I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud......

During the summer one of our days out in the Lake District was to Grasmere to visit the two houses lived in by the poet William Wordsworth. The little white house is Dove Cottage. William and his sister Dorothy moved here in 1799 and in 1802 William married Mary Hutchinson and their three eldest children were born here.



Clicking on the photograph will enlarge it so that you can read the information. Ullswater is 9 miles from Grasmere so we didn't see the actual place where Wordsworth saw his 'host of golden daffodils', that will have to be for a future visit.



This is the back of the cottage taken from the middle of the steep little garden which William and his sister designed and where they spent much of their time. The house you can see beyond wasn't there in the early 1800s so there would have been a lovely view across the fell at the time when the Wordsworths lived there.



There were always a lot of visitors staying with the Wordsworths at Dove Cottage and with their growing family it became too small. I have to say that it would have been quite a squash with just William,Mary and Dorothy! Apparently at times it was a bit like a modern sleepover with people sleeping on the floor wherever they could find space. It must have been absolute chaos! In 1808 they moved and, after brief periods in two other houses, in 1813 they moved to Rydal Mount which is in the photo above. They lived here for the next 46 years.



The summer house at Rydal Mount where William Wordsworth often sat composing his poetry.



A view from the garden looking down to Rydal Water.


This is the parish church of St Oswald in Grasmere which dates back to the very early 14th century.


A plaque giving a little information about the church and the saint to whom it is dedicated.


This is the grave of William Wordsworth and his wife Mary.



This is the Wordsworth family plot in St Oswald's churchyard with the grave of Dorothy Wordsworth in the centre. Dorothy kept a detailed journal of her life at Dove Cottage which wasn't published until after her death. It's a fascinating book giving a vivid picture of life and the countryside in the early 19th century.


The interior of the church showing the medieval Nave and the ancient timber roof trusses.



The arches in the previous picture were made in the 1500s when the original church was enlarged and they give access to the Langdale Aisle in the above photo. We happened to be in Grasmere in the week following the annual Rushbearing Ceremony. The medieval Nave was made of beaten earth until the 1800s when it was finally flagged. The floor of the church was covered in rushes to sweeten the air and try(vainly I imagine!)to keep dampness and mud at bay. The rushes were renewed annually with great ceremony, this describes it better than I can. In the photo you can see the rush covered floor.



This is the font also decorated for the Rushbearing, Wordsworth's children were baptized here.



Grasmere has another claim to fame besides William Wordsworth and that is Grasmere Gingerbread originally invented by Sarah Nelson. The package in the photograph was bought from the cottage where Grasmere Gingerbread was originally made.



The contents of the package - long since gone I'm afraid! It's an odd mix of a biscuit and a cake but very moorish.


A final view of the countryside around Grasmere, it's a really beautiful area and well worth visiting if you ever get chance.

Fun at the Farm and Kentwell Hall

I recently went down to Suffolk to spend a couple of days with Neil,Cesca and the boys. There was a Harvest Open Day on at a local farm so we went along. Gabriel was fascinated by the goats.


There was a little playground for the children, he loves playing on a slide.


Ready to Roll!!


They had pick-your-own corn so we ventured into the jungle to get some.



The next day was my belated birthday treat and I was taken to Kentwell Hall for one of their Tudor re-enactment days. An invasion by the Spanish Armada is expected at any moment and the men of the Estate form a militia which must train to defend England against the Spaniards. This brave lad is priming a small canon which was fired regularly during the afternoon. It made us jump at first then you got use to the noise. Clicking on the photos will enlarge them.


English archers were the best in the world and villagers were required to practise at the butts regularly.


A quiet moment and a chance for some gossip and perhaps a little flirting?


There are a surprising number of children among the re-enactors, here are some enjoying a chance to ride one of the big working horses.



These two are off to the fields perhaps to help with the last of the harvest



A lovely peaceful rural scene.



There was a group of people doing natural dyeing, I thought this line of newly dyed yarn was just beautiful. The colours are so soft and rich. I watched as some yarn being dyed in indigo was taken out of the vat, it came out a sort of dirty cream and then before my eyes it started to turn blue and the colour got deeper and deeper. It was amazing to see.



The wool being carded ready for spinning.



Explanations for interested spectators - though George seems more interested in sleeping than listening.



I couldn't decide what these ladies were doing and finally had to ask, the answer was really unexpected. They are washing animal guts that will eventually be turned into the strings for musical instruments. If I'd guessed all day I wouldn't have come up with that and yet I did know that this is what the strings were made of - I just didn't make the connection.



