Berrington Hall

 

Beautiful Shropshire countryside (near Ludlow).  Taken from the house.

After the hall, this is the first room you enter, with its beautiful fireplace.  The architect employed, Henry Holland, used a version of Neo-Classical design in this Georgian house.

What a beautiful ceiling.

A nod to the Greeks and Romans with the Doric capitals in this room and a lovely shell-like arch above.

Such a good painting and a wonderful likeness, I would imagine.

The cupola sent light flooding into the centre of the house.

Whilst there is this painting of him, one of his wife has not come to light.

One of many intricate Corinthian capitals throughout the house.

We had fun in the Dressing (Up) Room . . . My friend Gay modelling a hat.

I should have done a close up of the pillows with a big black furry (pretend) spider!

Just in case you wondered how they managed with a big dress like that . . .

That dress again!

We ended with a walk inside the walled garden, with its wonderful orchards of ancient heritage apples.

It was another hot day.  We did try to find Pipe Aston church, but made the mistake of trying to put Orleton into the mix as well, and ended up driving round in a circle, so gave up and came home.  Just too hot to be exploring.

We stopped in Pembridge so Gay could take photos, and I picked some Elderberries, which are now in the freezer and will be made into something on a cooler day.

Today (it is now 1.30 a.m. on Monday morning and I can't sleep) I am off to babysit Rosie for the afternoon, then Gay goes home tomorrow.

Berrington Hall - a great day out. Part I

 Words will be few.  I feel a bit in limbo at the moment - waiting for Keith to wake up.  I had a phone call from the D. Nurse to say that the bed locally had gone to a patient leaving Hereford.  No beds at the other local hospitals either so he is here for the moment.  

It's very hot here today and so I am doing washing to get it outside and dried quickly.  I've just stripped and remade my bed.  I've had a good tidy up this morning, finding little bits of I's belongings, kitchen apparel etc from D&E (their caravan arrives today).  I've also finally shrink bagged E's blankets which had been a big heap in the Library for the last  6 mths.  

Anyway, here are some photos of the house.  It was lovely and felt like a family home rather than a grand pile like Chatsworth.

This was the most stupendous dress, some 5 feet wide - you would definitely have to go through doorways with a sideways sidle!  How amazing that it turned up in auction?

The first floor gallieried landing, with bedrooms off, and lit by this beautiful glass dome, which had recently been totally restored, and would you believe all the glass panels are straight, not curving, and held in place by greenhouse clips!

A view across the parkland.  This was a lovely light room - perfect for sitting and sewing in. Lancelot "Capability" Brown was responsible for the landscaping.

A room off the dressing room, which had hand-sewn accoutrements in it.  These designs on the walls were stomachers, the central panel of a court dress.  All designed and sewn by ladies locally.

I think this was my favourite.

Lovely examples of smocking and feather stitching on the final completed one.

Pettitcoat to go under that 5 ft wide dress!  The dress I was wearing had panels of pre-machine-embroidered sashing/ribbon down it.  The Duvet one (should have taken a photo) was one of the Dorma designs, back in the day.  Cream with pink florals prigging.

Too hot to garden though perhaps I should just dead head a couple of roses . . .  I hate this waiting, and am worried about Keith of course.