A Weekend in Cheshire

Saturday August 17

Today Joyce asked us where we would like to go and we chose Tatton Park which is National Trust.  We had a walk through the extensive gardens before viewing the house.

Pineapples growing in the hot houses.

The gardens have been recreated as they would have been in past times.

These are the formal Italian gardens which could be looked out at from inside the house form the upper floors to give the overall view.

 

Part of the beautiful Japanese garden.

Another part of the Japanese garden.

 

There was a Beatrix Potter exhibition in the garden and in the house.  So here is Jeremy Fisher on his lily pad.

Squirrel Nutkin and friends on their rafts.

Tom Kitten looking very surprised to find an interloper in his kitchen.

And of course everyones favourite; Peter Rabbit.

Lunch was in a recently opened restaurant The Gardener's Cottage.  A long serving gardener recently retired and the new gardener had no desire to live in the cottage so it has been turned into rather a nice restaurant.  They have used all the floor and we ate lunch on what would have been the master bedroom.



After lunch we visited the charming village of Knutsford. We went and viewed the Kuntsford Tapestry. Hand stitched by Knutsford citizens - with more than 6 million stitches and an amazing 52 miles of wool, the tapestry measuring 40ft in 3 sections is an impressive sight. Many of Knutsford's houses, shops and buildings are depicted along with street scenes.
The idea for the tapestry began in 1997 with Jennifer Holbrook and has now materialised into something already compared with the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the time period of William the Conqueror.
With so much changing in the town the Knutsford Tapestry has already become a historical record of the history and architecture in Knutsford in the year 2000.



Here are a couple of pictures of the tapestry from the website.
http://www.knutsfordheritage.co.uk/the-tapestry

Afternoon tea was in a quirky tearoom full of Pennyfarthings.

Sunday August 18
Today we had a lazy start and headed out to late lunch in a pub at 3pm.  From here we went to Gawsworth where we there was going to be a concert by Foden's Band in the evening.

Gawsworth is a beautiful tudor building that has been well cared for by many generations.  It is now a lived in house by the Richards family.
We toured the inside of the house but were unable to take photos but there are some stunning photos of the inside of the house on this website.
 http://www.gawsworthhall.com/

We visited the church on the estate in the late afternoon..

The interior of the church.

In the evening we really enjoyed the concert by Fodens band.  They are currently double champions of the UK and had their marvelous trophies on display.  http://www.fodensband.co.uk/index.php