got very few visitors through the doors of its houses, even on bank holiday weekends. No point in Cadbury teaming up with the Trust in those days. But now, the NT’s sites are teaming with visitors, so much so that at peak times you have to queue up for entry and you don’t stand a chance of getting a table in the tea room—unless you happen to have extremely sharp elbows!

The National Trust has become an utterly commercial, utterly twenty-first century money-making machine. And its collaboration with Cadbury simply epitomises this.

When we were leaving Basildon Park at around 3pm, I heard the Cadbury staff turning one hopeful Easter trailer away. “We’re at capacity for this weekend,” they said. In other words, they’d run out of eggs. Much the same might be said of the Trust, I thought, with a rueful smile.

Lunch at an Oxford college

I had an interesting experience the other day--a friend invited me as her guest to lunch at an Oxford college. It proved quite an eye opener.

What very soon became apparent was that tradition is certainly not dead at Oxford (just in case you were in any doubt!). As a part-time college lecturer my friend is permitted three free lunches per week in college, and she can bring one guest with her per lunch.

She (and others) may well be permitted free lunches, but hierarchy abounds in the system. First off, there are two dining halls. The one my friend attends is the ‘senior’ dining hall, which seats all staff who hold sufficiently senior positions within the college. Below this is the ‘other’ dining hall, which seats students and those members of staff who are not sufficiently senior to merit admittance to the ‘senior’ dining hall. (When I say ‘below’, I mean that literally as well as metaphorically--diners entering the upstairs dining hall are able to gaze down on the plebs below via an elevated viewing platform.)

There is also a form of hierarchy at work within the ‘senior’ dining hall. This centres on the (silver!) napkin rings, which are numbered. The more senior you are within college, the lower the number of your napkin ring. As a part-time, fixed-term college lecturer, my friend was languishing somewhere in the seventies, followed only by hourly paid tutors and junior research fellows. As a guest, I had no ring, but I did have a napkin. Thick white linen, no less!

The lunch itself is pretty full on—a hot main course with vegetarian option (or you can have a salad if you prefer), followed by a hot pudding (or fruit or cheese and biscuits, if healthy eating is your thing). There’s a choice of still or sparkling mineral water and tea/coffee (cappuccinos and lattes available too!) to conclude. As soon as you've finished, your dishes are whisked away by one of the hovering, dark-suited waiters.

After lunch my friend gave me a tour of the college. I saw the beautiful drawing rooms in which people relax with a cup of coffee and the paper, the Fellows' Garden (students are admitted, but must keep noise levels to a minimum), the rolling mound of a recently-discovered underground wine cellar in the grounds of the oldest part of college...

It was more like a stately home or a top notch hotel than an educational establishment. It was a treat to be a guest, but I'm not sure that I would have liked to be a student there. My alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, despite its ancient roots was fully integrated into modern life, even in the 1980s, when I was there. And I rather liked that.

Punk history versus Horrible Histories

My family and I had an interesting day out in London during the half term holiday. We did something for the adults and something for the kids.

The something for the adults was a visit to the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre to see a small punk exhibition called 'Someday all the adults will die!' I'd heard about the exhibition on Radio 4 and it sounded intriguing. And intriguing it certainly was. The display included fanzines, clothing and record covers from the punk years. These exhibits gave a real feeling for the era and it was particularly interesting to see the hand-drawn and photocopied posters and magazines which were characteristic of the movement -- at a time before professional printing was cheap and available to the mass market.

I was a little concerned when we entered the exhibition space and were greeted by the deafening wail of punk music that this perhaps wasn't the ideal place for kids (mine were the only ones there). But actually my two were totally unphased and browsed the exhibition with interest. My oldest asked lots of questions and declared at the end that she really liked punk style! Let's hope she doesn't take up the safety-pin-through-the-nose look in her teenage years!

The something for the kids was a complete contrast -- a Horrible Histories play at the Garrick Theatre -- but equally entertaining. The 'Barmy Britain' show aimed to provide a short history of Britain 'with the nasty bits left in'. True to the Horrible Histories formula, there were plenty of gruesome happenings and plenty of gallows and toilet humour. The acting was excellent -- just two actors on stage for an hour, supported by an ingenious range of props. We laughed a lot -- even the adults!

We completed our day out in London with dinner at Cafe Rouge. Everyone was happy and everyone had enjoyed themselves. A successful day all round!

Calke Abbey: the "un-stately" stately home

On the way to our recent family holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, we broke our journey by visiting the National Trust property Calke Abbey.

This is rather an unusual place. Dubbed the "un-stately" stately home, it has been very little restored since being taken over by the National Trust in 1985. Unlike most of the Trust's properties, peeling paintwork, untidy, cluttered rooms, and overgrown courtyards are the order of the day here.

The idea is to present the property in the state in which it was left to the Trust, at a a time when families were struggling under the burden of maintaining these enormous houses and, due to lack of funds, were often forced to close up rooms (and sometimes whole wings) of their homes and let nature take it course. The effect is refreshing -- rather than passing through splendid room after splendid room, the visitor comes to understand the worries and problems faced by the owners of Calke and so gains a more intimate insight into their lives. It is also  interesting that, at Calke at least, preservation does not necessarily equate with restoration.

And finally, on a more modern note, when entering the Calke estate, you are handed a CD to play in your car on the drive up to the house. The running commentary explains a little about the history of the house as well as pointing out key landmarks as you pass by them. Once parked, you return your CD to visitor reception. All rather ingenious and not something I've encountered before.

Just in case you're wondering, I would heartily recommend a visit to Calke.