Another National Trust Adventure - Hardwick Hall

My latest mini-adventure took me out to yet another National Trust property - Hardwick Hall which sits on a hilltop over-looking the motorway in north Derbyshire.

There are actually two halls sitting next to each other on this site - an older ruinous one, now cared for by English Heritage, and the flasher one with which Bess of Hardwick decided to replace it in the 1590s. Neither buildings are open at the moment, just the new hall's gardens and parkland.

Hardwick isn't particularly further away than our other local National Trust places but for some reason it seems to be a place we only visit at Christmas, so I'd no idea how busy it would be.
















For once though, we'd hit on a sunny day for our trip out, and the grounds were full of visitors picnicking and relaxing on the appropriately-branded deckchairs

There are a variety of gardens at Hardwick, surrounding the hall on three sides, and divided from each other by hedging. The two gardens to front and rear are laid mainly to grass edged with flower border - herbaceous plants at the front, roses at the back.

And to the south sits a larger area, subdivided into four by hedging and 'walks'.












I assume these were once the more 'productive' garden areas; two of them are still orchards with fruit filling and ripening, one a lawned area with specimen trees, and the last, my favourite, a herb garden with yellow santolina fronting the beds filled with culinary and medicinal plants such as thymes, hyssop, opium poppies, and even hops growing rampantly up wigwams.

To one side was a bed given over to flowers arranged in formal rows - presumably a 'cutting' bed growing flowers for indoors. One of my great-uncles grew flowers this way, in among his vegetables, and as a child I always though it was strange; now I can see why you'd do it, if you have the space.

 Leaving the gardens, we followed Lady Spencer's Walk which leads from the car park between trees. It starts flat but when we reached steps leading down the hillside I decided it was time to turn round. Looking at the web site I've since discovered that the complete walk isn't long, looping back to the car park from the opposite direction after about a mile, so we could easily have carried on, but at the time I didn't have a map and didn't want to stray too far. Maybe something for another time. I imagine the trees will look lovely in autumn.

2017 Highlights

I thought it would be hard to beat 2016 as a year full of activity and excitement, but 2017, particularly in its last few days, has managed to do just that!.

Sean McGowan

For starters, it's been a busy year out at gigs, from As December Falls at Rescue Rooms in January to Cameron Sinclair Harris's Christmas show at JT Soar, with over twenty others falling in between. Standout moments include the launch for my youngest daughter's EP Put Me Back , dancing around to Skinny Lister's shanty punk twice (in May and December ), watching the rise of Sean McGowan from a guy playing at gigs promoted by my daughter to one who can fill Nottingham's Bodega, and seeing Tom Odell jumping about on the top of a piano at Curious Arts Festival.

Tom Odell on that piano!

Due to an interesting line-up of productions, I seem to have been to the theatre more than usual, seeing a wide variety of plays from Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard to the boisterous romp of Cyrano. If I could see just one again though I'd pick Derby Theatre's production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal.

I went to a chocolate-making workshop as a treat from my elder daughter, and although my efforts didn't look very good, they tasted fine (which is what matters).

Because of the health of my parents, it isn't possible to go away for any length of time, so while my youngest went off to Italy alone, I had  to be content with a 'staycation'. I had lots of plans for it, and although we didn't follow all of them we did get out and about, finding new local places to explore and generally trying to holiday from home.

Felley bluebells

As winter moved into Spring, I walked through snowdrops, daffodils, and bluebells, and throughout summer I visited all my favourite local gardens (Chatsworth, Haddon, Calke, Kedleston) and discovered some new ones at Hopton Hall,  Lea , Melbourne Hall and Felley Priory.

Lea rhododendrons 

Pottering around gardens, even one like Lea perched on a hillside, is enjoyable but not very physically demanding, so, inspired by my youngest finishing Leicester marathon, I decided to take up running in a very lazy low key way - my theory is that any exercise is better than none!

I've been to less book events this year but did manage to catch US fantasy writer Robin Hobb at Nottingham Waterstones launching the last of her Fitz and the Fool series. I've discovered her work comparatively recently, and completely fallen for it. My hope was to read the whole series before publication of the last book, but with 15 books, each easily 600 pages long, and other reading commitments, that didn't work. I'm still making headway though, and will get there one day.






Over the summer at Chatsworth, there was an absolutely wonderful exhibition, House Style, showcasing clothes worn by current and previous generations of the Devonshire family.
And as Christmas approached I went round all the local stately homes - Chatsworth, Kedleston, Haddon, and Hardwick - to see them in their festive finery.

Arthur's Seat summit

I did manage two weekends away though.
In July, we went to Curious Arts Festival again, where I tested both my festival-going and outdoors credentials by putting up the tent in pouring rain and nearly getting the car stuck as we left! Then, in November, headed off for a fabulous weekend in Edinburgh with my daughter, where we climbed Arthur's Seat, visited museums and art galleries, and drank cocktails till 2 am!

Give or take, these were going to form the highlights of 2017, then in the days between Christmas and New Year, my grandson arrived two weeks early, and an event which should have started 2018, rounded off this year instead. Next year I suspect could be very different for us all ...

Christmas at Hardwick Hall

This weekend wasn't as nice as last, we had a slight covering of snow on Saturday, and Sunday was just damp and miserable for most of the day, so we were looking for somewhere indoors to visit, maybe with a christmassy feel to it. We've already been to see Chatsworth this year  and a lot of places don't display their Christmas finery till December, so we decided to head to Hardwick Hall. We were a bit cautious as last time we visited at Christmas we nearly got snowed in, and had a dreadful journey home!

The festive mood starts as you approach the house with icy skeletal trees lining the path, and festive garlands of evergreens and baubles decorating the windows.

Inside, the decorations were based around Christmas carols and songs. In the huge entrance hall  Herald Angels were singing on a table long enough for a banquet, over-looked by two enormous Christmas trees.



















Walking round, we spotted ...

Three Ships Come Sailing In







Rudolph, an extremely old (3000 years) red-nosed reindeer















We Three Kings

 Santa getting stuck in a chimney.

















Dreaming of a White Christmas

This was my favourite though - Walking in a Winter Wonderland. Snow-covered trees and an icy lake on the table,














snowflakes falling









and wild animals silhouetted against a wintry backdrop






































The house tour finished in the kitchens which were laid out with festive food, but the decorations continued in the gardens, though with cold drizzle falling, we decided it was too unpleasant to wander round outside. Maybe I'll have chance to get back one fine day before Christmas ...