Christmas at Goddards House - York

Hi there everyone

Back in November we had a cosy week away for my birthday, staying at Moat Hall Cottage in Little Ouseburn, just outside of York. It was our second booking through Gorgeous Cottages and, once again, we were not disappointed.
The cottage was exactly as described on the website, a warm and cosy bolt hole in the Yorkshire countryside, overlooking the village church.

Yet again, we were really lucky with the weather, with plenty of crisp Winter sunshine and plenty of nice dry days for getting out and about.

One of our first forays was to Goddards House, which the National Trust describe as being ...

"An intimate Arts and Crafts style family home and complementary gardens"

Goddards House was the family home of the famous York Terry family ... Yes, the Terry family of the All Gold and Chocolate Orange fame. It is situated within walking distance of the old chocolate works, which opened in 1926 and closed in 2005 and is currently being redeveloped as a mixed use residential/commercial real estate site, which you can find out more about in one of the exhibitions in the house.

The house itself is situated just outside of the city centre and there isn't any real parking, though we did manage to sneak in on the roadside by The Holiday Inn, about 5 minutes up the road.

We walked along the main road towards the property and we were just beginning to wonder where it was, and if we might have missed it, when it appeared with no warning whatsoever. It would be very easy to drive straight past if you didn't know it was here.

The first glimpse of the property, through the narrow arch in the gatehouses, looked very intriguing and we couldn't wait to explore on, what was a lovely bright and sunny, but chilly, Autumn day.

We were really lucky to have timed our visit with their Christmas event. At this time of year the house is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and the rooms are decked out as they would have been on Christmas Eves across the years.

We entered, just as the Terry family would have done, back in the day. Via the heavy wooden front door, to be greeted by friendly National Trust staff, who were very welcoming and more than happy to tell us about the history of the house and its famous local family.

When having Goddards House built, Noel Terry wanted to create a comfortable family home close to the chocolate works for Kathleen, his wife and his four children: Peter, Kenneth, Betty and Richard. I would say he certainly achieved his ambition. This gorgeous hand crafted house was finished in 1927. There are plenty of quotes and memories from the family threaded throughout the house to be discovered on your visit.

We started our visit in The Study...

... where we could see some of the letters that Noel had written to his family whilst away at war in 1916 ...

From the study we moved on to The Drawing Room, which was a real delight. It was just beautiful and very easy to imagine curling up in front of the fire with a Christmas sherry, enjoying the views over the garden. It is also possible to enjoy refreshments from the tea room in here too, which would be just lovely.

The Christmas decorations, as throughout the rest of the house, were very simple and tasteful, with real trees and presents wrapped in plain brown paper ...

The third room that is set out as it would have been back in the day is the children's games room, come music room ...

Beating Martin on the bagatelle was a bonus, as this left him paying for the tea and cake ...

Upstairs there were a good number of rooms to looks at, some decked out as bedrooms and some devoted to sharing the history or the factory, with pictures of how it looks now, as a pretty amazing care home.

It was then time to avail ourselves of the dining room where we felt it only right that we should check out the Terry's chocolate orange cake, which was a real treat. The dining room was just lovely, bright and warm with the Autumn sunshine streaming through the windows.

It was then time to explore outside, which gave the best views of the house, looking back across the terrace ... 

We did have a wander round the gardens, which are fairly small, but would probably be of more interest at a different time of year.

In National Trust terms, this is a fairly small property, but we loved it. You can really get the feel of how the house would have worked as a family home in the time that the Terry family lived there, it has been laid out really well and seeing it set up for Christmas was a real treat.

All in all, including our pit stop in the tea room, I would say our visit took us a couple of hours, which gave us plenty of time to head in to York for a look at Treasurer's House, another National Trust property right in the centre of the the City 😀

10 Most Popular Posts of 2016

Hi there everyone

Well, here we are, so very nearly at the end of another busy and eventful year. Two big highlights for me this year have been Martin retiring and, more recently, the arrival of my beautiful new nephew, Bobby James, who is just too adorable for words 💕💕💕

I am sure he will be featuring from time to time in my upcoming posts and am really looking forward to the adventures that I know we will all have together.

It's that time of year when it's nice to look back and see which of my posts were your favourites, so here we go with the top 10, in reverse order of course ...


Beautiful Britain - Harrogate, Yorkshire
In 10th spot we have the ramblings of our annual catch up with old work friends. This year we had a glorious weekend in the very lovely Harrogate.

We are already booked in for our 2017 catch up, when you will be able to see what we get up to in Betws-y-Coed.

Beautiful Britain - Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire
We've managed to take in quite a few new National Trust property visits this year, including Beningbrough Hall, which we visited during our trip to Harrogate.  That's another one ticked off our list and your 9th favourite post for 2016.

Beautiful Britain - Beaulieu & Hythe, The New Forest
In 8th spot is another Beautiful Britain post. This time from our most recent holiday in The New Forest. It seems that you all found Beaulieu as beautiful as we did.

HM@No27 - Armitage Village Day
You've also enjoyed reading about our adventures out and about with the craft stall this year and in 7th spot is my post about our day out at the Armitage Village Day, which was our first real trip out with the craft stall.

A Christmas Wedding
The 6th favourite post of 2016 takes us right back to this time last year when Christmas started off with Chris and Jenny's wedding celebrations, with a surprise visit from these guys ...

5 Reasons we loved Wykewood in Yorkshire
Back in May we stayed in our first 'Gorgeous Cottage', in Yorkshire and you loved reading about what made it so special, with the post coming in as being the 5th most popular post of the year. We are already looking for another of their cottages for another trip to Yorkshire in 2017.

