Nowhere near Devonshire

Friday 30th September 2016

We found out what the Police incident was in Bakewell.  It was a missing elderly lady......but don't worry, Janice was found safe and well!

We left the Caravan Club site around 11am and parked up in a lay-by about 300 metres around the corner.  Then we cycled into Chatsworth Park.  By doing this we could still benefit from the £6 discount to enter Chatsworth for staying at the caravan club site and avoid the £4 car parking fees.  The normal price to enter Chatsworth House and Gardens is £20, so we managed it for £14. So.....we saved £16 in total, well worth the effort.  Having said that, the House and Gardens are magnificent, particularly the house.

We did the gardens first.  An assortment of sculptures, orangery, fountains and a maze that defeated us.  We think it is impossible to do it.

After our picnic lunch we went in the House and wow, very grand.

I can't believe the amount of wealth the Dukes of Devonshire must have had over the centuries.  However, they were 'new money' compared to the Vernons at Haddon Hall, we have superior breeding!

The Devonshires were no where near Devon so must have been total frauds.  There real name was Cavendish.  I asked a guide a question about the connection with Holker Hall and Barrow in Furness.  They were quite knowledgable about the link with Holker Hall at Cark in Cartmel.  Holker Hall is owned by Lord Cavendish and apparently at some previous century one Duke of Devonshire had no children so the title was taken by his brother who owned Holker Hall.  That brother passed the title to his son who returned to Chatsworth and Holker transferred to his second son.

In regard to the connection with Barrow in Furness, many of the town streets have connections to the Duke of Devonshire and families connected to them......Devonshire Buildings, Cavendish St, Burlington Street, Chatsworth Street, Buccleugh Street.  These are all names are associated to the Devonshires and I believe they invested in the iron ore industry of the Furness area.  

Janice was quite overwhelmed by the occasion.

We cycled back to the van and went in search of a place to wild camp.  Having been on our trip for five nights it was about time we roughed it. We found a place to stay south of a town of Tideswell which was north west of Buxton.  It was a picnic area near a gorge and nice stream.

What a good day.... We avoided spending £16 to get into Chatsworth, we made our own packed lunch, we ate left over beef stew for our tea and parked on a public car park for nothing.....not that I am a cheap skate!  We still managed the regulation two gin and tonics on a Friday night.

Claiming my birthright.

Thursday 29th September 2016

So.....today's grand house is Haddon Hall, on the A6 east of Bakewell.  It is the ancestral home of the Vernons!  I think Richard de Vernon was the Lord of the Manor in 1215.  It stayed with a string of Richards, Williams, one Henry and a George till 1565 when George Vernon's only daughter Dorothy eloped with the second son of the Manners family.  This marriage was a mixture of scandal and romance.  The Manners family still own the Hall.

More about the hall later.

We cycled from the site to Bakewell.  Nice little town famous for its tarts.

Answers to ths weeks caption completion please...

Bakewell must be a rough place as there was the biggest police presence I have seen for a small place.

There were nine police vehicles in total and I actually saw police officers walking around the town.  Something must have happened?

Here's the thing.....me and my tart (sorry, Janice) continued to Haddon Hall and really enjoyed it.  

My brother David has told me that the original property for the Vernon family was Shipbrook Castle near Northwich.  That Castle no longer exists and now is an organic farm.  I also have other Vernon houses to visit at Sudbury Hall near Ashbourne and Hanbury Hall at Droitwich Spa.  I am determined to find some family connection to money, power and status although I shouldn't show my motives as that behaviour is unbecoming for a man of my position.

The tapestry was apparently given to the family by Henry VIII, Sir Henry Vernon was a chief adviser to King Henry's brother.

The portrait is Dorothy Vernon, can you see the likeness?

This is the Vernon coat of arms.  Wild Boars feature heavily, that perhaps explains a lot!

This is the Long Hall.

Putting family bias to one side, this was a really interesting visit and I would recommend anyone who is in the area to give it a visit.  The house is really old and the stone floors are well worn.  It feels very authentic and unspoilt.  Of course I told one of the guides my name and I had come to claim my birthright.  She was quite amused and she gave us the full run down of the family at the Hall.

Holiday or Lifestyle dilemma.

