Monday 26 May 2014

Our National Trust Adventures :: Part 2

Hello Lovelies, 
I'm happy to report I finally managed to talk my boys into a second visit to a National Trust property yesterday. This time we headed for Belton House..............


It's an extremely popular spot, with a huge car park. On a sunny bank holiday weekend  it was busy but very efficiently organised to avoid queues at the entrance.
It's actually a property that we had visited before, but since that was twelve years ago our memories of that visit were rather hazy.

Yesterday the gorgeous yellow stone glowed in the sunshine...........



We headed around the back of the house and through some formal gardens............


and soon we came a cross a maze, just my sort of maze, one you can see over the top of :0)

In the centre was this gorgeous willow sculpture of a Greyhound...........


None of the places we had seen so far seemed at all familiar to me, but there was a spot that had made a big impact on our first visit and I was very keen to find it again.

We wandered the grounds and I was so happy to see large areas of uncut grass filled with wild flowers............


under the trees little streams meandered...........


We climbed up a hill and around a bend we found the place I had been looking for...........


A lovely lake with a very special boathouse that was actually just a ruin the last time we were here.......eeek, it looked wonderful now.........


Instead of heading straight over for a closer look we decided to walk around the lake and save it for a treat at the end. You can just glimpse it across the water here..............



The footpaths were pretty muddy here after all our rain and some moaning about flies and smells might have been heard from my youngest in particular..........but I wasn't listening..........I was too happy to be in such a wonderful spot on a sunny day at the most beautiful time of year.............


Through a gap in the trees I spotted the beautiful park lands and a folly called Belmont Tower in the distance. I recognised it straight away as the setting for THIS wonderful painting by a favourite artist of mine..........



Presently we found THE perfect picnic bench with a wonderful view across the water..........


We enjoyed a drink and some cake and I tried to absorb as much as I could about this perfect spot......but all the time my eyes were drawn to that cute little building..........

Isn't it wonderful. 


Presently I had to go and have a closer look.

Inside were photo's of how it looked before restoration......look, those are the steps the people are sat on in the photo above..............


I did think the inside may have been a little more staged....something the National Trust are excellent at, but it was still nice to wander around the empty room noticing the lovely details like these beautiful windows.........


And on the balcony there was some artwork............


Here's a close up of the basket-weave plasterwork on the walls...........


The chimney and the "fish scale" tiles on the roof...........

There's some more information about it's restoration HERE



As the information board said....it does remain a wonderful spot to take a stroll and enjoy the tranquillity of the lake......especially in late spring when beautiful yellow Irises line the banks........


I would guess that the lake is about half a mile or so from the house it's self, so it was a pleasant wander back to the formal gardens behind the house...........


Here there's another building that I remembered from our first visit with two toddlers........The Orangery....


It's a beautiful and imposing structure.....shall we go inside............


Just at the side of the entrance is this lovely fish pond lined with Geranium..........


There are loads of huge tropical plants reaching up to the glass roof...........


And even a few oranges...........



For me the little touches like a Stunning red  Amaryllis  placed in a wall recess were a true delight..........




One thing I need to mention about this property is the lengths the National Trust have gone to to make it a family friendly visit.
There is a large adventure playground and yesterday there were loads of lawn games ( like croquet and giant Jenga) set out that were free to use.
Here in the Orangery there was an abundance of wonderful art materials you could take to any spot that inspired you and use..........


I wonder if any of you lovelies know what this pretty climbing plant is.........it's tiny yellow flowers had a beautiful ( and strong) scent that reminded me of old fashioned perfumed soap ( the boys said it smelt of hand cream )........


The view of the Italian garden from the open doors of the Orangery was gorgeous...........



The walled garden behind the Orangery was awash with climbing Roses............


And I loved the glimpse of the pretty church from this spot............



The fountain in the Italian garden was not working yesterday , but I recognised it straight away from another painting of Haidee-Jo's HERE


The water was VERY green and I think I prefer this cloudier view with the reflected buildings and sky.........


More pops of colour against old stonework.......beautiful...........


We wandered through this courtyard looking for the toilets............


There was a big queue at the Ladies ( surprise surprise ) so I decided to wait here for my boys and I could almost imagine I was in some old Mediterranean town.............


How I loved the dappled shade on old cobbles here...........


Now we were heading back to the main house, through this lovely archway...........


On the lawn in front of the house a game of Cricket was being played and Middle son decided he would like to sit on the sunny stone steps and watch the match rather than going inside............


My only memory of the inside of Belton house from our first visit was that it was dark........and it was, particularly on the ground floor.........


The pretty and creative way visitors are discouraged from sitting on the antique chairs made me chuckle.......


On the first floor I loved the view down to the chequered marble floor.........


And this beautiful painting of a beautiful lady caught Hubby's eye.........


We were following youngest as he had been given a map of the rooms, he loved announcing which room we were coming to next.....his is the pretty Boudoir......with it's concealed door.........


And stunning painted ceiling..........


From here you could see the scale of the grounds......that Cricket match looks tiny and the grand avenue of trees stretches as far as the eye can see..........


This bedroom looked cheery and welcoming ............


Next door in the "modern" bathroom I loved the Harrods weighing scales........


And the" British Tiger" toilet roll in another bathroom..........


The wall-paper in the Chinese bedroom was stunning...........


Back in the ground floor we were once again in the gloomy darkness. This opulent room had no windows at all and smelt musty.....we quickly moved on......


I do love the way the rooms are staged so you can see what they would have been like in their hey day.........


