Yorkshire 15 - Barnsley / Here we go again/ a Heinz variety of facts/ Boom Boom / Where in the world are Gabby and Suzy? what is the connection between Stanhope and de Morgan

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Where in the world is Gabby? Where in the world is Suzy? Today I find myself thinking about a Heinz 57 variety of inane facts . Nothing substantial. Nothing that makes sense . I think about the clocks changing. It was lighter for a few weeks in the mornings after the change but pretty soon the darkness descended on us again, It was just dusky at night but now it is dark by 4.30 with worse to come,. It's a plate dropping day. A day of leaving my membership card at the swimming pool. a day of worry about our girl Gabby. You know that sort of day. It is cold and miserable outside . You cannot think of anything to do. Every National Trust property have closed their doors for a bit of stocktaking and preparations for Christmas openings . Cadw properties are closed and are few and far between. We could head off for a wet and muddy Sculpture Park or try to get into the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield but they all seem too much trouble . In the end we find Cannons Hall. Barnsley , Yorkshire - up the M1 rather than down. One hour away - get off at Junction 37 and it is signposted . We will see about that .

We pack up our girl Gabby with a few provisions for a night out . We are testing the Lithium battery again. We don't trust it . We have little confidence in it . However. to be fair over the last three days she has not been plugged into the electric and her battery has not switched off and the 12 v is still working . Perhaps it is working finally . We keep fingers crossed and set off . Cannons Hall was well signposted . As we left the M1 we spotted the first sign and turned left ,. At each roundabout another sign showed us the way. We discussed the battery . Touch wood it still seemed to be working . We could perhaps go on holiday at Christmas after all. Where was Suzy we wondered ? We had followed her progress since we sold her way back two years ago. She was taxed and MOT'd presumably by SMC before they sold her . Her new owners had covered 4000 miles in her in the first year . So they didnt go abroad we summised . But who bought her ? Guess we will never know. We got to the car park . There should have been a special place for motorhomes and larger vehicles . The car park was heaving . Part was covered by fencing and inaccessible to us . The place was heaving with all the locals parked up , were walking and heading for the hall. We gave up . There was no chance we would get Gabby squeezed in to the car park . Time to return to our stop for the night

Teversal . Can you remember Teversal? You have been there with us . 2012 - we drove in with Suzy on our first trip out . We remember the lovely site , the pleasant wardens and the set up. Glenn chirped up " They wont let us in " It was 12 midday and they would not open until 1 . I was more optomistic "Of course they would , why not ?" Well they would not let us in. We parked up and the warden stopped her leaf picking and came over . "We are closed for lunch , stop on the car park , have your lunch , use the facilities " So we did . We checked the 12 v - still on, we filled up with water and ate our lunch . There are large caravans here now and glamping units . I guess it makes more interesting work for the wardens ., cleaning caravans on top of cleaning the site and the toilets, changing linen and getting glamping tents ready every week. We set up and set to reading and talking . It was too wet to go anywhere . The heating was working , the gas to the cooker worked but we had forgotten to bleed the water so the toilet would not work .. Another job to do . Thoughts went back to Suzy , second year no MOT nor tax . Had the owners taken her off the road ? Had they thought about changing the gas cylinders ? They need changing every 10 years . Did they even realise ? What about the cam belt ? That needed a dose of looking at ? Then she was MOT'd - no failures , Taxed and ready to go . The new owners had covered just another 4000 miles in the last year. Where was our first motorhome? We would love to know. We got out the cryptic crossword puzzles , the Sudoko books , put the heating on and the TV. We plugged Gabby into the electric . Relief because everything was working fine . Even with little sun the solar panels were putting a small amount of power into the batteries . It would be enough to top up the battery even in the middle of winter when the sun was low and weak . We put the TV on and settled in for the night .

So complacency set in . We settled in for the night feeling well pleased with ourselves . Then out of the blue the TV switched off . The heating went Boom Boom every so quietly and switched itself off . We thought it must have been something to do with the electricity on site and thought nothing of it . Heating back on , TV back on and nothing happened until the morning .

