Had fun visiting a few places later in the week. One of my wishes was to see the Gardens of the Rose which has the biggest collection of roses in Britain and has lots of history etc. Thought we had better get there early as the spring was the warmest ever recorded and there has been lots of grief by the Chelsea designers because the plant behaviour has been really abnormal - some things have peaked early and they have had to redesign etc.
Headed off there last Thursday only to find that the garden does not officially open unitl mid June. However the head gardener met us at the gate and allowed us to enter - seeing we had come all the way from New Zealand. Sadly it was a bit early to see most of the blooms, but we have decided to go back in early June and give them a voluntary days work.
The nearest town is St Albans which has an enormous cathedral. One of the displays was a stitched timeline, by children on sacking, of pictures of the historical events of the building of the church (and the falling down cause that happened a few times). It was very interesting and well done. On our way home we stopped by Waddestone Manor which was build in the 1700's by the Rothschilds. I had checked it out on Google before we left but wanted John to see it. This was late in the day and the gates were closing at 5.30 so we could only drive in and have a quick peek. The opulence and grandeur of the house and grounds is truly gob smacking. Will definatly go back. The stripes in the lawns inspired me to work on the quality of the lawns here.
Called in to our local put (well one of them) and had a pint. Enjoyed a chat with two local guys who frequent the place. Both were engineers with the Aston Martin factory which is about 10 minutes away. Enquired about visiting, but they only arrange visits from dealers - mmm will have to work on that one.
Friday took us to another historic and gorgeous manor - Blenheim Palace which is the home of Winston Churchill. This palace is set beside the most pretty village - Woodstock - which we will return to so we can check it out thoroughly. Had lunch at a lovely cafe/deli, similar to Zarbos. Blenheim Palace was built as a thank you to the first Duke of Marlborough for winning the battle of Blenheim in France. This apparently changed the course of history substantially. Queen Anne gifted the land and house and it has been the home to the dukes of Marlborough for about 12 generations. The third or fourth descendant was a woman however and she married a Spencer - relations of Lady Diana, but a few generations later they were allowed to put the Churchill name back in there so it became hyphenated with Spencer. The tour through the palace was absolutely fantastic - done with video faces and voices but dressed up and moving mannequins.
The property was re-landscaped in the early 1900's by capability Brown and was just so so gorgeous. The mature trees - especially the walk down to the lake he formed with the cascade - of giant copper beeches and oaks with perfect lawns with stripes was lovely. Next Saturday they are going to have a food and design festival so we will go back for that and have a picnic. Amazing to think that this home was also where Winston Churchill lived and he also led Britain to a serious historical war Victory. There were three tiered glass cabinets of formations of soldiers in battle throughout the corridors and apparently Winston was fascinated by them and used to spend hours assembling them. This Palace is a world heritage site and there is only 3 others in Britain and about 8 in the world.
Will add some pics now for you to see how much fun we are having.
No comments:
Post a Comment