National Trust property - Erddig

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With the weather forecast to be excellent today we decided that we really should do something, rather than just sit around under Kath's feet all day!! Albert was off to play golf and we decided that we would visit the National Trust property, Erddig, just over the Welsh border at Wrexham.

It only took us about an hour to drive down to Wrexham on the motorway and we were there not long after opening time at 11.00am. Erddig is considered to be one of Britain's finest historic houses and it provides a unique insight into the upstairs downstairs aspects of a British country home. The York family enjoyed an excellent relationship with their staff and there is an extensive collection of portraits and photographs of the hired help that the family commissioned. One of the Yorks was a prolific poet and many of the portraits and photos were accompanied by verse that had been written about the servant.

We had a bit of trouble looking at the portraits/photos and verse in detail because a production team from the BBC was there going through the house planning the shooting of a documentary on the property.

The York family owned the property for 250 years before entrusting it to the National Trust in 1973. The property deteriorated badly during the 20th century and the National Trust had to undertake an extensive renovation/restoration before opening the property to the public in 1977. The house suffered badly from subsidence caused by mining underneath it in the 40s and 50s and the garden and outbuildings were just let go when they were no longer in constant use.

We looked around the extensive outbuildings, many of them dedicated to milling the timber that was harvested from the forests on the estate. Horses played a big role on the estate which was born out by the size of the stables and the smithy's workshop devoted to their care and maintenance. We ate lunch in the cafe situated in the outbuildings before walking around to the sundial to meet the guide for the 1.15pm tour of the gardens. We ended up having a private tour because there was no-one else at the meeting point at the appointed time!!

After the garden tour we ventured into the house and made our way around the upstairs and the downstairs rooms that were open for viewing. The last member of the York family to live at Erddig only used a couple of rooms because much of the house leaked due to the damage caused to the roof by the subsidence. He secured artworks and furnishings as much as possible in undamaged parts of the house, but the National Trust's conservators have had to carry out many years of painstaking repairs since the house and its contents came into their care.

After looking around the house we retuned to the gardens for a more leisurely look at some of the key areas that had been pointed out to us during the garden tour. The weather was absolutely perfect for enjoying the gardens.

With the sun still shining, we enjoyed a smooth trip back to Stalybridge. We went to a new hotel located on the canal near Mossley for dinner tonight because Kath and Albert were keen to give it a go. It took ages for our food to arrive, but it was good when it was finally delivered to our table. I think we may have made the mistake of arriving on the tail end of the dinnertime rush??

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