Apparently you have to take a tour to see the basements.....something I loved at Sudbury.

Just before we went outside again I noticed this painting of the cascade in the grounds and wondered what had happened to it..........

There's info on this painting HERE

Then look what we came across.........it's barely visible because of the greenery (and the scale is much smaller than the painting implies ) but it's definitely the same construction..........

you might like to click on the photo to see it more clearly.

Well done if you got to the end of this super long post. It's so nice to be able to record and share this visit in a way that was impossible twelve years ago.
We had a lovely second visit to this gorgeous place and even youngest conceded it was "all right" 
Jacquie x

29 comments:

  1. What a charming place to visit, thanks for sharing these amazing pics of it! xx

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  2. Wow, I loved this post, the house and grounds are beautiful!! I was thinking about joining the National Trust the other day, I need to research what's around locally to see if it would be worth it x

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  3. Thank you for sharing this, what a beautiful place this is.

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  4. Wow - what a place :) Hoping to get to visit a couple of NT places this year.

    Thanks for the welcome back :)

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  5. Great pictures! Thanks for taking us on your trip!

    You are so lucky to have these national trust properties nearby! :-)

    Take care
    Anne
    http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.de

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  6. I loved visiting with you, such ana amazing place to visit.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  7. Thank you for taking me on your tour with you. Lovely pictures and a lovely place to visit.

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  8. Thank you so much Jacquie for recording and sharing this visit. I love seeing things through your eyes and have been marvelling at how much there is to see here. I love that it is a friendly and interactive place especially the art materials to encourage visitors to sit awhile and reflect as they paint. The last line made me smile though at your son's comment which conversely is actually high praise indeed.

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  9. Oh how I would love to spend a day there! Thank you for letting me see it all! The boat house was amazing and the grounds...I have no words. I can't imagine how wonderful it would have been to live there.

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  10. I feel like I'm on holiday! Thanks for those pretty impressions... really enjoyed it.
    Love, Mirjam.

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  11. Wow Jacquie, that was amazing. Thanks for taking us on your tour with you. It is a stunning house, and I'm sure you will draw the summer house on the water. :) It is just too pretty.
    I think the strongly scented flowers could be a variety of Jasmine, but most likely they are Honeysuckle.

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  12. Salvin also designed Scotney Castle, another NT property near us. The climbing plant is definitely Jasmine and it certainly does smell divine!

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  13. Such a lovely house Jacquie. Thank you for sharing your day out with us. I am glad that you all had such a good time. I think that the handcream plant might be a sort of jasmine, but I am not not at all sure of that! You took some great photos as well! xx

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  14. A successful day if it was deemed as 'alright' then!! I thoroughly enjoyed my day out with you!!! Beautiful pictures, I loved the ones around the lake, and I could practically smell the flowers! X

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  15. Beautiful place. I think the flower is jasmine, leaves and flower very much look like a jasmine.

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  16. This has to be one of our favourite NT houses, my girls have grown up visiting here, I always imagine I'm in France when we visit! :) x

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  17. What a lovely place to visit. We had many happy visits to National Trust properties when our children were younger. Your photographs are beautiful and the colour of the buildings looks so warm. I agree that the scented plant is a jasmine. We used to have a white one in our garden that was very similar.
    Cathy x

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  18. Beautiful photo's. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Amsterdam.

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  19. Sounds like you had a great time! This is on my to visit list, sometimes the tower is open for visitors to explore and I'd like to do that one day.

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  20. Hello again, thanks for your comment. I'm not going to be going on Friday - I had hoped to, but as I don't have a job at the moment, and I haven't had a lot of supply work for the last 2 months, I just can't afford it at the moment! I hope there will be another meet up in future though that I can attend :) Hope you have a great time.

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  21. Jacquie, thank you for sharing this visit with us, it was such a treat! (Also, I'm glad someone had sun yesterday as we certainly didn't have any in West Yorkshire...) You just can't beat a National Trust visit on a bank holiday weekend, it's perfection. x

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  22. What a stunning place to visit, the National Trust have some of the most beautiful houses don't they. I absolutely love the orangery, I'm a bit obsessed with them. And how wonderful that they've put all of those art materials out, a lovely touch. I think the flowers might be jasmine, that would fit with the hand cream smell as well I think. This was such a good post Jacquie, with such wonderful photos. Thank you so much for sharing. CJ xx

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  23. Wonderful photo's I love the light and the wonderful blue skies that May brings and wow that boat house looks the most perfect place to be
    Clare x

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  24. How fabulous and thankyou for sharing with us! I also like a maze I can see over the top of lol

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  25. I love all your photos! Since I am from Midwest America I don't know if I will ever get there to see all of these beautiful buildings and scenery. Your commentary is also great!

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  26. A fantastic post!! I went to Belton House many, many years ago and you have sparked my interest again. I love the little boat house, it looks like a fishermen's basket! Have a wonderful week xx

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  27. Oh Jacquie I really really enjoyed your post tonight - it was just fabulous. I love this house and am determined to visit it this year as it looks so interesting. You always give us all a great adventure Jacquie when you go visiting which is why I always love coming over to see you. Have a fabulous week. Big hugs, Dorothyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  28. The entire estate is stunning! Thanks yet again for "taking" us along, I really enjoyed my "tour." I especially loved the boat house and all the textures, a piece of art work in it's own right.

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  29. Beautiful photos and thank you so much for sharing your day out. Glad the boys enjoyed it, x

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