Another day, another National Trust property! This time we headed off for Chirk Castle. The castle is just over the border in Wales so we re-traced our route from Thursday, but only travelled as far as Chirk today. We probably could have visited Chirk Castle on our way home yesterday, but we knew the weather forecast was much better for today so that seemed a better proposition. Hmmn, as we left Stalybridge it was very overcast and by the time we reached the motorway it was raining! Still the forecasters promised there would be better weather by late morning or early afternoon so we optimistically continued on our way. They got it right! By the time we were pulling into the car park at Chirk Castle there was blue sky and the sun was shining. It ... read more

This morning Bernie and I drove down to Stokesay Castle in the small town of Craven Arms. This was yet another opportunity to use our English Heritage OVP. Today we saved ourselves another £8.30 each. The castle is right beside the St John the Baptist Church. Always keen to photograph atmospheric old churches we wandered into the churchyard first to take a few photos of the church and shots of Stokesay Castle with old gravestones in the foreground. After a circuit of the church we went back out into the lane to walk along to the castle entrance ... or so we thought. In fact, all we found down the lane was the private driveway into the local farm. We strolled back into the churchyard and found that the entry to the castle was via a ... read more

Today we explored Shrewsbury. It is such a photogenic town with its picturesque half-timbered buildings and dramatic abbeys, cathedrals and churches not to mention an attractive bridge or two! We had only just started out this morning when we glimpsed St Mary’s Church appearing to perch atop St Alkmund’s Church when we looked up Fish Street from High Street. With a row of colourful planter boxes on the fence in between it looked beautiful. We continued down towards the Abbey Foregate past some of the multitude of half-timbered buildings. It was hard not to photograph every single one of them! We crossed English Bridge and made our way to Shrewsbury Abbey. The Abbey was founded as a Benedictine Monastery by Roger de Montgomery in 1083 on the site of an existing Saxon church. It was substantially ... read more

Out and about again today, this time to Rufford Old Hall (NT) in Lancashire. Siri took as around the south of Greater Manchester this morning onto the M60 before guiding us onto the M56. From the M56 we switched to the M6 heading north as far as Interchange 27. Leaving the motorway we headed off into the countryside on the A5209, B5246 and A59 to the small village of Rufford. Using our Australian National Trust cards to enter Rufford Old Hall we saved ourselves another £7.50 each! Built in the 1530s Rufford Old Hall is one of Lancashire’s finest Tudor buildings. Built during the reign of Henry VIII, it was originally built to an H-plan for Sir Robert Hesketh. Apparently this was the thing to do at the time, you built your grand manor laid out ... read more

This morning we filled the car to the brim with luggage for four before heading to The Kitchen in Keighley to have breakfast with Janet and Jill’s Aunty Kathleen. Janet and Jill are looking forward to going home, but will miss their family in Yorkshire very much. With several visits to this area under her belt, Janet drew on her local knowledge to suggest a couple of interesting things for us to see on the way back to Manchester. From Keighley we drove south on the A629 to Halifax to visit The Piece Hall. The Piece Hall was built as a venue for handloom weavers to sell the woollen cloth ‘pieces’ they produced.It opened on 1 January 1779 and featured 315 separate rooms, around a central open courtyard, in which the cloth merchants could store their ... read more