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Another place I visited when I was in Lichfield was the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum. Built for Johnson’s parents in 1707-8 it was their family home and the family bookshop and Samuel was born there in 1709.
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Whilst visiting Litchfield Cathedral I noted that directly opposite the front entrance was the Erasmus Darwin House and Herb Garden. Erasmus was Charles Darwin’s grandfather who came to Litchfield in 1756 and moved into this house with his wife in 1758.
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I’d been inspired by a photograph I’d seen online to go and see this impressive looking cathedral with its three spires for myself. I’d also read about the tours of the towers that the Cathedral offered, but in the end the changeable weather made me decide to forego looking into that on the day I visited. The first cathedral on the site was founded in 700AD and the spires were completed after the Cathedral had been around for 600 years.
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On a spectacularly sunny day in June a friend and I travelled to Ryton Organic Gardens, near Coventry. She’d heard about the gardens because of the on site vegetarian/vegan café and we thought it would make for a good day out.
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On one of my recent outings I had to change from a train to a bus in Rugby and found myself with roughly half an hour to spare. Taking a short walk from the bus stop I spotted St Andrew’s Church and decided to pop inside.
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On 25 September, 150 years to the day when Theatre Royal Nottingham had its opening night, I went along to one of their open days held to celebrate this impressive feat and through which I was able to take a behind the scenes tour of a theatre I regularly visit and which I’ve always thought Nottingham is very lucky to have on its doorstep. The brothers John and William Lambert, wealthy Nottingham factory owners, wanted to provide the city with an entertainment venue and hired the architect Charles Phipps to make their dream a reality in 1865. It took him 6 months and £15,000 to build one of my favourite buildings in the city. (Its cost today would be in the millions).
The Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is on the grounds of Belton House, although it is not actually maintained by the National Trust.
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On a spectacularly sunny day in June I went to Belton House, a National Trust property in Lincolnshire. It has been in the possession of the Brownlow family since 1609, though its current design owes much to work ordered by Sir John Brownlow in 1684, and has some surprising historical connections – Edward VIII stayed there before his abdication and during World War One it housed a camp for the Machine Gun Corps. It was given to the National Trust in 1984.
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On my trip to Longleat Safari Park we chose to stay over the border in Somerset rather than in Wiltshire itself. As my Dad is a rail enthusiast he made sure we visited the East Somerset Railway, a 2½ mile heritage railway that runs trips between Cranmore and Mendip Vale.
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Longleat began life as the site of an Augustinian Priory and was purchased by the Duke of Somerset John Thynne in 1541. It has undergone many changes since then and has also served as a relief hospital during the First World War and during the Second was also the site of an American Hospital and an RAF depot. It was opened to the public in 1949. Its name derives from the long “lete” – man-made ditch to channel water – which used to supply the original priory.
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