21st September 2021

On Sunday 19th September, my Marshmallow insurance policy commenced on my car, so it was time for me to take her out for a drive and start exploring my new homeland. The weather forecast had changed and the rain we were expecting was pretty much done by dawn with the sun now expected to make a show. As my family had another commitment in the afternoon, I went alone.

I chose the National Trust owned Lyme Park, House and Gardens in Cheshire as my first outing, because it isn’t too far from home. Nat and Mark have been there before and enjoyed it. So, I decided to bring Snow and Fin to enjoy the adventure with me.

I arrived just before 11am, very pleased with my efforts at driving down the narrow roads to get there. They were the type of roads where it is almost too narrow for two cars to pass each other. So, I decided to be patient and move as close as I could to the edge of the road and let other cars coming towards me, pass. I didn’t mind, it wasn’t busy and all of them acknowledged my efforts. My car has built in GPS/Sat Nav, which looked for the quickest way to get to Lyme Park, selecting mostly back roads rather than the main arterial roads.

It seemed that before 11am was a good time to arrive, as it was just before the house opened for visitors, although the gardens opened from 9.30am. The carpark was not too busy, so it was easy to find a park. From there I got my first view of the house.

The walk up to the house from the carpark is quite a steep path. So I took advantage of the free shuttle buggy cart ride up to the gates, as I didn’t want to upset my knee with walking up hill. Anne, the driver, seemed very happy to have Snow, Fin and I as passengers. She said if I needed a ride back down from the house to let a staff member know and they would radio her to come and get me. That was nice of her.

Welcome to Lyme Park House.

I could just imagine the horses and carriages entering the gates and driving around the cobblestone drive to the entrance. This is the house that was used in the 1995 film “Pride and Prejudice” as the exterior of Mr Darcy’s Estate of Pemberley.

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I borrowed Nat’s National Trust membership card to be allowed to go in through the entrance archway. I am waiting to be able to sign up for a membership of my own. It will give me a good excuse to explore. Tickets to get into Lyme Park House and gardens is £8 for an adult who doesn’t have a membership, but walking in the mooreland hills and forests around the house is free.

Time to venture through the entrance.

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Through the archway is the dedication that explains that the Estate has been in the Legh family for 600 years before it was presented to the National Trust in 1946 for the Health, Education and Delight of the People.

One of the walls set out the time line for the history of the family and the house.

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Through the archway, I reached the central courtyard and my first close look at this imposing house from the inside. Fin and Snow liked the wishing well in the middle. I was glad that it was sealed at the bottom, so if they got too adventurous, they wouldn’t have fallen far.

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The house didn’t open until 11am for touring, so I crossed the courtyard and took time to visit the gardens. On the way through there was a ladder which was a fire escape, designed to be able to reach each of the windows in the courtyard. Because the kitchens are on the lower level, William John Legh (1800s) was worried about the risk of fires and had the ladder made, as well as placing fire buckets around the house and building a pump to bring water up from the lake to the house for fire fighting.

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Through the archway, the garden beckoned to be explored. The weather was perfect for it, with the sun shining, a light breeze and fluffy white clouds. The National Trust was taking very good care of the grounds as you can see from the impressive lawn.

We discovered there was a beautiful garden laid out to be viewed from above. Fin and Snow enjoyed having a look at it and so did I. This was situated to the side of the house and the wall I had seen from the carpark was the wall of this garden.

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At the back of the house is The Reflection Lake. A beautiful lake would have been visible from all the rooms on that side of the house. I walk around to the lake and was treated to a sight that was lovely to photograph.

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It was very peaceful on this side of the lake under the canopy of the trees.

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After I had walked around the lake back to the side with the house, I reached more of the created gardens, including a rose garden and the garden in front of the Orangery. An orangery is a building designed to grow plants that need the warmth. The Lyme Park one used to house camellias. I could imagine that would have been stunning and also very fragrant when they were all in flower.

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We went inside the Orangery and it was warm in there. The camellias had been replaced with a tropical plant collection. It reminded me of the exotic plants we had in our pergola back in Adelaide. I had hoped it would be bigger inside. I suspect that there was more of the building, but it was blocked off to visitors.

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After a wander amongst the hot house plants, I suggested to Fin and Snow that it was getting close to lunch time. They asked if they could slide down the handrail on the way back to the house. Of course I let them.

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We went back into the courtyard and across to the café, which was situated in the Servant’s Hall. Time for a wrap and cup of tea before going to join the line for a tour inside the house.

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Due to COVID-19, groups going into the house were restricted to a maximum of 15 at a time. In my group, there were less than that, as it was still early. We entered via the steps into a large room. This was the Entrance hall, where guests would have been welcomed. There we watched a film about the history of the estate and the Legh family. The hall certainly was grand with its tapestries (created between 1623 and 1636).

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If you look carefully at the painting on the wall in the photo below, you can see it stands out from the wall. I didn’t notice this at the time, but later on the tour, we saw the reason for it being like that. It is called a Squint and it allows the goings on in the Entrance Hall to be seen from the Drawing Room on the upper floor.

