Interesting Places.......
.....to visit in your local area.
It’s Sunday, blowing a huge gale outside, so an opportunity to share some of those gems known mainly to locals, but which might be of interest to new visitors!😁
For a start, we live in one of the places that has seen a huge transformation in the last forty or so years. South Yorkshire was the powerhouse that provided coal, made the steel and generally got on with mining and making, often to the detriment of its landscape and underlying beauty. Now it has a wealth of lovely walks, hidden history and great transport links that few visitors might not find obvious. Both of these examples have some good pubs and eateries close by, or on the walks. Great for dog owners, good for energetic children.
Most folks visiting the area, and doing a search, find Wentworth Woodhouse. Currently under ongoing restoration, features in a lot of TV and films, fabulous place. But the Wentworth Estate itself is huge, an unspoilt village, churches, hidden follies, historic monuments, parkland and lakes, industrial heritage and fantastic walks of different lengths and difficulty. Any visitor could easily find a week flying by taking in all the Black Diamonds locations.
https://wentworthestate.co.uk/visiting/monuments-follies/
Another smaller, but no less interesting place is Boston Castle and it’s immediate little park, and extensive woodlands. Visible for miles around, the former hunting lodge stands on a high hill looking down the Don Valley, and the ancient woodlands surrounding it have some great walks, superb birdlife, and hidden treats. Couple of photos....
Please feel free to add any special places close to you, we are particularly interested in anything more unusual in the Suffolk and Essex areas....😁
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If you're in our area where three counties meet, Somerset, Dorset and Devon you might like to get off the beaten track and onto our hills. We have some ancient sites down this way, hillforts that span many hundreds of years. A couple to start with, Neroche and Ham Hill have fantastic views when the weather is good. I think this was the original idea so that signals could be sent from one place to another and also provide some protection from would be marauders. Further down to the towards the Dorset coast is the beautiful Pilsdon Pen hillfort, the highest spot in Dorset and this connects up with others locally, many are hidden away down deep lanes but worth finding!
Link to Castle Neroche HERE and Ham Hill HERE
For Pilsdon Pen and other nearby hill forts see the NT web site.
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For me the most wonderful place in Suffolk is the well known medieval wool town of Lavenham full of old Tudor buildings with a wonderful history with nearly as good Clare and Long Melford nearby.
But if you want more unusual there is the hand painted ceiling in the little village church at Huntingfield St Mary where the ceiling was painted by the rector's wife, or in Wenaston church the C16 Doom which was saved from Cromwell's men by being painted over with whitewash. In 1892 the whitewashed panel was taken outside and left in the rain which washed off the whitewash to reveal the painting underneath.
Close to Wenaston is the huge church at Blythburgh which didn't fare so well with Cromwell's men and has the bullet holes in the carved angels' faces in the ceiling to prove it, or maybe not.
Then there is lonely, eerie, Orfordness where they tested atomic weapons or Sutton Hoo the site of a C7 king's burial.
We don't live in Suffolk but visit there regularly as it has so much to offer.
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Our main enjoyment tends to come from the outdoors, namely walking and nature watching. Our local patch for walking is mostly on the Clwydian Range of hills that stretch from near Prestatyn on the North Wales coast to Llandegla, near Llangollen. It encompasses a couple of Iron Age Hill Forts and has wonderful views over towards Liverpool and beyond. It isn't just for walking as Trekking and Mountain Biking are catered for as well.
The downside for this is the lack of suitable caravan sites. There is just the 1 CL in Flintshire and a couple more in neighbouring Denbighshire but the range near Llandegla can be accessed from the club site at Chirk and the Chester club site is about 30 minute drive away at most.
For the nature then we tend to drive into neighbouring Wirral and the West coast of it, again easily accessible from Chester site. The website for Dee Estuary contains a few Ad Hoc maps and there is an RSPB centre at Burton Mere. The range of nature watching along the whole of the west coastline is fantastic in all seasons. When the site is open at Wirral Country Park, usually March to November then this makes a good base. My favourite time of year though is Winter for this area. Great walking and Cycling along the Wirral Way, an old railway line, anywhere from Little Neston all the way to West Kirby. If you want to see Little Terns nesting then head into Wales and go to the Point of Ayr RSPB reserve, often referred to as Gronant. The lighthouse at Gronant can be seen from the Wirral coast.
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Thanks, some great ideas there. We have briefly visited Ham Hill, but only as part of a day out to Montacute, would need much more exploring!
Lavenham is on our Suffolk list, but that little church we didn’t know about, and I can’t remember much about Blythburgh Church. We spent an afternoon at Orford Castle, but missed out the Ness, need to go there as well.
WN, Prestatyn was a childhood haunt, but no idea about the hills. Never been to Wirral, so a big voyage of discovery there.
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If you're going to the Wirral Ttda, then I would say that the west side is less industrialised than the east and far more pleasant to visit. The main exception though is a must visit to Port Sunlight village including Lady Lever Gallery. The big problem though is lack of campsites and we have to stay at Wirral CP if we don't want to travel.
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Yes, it’s same as our locality near home. Very few CLs, very few sites I could recommend. I did come across a nice looking one last week, but it’s grass pitches, so won’t suit everyone.
OH has a date with the velodrome in Manchester this year, from there I want to do a short tour of Lancashire area, so will be doing some research on what to see and where to stay. We will be looking for historic locations, gardens, some walks with good access for dog’s chariot!🙄 we saw a mention of Port Sunderland on a TV programme a while ago, that looked interesting, great place for birds.
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You would enjoy a walk out to Hilbre Island, off the Wirral TDA, we've enjoyed our stays over that way. Using the CAMC Wirral site itself which has some nice walks, country park and a beach...and a good cycle track if you're towing your pooch?! Good views to N Wales too over the estuary.
ps Montacute House down our way has been closed for filming (as yet an unsolved mystery to us locals but will no doubt find out
) So check if everything is back to normal if visiting.0 -
Would it be the follow up to Wolf Hall? I believe they were to start filming that soon and the original was partly filmed at Montecute.
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Hmm, that's a possibility. There have been several past "filmings" there including Sense and Sensibilty and a Johnny Depp film "The Libertine". By chance we followed Johnny Depp's coach and horses into the village, just saw his lace frilled hand holding onto the coach window!
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Last book is released next month, so could very well be last part of Wolf Hall. I took Mum to Normanby Hall (near Scunthorpe) last Autumn, they had a wonderful collection of film and TV costumes on show, including a couple of Johnny Depp’s. And Mr Darcy’s shirt and breeches........😁
Wirral is sounding very interesting. I couldn’t get onto the Lady Lever Art Gallery website, but am I right in thinking it has Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood works?
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Certainly is, and well worth a visit. The town itself is also very interesting. Plenty of places to to park too.
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www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/lady-lever-art-gallery
This should get you there Ttda.
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Ttda, if you are heading to Manchester then maybe take in Lytham and Lytham St.Annes and have a walk along the excellent path that runs next to the river. The walkway is great for dog charioting. Plenty wide and flat and the small towns are compact and still thriving. Take binoculars as the birds are quite close by on the river bank.
Quite a few good cls in the area. Ask Nellie, he's stopped at a few.
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That’s ticking lots of boxes for me! I like Wedgwood as well.
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Or you could visit our local patch, Pendle Hill! Follow the witches story, starting at the Pendle Heritage centre in Barrowford, and maybe finish at the church in Newchurch in Pendle, where Alice Nutter is allegedly buried. ( now that really is our local patch!).
Quite a few CLs on the Ribble Valley side of Pendle Hill, and there’s the CCC site at Clitheroe.
Worth considering when the weather improves!
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