I couldn't resist this - felt hat making is obviously tiring work!



The Lord and Lady of the manor honoured us with a word as they passed by.



Strolling players entertaining the passing crowds.



There was plenty on the Home Farm to entertain Gabriel too, as well as various kinds of poultry and the horses there were large black pigs...........



more goats.......


and cows.......



and some donkeys with incredibly shaggy coats. There was so much more to see, we never got inside the house at all so next summer we'll be going back again for one of the Tudor days.

An Ancestral Village

I'm back again after quite a long absence but hopefully I'll be blogging more regularly again now that autumn and winter are ahead of us. I've got something of a backlog of things to post about but as these photos are already uploaded from weeks ago I'll start with this. I've been researching my family history for many years and one of my ancestors is a lady called Hannah Daykin, my 3xgt grandmother. Hannah married Henry Brown in Crich, Derbyshire in 1798 and lived in Crich for the remainder of her very long life. She died in 1861 at the age of 84. I know quite a lot about her from 1798 on but her birth still remains a mystery, on the 1851 and 1861 Census returns she gives the Derbyshire village of Chelmorton as her birthplace. So far I haven't been able to find a baptism for her in either Chelmorton or any of the nearby villages but earlier this summer I decided to go and look around the village which is where she obviously grew up. The photo above is of Chelmorton church, it is in a lovely setting on a hill at the top of the village. Both the church and the village are ancient and interesting.



This is one of the two Charity Boards, it dates back to 1667 and lists the bequests from various local people to the poor of the parish. These are still collected and distributed annually. Double clicking on the photo will enable you to read it.



This shows the screen between the chancel and the nave, the wooden part is relatively modern but under it is the very rare stone screen carved by a stonemason in about 1345. Four years later the Black Death swept through England killing about a third of the population. I wonder whether the man who carved this screen survived?


This is the Parish Chest where the parish registers and other important parish records were kept, the inscription carved onto the top reads ' Ralph Buxton of Flagg gave this 1630'.


This needs clicking on so that you can see it properly. It is a wonderful map showing the medieval layout of the village, it is one long street with farms and cottages at intervals. It shows also the medieval field system which would have been two huge open fields surrounding the village and each villager owned a number of strips in each field. This open field system meant that everyone had to plant the same crops at the same time and work in co-operation with each other.



Part of the Elizabethan church porch showing a Norman dripstone, various ancient grave covers and all sorts of other things incorporated into the walls. In case you are wondering, as I did, what a dripstone is - it's a stone moulding over a door or window which deflects the rain.


As I wandered round the churchyard I found this sad little gravestone of a 6 month old baby. A great many children didn't survive to adulthood in those days.



I couldn't resist photographing this little calf.



These are the medieval field strips to the left of the village street. Each strip is now enclosed by a drystone wall but the field pattern is quite clear.


These are the field strips on the righthand side of the village street and these are even clearer. I found it fascinating to wander round wondering whether Hannah had walked there before me over 200 years ago. I still hope that one day I shall find her baptism and maybe even discover the cottage where she lived.

Bakewell Show

Last week my friend J and I went to our local Agricultural Show at Bakewell. The weather forecast was bad but in actual fact it turned out to be a nice warm,dry and often sunny day. The photo above is a magnificent Hereford bull being judged. I never normally get to see the farm animals because the friend I usually go with isn't interested. She's away this year though so I asked J if she'd like to go with me and as she's a real countrywoman we saw and did all the bits of the Show that I normally miss.


An Ayrshire calf waiting her turn for judging.


We went inside the building where the cattle were kept, it's normally the cattle market so the surroundings are ideal for them, it's cool and dry and so much better than the marquees where they were housed when I first started going to the Show. On hot days it must have been miserable for them inside those canvas marquees.
When I was taking photos many of the farmers invited me to go inside the pens with the animals. In this case I had a close encounter with another of the Hereford bulls, I like cattle so I'm not at all nervous around them.


Isn't she lovely? This is a two week old Dexter calf, they are the smallest British breed of cow standing only 36-42 inches high at the shoulder. They are a really interesting breed and come originally from South West Ireland. They are descended from the predominently black cattle of the early Celts so have a very long history. Dexters are very hardy and are used for both beef and milk.


Here she is in the judging ring with mum. You can see from the height compared to the people in the photo how small the Dexters are.


A Hereford cow with her calf. I like Herefords, they are gentle animals and an old English breed coming originally, as their name suggests, from Herefordshire.


J and I were delighted to discover several ladies spinning on various types of wheel. There is talk of us going over to Edale in the autumn to have some spinning lessons. J is planning to have a couple of sheep and her plan seems to be that she raises and shears them and I get to spin the fleeces!