Wednesday 28th September 2016

So....here's the thing.....I am still having a problem about whether we are on holiday or this is our new lifestyle.  It manifests itself in various ways, often it is about spending money and always about eating and drinking.  When on holiday we would probably spend money more freely than when we stay home and give ourselves regular treats.  When we have longer travels we can't sustain that level of spending.  Similarly, when on holiday most people treat themselves to meals out most evenings and drinking alcohol most days and sometimes at all times of the day!  I am rather torn between the desire to eat and drink most of the time.  So, far we are trying our best to be moderate with our eating but their has only been one alcohol free day so far. We are very good at making our own food and packing lunch for when we go out.  However, we went to a Lidl supermarket this morning and I was sorely tempted to buy far too much food than a) we could eat in the next 3 days and b) more than we could fit in the fridge and  cupboards of the van.....never mind I will trough my way through it as quick as I can so nothing goes past its sell by date!  

We have moved on today and headed to the Peak District (not a place I have visited very much).  We parked and had lunch on the outskirts of Buxton.  I have been to the spa town before but today the weather was nice and we cycled down into the down and enjoyed its grand buildings.  The Opera House was being well used as a tourist information centre, a cafe and a greenhouse for exotic plants.  The Cresent was unfortunately covered in scaffolding but at least it is being restored to its former glory. Buxton is a bit like Harrogate but on a smaller scale and not the worse for it.  

Our days destination was a Caravan Club site at Chatsworth Park.  On arrival we were told that their had been a problem with my booking.  I had mixed up the dates and was expected to arrive the previous night and therefore my booking had been cancelled when I didn't show up.  The Wardens were very helpful and they still had space for us on the site for two nights.  The advantage of staying at this site is that there is a side gate into Chatsworth Park for nice walks and we get £6 off the £20 entry fee into Chatsworth House, which makes it manageable because it isn't a National Trust property.

Later in the afternoon we walked around the Park but will wait till Friday before we actually visit the house and gardens. 

Not a bad shack!

This is just the Stables.

On the site I met an ex cop called Ray Stephenson from the Furness area.  It was lovely to see him again, he retired 20 years ago.  He still has the gift of the gab.

In the evening we took advantage of the site wi-fi and watched Poldark on the iPlayer and to Janice's delight Ross Poldark took his top off again.

Whoops we forgot the passports.

Tuesday 27th September 2016

So....we continue with our cultural quest to visit National Trust properties.  The weather was better today which meant that we got on our bikes and publicly displayed our matching fluorescent jackets that we purchased from Decathlon yesterday.  I'm not normally in favour of matching clothes but they were good quality and just what we were looking for.

Our aim was to visit Quarry Bank Mill in the morning and Dunham Massey in the afternoon.  Quarry Bank Mill is that place that is signposted when you turn to go to Manchester Airport.  The sat nav told us that Quarry Bank was about 5 miles from where we were staying but that involved motorways.  Our route turned out to be 13 miles on the bikes and although we missed the motorways we did go under the airport runway.

Chocks away, permission for take off!

We had been tempted to take our passports and see where we could end up!  Quarry Bank Mill was bigger than we expected and was quite busy with a school trip.  Nevertheless it has a good assortment of spinning and weaving machinery as well as an old water wheel and steam engines.  The setting was pretty too as the surrounding gardens were lovely.  The mill had been owned by the Greg family who had obviously been involved in the cotton industry before they started making pies!

Nice jacket!

After lunch we cycled around the airport again, seeing the highlights of Wythenshawe (didn't take long) and some nicer places on the fringe of Altrincham.  We arrived at Dunham Massey which is a house that was owned by the Earls of Stafford whose family name was Booth in the 1700's, I believe they made their money in the early supermarket business!  They only had a daughter and she married a Grey (linked to Lady Jane Grey).  The 7th Earl was George Harry and he scandalised the area by taking a second wife who had been a circus performer.  Shock, horror, she was certainly not the right sort of class.  Local gentry rebuffed the wife and as a result the Earl and wife abandoned the house to live in a mansion elsewhere.  I always though those Cheshire folk were society snobs!

Here's the thing....before we left I managed to ask the staff the killer question...."Why is Dunham Massey called Dunham Massey?"  Of course the person I asked didn't know and neither did the person they asked.  They were eventually helped by a volunteer who told us that the area had been called Dunham (but couldn't explain what it meant) and the area had been given to a French nobleman called De Massey who had come across with William the Conqueror and been given the land for his services.  Sounds a bit like the story of Richard De Vernon.....but more of that later.

