I've already written about the time we spent in Manchester last weekend, but just the 'city' part of our stay. As the weather was so lovely we couldn't resist getting out of town and checking out a couple of nearby National Trust properties.
Our first stop was the Dunham Massey estate situated vaguely south-west of the city. It shouldn't have taken long to get there but we had trouble with the satnav and ended up exploring the winding roads of the surrounding countryside (the same thing happened when we left, so in future I'll take a good old-fashioned map, and save some time!)
Some weekends it's possible to take dogs into the garden, but this wasn't one of them. Even so, we had a pleasant walk, round the moat surrounding the house and old stables, and heading out to explore the deer park. We even saw some deer, who didn't seem at all surprised to see people and dogs.
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| Miles to roam in the deer park |
On Sunday we headed out of town again, this time to Quarry Bank Mill and Styal country park.
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| Fabulous rhododendrons near the tea room |
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| The apprentice house with vegetable garden |
We started our visit with tea and cake, which didn't leave a lot of time to explore - so we headed to Styal village and chapel woods.
It seems an almost idyllic place today, but I'm not sure the mill's workers and apprentices would have thought so, back in its heyday
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| Workers' housing in Styal village |
Although we've been to Quarry Bank before it was so long ago (over 20 years!) that we didn't really recognise any of it. At both places, I think we only saw a small amount of what was there, so sometime in the future we'll be back.
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