We leave Belsay Halland start off to get to the quarry, but first we’ll have a look in the formal gardens of the Hall. The temperatures were milder than usual in October and November, and so butterflies were still about, which surprised us.
small tortoiseshell and buddlea
large white
red admiral
Still some flowers budding and blooming too.
japanese anemone
sevenbark (Hydrangea aborescens L.)
and some buggy things
hoverfly
webmaster.
There’s a manicured lawn within a walled garden
walled garden
And then on out to the path that leads you on to the quarry, through gorgeous autumn colours.
Katsura japonicum.
Katsura leaves.
Next time we’ll get to the exotic quarry walk so stay tooned!
Sophie and I hoped to return here in spring and see the rose garden, but as the corona virus is taking hold in the country now as I write, I’m not sure if that will happen.
Stay tooned though, still some more adventures to do!
Sophie and I decided to visit Wynyard Gardens even though the flower season was over, we thought we’d do a recce and return in spring if we thought it worthwhile.
The gardens are part of the Wynyard Hall estate, currently owned by Sir John Hall, a North East property developer ( and life president of Newcastle United Football Club). We only saw the hall from a distance as it is a very nice hotel now, but the gardens are open to the public all year round.
The history bit . ( Cup of tea time π )
We’ll begin by having a look at Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. He was born Charles William Stewart in 1778 and was an Irish soldier in the British army, a politician, and a nobleman. As a soldier he fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, in the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and in the Napoleonic Wars. He was adjutant general to Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) who sacked him in spite of his valour and generally excellent soldiery, as he judged him a “sad brouillon (French for being a knob) and mischief-maker” among his staff. After Charles had finished with all the fighting stuff, his half-brother, Lord Castlereagh (the 2nd Marquess) helped him get into a diplomatic career. He went off to Berlin in 1813, then went off to be the Ambassador to Austria where Lord Castlereagh was the head honcho on behalf of the British Gov’t at the Congress of Vienna. There our Charlie proved his knobbishness with his loutish behaviour, was apparently rather often inebriated, and frequented prostitutes quite openly. He earned himself the nickname of Lord Pumpernickel after a loutish character in a play in fashion.
In 1804 Charlie had married Lady Catherine Bligh, who died in Ireland in 1812, but he found another Missis, Lady Frances Anne Vane, a rich heiress, whom he married in 1819. WTF she saw in him is beyond me but hey ho, different times folks. He changed his surname to hers, and became Charles William Vane, under Royal Licence, as her father had stipulated in his will.
In 1822, his half bro Lord Castlereigh started suffering from paranoia and mental instability, he was possibly affected by syphillis, and possibly being blackmailed for homosexuality, although that may just have been the paranoia talking, either way he wasn’t in a good place, and although friends and family were vigilant, he managed to find a small knife and cut his own throat.
This left Charles to be the 3rd Marquess, and he didn’t do himself any favours during the Irish Famine of 1840 when he and his wife gave only Β£30 to the local relief committee but spent Β£150,000 (Β£13.6Β million as of 2020) renovatingΒ Mount Stewart their Irish home. Also he led the opposition to the Mines & Colliery act of 1842 in the House of Lords. He is reported to have raged madly against any attempt to deny the collieries the use of child labour. Speaking on behalf of the Yorkshire Coal-Owners Association, Londonderry said “With respect to the age at which males should be admitted into mines, the members of this association have unanimously agreed to fix it at eight years… In the thin coal mines it is more especially requisite that boys, varying in age from eight to fourteen, should be employed; as the underground roads could not be made of sufficient height for taller persons without incurring an outlay so great as to render the working of such mines unprofitable”.
Once married into the Vane family, he used their immense wealth to acquire the Seaham Hall estate in County Durham with a view to developing the coalfields there. He also built the harbour at Seaham, to rival nearby Sunderland. He commissioned Benjamin Wyatt to build the Hall at Wynyard, and it started in 1822 and in 1828 was completed by Ben’s brother Philip Wyatt. Charlie spent Β£130,000 on it, (Β£11,824,000 in todays money) and just as it was completed a fire broke out and gutted it!
