Canons Ashby, Northants.

South Front National Trust.
The house originated as a Tudor manor house and has been altered and extended over the centuries. It is built round a courtyard, whose rough and irregular walls are set with leaded windows, while a squat tower rises over the south front. The exterior of the house is mostly clad in handsome stone. A series of impoverished owners have made few changes since the 19th century.
The visitor enters across the courtyard and into the great hall. The drawing room upstairs is dominated by a massive Elizabethan fireplace, and has a domed plasterwork ceiling covered with carving and with a massive central pendant. Other notable rooms include the Painted Parlour, with trompe l’oeil decoration. The old kitchen, part of the cellars, and other service rooms can be viewed.
Now (2016) the Long Gallery is a through route, and two small rooms opening off it can be viewed. Descending to the Winter Parlour, one can visit two servant’s rooms en route.
Outside, the west side faces a grassy court, and the south side faces a formal garden of 18th century design. The house is set in an expanse of parkland.
A few dozen yards from the house, on the opposite side of the road, is a church, now reduced to a quarter of its original size, all that remains of the priory. Materials were taken from the demolished east end of the church to to build the H-shaped Tudor house.
When the NT acquired the house they had to take urgent action to prevent parts of it from falling down. Some old wall paintings uncovered during the works can still be seen upstairs. Services consisted of one cold water tap in the kitchen.
This is a charming old house which I have visited more than once. The gardens are also very pleasant.

Lower Terraces
Lower Terraces
Snowdrops
Snowdrops

Hardwick Old Hall, Derbyshire

Old Hall, trees English Heritage
The old hall was remodelled by Elisabeth Shrewsbury before she had the new hall built. The roofless ruins still stand to almost their original height, and visitors can ascend four floors to view surviving decorative plasterwork. Kitchens and service rooms are also visible. The house was partly dismantled in the 1750’s. An audio tour is available, and there is an exhibition in the West Lodge describing Bess’s adventures in architecture.

Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire

Frontage National Trust.
Hardwick Hall is one of the best-known of the NT houses. This Elizabethan house stands on a hilltop, looking big, smart, symmetrical and impressive. The tag “Hardwick Hall, more window than wall” was coined to describe it, and indeed it seems to have a window/wall ratio rather greater than that of my Victorian house and more typical of a public building. The design looks timeless owing to this particular look being copied in later centuries. Everything about the place seems calculated to impress by its size and grandeur. There are at least two big stone staircases, and on ascending one of them, one enters the High Great Chamber on the second floor. This is a very big and very high room and lavishly decorated, the Elizabethan decorations being largely unchanged. There is also a long gallery which is quite high and very long, and crammed with 80 portraits.
In the Dining Room the Sea-dog table is supported by four superbly carved chimeras and four tortoises.
The first floor rooms are now all open to visitors. The house has six towers incorporated in the structure, and atop the towers are the initials of the house’s first owner, Elizabeth Shrewsbury, in letters at least six feet high.
Close by are the ruins of Harwick Old Hall (English Heritage), which is in fact little older than the new Hall, but was allowed to fall into disrepair in more recent years.
Don’t miss a chance to visit. A visit to both Halls and their grounds will occupy several hours. Nearby on the Hardwick estate is Stainsby Mill (NT), a water-mill in working order. (revisited July 2017)

Outbuildings
Outbuildings
High Great Chamber
High Great Chamber
Fireplace
Fireplace
Cabinet
Cabinet
Sea-dog Table
Sea-dog Table

Charlecote Park, Warwickshire

The long red-brick house, spiky with gables and chimneys, sits close to a ponded stream. Parts of the house date from the sixteenth century. The house is built on an irregular E-plan, and has Queen Elizabeth I’s coat of arms displayed over the porch. Though Charlecote looks like an Elizabethan mansion, most of it dates from the early nineteenth century. The nineteenth-century interiors are also finished in Elizabethan style. There is a fine collection of books, and some fine furniture.
Outside are outbuildings, some of them older than the house, including a brew-house, a wash-house, and a coach-house displaying a collection of vehicles used at Charlecote in the nineteenth century.

Belton House, Lincs

National Trust
An H-shaped house built in the reign of Charles II (1685-7) sits in a wooded park, with gardens. The interior furnishings and fittings are of high quality and include collections of silver and porcelain. Delicate and intricate woodcarvings surround pictures and frame doors, and there are superb plaster ceilings in several of the principal rooms. Nineteenth-century formal gardens are laid out to the north of the house. The well-known architect James Wyatt carried out alterations to four principal rooms, and the exterior, in the late 18th century.
All photos were taken during my second visit in Sept 2022. It was raining so I was not able to visit the gardens.
The house and grounds are impressive and well worth a visit.

Gardens
Writing desk
Ceiling
Chinese room
Garden
Clock & vases
Ceiling

Nene Valley Railway, near Peterborough

The Nene Valley preserved railway has seven and a half miles of track running between Peterborough and Yarwell. There are five stations and a 617 yard tunnel. I don’t remember the tunnel, but I do remember the Polish tank engine and the unusually bumpy ride. Unusually, the railway was re-constructed at the time of re-opening to the Berne continental loading gauge, so that it could use the available European engines and rolling stock. The list of locos and rolling stock is quite long, and includes both Continental and British examples. The principal station and NVR HQ is at Wansford, a popular starting point. All Day rover tickets are available.
Attractions near the line include the Nene Valley Park, Peterborough Cathedral, and “Railworld”, an independent rail museum.

Great Central Railway

An eight-mile preserved railway, running from Leicester northwards to Loughborough, and the only double-track preserved railway in the UK. There are four stations. The GCR preserves the atmosphere of steam era travel as well or better than any other society in the UK, and to stand by the double track and see one of their large steam locos hauling a train at speed is quite nostalgic. All Line Runabout tickets are available. There is some car parking at each of the stations.
Immediately to the north is another ten miles of track, the connecting bridge having been scrapped in the Beeching era. This is operated by another society: the “GC Railway, Nottingham”. Operational locos (Sept 2011) include one steam and about a dozen diesels.

Gloucester Warwickshire Railway

This preserved steam railway offers a 2x 10-mile round trip between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Cotswolds. The track was once a GWR main line.
Main stations (and boarding points) are at Cheltenham racecourse, Toddington and Winchcombe. Currently (2011) the railway operates in two halves because of a trackbed collapse. To be honest, as it’s a while since I visited this one I don’t remember a lot about it, except that it offered a decent length of run though some pretty countryside. Plan on using the train trip(s) as the basis for a day out. As with most preserved railways, tickets are available that let you hop on and off the train as much as you like. The workshops are not open to the public.

Rockingham Motor Speedway

The circuit was originally built in 2001 for American-style oval racing, but the middle has now been developed to allow for up to 13 track layouts. There is grandstand seating on one side of the oval, facing the pits and the lap display tower, allowing all spectators to be seated with a view of the whole circuit. It’s a big place, so you might want to bring binoculars. Some of the seating is under cover IIRC. All facilities are modern and there is plenty of hard-stand parking, unlike some other circuits! For some events, spectators were allowed to cross under the track at lunchtime and have a pit walk-about.