Shugborough

It was a late start as everyone was feeling a little slow to get moving. We jumped in the car a little later than we hoped and headed out to Shugborough Hall. We drove through the beautifully wooded and hedgerowed Cannock Chase to its north-eastern edge where the ancestral home of the Earls of Lichfield was situated. Shugborough started of as a three storied house built in the late 17th century which was transformed into the Georgian Mansion some 50 years later. Today, it is the UK’s only complete working historic estate.

We drove up the beautiful driveway to the main carpark. We queued up for tickets and waited behind one lady who was having problems paying to get it while the other queue soldiered on. Before we left New Zealand we bought a New Zealand Historic Places Trust card which has a reciprocal relationship with the National Heritage in the UK. We showed the card and got free access to the mansion and gardens. Pamela asked if she and John could wait in the café but was told she wouldn’t be able to get in without a ticket. Fortunately, the nice lady told us not to tell anyone and let us all through for free!


We walked through the recently restored walled garden and met some people in costume who praised the lovely sedan chair on my back that the wee one was riding in. The characters walking around are based on individuals that actually existed in 1805 and the actors were briefed to only speak from that viewpoint so questions outside of that era would confuse them. That was a bit of fun, especially when John started asking one of them about the local beer.


On the path to the mansion was the Tower of Winds which was used primarily for entertaining only and sometimes as a gambling den! We walked across the paddock to the servants’ quarters which back on to the mansion. Most of the quarters have been converted into shops and cafés however one still exists in its original state. Our ticket didn’t give us access so we had to carry on.


Around the corner was the front entrance to the mansion which had fantastic columns and fancy steps which you could imagine royalty ascending in the past. The 5th Earl of Lichfield (Patrick Lichfield) was the most recent occupant and was renowned for being a famous photographer capturing amazing images of the Royal family and other celebrities like Joanna Lumley, Britt Eckland and Mick Jagger. Unfortunately, Patrick Lichfield died unexpectedly about 18 months ago and his successor only comes to the mansion on rare occasions.


As well as an exhibition of his photography, the inside of the mansion was fantastic from the dining room with its large elaborate blue ceilings with white sculpted figures which resemble Wedgwood china to the library with its secret concealed doors and mirrors. After we had a good walk through the mansion, we walked around the back to the gardens where we walked along tree and hedge lined footpaths to beautifully manicured terraces. Along the way were a variety of sculptures that had been created out of recycled bicycles which was a novel concept.




On the way through the gardens, we happened upon the notorious Shepherd’s Monument dating back to 1748 which is rumoured to have links to the Holy Grail story. It has a marble relief of two lovers listening intently to a shepherd and the inscription below the relief says O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V. above a line with D. M. separated by the length of the top line. A mystery!



We continued walking around the gardens and letting Will run himself out. The weather was warm and the skies were clear which was just perfect. We took heaps of photos and pondered over the sum of money required to buy such a place these days.



Once we arrived back at the car, we discovered we had spent almost four hours at Shugborough and Will had missed his midday sleep. He was very tired and we did our best to keep him awake for the journey back home. He crawled into his bed and fell asleep almost immediately and had a good long sleep. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and Lou had a kip on the conservatory. I helped John fold some fishnets which are the local church newsletters that Pamela and John help deliver around part of Penkridge.

When Lou woke up we walked down to the local supermarket and bought some ingredients for tortillas for dinner which with a pint of Tetley’s was perfect in the evening sun. When everyone else had gone to bed, we packed our bags again.

Bourneville

After two days, Will had developed a routine of sitting in front of the fan for several minutes before doing several laps of the garden shouting “You chase me! You chase me!”… and today was no exception. We spent the better part of the morning chasing and exterminating him that we felt quite tired ourselves.


Originally we had decided to go and do some shopping in the morning and hit Cadbury World in the afternoon but we changed it around so Will could get a good run around in the playground and have a sleep in the car at some stage. En route to Cadbury World we passed a pub called ‘The Spread Eagle’ which made us laugh.


Traffic was slow moving around the outskirts of Birmingham so it took us a little bit longer than we had anticipated getting there. Cadbury World is located in Bourneville (a suburb of Birmingham) which was established by Cadbury & Sons as a community for the workers of the factory. Because they were staunch Quakers, alcohol was forbidden which is a rule that is still in force in Bourneville even today.

Simon bought all our tickets and since we had a specific time to go through, we decided we would take a look around Bourneville. Lou and Will found a nice little playground over the road where Moosey got some more air time on one of the slides with the same reaction from Will as before. The rest of us walked along a nice little street where we bought some egg custard tarts for lunch (35 p each) to an old house called Selly Manor. A beautiful Tudor-style building dating back to the 14th century, it was due to be demolished before Cadbury bought them and had it relocated to Bourneville. It was literally taken down piece by piece and rebuilt over four years.