It was later restored and remodelled by the wonderfully named Ignatius Bonomi. The estate remained in the Londonderry family right up until 1987, though had been let out as a training school for teachers between 1945 and 1960. During this time it lost most of its original contents through sales and breakages.
1987 is when Sir John Hall bought it spending Β£4,000,000 to restore the house, and hiring Rupert Lord to oversee the restoration . He later moved his company headquarters, as well as his home, into the mansion. The estate, comprising the house and 780 acres of parkland, was listed for sale in July 2002 for Β£8,000,000. It is now a four-star hotel owned by the Hall family, continuing to occupy a small portion of land.
Garden designer, William Sawrey Gilpin created the initial gardens when the house was first built and instilled gently curved flowerbeds, raised terrace walks, irregularly shaped shrubberies and winding paths to create beautiful images within the landscape. In 1912 Lady Theresa Londonderry recreated the gardens, and kept a garden album which records in great detail the series of gardens she transformed. She created a series of ornamental gardens, including a rose garden, a lily garden, a thyme walk and a herbaceous broad walk, 270 yards long, bounded by a high yew hedge. A wild garden presented a range of shrubs, plants and bulbs in a natural setting, with grass paths, known as βthe garden riverβ.
At the turn of the 20th century, visitors flocked to the gardens, which were open to the public three days a week for a considerable part of the year however they closed shortly before the war. In 1987, as well as embarking on major restoration work in the house, Sir John Hall turned his attention to the grounds. Consultants suggested the restoration of the Walled Garden and Italianate Gardens, plans which are now coming to fruition.
Well done if you didn’t give up and skip to the pictures!
We decided to do the woodland walk first. It was a beautiful crisp autumn day, the sky was blue, the sun was out, our favourite time of year.
Japanese Maple
We went down the stairs to get to the woodland walk,
there are some beautiful trees along the way
We came to a little folly, and two little girls ran in to it while I was photographing it
noisy girls & folly
I do like monkey puzzle trees
king of the swingers
We came across a little bridge where you could stand and look at the river, Brierly Beck, and I liked the two eagle type statues either side of it
guardian of the Beck
a bit further on we came to what we assumed was an area for kiddies
play area
so many patches of mushrooms along the way
shrooms
it’s a circular walk and at the point of turning you get to the Hall, which Sophie and I named Riverrun.
Wynyard Hall
you can see an obelisk in the background which was put up to commemorate the Duke of Wellington when he came to visit Charles Vane and was inscribed WELLINGTON FRIEND OF LONDONDERRY, but the Duke didn’t give Charles a place in the government’s cabinet so in 1828 it was altered to ‘WELLINGTON”.
Stay tooned for the return journey and the cultivated gardens.
I have a weekend home alone, as Phil is off to a scale model show in Telford, not back until Sunday night, and I have to cat~sit. Really the cat is doing the sitting, on my trackpad so that I can’t be on the computer, but she didn’t realise I have an emergency mouse, so on we go π
The weather, always with the weather, has been dull, has been raining and cold, so no going out with the camera, but I gathered some fallen leaves from the front garden and did my autumn in a crystal ball shot.
This evening I’m having a chinese take away and going to find a movie or some trash TV to watch. Β I’ll brush the cat, (she loves being brushed) and have a glass or 2 of my favourite wine. Β I will sleep in a star shape and not get up in the morning if it’s still raining.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, though ever so windy and a bit chilly. Frego and I went on a bit of a hike to the old forbidden lake and took some pictures.
Stopped to admire the red berry bushes on the way
these are berry red.
then found the lake had dried up a bit when we got to the spot where I’d taken shots before,
hmm, not loving the mud
So we went to the other side to try and get a better view, though we would then be looking into the sun.
On the morning of the model show, after I’d had a quick shufty around and taken some shots of the models,Β I went for a walk with my camera in the surrounding woodlands whileΒ Phil perused the models and did some shopping and chatted on with his fellow modeller friends. It was a bright crisp day so nice to catch some sunlight in the autumn leaves. Lots of goodies to see and record.
There were some industrial buildings nearby the hotel, but not sure what kind of industry.
wooden posts lining the pathway..
and lots of leaves everywhere..
car cover
and a bumper crop of mushrooms..
