Wednesday 3 April 2019

On our Doorstep - Middleton Hall Plant Hunters Fair

Hi there everyone 😀

A while ago now an event popped up on my Facebook feed for a plant finders fair at Middleton Hall, which is literally just a couple of miles up the road from us.

I have started to try and get a bit more savvy about putting these local events on my calendar so that, if we are free, we can try and get out and about a bit without having to go too far and make the most of what is on offer right in our doorstep.

Well, we love plants, the weather was good and, though we’ve visited the grounds and courtyard shopping area, we have never been in Middleton Hall itself, so it sounded like it could be right up our street.

We arrived at the end of the drive to be greeted by a very friendly gentleman welcoming us and explaining that they were very, very busy so there was a bit of a queue for parking and they were operating in a one in, one out process.

We were in no hurry so decided to join the queue and hope that we wouldn’t have to wait too long. We actually ended up getting very lucky and found a space quite quickly right in front of the Hall, so didn’t have too much of a walk.

We decided we’d start out with a look at the plants on offer and were quite surprised to see how many stalls there were.

It was also good to see it being busy as it’s nice when this kind of local event is well supported,

We didn’t actually buy any plants, but we did have a good look and it certainly made us think about what a variety of plants we already have in our own garden, there weren’t that many that we couldn’t identify and lots that we already had given homes to.

The walled garden was also open ...
... so we had a bit of a wander around and whilst it is still quite early there were plenty of signs of the garden coming back to life for the summer ...

 

The smithy was also in operation ... 
From the garden we moved on and round to the Hall where we found there was more to be seen than we had thought there would be.
It is definitely a hall of two parts with the newer part of the Hall being available to hire for weddings and functions with the huge staircase being a popular spot for wedding photos ...
There was plenty more to see though, with lots of impressive embroidery, which was difficult to photograph because of the reflections on the glass ...
There were a couple of other rooms laid out in period style as well as The Peel  museum which tells the stories of both the early police and the Peel family ...
Outside and across the courtyard is the older part of the Hall, dating back to 1285. It is so different to the newer part of the hall and really interesting ...
The old stable block has been converted to a courtyard shopping area with an antique shop, a few gift shops and a cafe ... 
We headed there next hoping to find a spot of refreshment but it was just so busy we decided to give it a miss for today. Instead we headed back into Tamworth and into the castle grounds ...
Where we nipped into the cafe in the park for breakfast sarnies followed by very tasty fruit scones ...
We had one last stop before heading for home and we called in at mum and dad's to wish mum a Happy Mothers' Day 💜💜💜

We'd had a really lovely day out and all pretty much on our doorstep ... We may not have the delights of living by the sea or in the beauty of one of our national parks but we are lucky having so many lovely places and events going on so close to home 😀

*****************************************************************************

1 comment:

Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.