Me and my dear wife had a day out at Sizergh Castle in the South Lakes , it's taken me quite a while to get around to visiting it as I've live all my life within a stones throw of it - if you got rid of the trees and the odd hill - and climbed onto our house roof I could see it !
It was originally a Pele Tower/ Keep and dates back to the 1200's . It's run by the National Trust and has a well thought of garden surrounding it.
Over the years other generations have added bits on and the result is a bit higglty pigglty , but very quaint.
It has been owned by the Strickland family for about 800 years . These houses seem to have need to display weapons in the Hall above fireplaces - here we see a jumble of weapons probably none of which have anything to do with the house and purchased from various auctions.
Zulu shields and spears !? - as far as I know the family has no connection with S.Africa.
Above some of the fireplaces are magnificent oak carved paneling .
James the 2nd- Seamas an Chaca (James the shit), the Stricklands have always been Catholic - even when it was unpopular to be so and after the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 followed King James into exile in France , only returning after 15 years.(sorry for the glare on the photo)
Lots of Flemish (?) tapestries
even more tapestries.
Another loser 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' - they didn't back this one !
Don't think I would like to try and sleep in a bedroom like this - to Gothic Horror for me !
Members of staff cleaning - I was told a never ending job - they Hoover things whilst using a protective muslin sheet to prevent damage to the furniture.
More armour on display , these are back and breast plates from the Civil War era - they backed the wrong horse in that race as well !
No not Lady Macbeth - Mrs K coming down a spiral staircase .
Out into the gardens - trying out my panoramic view (click on photo to enlarge).
I have heard people who know about gardens (I do not) sing the praises of this garden.
The weather helped (now raining here as I type this)
Honey Bees ! - there was a sign say 'Warning Bees' !
Love these steps - my neighbour would have wanted to weed them (philistine with OCD) (he despairs about ours)
Lovely feature , the building is mainly local Limestone so the Sandstone surround must have been imported from somewhere .
Another 'Grand Day Out' - even Mrs K enjoyed it (not a natural castle person) and we even had some rather expensive ice-creams (it was National Trust after all !) . A link to a website about the castle so you can find out all the things I missed and got wrong.
Looks like a worthwhile visit. I'll put it on the to visit list if we make it up to the Northlands one day.
ReplyDeleteI was worth a visit, even though it's taken me 60 plus years to get there.
DeleteAnother excellent day out Tony, and another great report as well! This looks like a wonderful place to visit, and you provided a brilliant tour that I thoroughly enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteGlad I visited it, interesting place.
DeleteLooks like it is a very interesting place to visit, plenty to see that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteStrange how it seems harder to visit locally than travel to visit.
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