I found a woodland hut..
and a woodpile
and a bench to sit on
and another path to follow
the light through the leaves was lovely
then I came across a different type of forest
raspberries
conkers
firemans pipeΒ
Next time I’ll show some of the models, and the journey home, but that’s enough pretty pictures for this post. Back to work tomorrow, isn’t it horrid going back after a holiday?!
I’m back from Holland, and of course have come home with more photo’s to get through, so am finishing off my report on Howick Gardens so I’m not too behind.
After finding the ginormous leaves, we walked along the riverside to have a look at the church in the grounds.
Sluice gates on the river,
fruit of the GinormousΒ Leaves
Bridge to the church
The church is a victorian building, and houses the tomb ofΒ the Prime Minister, 2nd Earl Grey, but other than that the interior was a bit boring to be honest. Outside was more interesting,
window
church door
heads up
The small stone gargoyles on the exterior of the north wall were all carved by Maria, 3rd Countess Grey, who was a good amateur artist, but sadly she never got round to doing the south side.
Children didn’t always live too long in this era..
Lilian, aged 2, & Sylvia, born and died on the same day.
Lots of leaves to be found with rain drops decorating them..
and some really fine spidey webs..
After Church we went back to the Hall for lunch in the Earl Grey Tea House, which was beautiful
The Earl Grey Tea House
I had a rather lush duck & orange pate on toast …
And then back outside to walk it off and take a few more shots before going home.
eyeballing the competition
another big leaf
lost feather
those were all taken with the Fuji XT1 using the 60mm macro lens (much maligned in the Fuji owners world!) and my 18-55mm zoom. But of course I always take the iPhone along and these next few are from the phone.
Thought I’d crack on with this as I’m off to Holland tomorrow and won’t get chance to post for a few days unless I can figure out how to do it on the iPad.
Part 1 and the history bit are HEREΒ so this is basically just more pictures of dead flowers π (I jest). After the Bog Garden we wandered around the rest of theΒ gardens to the back of the Hall
gate detail
dead flower π
avenue of pots
crocuses??
A lot of the grass had purple and white crocuses growing through which we thought really strange as they usually appear in spring, however it turns out they are autumn crocuses, colchicums no less,Β ItsΒ leaves,Β cormΒ andΒ seedsΒ areΒ poisonous. MurderessΒ Catherine WilsonΒ is thought to have used it to poison a number of victims in the 19th century.
Howick Hall
You can see why I didn’t shoot many pictures with the sky included. I suppose I could replace it in potatoshop, but it belongs to the day, so there it stays.
lots of poison
Autumn foliage now..
could have done with just a bit of sun though!
We came across some ginormous leaves..
and even more ginormous leaves..
Sophie took one of me holding a leaf so you can see how big they are
me & ginormous leaves (courtesy of Sophie Cormack)
I have hamster cheeks!!! Where did THEY come from!!??
Well, that’ll do for now, back to the packing, have a fab weekend wordypeeps
Had to walk over to Pelaw today to pick up a prescription for Phil, and though it was a blustery day, the sky was blue in a lot of places and everywhere was all coloured up. It’s officially Fall here as of yesterday, and it’s a great time of year for photography. Β You’ll notice I use the term Fall, even though I’m English, but…
(edumacation bit coming up π )
The wordΒ autumnΒ comes from the ancientΒ EtruscanΒ rootΒ autu-Β and has within it connotations of the passing of the year.It was borrowed by the neighbouringΒ Romans, and becameΒ autumnus.Β After the Roman era the word continued to be used as theΒ old FrenchΒ wordΒ autompneΒ (automneΒ inΒ modern French) orΒ autumpneΒ in Middle English,Β and was later normalised to the original Latin. In theΒ MedievalΒ period there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century it was in common use.
The alternative wordΒ fallΒ for the season traces its origins to oldΒ Germanic Languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with theΒ Old EnglishΒ fiΓ¦llΒ orΒ feallanΒ and theΒ Old NorseΒ fallΒ all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning “to fall from a height” and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle EnglishΒ expressions like “fall of the leaf” and “fall of the year”.
During the 17th century,Β English emigration to the British coloniesΒ in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the termΒ fallΒ gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America. (wiki) Well it’s not obsolete to me now!
I only had my iphone6 with me, so all these were taken with a couple of camera apps I have on it.
