A few weekends ago we decided to make use of our National Trust membership and see what was happening locally. Problem is, we've been to most of the really local ones quite a few times, and I fancied something different. Hanbury Hall were having an Apple Weekend so I thought that deserved a visit.
The day was overcast but quite pleasant when the sun peeped out from behind those dark clouds. We didn't arrive until early afternoon and a good job we did, as they apparently had people queueing up to get in early on, with around a thousand visitors.
There was a leaflet handed out to all the children with Apple related questions on it. They had to follow the map and find the answers hidden around the estate. It was certainly a good way to keep little ones busy as some of the questions sent them to the farthest corners of the outdoors.
Hanbury Hall was built in 1710 as a country retreat by Thomas Vernon, a highly successful London lawyer. It came into the hands of the National Trust in 1953, who have done a considerable amount of conservation and restoration work.
A great idea to keep little people amused whilst grown ups looked around 'the boring old stuff' was to hunt for the hidden mice. Numerous little knitted mice were secreted in different rooms and they had to count how many they found and tell the lady in the Great Hall when they were finished, and they got a sticker. She said it was surprising how many mice ended up being posted back to them. I guess some little people found them too tempting to resist, and when grown ups discovered them when they got home, were very honest and returned them to their rightful home!
Here's one...
Another little mouse, hiding in a 3D plan of the ground floor...
The two figures standing by the window are cardboard cutouts, not ghosts!
Looking out of one of the upstairs windows down on to the Sunken Parterre...
These photos don't do it justice, it most certainly had the wow factor for me. The original gardens were designed in 1705 by George London, the most celebrated garden designer of his time. Unfortunately in time the formal designs and mathematical precision of this style of garden were replaced by the Landscape movement, and towards the end of the eighteenth century the gardens at Hanbury were swept away and replaced by wide open spaces.
In the 1990s, using London's original 1705 plans and historic planting guides, the gardens were restored to their former glory...
Venturing outside, the Sunken Parterre looked even more spectacular with the Hall in the background....
The Fruit Garden (not much fruit to be seen, but hard to get a photo without lots of bodies standing around in the way)...
The lake...
We will definitely have to come back another day as there were lots of outdoor areas we didn't explore, like the Lime Tree Walk, the Long Walk, and the Semi-Circle of trees.
The ice house would definitely have worked, as you could feel the temperature drop as you walked along the tunnel...
The downside to us arriving so late was that the promise of a 'help yourself to a free bag of organic apples in the orchard' didn't happen. The trees had been picked bare 😐...
We were looking forward to seeing the Orangery, and it did look very grand from the outside, but inside was just a big empty room. All the citrus trees were stood outside in pots for the summer....
On the crafty front, there were some lovely fabric apples and pears marking the entrance...
The Grove - 'a place of quiet reflection where nature screens your secrets'...
XxXx
Wow, that looks a fascinating place to visit. I have been tempted to take out a National Trust membership as there are so many lovely places I would love to visit. xx
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