Haddon Hall at Christmas!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everybody had a lovely December, I was so busy with work and friends and family that I feel like I need another Christmas break to recover!

I had a lovely day out to near by Haddon Hall which was decorated for Christmas, and it was beautiful! The hall dates back to the 11th century and is currently owned and occupied by the Manners family, lucky people!

Haddon Hall

I had never been to Haddon before, and I really look forward to visiting again. The decorations were lovely and there were real fires throughout (very jealous).

Fire!

The decorations were mostly traditional greenery that fits with the interior decor of the hall. It looked really nice, still managing to stand out in the rooms and make our visit feel very festive.

The Main Hall

I especially loved the Peacock themed decorations in the Long Gallery! It is the sort of room that makes people go ‘Wow’ when they see it, myself included.

The Long Gallery

Peacock Tree

The Long Gallery was themed with Peacocks because it features on the Manners family coat of arms. They are beautiful birds anyway, and I am especially fond of them now as they remind me of my time at Powis.

A peacock carved into the wood of the Long Gallery

Another tree I really liked was the on where visitors were invited to write their Christmas wishes on tags and hang them on the tree. It had a really good effect and I thought it looked very classical against the tapestry backdrop.

The wishes tree

It was an amazingly beautiful day, really sunny (yet still freezing!) and that just added to the beauty of Haddon’s lovely grounds. The rooms were light and the sun made some really interesting effects where it was streaming in through the windows.

Sunshine!

Sunshine on the dining room table

I was also really taken with the interesting windows at Haddon. They are all wibbly (technical term) and reflected the light so delightfully.

Haddon’s windows

The Chapel was especially atmospheric, decorated with greenery, music playing, candles burning and full of smoke from the incense burning. We spend a lot of time in there, absorbing the atmosphere and admiring the paintings on the walls.

The Chapel

In the courtyard at Haddon Hall

Across the courtyard from the main hall is a little museum displaying objects found in the hall. It has a really interesting, eclectic collection, with pretty pieces of glass, nice keys and even a piece of Hardwick matting!

I would really recommend a visit to Haddon, it is a stunning property with real charm, especially on a nice sunny day when you can fully appreciate not only the beautiful interiors and manicured garden but also the building itself within its amazing location.

Encountering Moseley Old Hall

Just after I had returned from my visit to Packwood and Baddesley I was off to another Trust property, this time for a training day!

As part of a large project taking place at Hardwick which I seem to have taken on a large part of the responsibility for me and Sadie have been going on several training courses. The latest of which was hosted at Moseley Old Hall, a lovely property in the Midlands with a very exciting story to tell.

Moseley Old Hall

The project we are taking part in looks at how to tell our properties stories in a different way, through active engagement and conversation. I got involved in this project thanks to my background as a re-enactor and am really enjoying it so far, even if it is going to be a lot of hard work!

We were having our meeting at Moseley as they have already been through the project that Hardwick is now undertaking. Recently Moseley decided to open Mondays and Tuesdays, when traditionally they had always been closed. The team saw this as an opportunity and decided to have these days manned by volunteer costumed interpreters.

Making Reed Tapers

Every so often they also have a special event where the volunteer team stage the day to be the most dramatic day in Moseley’s history, the day they harbored King Charles II after the battle of Worcester in 1651. I really want to go and visit on this day, it sounds fantastic! It is a really bold move that the team have made but so far it seems to be working for them.

The Dresser in the Brew-House

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to wander around the hall, meet the volunteers and see what activities they were doing. We started on the middle floor and so we went through several rooms before we encountered a volunteer, which left us with a strange sense of almost naughty freedom that you don’t usually find yourself with in a National Trust property (unless of course you work there!).

As we were exploring we found the Priest Hole King Charles had hidden in. It was nice to just discover the hall for ourselves but it worries me that if I had not had someone with me who knew the property I would have missed the significance of this unassuming hole in the floor.

The Priest Hole

At one point I get distracted by their brilliant fake fires! This is what happens when you work in the heritage industry, you get excited by the most random things and are always looking for good ideas to inspire you. The fake fire in this grate even ‘smoked’!

The Fake Fire+–

The volunteers were doing things like making Reed Tapers in front of the real fire and explaining period board games, which kept us all amused for quite a while! Several of the games where ones I play when I am my Medieval alter-ego. It was nice that Moseley has the freedom to light fires in the grate and space for these interactive activities.

I also spotted a really beautiful clock in the Entrance Hall. I quite like clocks because they are such a practical object that is regularly so beautifully made and ornately decorated! I always enjoyed being responsible for winding all the clock at Greyfriars.

The Clock

A glimps of the pretty Garden through the window

The outdoors at Moseley is just as beautiful as the indoors, and there is just as much to discover. At the end of our meeting we were told about Moseley’s new Tree House! Me and Sadie decided we just had to go and have a look for ourselves, and we were not disappointed! With a special pot of money Moseley had created an outdoor adventure area including a mammoth Tree House, with steps, ladders, scramble path and rope! Here are some pics of me ‘testing’ the Tree House out.

The Tree House

Testing out the rope

Germany – Part Three!

Last bit of blabbering about my European adventure! For the main part of our holiday were staying in Langenau, an odd little town on the edge of Bavaria. One day we went for a stroll around and it just seems …

And we’re open!!

We have opened our doors to the public again, but it doesn’t seem very long since we closed after Christmas! However, getting the house ready for the public made me realise just how much our team has achieves over since …

Almost there!

This Saturday Hardwick Hall will open to the public for 2014, and the pressure is on for us Chaps to put everything back in place and make sure it’s all picture perfect again! Along with a new season we have …