I have to walk over a bridge across the metro lines to get to Pelaw, there isn’t a drive-straight-to-it road, so it’s quicker to walk than go in the car, which is good, a bit of fresh air and exercise!
down the line (ProCamera)
ProCamera is one of my fave apps as you can alter focus and exposure very easily and it has a lot of functions which is great if you don’t have a DSLR to hand.
ProCamera settings
My most used app is the hipstamatic app, I really like all the different lens/film combo’s. I make up favourites and also use the random choice setting now and then to see what it comes up with. At the moment I have about 60 different sets of films and lenses on the app! OK I’m a geek.
These were taken using theΒ Bruno Lens & Claunch 72 monochrome film.
Pelaw Metro Station
Pelaw Metro Station
crumpled cone
I walked home through the wooded back pathways to find some colour..
red green & blue (Emma Lens,Big Easy film)
TheΒ John S Lens & Kodot Grizzled film combination is one of my favourites for the deep blues and rich colours.
head in the cloudsΒ
Lone tree
undercover path
abundance of berries
I also have an app I only use for iPhone macro shots, I got it in error as I thought I was getting ProCamera but it isn’t, it’s called Camera+. It’s a really annoying app to use, not intuitive at all, but the macro setting is fab so I just leave it on that! Β It is a very popular app so maybe it’s just me being dim. π
Have been down south, first visiting my pal Helen in Biggleswade. I love Helens home, it is full of dogs & chickens and quirky items so I took some photos indoors and in the garden.
Jasper
chuck
Chicken fence
weird puppet guy
Harley shield
shrunken head
Shelf of heads
scary kitchen dude
twig lights
Helen is a fab cook and made us pulled chicken which was gorgeous and has inspired me to buy a slow cooker!
making coleslaw
Also it was Halloween so a pumpkin was carved.
Pumpkin
Helen
As the evening came Helen and I went out with our cameras to catch some autumnal colour and the sunset. I took some shots from the car window as we travelled.
Mr. Squirrel
Hairy House
welcome?
Shuttleworth Estate
We parked up and walked about to get some detail shots and Helen sneakily took one of me!
me shooting the sunset~by Helen
Birds
Reach for the moon
Twizzles
Then we went back and had the lush dinner, and had a few wine’s and Tia Marias, then to bed and the next morning we went out to the tree nursery we spotted whilst out and about and took some more photos.
Helen in Autumn
little & large
perspective
glorious colour
berries
tweezles & webs
tweezles and webs 2
stripey field
I left Helens on Saturday morning and travelled down to Leighton Buzzard to visit Ben & Lewis. Lewis wanted to go on a boat on Wirren Lake at Milton Keynes so off we went to the park and the lake.
Ben & Lewis
Steering the pretend boat
Steering the real boat
We did quite well at peddling out into the lake, unfortunately the wind was quite strong, the rudder didn’t work too well and we couldn’t get the damn thing to turn round to head back in land. It got quite stressful trying to steer, and I got a BIG headache when I was peddling really hard (must get fitter!!!) so we ended up waving our arms in the hope of being rescued, and just drifted on the lake Β in the hope we wouldn’t crash into the water skiers. Luckily (?) there were 2 young lasses in another peddle boat who were having the same problem, so they were yelling and waving their arms about, and the chap in charge came out in a speedboat to tow them first, and us second back to dry land. Lewis was well impressed with the speedboat ride, as was I!
Nice view on the lake though π
View from a drifting peddle boat.
Anyway, now I’m back home, and have a week off, got lots of things to get sorted, and hopefully if the weather isn’t wet, can get out and about for some more togging.
Life’s been hectic of late, last weekend we were in Belgium for a model show, where Phil won some medals and a trophy. We stayed in a really swish B&B with donkey’s in our view (see pic) and also visited Brugges, which is a really pretty place.
This weekend Phil’s daughter got married, and Ben and Charlotte came to stay for that, and family from fara and wide, a grand day and all went well, Shelley looked gorgeous.
and it’s not over yet as next weekend we’re off to another model show in Folkestone!Β Phil’s got a bad cold, and I’m now getting a sore throat so all this gadding about isn’t doing us any good π need a holiday!
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