Cheshire 5 Lyme Park - Dare to be free, dare to go as far as thought leads and dare to carry out in your life , a venison casserole and a visit to the end of an era

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Suzy has taken root. If she stands much longer she will develop flat feet. She will develop flat spots on her boots. She will become mucky and muddy in the incessant rain that seems to have fallen throughout December and January and looks to continue for a week or so through February. She is fed up. No perhaps I should rephrase that. I am fed up. It has felt like a long winter with everything shut up. Despite looking at camping books, reading blogs I feel as if my feet are rooted in this Derbyshire earth. Everywhere is closed. Things though perhaps are looking up.

Next week is half term. The children will be having their first holiday of the year. At this time the National Trust wakes up as do other heritage sites. They understand the power of money and half term brings out the children and their parents. For once this pleases me. Our new 2016 National Trust book has arrived and there are more places than ever on the list to visit. Sadly though not next week , we are off to Wales for a day, have jobs to do on the house and appointments to keep.

So what has happened then? Our garden has been uprooted. We have filled almost three skips with soil. The wall has been built but needs facing with stone. The conservatory has been taken down and the footings dug in readiness for concreting this week. This is why we sit at home and just think holidays. This is why I read my thoughts for today and see the words "Dare to be free" and long to be on the road again. I would dare to go as far as my thoughts take me but the main holiday is still 70 days away. I am though now counting in days rather than weeks. Makes it feel shorter that way.

Our habitation checks are booked for next week and the guy is coming over to us rather than us go to him. That should make life a whole lot easier . Sitting in the comfort of our own home rather than wasting a day taking Suzy to him. If he proves himself we will probably use him next year. Suzys MOT and service - the big one this year is booked for the last day of February. Just down the road at the local Fiat dealer. We have bitten the bullet this year and are paying for an engine treatment where some kind of chemical is put in to the engine and it cleans it out . Hopefully it will get rid of the sludgy residues that diesel fuel leaves behind and aid fuel consumption. Having said that for the first time in years diesel is selling at the pumps for less than petrol. At best it was 2p cheaper and at worse 1p. I am sure this has got something to do with the glut on the market now that Iran is back on the world stage as a supplier . All good for us as filling Suzy shouldn't be so onerous a task.

We have ordered a new Camperstop book. We had not intended to do this as ours was a 2015 model and we did not feel that things would be that different this year. However, much to our surprise we received our monthly copy of Practical Motorhome and they offered a new Camperstop book with all the new listings at 20% off the asking price of £25. Being too good to be true we thought we might as well invest and indeed when we came to order we even got free post and packaging and a further 5% off taking the cost down to under £18. A worthwhile investment. It arrived within two days. Excellent service and we have spent a few days now perusing its pages, finding sostas and aires in wonderful places. It makes staying at home even more onerous. I want to be on the road again.

Swimming this week I fell into conversation with a guy who owns a caravan and travels down each year to see his daughter in Spain. He mentioned his European Health Insurance card which had run out . I thought to check ours and luckily for me I did so as ours will expire whilst we are abroad in May. The power of the internet as always comes up trumps. We ordered two new cards and the postman delivered them this morning. Another job out of the way. With them came our Tesco vouchers so next job paying for our trip on the Eurotunnel in September. It is all coming together.

So it is now back to the rain, back to the gloom of a winters day with my mind somewhere else. Somewhere far, far away . Then there is Sion of course . He is on another planet . His best friend Woolly Mammoth has gone to Turkey and Sion is full of dreams of Turkey, warm weather and holidays and complaining rather loudly that we failed to take him to Aberystwyth to see his friend before he flew out to Turkey . He is not a happy sheep but you cannot keep a motorhome nor a sheep down for long. We are daring to go at the moment as far as our thoughts led us.

So where did we get to today? After an incredibly busy journey as it is half term we ended up at Lyme Park a stately home owned and run by the National Trust. Situated just outside of the town of Disley in Cheshire it is reasonably close to the conurbation of Stockport. First thing ride down the incredibly long drive through extensive parkland and find a place to park. The park was heaving. Cars everywhere and the odd motorhome. A great many people had arrived early and were now on their way home so we did find a space at the back of the car park. Arriving at the hall first thoughts were it was a bit grey. Not helped by the cold weather and the bitterly cold wind which blew the cobwebs away. The grey house had a tinge of green moss colour all over its stonework. Palladian not being our favourite style of building we uttered the motorhome mantra ABPH - another bloody Palladian house. This seems the style favoured by the aristocracy who knocked down their Jacobean piles and replaced the draughty wood panelled buildings with the latest fashion imported from Italy. We picked up our little cards which showed we had paid and tied them to our coats . Second thought we needed food. There are two eateries - the first a small cafe which we by passed and we headed for the Restaurant which was in the old cellars. The place was heaving with no tables free although we only had to wait a few minutes before we were ushered to a small table in a corner. The menu was not extensive but there were a good selection of starters and main courses with a couple of puddings. We ordered a pot of tea for two to warm us up whilst we waited for our venison casserole with crusty bread and cumberland sausage with mash. Both were delicious and well worth the wait . Fortified we and the sheep set off for the house . A warm welcome awaited us.

We entered the inner courtyard and climbed the steps to the front of the house. It did not feel like the front as it faced into the courtyard. This house felt back to front. The house dates from the latter part of the 16th century. Modifications were made to it in the 1720s by an italian Giacomo Leoni. The house is the largest in Cheshire, measuring overall 190 feet (58 m) by 130 feet (40 m) round a courtyard plan. The older part is built in coursed, squared buff sandstone dressings; and the roof is of welsh slate. It is a symmetrical building with three stories . There are the usual Doric columns with a niches and pediments.

The first room you enter is the hall. Pretty impressive with the usual furniture and three Mortlake tapestries. Unusual as normally tapestries are flemish rather than English. There is a squint hole in the wall. From here we walked into a lovely room with fantastic firesurrounds and stained glass windows which overlooked the immaculate lawns and neatly trimmed trees. Through a library and the Stag Room all filled with beautiful furniture and yet more fantastic ceilings and firesurrounds. Upstairs we found many of the original Elizabethan rooms in the house , the Stone Parlour and our favourite room the Long Gallery, which is on the top floor of the east range. The Long Gallery also has a chimneypiece with the arms of Elizabeth I. Pictures lined the walls and we were encouraged to walk up the right hand side to view all the furniture in the room and come back down the left hand side. This way we would not miss anything. The Grand Staircase dates from the remodelling by Leoni and it has a Baroque ceilingThe Saloon is on the first floor of the south range, behind the portico.Its ceiling is decorated in a ricocco stylethe walls covered with wooden carvings that have been attributed to the master Grinling Gibbons. One floor was devoted to the children with playrooms complete with desks for learning, pianos and small beds with toys placed upon them. It all felt utilitarian in the nursery with green painted walls and more designed for function than pleasure. The last rooms we saw were green tiled bathrooms and toilets. Sion found the potty for his friend Woolly Mammoth.

After our tour of the house we walked out to see the Italian gardens and the lake and then inside the orangery which was full of exotic plants some in flower. Sadly at this time of year the gardens were bare with just a few daffodils trying to flower.

What were our thoughts of Lyme? Well it was good to get out and about for the first time in 2016. The food was as always fantastic but the house disappointed a bit. It is interesting but we have seen better ones that floated our boats more. I guess it is all horses for courses. Some people might love Lymm we were left like the weather feeling rather cold. It just felt like another Palladian house just like Gnossal or Attingham.

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Photos

Lymm -One of the facades

Comments

[Home and Away]

Great blog...
I can just feel you chomping at the bit!