This is a walking wheel which has come from Maine in the USA. The young lady using it told us that in the old houses you could often see a groove in the beaten earth floors where the woman doing the spinning had spent hours every day walking back and forth using this type of wheel.


The ladies in red were all members of one family - five in all - who keep alive the crafts of spinning and natural dying and associated crafts. This is a picture done in felting, my photo doesn't do it justice but it will show up better if you click on the picture to enlarge it.


I just love the wonderful soft colours that are achieved using natural materials, many are surprisingly bright and vibrant but the colours are never harsh. This is another craft I'd love to try.


Appropriately enough, right next to the spinners was The Sheep Show. The New Zealander who presented this was both amusing and informative. He was an ex-sheep farmer so really knew what he was talking about. We were introduced to various breeds of sheep and first on stage was Nobby the Norfolk Longhorn who was one of several rare breeds that we met. I'm afraid that most of the sheep were decidedly male and attempts at discreet photos were doomed!


I just love Lenny the Lincoln Longwool - who could resist anything as cute as this?
This breed is a very old one and was certainly around in the mid 1700s but sadly is now one of Britain's rarest breeds, there are only 1500 breeding females left.


The last one onstage was Harry the Herdwick who was another really attractive chap. These are the native sheep of the Lake District and incredibly hardy, they graze the fells as high as 3000ft. Their name 'Herdwick' actually means sheep pasture.


Our New Zealand friend then gave a demonstration of sheep shearing on a reasonably willing 'volunteer'. The really sad thing is that the fleeces, once the source of England's great wealth, are now so valueless that they barely cover the cost of shearing. I have a post planned about my visit to Suffolk to see my two grandsons, that part of England is full of the most wonderful churches all built in the Middle Ages by wealthy merchants whose fortunes were all based on sheep and the wool they produced. The finale to the Sheep Show was the sheep dancing to disco music - each had already come on to its own particular theme music, Lenny the Lincoln Longwool came on to Jimi Hendrix for instance :):) When the music started nothing happened for a minute or two then gradually each of the sheep started jigging about in its own individual (very individual in a couple of cases) style. It was absolutely hilarious and J and I had tears running down our faces. No-one was making fun of the sheep at all, it was the pure entertainment value and they got a huge burst of applause at the end.


The next stop was the centre ring where we sat in the Grandstand and watched the carriage driving. I always enjoy seeing this glimpse of the past. This elegant equipage was this year's winner.


This is my favourite event, I've always loved the heavy working horses and it's encouraging to see that each year there are more and more of them at the Show. Ten years ago there would only be 3 or 4 entries but this year there were ten. I don't care who wins, I love them all. It's quite unusual to see the horses harnessed in tandem like the ones above but there were two entries using this style.


A beautiful pair of grey Shire horses.


This shows several of the heavy horse turnouts and also gives an idea of the lovely setting that Bakewell Show has.


Next we wandered up to the area where the vintage cars were, passing this great old machine on the way. I'm not sure whether it's just a baler or whether it is both threshing and baling. If I'd had any sense I'd have asked one of the men working on it! I didn't photograph any of the cars because there wasn't anything really outstanding for once. If I had unlimited money the first thing I'd buy would be one of those wonderful 1930s cars with running boards and picnic hampers strapped on the back.....


....something like this for instance! A gorgeous 1937 Bentley. Not my photo in this case I hasten to add.


However, back to reality and the inside of the Horticultural tent. This is part of the display by the National Vegetable Society. I look forward to seeing what they do every year, these displays are just as artistic and pleasing as any of the exhibits in the flower arranging classes. More so really, I see very few flower arrangements that I actually like, they are all too artificial and arty-farty to appeal to me I'm afraid. I realise that they take great skill and freely admit I couldn't do them myself - but they just aren't my thing.


J and I thought this was great, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that it's a chicken with some eggs. It didn't win a prize in the vegetable animal class but we thought it was the best one.


Finally back to the Grandstand to see the Four Shires bloodhounds. Bloodhounds are so called because of their superb bloodlines which go back hundreds of years. Their quarry is human not animal and they are incredibly friendly dogs.Do follow the link to find out more about these great dogs and the sport of hunting the clean boot.
Above is the huntsman remounting his horse after a huge crowd of children had been in the ring to meet the dogs.


Finale - the huntsman riding at full tilt and blowing his hunting horn. After watching the Pony Club games for a while - such fun and sheer pandemonium! - we decided it was time for home after a really wonderful day out.