I managed to get tickets to see Marie Antoinette Style on the same day as the Cartier exhibition, so after visiting that exhibition and having a cup of tea and a very nice slice of cake in the cafe I headed into my second event of the day. On display were a surprising amount of Marie Antoinette’s belongings as well as items contemporary to her life and items that were inspired by her life and fashion choices centuries after her execution.
As you know from previous posts I really like the Christmas season and have decided this year to visit a few new places particularly Christmas markets/fairs as well as my usual Christmas trip with a friend. The first one was the Winter Craft Fair at Southwell Minster which I visited last Saturday. Incredibly the last time I visited the Minster (and wrote about it here) was in 2013! This is in part because it’s about a 40-45 minute bus journey from where I live but a pleasant route through some picturesque villages.
Back in September I stayed in Shrewsbury for four nights in part because it is a quick 20 minute train ride to Welshpool and Powis Castle which I’ve wanted to visit for a while now. A National Trust property the castle is around a 40 minute walk from Welshpool Railway Station through a quiet deer park which I didn’t quite get to appreciate due to the pouring rain – even well prepared with a raincoat and good walking boots I was decidedly sodden by the time I got back to my B&B later that afternoon!
When I first saw the Cartier exhibition advertised I wasn’t sure I would be able to fit it in around family commitments but thankfully by around June things had opened up and I was able to book a ticket to the exhibition – for October. The exhibition is now sold out but it’s proven so popular that they are releasing extra tickets for some evenings until it closes on 16 November, so it’s still worth checking their website every so often. Members of the V&A of course can visit for free without pre-booking needed.
Haworth is a small village in West Yorkshire, known largely for its association with the Brontës. To get there from Nottingham I got a train to Leeds, changed to a train to Keighley (pronounced Keith-lee) and walked from Keighley Railway Station to the bus station (about 10 minutes) and got on a bus from there to Haworth. There are about three buses an hour literally named Brontë Bus 1, 2 and 3 and a single costs £2.50 which you can buy on the bus via contactless. The routes vary by where in Haworth you want to be dropped off but you can check which bus will be best for you on the bus company website.
On the day that I was travelling via the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway I knew that I wanted to visit somewhere in Keighley and settled on Cliffe Castle Museum. I knew almost nothing about it other than it was an easy 20 minute walk from Keighley Railway Station and had free entry. I’d given myself roughly an hour to an hour and a half to explore before I had to head back to the station to catch my next train but could have spent a lot longer there as I was blown away by just how great the place was.
As I’ve mentioned previously my dad is a big train enthusiast and in fact this is one of the few steam railways that he’s never travelled on so I knew I would have to be taking a lot of photos to show him in particular. Haworth is conveniently the site of one of the stations and an easy 15 minutes or so walk from Main Street where I was staying, though it is quite a steep walk downwards.
In the afternoon after visiting the Brontë Parsonage and church I decided to further wander in the footsteps of the family by walking the trail that goes from next to the Parsonage to the so called Brontë Waterfall and Bridge where the sisters in particular liked to walk.
After my visit to the Brontë Parsonage I headed next door to St Michael and All Angels, more commonly known as the Brontë church. This is the third church building on the site dating between 1879 and 1881; parts of the older church survives but not as it would have been during the Brontë’s time when their father was the parish priest here.
Back in June I spent just under a week in Haworth in West Yorkshire because visiting the Brontë Parsonage Museum has been on my bucket list for a great many years. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is one of my favourite novels and I wanted to follow in the footsteps of her and her siblings.
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