By the time we got back to the van we had done 30 miles cycling when I thought we might have done about 12 miles, never mind it is all healthy stuff.  We ate a nice Beef Stew made in the slow cooker and helped down with lashings of Lea and Perrins....mmm.

So.....here's the thing!

Sunday 25th September 2016

The title is my comment on modern language trends.  Young people seem to start every statement with 'So....' and when explaining anything they say 'here's the thing'.  If you haven't noticed this previously have a listen to anyone under 30 talking on the media.  I shouldn't complain because it is better than 'whatever' and 'oh my god!" which used to dominate any young persons conversation.

Wel it has been quite a while since I blogged.  I can't believe the last blog was early June when Janice and I came back from our Devon and Cornwall trip.  A few things have occurred since then.  We have had some smaller trips in the van including a weekend at Kendal Caravan Club site where my brother Peter and his family joined us in a camper van and a weekend at Barrowford near Nelson visiting my friend Guy and his wife Yvonne.  However, our most significant trip was to the Cambridge Folk Festival at the end of July.  We had a lovely time in our Morris dancing outfits.  We were festival virgins but thought we might be able to manage a mild mannered type of festival rather than the Glastonbury experience.  We stayed on a small site about 5 miles away and cycled into the festival on a daily basis.

Our current trip was slightly delayed by the purchase of a house for my daughter Rebekah in Salford.  We got her moved in last week and we took the opportunity to get away for about 3 weeks.  We had previously had ideas of going onto the continent th Holland being a likely destination but we scaled the trip back and decided to stay in the UK.

So...... having travelled up and down to Salford several times last week we set off to.......South Manchester.  Here's the thing, we are actually staying in a village called Broomedge, about three miles from Manchester airport but our CL site has a clear view of Manchester and Salford.  It is surprisingly picturesque...honest.

Monday 26th September 2016 - National Treasure.

You will quickly grasp the theme of our current trip.  It will be National Trust properties.  

I recently subscribed to getting the Sunday Times newspaper each week and as part of the deal we got free joint membership of the National Trust.  What a good deal (sorry it's no longer available) as I get the newspaper cheaper than normal and I get the free membership.  I have previously been a member but not for a long time. We fully intend to get good value from out membership and so I will bore you rigid with facts about the properties we visit.  Sorry!  You can unsubscribe now if you wish.

Today has been a rather wet, drizzly day so we unplugged the van and drove to Lyme Park, where the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed.  On the way we stumbled across a Decathlon store.  We couldn't help but stop and make some sporting clothing purchases.  Great value and very exciting, we got new cycling jackets and an assortment of shorts, tops and leggins.

The front of the Hall.  Do you think there is some resemblance between me and Mr Darcy?

This is what Janice called the 'backside' of the Hall.  Not sure it is correct terminology.

We enjoyed flashing the membership cards and getting in free.  It makes the whole experience so worthwhile.  The Hall was owned by the Legh family since the Tudor period.  They supported the the second Jacobite rebellion but still managed to retain the property despite being out of Royal favour.  We found out that the lining of King Charles I's cloak, on the day of his execution, was taken and used to upholster four chairs in the house.  They later made their money through mining industries and then lost their wealth because mining was nationalised after the Second World War.  The property was then sold to the National Trust and restored.  Very grand it is too.

We have more properties to visit tomorrow....I bet you can't wait!

We had a lovely chicken and tomato pasta 'for us tea' (Manchester vocabulary), well at least that's what I had....Janice had Chicken poivre as she managed to empty the pepper pot by mistake onto her meal.  We are still enjoying the Manchester drizzle this evening.  The forecast is better tomorrow, I think/hope.

Last Bath.

Wednesday 1st June 2016 - Bath.

It's our last full day of this trip and the 1st day of June, we can't believe it's either.  We have had such a good time, seeing wonderful coastlines and countryside.  Our favourite harbours are Porthleven and Mevagissey.  Best sight is probably St Michaels Mount and best beaches are at St Ives, Hayle and Perranporth.  Tastiest Pasties at The Horse & Jockey shop at Porthleven, closely followed by Tintagel and Hayle.