We arrived back at Cadbury World and went in for the tour. It had lots of corridors for Will to run along, like the Aztec Forest and the Cadbury Story, as well as a few kiddie friendly activities including Cadabra - a ride through a model chocolate wonderland. Simon and John had a car to themselves and looked unimpressed going through, but Will enjoyed it as I'm sure it reminded him of the Small World ride in Disneyland. There were plenty of informative sections detailing the history of Cadbury and the chocolate making process, and we each came away with a decent bag of goodies.


After Cadbury World, we drove into Birmingham to the Bullring – a famous market place since The Middle Ages that has been developed into a shopping centre several times with over 26 football pitches worth of shops, boutiques and restaurants. We walked around for a while looking at a few of the sales before we stumbled (accidentally?) into a Krispy Kreme donut shop. Needless to say, we stopped there for a while before moving on. After a good couple hour and a half, we met up with Pamela, John and Simon and headed back to Penkridge. I offered to cook a couple of curries for dinner which were graciously accepted by all. We stayed up a bit and chatted before going to bed.

Penkridge

In the morning, we went to St Michael’s church in Penkridge – a lovely Norman-style church built during the reign of King John that still has vertical scratches on the outside walls where they used to sharpen their arrows. The service was good and had a very familiar at-home feel about it. There was a nice little area at the back for Will to play with some toys and there was a mezzanine type room upstairs with a view back out into the main room where the bigger children could come and play.


The sun was shining outside so we took a walk around the graveyard and found the gravestones of both Rachel Hall and John Hall. Back at home Pamela made a lovely Sunday roast with New Zealand lamb and lots of yummy potatoes. We were all very full after finished all of that!

Simon showed me the Nintendo DS with the brain tester module that he had bought for John to keep his mind sharp. I was a bit tired when I first tried it and it gave me a brain age somewhere in the eighties. It did seem to be struggling with my accent (what accent?) a bit but I did a lot better on the Maths component managing a Train Speed for the mental arithmetic and Flying Speed for Quick Sudoku and it gave me a brain age of 23 which was much more pleasing.


Will had a good long sleep to catch up for the late night and we sat in the conservatory and relaxed in the warmth. We were still there when Will woke up. Now, Will has been fascinated with fans almost as long as he has with lights. There was a fan in the conservatory that he was really enjoying.

Lou, Will, Rachel and I went for a walk to the playground but I suggested we head down via the canal first. The canal was half a block away from Pamela and John’s and I remembered it well from my first visit. Moored on the rather thin canal were a line of narrow boats all decorated with traditional colours and designs. Further down the canal we stood and watched as the lock was used to elevate and lower the boats to the different levels of the canal. Lou was amazed at how quick it was.


We walked around the back of the village, past Rachel’s old school and her old house, to the playground where Will ran around and had a good turn on the slide and swings. Will did a funny thing at the top of the slide when we gave him Moosey and after he threw it down the slide he burst into tears. We gave it back and he was so happy. Then he threw it down the slide and burst into tears again! This happened for several minutes which was hilarious and very cute to watch.


We took some family photos and said goodbye to Rachel. She had work the next morning so she had to head back to Gloucester. The news reported that water would be back on so we all hoped for her sake that it would be. Since we had a Sunday Roast at lunch time, we had beans on toast for dinner and we chilled out in front of the TV watching From Russia with Love.

Naunton to Penkridge

We packed our gear into the car and briefly met Sally’s parents as we were going. They had come to look after Ben while Mark and Sal were in Eastbourne for the night – the first time away from Ben over night for them! I hope it went well! We said goodbye to Ben and Billy and George (their monster sized black cats that are more like panthers but soft and friendly) and left Naunton village.


We drove down to Gloucester and followed Rachel’s dictated over-the-phone off-the-top-of-her-head instructions that were incredibly accurate. We pulled up outside her front door and unloaded our gear. Mark had to take a quick leak in the garden as there was no water in the cistern then we bid them a hasty farewell as they wanted to get to Eastbourne as quickly as possible.

We only spent a short amount of time at Rachel’s – she apologised profusely for not being able to provide such services as a flush toilet or drinking water – so we packed all of our gear into Rachel’s little car and then we were back on the M5 bound for Staffordshire.

After an hour or so of traveling we arrived at Pamela and John’s house. John was out and about performing another of his good services for his friends, but we were warmly welcomed by Pamela and Simon. We had a lovely cup of tea (the first of many during our stay here, I was sure) before we took our gear upstairs to our bedroom. We discovered a Will-sized Tigger for him to play with which he absolutely fell in love with and dragged around with him (much like Linus and his blanket).


We let Will loose on the garden to burn off some excess energy before we put him down to bed. As he slept, Rachel took Lou and me to the Penkridge market where many a bargain was to be had. I found a new pair of jeans for ten quid and we bought some pork scratchings to sample and, if good, bring a packet home for dad. I found a cute toy for Will – a multi coloured moose called Moosey.


After Will woke up, we had a small bite to eat and then headed out to Edna’s (a friend of Pamela and John’s in the village) house for her 64th birthday party. We stayed for a while before we had to bring Will home well past his bed time. Pamela and John stayed on while Lou, Rachel and I stayed at home and watched a cheesy American movie called Rat Race and had half a bottle of wine.