Shropshire 34 - Broseley /Benthall Hall /a restoration church / what's the difference between upstairs and downstairs ?/ All that we are .

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This mornings offering on the calendar was a message from the Buddha and it set off conversation for the day. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought". We were going to brave the cold and wet weather and head off for Broseley . Close to the Ironbridge Gorge the small village houses Benthall Hall a National Trust property . We had to go today as it only opened Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays . The hall has no restaurant just a shepards hut which sold coffee and cakes . So the plans had to revolve around how far it was, what was nearby in terms of eateries and how to work the two in without massive detours around Shropshire .

In the end it was relatively easy to find a solution . Benthall Hall according to the AA route map was one hour and fourteen minutes away . We had a choice of three routes . One of which took us 54 minutes away to Shawbirch a suburb a word I use with caution of Telford and a Toby Carvery . You know what you get there . The meal is pretty standard and usually quite good. Priced reasonably it seemed a good stop on the way without taking us too far out of our way or adding too much time to our journey .

All that we are became part of the conversation on the route to Telford . Benthall Hall is described as of Saxon origins with medieval and Jacobean alterations . Certainly as product of the result of thoughts . I am sure the inhabitants of the hall had influenced the building itself and its changes . And the building would have influenced its inhabitants . I felt I could change the Buddhas words to something else . Perhaps just changing one word each time would make sense still . " All that we are is a result of what we have done " Have we smiled at someone this morning or growled at them? Have we felt pleased by something we have done or had done to us ? " All that we are is a result of what has been before " That was the ancestry bit coming to forefront of our thoughts . By the time we had changed a word here and then and become quite philosophical we had arrived at a fairly empty car park of the Toby Carvery . Because we had been turned away last week from our favourite lunchtime stop because there were no tables available I had already booked a table for two at 12. We were a tad early but were taken to our seats and drinks were ordered . The Carvery would be ten minutes before it opened . Time to settle down and ponder the Buddha again . " All of us are a result of what we have not done or did not do " We could go on forever just changing the meaning ever so slightly and it still made great sense .

Ten minutes went by and the meat arrived . The usual choice of gammon, pork , turkey or beef . The vegetables would be a little while longer . The pub began to fill although as it was a Wednesday I guess it was never going to be full to bursting . Was it strange to be here without a motorhome ? Most certainly . By now I would be inside her emptying out her cupboards . Making sure I had everything washed ready for a holiday . We probably would have decided on routes and places . All we had done so far for our next trip was order a Crit Air sticker for the car just in case we ventured accidently into a French city which had low emission zones . Better safe than sorry . The old sticker was vehicle specific so went with Gabby .

Another five minutes had gone by . The vegetables had arrived but the gravy was not ready . Eventually at 12.20 we joined the queue to pick up our lunch . Turkey and pork with a yorkshire for the driver. Just beef and a yorkshire for me . There was an endless supply of vegetables . Mashed potatoes , roast potatoes were missing and replaced with some kind of potato with skin on which was not as tasty as usual . Cauliflower cheese, carrots , a rather cold mashed swede, leeks , peas and cabbage . We wondered at some of the plates people took away . Enough to feed five thousand . Greedy people . Others who were more careful of what they put on the plates . All types of diners were there . It was not the best of carveries we have had nor was it the worse . Would we call there again if we needed something this way? Yes we probably would as you know what you are going to get within reason . We ate up , paid up and got back into the car for the fourteen minute drive to Broseley which actually took nearer twenty five minutes due to the narrow lanes the sat nag decided was fine for us .

There were a few cars on the car park . I walked over to the parking machine . Sometimes in National Trust properties the parking is free . In others it is free for members but you need to scan your card . Today it was free and the lady on the gate welcomed us, checked out tickets , asked if we had been before and pointed us in the direction of the Restoration church in the grounds . Go past that she said . Go in if you want . Then walk along the front towards the house . Everyone extremely helpful .

The pretty seventeenth century Restoration church was built on the site of a much older church . Dedicated to St Bartholomew it had been destroyed during the civil war. The elderly guide explained it had burned down in 1666. The year of the Great fire of London . Outside it was rendered and painted cream and had a belltower and old sundial fixed into the wall. The church sadly had been decommisioned in 2007 a little after the last christening using the font which the guide told us was from 1100 and certainly looked Norman in design . There was some restoration to the church in the 19th century. An organ in a back corner . Firegrates built in to warm the church. They had been removed leaving awkward spaces . The guide admitted that today he had forgotten his script . We smiled and asked him questions in the hope that they would trigger his memory . The floor had once been covered in Maw tiles and a doorway closed up . The old original wooden door had been moved to the back of the church. The walls had some hatchments and memorials but in the style of a restoration church it was fairly plain and ordinary but a rare survival of an earlier age . The only other one we could think of was Staunton Harold church which we had visited many years ago. Two pulpits flanked either side of the chancel and box pews were still in place . There was a small churchyard . Neat and tidy it held quite a number of graves for the 1700's. We left the guide to talk to others who had wandered in and headed for the house .