We left the grand Entrance Hall and went upstairs to access other rooms within the house. We turned off into a room, which could have been a ball room, and inside a sealed glass cabinet was a very old book, The Caxton Missal, that had been with the family since at least 1508. This copy has been altered by the family over the years and their markings can be seen on the pages. It is a book containing the liturgy of Mass (religious service). I thought it was fascinating to be looking at a book that is so old. The carvings on the walls were amazing too.

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Here is a link to more about the book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_Caxton_Missal

The next room we went into was the Library. The walls were filled with books. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to touch them or take one out of the shelves to have a closer look at it, as there is too much risk that it could be damaged. That was a shame, as I have always been fascinated by books in historic libraries.

The Library has been carefully restored, with an exact copy of the original wall paper being obtained for renovating the walls. The wall paper was manufactured especially for the house and the pattern is now known as Lyme Park. The velvet upholstery on the seats was reproduced and even the carpet was replicated. It is hand woven and amazing that we were allowed to walk on it. The renovations have returned this room back to how it looked during the 1800s and were timed to fit in the returning of the Caxton Missal back into the house after it had spent time in a museum.

The renovations had been done really carefully and they bring the room back to life. However, it was the ceiling that really caught my eye. It thought it was carved wood. The guide explained that it wasn’t , it was painted plaster. So much timber had been used during the war (not sure which one during the 500 years), it was not readily available and plaster was much cheaper to use. The painting work really made it look like wood.

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Other interesting things in the Library were a newspaper from 1906 and an Inventory book with a hand written listing of all the items in each room of the house.

Two of the books I discovered on one of the shelves (I didn’t touch them) were written by one of the ladies of the house, Lady Newton. To protect the books (and probably to make them easier to dust), a cover was placed over the top of them. It was a shame that there wasn’t the chance to spend longer in the house exploring and taking a closer look at the things in each room.

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The next room on the tour was the Wyatt’s Dining Room. They had the table set up as it would have looked for a Christmas feast. The table could seat 20 around it, although there were less chairs at the table now, the rest of the chairs were stacked along the walls. There is so much intricate carving into the ceiling and walls, stemming from the 1600s. It certainly would have been a grand place for dinner.

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The next room was the Drawing room, where the guests could move to after dinner. It has a very ornate ceiling and fireplace with Elizabeth 1 crest above it. There was a lovely corner with stained glass windows that were originally in a church set up to appear that it was used to play a harp to entertain the guests. From this room, the painting in the Entrance Hall could be moved aside so that the goings on could be seen. I missed getting a photo of that.

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This is the Stag Parlour with deer hunting scenes depicted and more of the painted ceiling to look like wood.

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The last room we were allowed to go into was the “Yellow Room”, with its four post bed. The guide said that this could have been a guest room, as it was close to the Drawing and Dining room and there was also a smaller room next to it which they believed could have been a dressing room. The walls again were covered in tapestries.

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Although there were a lot more rooms above this floor, we weren’t permitted to go upstairs and see them. But I think it was easy to see that this would have been a beautiful house for the family. The Trust had tried to keep each room as authentic as they could and having the handwritten inventory, stored in the library would have helped.

Time to go back downstairs. These stairs were pretty narrow, so I expect they were probably a back entrance/exit and returned us back down into the courtyard area.

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There are a few buildings around the property, so it was time for Snow, Fin and I to stretch our legs and enjoy the fresh air as we went exploring. So we left the house behind and started climbing the hill.

We walked up to the Stables, but unfortunately we weren’t able to go in for a look as it is a working part of the estate.

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We continued up the hill and could see the Cage in the distance. I wasn’t sure if I could walk directly up to it, as the way was quite steep, so we side tracked along the Stables wall, which gave Fin and Snow time to have a play on old gate.

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Time to tackle the walk to the building in the distance and I managed it ok. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go inside The Cage, as it was being used for an Escape Room experience. It seems The Cage was used as a hunting lodge, a place for the ladies to watch the hunt and may also have been used as a prison to hold poachers who were caught with the estate’s deer. There are red deer on the estate, but I didn’t go in the right direction to see them as they are up beyond the house.

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The view from up on the hill is of Manchester. So I sat on the grass alongside the tower to see if I could pick any landmarks. I think it is a bit soon to recognize any, but it nice being up high. There were quite a few family groups up by The Cage also sitting on the grass and others setting off on to hike further afield.

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I decided it was time to walk down hill and beyond the house and the carpark to see The Timber Yard, which is tucked down in the valley. The map indicated there was a café there in what was the carpenters workshop. Walking down hill was much easier than up hill. I didn’t need Anne and her buggy to help.

Beyond the carpark was the area alongside The Timber Yard, which was a nice setting for a picnic.

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The Timber Yard was quite busy, especially the café, so I didn’t stay long in the courtyard and headed back to the carpark.

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It was a lovely outing. A nice drive in my car to a lovely historic location to see so much history that is close to where I now live. I am looking forward to being able to discover more gems with the National Trust. I have signed up and my welcome pack will hopefully arrive in the next few days. I am going to try to get my £72 worth of entrances and car parking over the next 12 months (the membership).

I wonder where I will go next.