So we’re off! Today was a long drive, but that in itself was a change of pace and the road was fairly clear. The highlight was our lunchtime stop, a National Trust house conveniently chosen just off the motorway, complete with coffee shop.
According to the website, Baddesley Clinton is a charming moated manor house which was home to the Ferrers family for 500 years passing from father to son for 12 generations. The family was catholic with their fortunes rising and falling and while changes were made to the house, including a priest hole, it has retained many of its original features and character.
As soon as we got there we realised it hadn’t been oversold, it really was lovely, and the volunteers were eager to show us round.
There are always little gems to learn like the straw or thresh laid on the floor is kept in place by the piece of wood or threshold in the doorway. Also, I won’t think of Solihull the same way again having been told it is named for the soil hill it’s built on – no doubt ensuring excellent gardens!
There were several elaborate carved fireplace surrounds, including these.
We heard about The Quartet, four friends who lived a life of rural bliss here in the mid c19th.
Marmion Ferriers had inherited the house, married Rebecca Orpen and two years later they were joined at Baddesley by her aunt, Lady Georgiana Chatterton, and her second husband, Edward Dering. Georgiana wrote novels and other books and became a highly successful author, leaving the equivalent of some £4m in her will; Dering tried his hand at writing but was nowhere near as successful as his wife; Rebecca took up painting and there are lots of her pictures round the house and Marmion played the part of a rural squire ensuring the welfare of his tenants and staff. The house felt so homely, they could just have been out for a walk.
There were beautiful flowers in all the rooms …
… which was hardly surprising when we saw the lovely garden …
… including a well stocked cutting garden.
Time to move on, and we had intended another stop on the way, but the traffic was heavier and the rain started and we decided to cut our losses, pick up a packet of biscuits in Sainsbury’s and retreat to the Premier Inn when we arrived in Burnley. We had dinner a few steps away at the convenient Brewers Fayre and got an early night.
It was a beautiful morning and when we checked out, we noticed the photo behind the desk of a sculpture made of metal pipes resembling a windswept tree on the top of a hill. This is Burnley’s Singing Ringing Tree and we began with a detour to see it.
The idea is that the wind enters the tubes and makes whistling sounds although while we were there, there was only a slight breeze so it was hardly noticeable. Nonetheless, we got a great view and enjoyed watching a shepherd and his dog herding sheep, before setting off for Skipton.
Off Travelling Together 