Today, we had a slow start.  The weather forecast was for a cloudy but dry day but after some early rain we set off for a cycle ride along the Two Tunnel Route.  The man who started the cycle charity Sustrans came from Bristol and there are plenty of good cycle routes near here.  The Two Tunnel route includes the Devonshire tunnel and the Coombe Down Tunnel which is over a mile long.  It is the longest cycle route tunnel in the country.  It is tarmaced, and lit throughout and even has music playing!

It looks darker than it was.

We went as far as Midford Castle which was built as a clover shaped folly but was owned at one time by Nicholas Cage!  That's as much media trivia as I have.

In the afternoon we cycled into Bath and had another look around.  We thought we should have a Bath Bun....

Here is Janice proudly showing her Bath Bun.

She wanted to do some girlie window shopping and for an hour we separated so I could do some 'man' shopping.  It was the longest hour of my life.....I tried to fill time by looking into Bath Abbey and after ten minutes I spent the rest of the time wandering aimlessly around the streets.  Shopping isn't my favourite pastime!  Especially when I don't want to buy anything.

It is a very nice city though.  I sneaked a photo of the Roman Baths at Aqua Sullis....

In the evening we had a nice meal in a pub on the way back to the site..

Tomorrow we drive back home.  The end of a lovely trip.

Thursday 2nd June 2016 - back home.

Nice journey home.  No problems.  Lovely weather to come back to.

Isambard Wallace Fry Wills Bevan Brunel.

Tuesday 31st May 2016 - Bath.

We thought that today we would utilise the Bath to Bristol cycle path and give Bristol a visit.  The cycle path isn't far from our site and the forecast was fine till teatime.  The cycle path is 16 miles long and is based on an old railway track so it's fairly flat.  It certainly is a well used route for cyclists, runners and walkers.

We have both visited Bristol but my visit was very brief and only seemed to involve a visit to SS Great Britain built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  He was narrowly pipped by Churchill in a public vote to decide who is the greatest British person ever! 

All I can say is that Brunel had very short arms and a tall head!

Our first visit was to the 'M Shed' which is a museum with a good historical overview of Bristol.  It is on the harbourside and gave us lots of information about prominent Bristolians.  There were plenty of famous people including Nick Park who created Wallace and Gromit, standby for another photo of me with a wide mouth!

Other famous people include Ernest Bevan, Samuel Plimsoll (who invented the Plimsoll line on ships to judge the cargo weight) and the Wills family who made cigarettes including Woodbines and a cigar called the 'Wills Whiff'!  

The harbour area is very pleasant, we didn't go into SS Great Britain because believe it or not it was £14 admission (no Gift Aid option).  

Now, I'm not one to gossip but Janice has had a few extra pasties and as a result she needs a little bit of help getting on and off her bike!

We had a little picnic and then went to have a look around the city and were pleased with what we saw.  The Cathedral was free to enter and had two lovely organs and an ornate choir area.

We toured the shopping areas and looked at the Wills Memorial and the Bristol Museum.

This is the Wills Momument, obviously dedicated to the tobacco mogul (not very PC now is it), it is part of Bristol University and Janice's son in law, Oli, studied for his Masters in this building.  Apparently smoking is forbidden.

Standby for another rant.....whilst in the Bristol Museum we noticed that some of the displays of Assyrian carvings were dated as from 700BCE?  I wondered where the E came from and what did it mean?  I asked a staff member and later had to google the answer for confirmation.  Of course it is a politically correct change and means Before Common Era rather than Before Christ.  The date of Christ's birth is still the date used to divide BCE from CE.  CE (Common Era) has replaced AD (Anno Domini) as well.  I thought the world was becoming more 'common' but I didn't realise it was publicly confirmed.

There was also a copy of the Rosetta Stone, the original is the most visited item in the British Museum in London.  It is an Egyptian bilingual inscription issuing a decree from Memphis by King Elvis V (sorry Ptolemy V).  It has enabled scholars to properly translate the symbols and it starts "Rosetta, are you better, are you well, well, well...)!

We cycled back along the same route and had our lovely smoked salmon salad with Jersey new potatoes, followed by Fry's Chocolate Creams that were also made in Bristol (not sure if they still are).