The house was smaller than many of its kind . A warm mellow stone it sat prettily next door to its own church. The gardens described as pretty with crocus in the Spring and Autumn were missed as the rain began to fall . We entered the house through a tiny hallway. The guide welcomed us and explained that we could go into the dining room first. Have a look round and then move on to the large hall where we were standing . Then through to the other downstairs rooms . We could take photographs downstairs but there was a difference with upstairs . No photographs . I did wonder why . I was later to find the reason out .

First room we were descended upon by the guide . Now sometimes in National Trust properties the guides sit discreetly in a corner and usually say nothing unless approached or someone looks as if they have a question that needs answering . The guide in the first room was on a mission to tell us everything about the house and the room . It is a 16th century house lying a few miles from the Ironbridge Gorge . Money came in to the family when coal was found under Benthall land and coal meant a fortune in the Ironbridge Gorge . It was owned by the Benthalls for many years until they had to sell up with the house only coming back into Benthall hand in the 21st century before it was gifted to the National Trust in 1958. She showed us the Elizabethan table with bulbous legs to stop the mice and rats climbing up to the top and eating the food . She explained about the rail along the bottom which prevented the mens shoes from getting dirt on them from the rushes on the floor . The china in the cabinets was Chinese . She told us about the firesurround which was apparently designed by the designer of the Iron Bridge which gives its name to the town of Ironbridge . She had every fact to hand and each came out easily in contrast to the guide in the church. Both were interesting in different ways . The walls were oak but had once been painted white. The family had spent months scraping the white paint off with toothbrushes to return the walls to oak . So many facts some were lost on us . The hall had been built in 1580 on the site of a much earlier building which had been destroyed in parts by the soldiers of the Civil War who were garrisoned in the buildings. Several local skirmishes also devasted the original building ..

Across the entrance hall was the dining room . A massive table filled the middle of the room . This was apparently damaged by musket fire during the Civil War when the table was used as a barricade . The of this area was covered with Maw tiles but these had been overlaid with wooden flooring . The Maw family once owned the house . The cost of repair to them to high to contemplate .

The small but perfectly formed central hall was well lit with oak floors and mullioned windows. . Some chairs in the room were Cromwellian . A smaller and less ornate fireplace was the centrepiece of the room .

Beyond that a hallway with magnificent Jacobean carved oak staircase completed in 1618.. Resplendent with strange creatures and grotesques . Was that a swan ? Some looked fanciful and others quite down to earth . It was one of the most impressive staircases I had seen for a long time .

The final downstairs room - the Drawing room was a small intimate corner room with three windows letting in a good amount of light . It was a light airy room . Comfortable and felt warm with the fire burning. The oak wooden panelling had been painted white . We stood for a while thinking how long it must have taken to remove the paint in the other room when the room guide came over . Are you looking at the old lady in the glass case ? No we said - the walls . We had been told the story of the other room . Oh that she said . It did not take that long . An artist had rented the house and he wanted the other room for a studio so needed a light airy room . It was too heavy and dark so he whitewashed the walls . Taking the whitewash off was relatively easy compared with the paint in this room which was 20 coats thick . She explained that the wall we looked at was added as the room was originally much larger and stretched to the next room . The fireplace had once been off centre and the room had no window in one corner . The family closed the room off inserted a new window and partitioned the room off . The quality of the wood was not as good as the rest of the room and answer to solve the problem was to cover the whole lot in white paint . We were learning a lot more than we would had we just wandered around .

Upstairs were a number of rooms . None of which we could photograph . This was because the family still used those rooms particularly the bedrooms . The upstairs hall opened out onto a bedroom completed with made up bed and ensuite toilet and bathroom . A 1890' s bathroom set completed the scene . A comfortable warm room but very different to downstairs . Understandable if still used by the family who rented the property back from the Trust . A large room with bookshelves called the Great Chamber . Off this room was the Priests Room with its heavily padded door. A tiny room which once would have held all the items required by a Catholic priest serving the household.

Leaving the upper floor we came down by the same staircase we had climbed up. A lovely day that had been influenced by its owners , by its visitors and by the effect of the Civil War and the battles that took place within its walls .

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