Blogs from Rufford, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

After eating our lunch and venturing into the garden it was time to take the walk up to the Hesketh church . The walk took us down an avenue of extremely large oak and beech trees . Look out for the carving in the trees. That was the message from a couple we met walking the same path. They told us that over the years people had carved their names into the oak tree trunks. Not easy to find but some were quite ancient . We never found the ancient ones but did find Harry loves Sue and many others dated from the 1960's onwards . I don' t think we did find Harry and Sue but it felt like all the young men and girls of the village had sworn their love to each other ... 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