It's odd how even though it is so fine, it also became something that I had ticked off my must see list, and I had many more to go. It has not been on my list since and was not on my radar at all this trip until Susan pointed out that Lucy hadn't seen it to remember. I was still ho-hum, but hey we are chilling out in Cheshire and the afternoon looks as though it should improve from being in a cloud, why not?
The first thing was go to Macclesfield railway station to observe Tony and Margaret buying their Eurostar tickets, this was needed so we can do the same thing at Norwich, when we leave for Paris. After confusing the helpful station staff with my accent ("which county you from then"), the Oz nuclear family set out solo across Cheshire with only Google Maps and bad 3G to guide us.
Astonishing ourselves we arrived at a full car park only twenty minutes later, managing not to bog ourselves in, we trotted happily off to join the queue at the ticket counter.
A large lawn at the edge of a moat, with picnic tables, perfect for pork pies and houmus! Next thing, Lucy is at the side of the moat, "have you seen the size of these fish"! Seriously large gold fish, at least 440mm, follow us along the moat to the bridge into half-timber world.
Ther was a tour just beginning which I wanted to follow, Susan and Lucy just rolled their eyes and headed off after the first room, so I will never know all the details of each piece of plaster... heartbreaking.
The amazing thing about the Hall is that it hasn't fallen over, it is England's Leaning Tower of Pisa, slowly sinking sideways into the marsh it is built on. It's also a McMansion of its time, one family adding more and more show off fashion bits to their house until it really does start to bend and sink under the weight of their ambitions. Then it's a hay barn for 250 years, after the family find they are on the wrong side of the English Civil War. Somehow about six or seven pieces of original furniture survive in the house throughout, which really does make a great 15th C House & Gardens display home.
After Lucy has learned about roof joining, run around the undulating Long Gallery, played Goe Fishe, Goose and checked the Garderobes, not to mention Susan beating me at Nine Man's Morris, we repaired to the garden for afternoon cakes and wine with the other punters and a quackering chorus of cheeky ducks.
Susan and I then bored Lucy rigid by discussing the garden planting with the chief gardener, however Lucy was then able to roll down a small hill in the garden several times. Finally back to the entrance kiosk, where I photographed all the books that would be too heavy to carry home and consoled myself with a marzipan treat.
After stopping at an wonderfully fine church up the road we went on a mystery tour of the back lanes, through dense little woods and steep climbs and drops via Wildboarclough, back to Kettleshulme and dinner.
Posted from deepest mobility....
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