HM@No27 - Chancel Primary School Summer Carnival
Coming in as the 4th favourite post of the year is another trip out for us with the Hand Made at Number 27 craft stall. This time we were at the Chancel Primary School Summer Carnival, where the weather eventually picked up and we ended up having another lovely afternoon.

Beef Strogonoff ... with Quark
In spite of trying out lots of new (SW) recipes this year, I haven't actually posted that many recipes, but this Beef Strogonoff dish, made with Quark, went down really well, being the 3rd most popular over the year.

Nature in Art - Gloucester
Back in September I met up with an old friend and we loved our visit to Nature in Art, just outside of Gloucester. We were blessed with glorious weather and made the most of our wander around the outdoor sculptures on display. It seems that you all liked it too, as it was the 2nd most popular post of this year.

Beautiful Britain - Aldeburgh, Suffolk
In top spot for 2016, and this was by a country mile, was one of the most lovely days that Martin & I have enjoyed this year. We visited the Suffolk coast for the first time ever this year and Aldeburgh was one of the first places we visited. It really was one of the most lovely and unusual places that we have ever visited. I'm so glad that it was your most popular too.

So that's it from Life of Pottering for 2016. Thank you all so much for reading and letting me share some of the fun things that we've done and the beautiful places that we've seen with you.

Hopefully there will be more to see in 2017 so I do hope that we see you there.

Have a great New Year everyone. See you in 2017

Beautiful Britain - Scarborough, North Yorkshire

The last of my North Yorkshire coast holiday posts finds us in Scarborough. Love it or hate it, and I'm not sure which I actually do, it's always worth a visit when we are up that way.

It was a lovely bright day and the seafront was heaving with visitors enjoying a day in the sunshine by the sea ... It's most definitely not a place to visit if you're looking for peace and tranquility!

We parked up in the town centre and had a gentle wander down the hill, nipping in and out of pretty little shops, coming out about half way along the seafront.
We made our way towards the North end along the front, passing the craziness of Scarborough on a very busy sunny afternoon.  

We were heading for the sea food hut, where we picked up lunch, a lovely fresh prawn sandwich for me and Martin's favourite crab baguette for him.

We carried on, past the funfair and along the most Northern pier.
We enjoyed an Al fresco lunch under the gaze of the 'Bathing Belle', with great views back across the fishing pier to town, and the castle in the distance.

After lunch we headed back along the seafront towards the cliff railway. You've just gotta love a cliff railway.

We took the cliff railway back up to the top, where it was a little quieter and you could see some of the old grandeur of the town, as well some amazing views back across the bay.

It was then time to wrap up our visit to Scarborough.

So, that's it from me for the North Yorkshire coast, for now. I just know we will be back, and next time ... we may even catch the 'Tour de Yorkshire'.

Beautiful Britain - Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire

Although hailing from Yorkshire, Martin hadn't visited Robin Hoods Bay since childhood and it was somewhere I'd never been so we decided we would make the effort to visit on our wedding anniversary.

I say 'effort', as it's one of those places where you park at the top and walk down and, unlike the very lovely Clovelly and Polperro, there is no sneaky little landrover or horse drawn cart to bring you back up.

We were both a bit wary as neither of us are at the peak of fitness, and that is putting it mildly, but we both really wanted to see the bottom part of the village.

We headed out from Wykewood in brilliant sunshine and dressed for the weather. As we hit the main road we were a bit surprised to see a bank of very low cloud and mist, which appeared to be hanging directly over Robin Hood's Bay.

Undeterred we made our way through the cloud and were pleased to find it was considerably brighter when getting a bit lower down into the village. We parked up and started to make our way down the main road.

Our plan was to hit a recommended fish and chip shop at the bottom and find somewhere in the sunshine to sit and eat our anniversary lunch.

We called into the first little gift shop we passed and were pleased that we did. The owner very kindly shared with us a map of the village, and pointed out all the little cut throughs, as well as a less arduous way back up.

We slowly made our way down to the bottom, passing lots of quaint little cobbled footpaths leading in and out of the houses, most of which appear to have no vehicular access at all, so unpacking g a weekly shop must be a bit of a nightmare.

The lady in the gift shop had told us that all of the little access paths were open for public access so we wandered up and down a few marveling at the pretty little houses we found.

At the bottom there is a cafe and a couple of little moochy shops.  It was quite busy with people, having made their way down, deciding where to go next.

We had a mooch round a little antique shop before spotting a sign leading up some steps to the quarterdeck and I went up on a recce to find a lovely quiet and sheltered spot, overlooking the beach, with plenty of benches, which would be an ideal lunch spot.

It was then back to the chippy, tucked away down a little side street for fish and chips for Martin and Whitby scampi and chips for me.

We were soon sat in the sunshine, the mandatory selfies took and posted to Facebook, and enjoying some cracking fish and chips.  We would definitely pass on the recommendation, it was most certainly worth the walk down.
It was soon time to think about the climb back up the hill to the car and we took the advice we'd been given and went back a different way, in and out of the small cobbled alleys, sneaking peeks into peoples' front rooms and lives on the way.

It was a far easier trek back up than we thought it would be and it was just the very last bit that felt like a bit of an effort.

So, another lovely little place visited and stored away in the memory bank. If you're thinking of visiting Robin Hood's Bay, do. Don't be daunted by the walk and the steep hill, it's definitely worth the effort, especially if you have a fish and trip treat at the bottom.