18^th September 2022

 

Dear All,

We have just returned from two nights “up north” courtesy of our children’s gift for our 50^th wedding anniversary – it has only taken us 18 months to get round to spending the voucher but there have been understandable reasons.

We left Thursday morning and called in at Burghley House to break the journey. We had an excellent tour of the house and various gardens. It was built in the 16^th century by William Cecil and his descendants still live there. One of occupants collected over 350 portraits so they had to partition some of the big halls to have enough wall space to hang them all. There is a Garden of Surprises and a large Sculpture Garden and the park was of course laid out by Capability Brown.

 

 

Our Weekend Cottage

 

 

Main Hall

 

 

Capability Brown’s Lake & Bridge

 

 

Kate in the Garden of Surprises

 

 

 

The Sculpture Garden

In Yorkshire we stayed at Rowley Manor half way between Hull and Beverley. It was in a good position but was slightly tired and had seen better days. We wondered about the fire escape situation as we were on the top floor but relaxed when we saw a bucket catching drips from a leak in the ceiling of the corridor! We had a local walk after arriving and met a retired engineer building elaborate gate posts. He and his wife – an ex-magistrate explained that Rowley is a “Lost Village”, in the 1600s the local vicar fell out with the Bishop and decided to emigrate to America. He explained the situation to the villagers and invited them to go with him. They all decided to go just after the Mayflower in 1620 leaving Rowley completely deserted. There are now only four houses. We got to talking about the Queen and the wife related that her 4-year-old grand daughter reported that she had seen the Queen during a visit to London. Grandma asked where she had seen her thinking that she had been spotted in a car leaving or arriving somewhere and grand daughter said “Buckingham Palace – she was at a window shaking out a duster!” “Are you sure it was the Queen?”, “Oh yes, she was wearing a crown!” Grandma thought it was a good story and wrote to the Queen to tell her and got a very nice letter back.

 

 

Rowley Manor

 

On Friday we explored Hull catching the Park and Ride bus near the Humber Bridge. We headed for the Museum Quarter. We intended to visit the Wilberforce Museum but it was closed so we took in the “Street Life Museum of Transport” and the “East Riding Museum”, both were excellent with very modern displays. We followed this with “The Deep” an aquarium housed in a very modern building.

 

 

Hull City Hall

 

 

Transport Museum

 

 

The Deep

 

 

Ornamental Puffins everywhere

In the late afternoon we drove out to Spurn Head and walked along it for some way. It is over 3miles long but a storm in 2013 split it and destroyed the road. It was well worth seeing.

 

 

Spurn Head

 

On Saturday we visited Beverley and were very impressed. It was bustling as it was market day and the whole town seemed very prosperous. The Minster is obviously a highlight but there are several very attractive buildings.

 

 

Entrance Gate

 

Minster Entrance

 

We drove home via the Humber Bridge, the whole length of Lincolnshire including the Wolds, Spalding and Crowland. It was only a couple of nights but seemed a long break.

Earlier in the week it had been “Putting the wicket to Bed for the Winter” time as we scarified, reseeded, fertilised and added a ton of Ongar Loam. It was quite hard work as there were only two of us this year.

 

 

 

Loam Application

Esther and Emma stayed one night while we were away as Esther had another Addenbrooke’s appointment. It was Albert’s 7^th birthday and we clubbed together for a swing and climbing frame. He was also Star Pupil this week!

 

 

Star Pupil

 

 

Swing & Climbing Frame

 

Love

 

 

 

Mike & Kate