Breakfast cooked and time to leave . Glenn went out in the rain to take the umbilical cord from the post . Boom Boom - heating off and 12 v dead . Nothing , zilch, completely dead. The leisure battery showed flat . The vehicle battery flat . What on earth was going on? We started Gabby up with much relief and set off . I went in to take the key card back . "How are you going to get out ?" said the warden . "Are you giving me the key back?" Yes I was . He sarcastically told me I needed the card to exit the site . He laughed - not the best thing to do at that moment in time and came out with me . He opened the gate . I retorted angrily "Put the keypad on the right side of the gate then where we can find it !!" Off we went with the battery alarm going off under Glenns seat . It was a very frightening drive home. The alarm goes off when the battery overheats . When it overheats it blows up. And this is under Glenns seat . Even when we got home it did not stop. The step would not go in and the door would not close . On the phone again . We have given up and the system is being removed at the weekend .

" Life has a certain pace . You should be joyfully in a hurry but never impatient" Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. - Life certainly does have a pace and we are heading a fast rate towards Christmas to our holiday and still no resolution . Impatient - it is hard not to be impatient . We just want Gabby sorted .

Saturday arrived and the fitter returned to our home . Seat taken out and a few hours later the battery was out and the old ones back in its place . Solar panels connected up again and we have hopefully a working Gabby. A few days later we found ourselves at RoadPro a specialist company down in Daventry . Could they fix our girl Gabby? Could they get the lithium working? . We talked to the guy who would check her over and give us his opinion. He showed us one battery which we liked and he went out to see if it would fit under the front seat . It would not and it would not go into the cupboard. Back to the drawing board . Second battery , slightly more power - this one fitted and the fitter saw no problems . He suggested we needed two regulators rather than the one that was controlling the two solar panels . Perhaps that was giving us some of the problems with the power coming from the solar panels. He sounded confident. When could they do the job ? They just needed to price it up and gave us two dates . A cancellation a week away or the 24th February . Guess which we chose? So next blog will find us in Daventry trying to waste 6 hours whilst they fit it.

So to while the way away we thought we needed to do something . A Kasmiri proverb says "If not today - when?" If we did not go to Cannons Hall today when would we go.

We did not know anything about Cannons Hall before a few weeks away. We found out it was a Georgian country house museum close to Barnsley . It was originally the home of the Spencer and Spencer Stanhope family. We parked up easily today in the almost empty car park. After paying our £1 parking fee we walked up the park to the house . A creamy coloured mansion surrounded by fencing due to renovations . Picking our way past the builders we entered the house from the back. What a treat was waiting for us. A real eyeopener. The house was constructed of a soft sandstone with a symmetrical layout . Once through the doors we were welcomed by an enthusiastic guide "Welcome - have you been before ?" "Go around the house , it's freeflow, the route curls round - you cannot go wrong" Entry was free . It was a small museum but what a treat. What a surprise for a provincial museum we had never heard of. .This was going be a museum in an unusual setting with a unique exhibition. The paintings were amazing and we were going to have many Wow moments .

So what did we learn and what did we see? The collection comprised of works produced in the late 19th and early 20th century by the ceramist William De Morgan and his artist wife Evelyn . All the works were set around the interesting stately home. Cabinets and cabinets full of tiles, vases and the pictures hanging on the walls. Inside the cabinets were vases, from Moorcrofts to WMF , from modern Venetian glass to Art Nouveau. We were openmouthed staring at the beauty of some of the glass. Glass walking sticks , and then there was the pottery . Chargers , plates tiles, tiles and more tiles. Each with that unique De Morgan style. A display of pottery relating to dragons. A clock from the Tudric brand of pewterware made by Haselers of Birmingham for Liberty & Co of London . A clock designed by Archibald Knox.

What were our favourites ? Flora who looked a little like an upright Orphelia without water. Painted in 1894 she represents the goddess of flowers Roma. Moonbeams was stunning a recurring theme of moon and water and naked young women. I loved the Women of Sorrento drawing boats. Not a De Morgan but stunning nevertheless .

It was shame to leave the collection . But lunch called. Wild Mushroom Soup with granary bread and a sausage and bacon bap for Glenn. This collection has whet our appetites to follow the trail of the De Morgans . There are more hidden gems from the De Morgan collection scattered around the country and we plan to hunt them down .

Finally what was the connection between the De Morgans and the Stanhopes? . Evelyn De Morgan turned out to be one of the Stanhopes

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