Nottingham Light Night 2023

Light Night is always a highlight of Nottingham’s cultural calendar and this, its 15th year, showcased a lot of new attractions to visit and photograph. It takes part over two days and most things (though not all) are available on both days so usually we just go on the Friday evening. There is a quite handy official app that I use to plan the route around the city (there’s so much going on its impossible to do everything). Our first stop was at Sneinton Market Square where they had these giant bubbles called Evanescent created by Australian artists Atelier Sisu that is I believe touring the country (they were in London last month). They’re quite fun and the changing colours were very pretty.

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Penrhyn Castle Gardens

After a fortifying cup of tea in the tea rooms I headed out to explore the gardens at the castle. Walter Speed, who became head gardener in 1862 and continued working there for an impressive 58 years, is considered the creator of the grounds and gardens. In fact the gardens were renowned as one of the top three best gardens in Britain and Speed was given the prestigious Victoria Medal for Horticulture by Queen Victoria herself.

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The Railway Museum at Penrhyn Castle

I hadn’t realised until I arrived at Penrhyn Castle that there was a railway museum on site – it’s based in what were the stables where 36 of the estate’s horses used to call home. If you’ve been around for a while you’ll know that my dad is very much a train enthusiast and I have been dragged to all manner of train related sites throughout the country from a very young age so I was especially keen to photograph everything I could to show him.

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Penrhyn Castle

I can’t quite remember how Penrhyn Castle came up in my research as things to do in North Wales but it ended up being my favourite destination. It’s one of those rare National Trust properties that’s easy to get to by public transport. Closer to Bangor than Conwy it’s a pleasant 40 minutes by bus from Conwy town centre (Arriva buses have a very handy app that worked well and an all day ticket covering North Wales cost me £6.50). The bus stop is right outside the entrance to the castle although there is then a gentle mile walk down the driveway to the ticket office and round to the castle itself.

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Plas Mawr, Conwy

Plas Mawr is an Elizabethan town house in the centre of Conwy. Welsh for “Great Hall” it was built around 1576. Maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government, it is free for Cadw members and due to reciprocal arrangements members of English Heritage (like myself), otherwise it is £8.50 for an adult ticket.

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Throwback Thursday: Liverpool Town Hall

Liverpool Town Hall, base for the Lord Mayor, was built in 1749 and designed by John Wood.

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Conwy, Wales

Conwy is a lovely small town on the North Wales coast with a skyline dominated by Conwy Castle and the town walls which date from the 13th century and both of which will feature in a future post. On the banks of the Conwy estuary the town (and castle) had a good defensive position on rocky elevated ground and also where a narrowing of the river allowed for crossings at slack tide.

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‘Tis the Season: Christmas Decorations

It’s no secret that I love Christmas. I don’t go too overboard but I do like to decorate the tree and the living room with ornaments I’ve bought on my travels. I often do a round up on Instagram of the newest ones but I thought this year I’d do a post here now that I’ve started travelling a little again. They’re usually a cheap(ish) souvenir and small enough not to take up a lot of room in your bag. The first one is this wonderful (and actually quite expensive) Welsh dragon I bought recently at Conwy Castle in Wales. [Starting next year will be a whole series of posts about what I got up to in a week’s exploration of North Wales – spoiler, it was a lot!]. Although I live in England I’ve been learning Welsh via Duolingo since the first UK Covid lockdown as I thought it would be nice to learn one of the Home Nation’s languages, Wales being the country I’ve visited the most. Amusingly one of the first words you learn is draig, the Welsh for dragon.

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‘Tis the Season: Christmas at the Exchange, Nottingham

The Exchange building in Nottingham was the city’s first shopping centre, opened in 1929. Found next to the Council House the Christmas decorations and tree have been of the same pretty design for around five years now but it’s worth a quick walk through if you’re visiting the nearby Winter Wonderland.

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Nottingham Winter Wonderland 2022

Tis the season for a lot of Christmas themed activities on the blog. Nottingham Winter Wonderland is back after a slightly disastrous attempt to return during the height of COVID. Lots of the familiar stalls have returned including delicious looking food offerings, several bars and the ice rink, though this year this has been expanded to include The Sky Skate, a covered terrace and ice path above the market, the only one of its kind in the UK, and which was proving very popular. [The official website linked above has better pics than I’d manage]. Winter Wonderland opened on November 15 and runs until December 31.

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