We left Graysonside at Cockermouth and headed for York. Our first stop that day was Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire. To get there, we crossed an old toll bridge - the "toll booth" was a pair of buildings narrowing the road to a single lane with a person standing in the rain collecting the toll. The mansion houses over 100 portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery for the "Royals: then and now" exhibit, including Andy Warhol portraits of the queen as well as a lightbox with a recent photo of the queen with her eyes closed (interesting). The building itself is Georgian (1716), and was occupied by the Royal Air Force during World War II.
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| beningbrough hall |
Next stop, York. We drove through the city, then parked near the York Castle Museum. We three wandered through the museum and absorbed a comprehensive history of both the city of York and the castle and its dungeons. Auntie Val and I were the last two guests before closing time at the Jorvik Museum tour, featuring an amusement park style ride through a mockup of Jorvik (York) in the time of the Viking occupation.
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| view of the york castle museum from clifford's tower |
We wandered a bit before returning to meet Uncle Yan at the car. We drove around the city a little before discovering a place we could park for free, then walked back past the museums to discover "The Shambles" - the oldest (and possibly narrowest) shopping street in Europe, ending our walk at York Minster.
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| the shambles |
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| york minster |
By then, we'd worked up good appetites, so we stopped in a shop and had filled Yorkshire puddings, with pork, roast potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and gravy. As we made our way back to the car, I climbed up one of the access points to walk on the old city wall for a bit. We drove toward the end of a rainbow until we found our hotel for the night, a few miles south of York. That evening I looked up one of our planned destinations for the next day, Chatsworth House - a beautiful estate supposed to have been Jane Austen's inspiration for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice. The entrance fees were astronomical so we decided to skip it and visit whatever struck our fancy on the way back to Stanwick.
Driving the next morning, we passed a sign for "Elsecar Heritage Center" and on a whim headed that direction. It is the site of former ironworks from the 1800s. The buildings which previously housed the works now hold an antique mall and some other small shops. In addition, there was an antique car boot fair - as antiques are one of Uncle Yan's passions, we perused the antique mall and the car boot sale as well. A vintage steam locomotive chugged in while we were browsing outside.
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| vintage steam locomotive |
We continued, branching off the main road to Matlock Bath. On the way, we passed through Chesterfield, famous for the twisted spire of the Parish Church of St Mary and All Saints, visible from the highway. It started pouring rain while we were in Matlock Bath, so after stopping for lunch, we continued on to Stanwick. We arrived back at the house to find a leak from upstairs - dripping through the light fixture just inside the front door, making a big puddle on the floor. As it was Sunday, Uncle Yan shut the water off after filling containers with enough water for anything we might need that night. Monday we rested, except Uncle Yan who scrambled to find parts and fix the leak.
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| twisted (and tilted) spire of chesterfield |
The next few days, Uncle Yan and Auntie Val took me on some day trips in the Midlands, visiting places that were interesting and not too far from home. We started off with a stop in Wansford to look at the Haycock Hotel (in operation since 1571) and the Wansford Bridge over the River Nene, a part of the Old London Road from approximately 1000 AD until the building of a new bridge for the A1 in 1929. The current stone bridge dates from 1571, 1672, and 1795.
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| wansford bridge |
Our next stop was Burghley House, in the Soke of Peterborough. This house was built between 1558 and 1587 by Lord William Cecil (later Baron Burghley), chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth I stayed at the house as well as Queen Victoria. In 1928, David Cecil (who became the 6th Marquess/ 15th Earl of Exeter and 16th Baron Burghley) won a Olympic gold medal for 400 meter hurdles, and in 1932 won silver as part of the 4x400 relay. His Olympic medals are on display as well as his original hip replacement - he had the prosthesis silver-plated and mounted as a hood ornament on his car after he had a revision!
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| the bow room, a dressing room, the first george room, hell's staircase, and the dining hall |
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| lord burghley's hip prosthesis |
We made a stop at the town of Stamford, notable for its many stone churches and historic architecture, before returning to Stanwick to have dinner with Uncle Yan and Auntie Val's friends, Jeff and Jayne.
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| auntie val and me in stamford |
In my remaining couple of days, we visited Canons Ashby and took a trip to Peterborough for dim sum and to visit the Peterborough Cathedral. Canons Ashby House is an Elizabethan manor house dating from about 1550 with many additions. The present state of the house is very close to what it was in 1710. The parish church is all that remains of the Canons Ashby Priory, founded around 1150 - the church dates from about 1250. Building of the present Peterborough Cathedral began in 1118. Among a collection of Bishops and Archbishops, it is the final resting place of Katharine of Aragon - "legitimate Queen of England under Henry VIII" - and was briefly the burial place of Mary, Queen of Scots, after her execution (her body was later moved to Westminster Abbey).
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| canons ashby house and part of the garden |
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| statue of shepherd boy who saved the estate by warning of oncoming attack |
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| canons ashby church |
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| lounging in front of peterborough cathedral |
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| peterborough cathedral |
On Friday, June 13, I boarded a train for London to wrap up my incredible trip to England...
