The Titus: T.Rex is King Exhibition at Wollaton Hall is the first time that a real T.Rex skeleton has been on display in England for at least 100 years and the first time that this particular skeleton, which was excavated from Montana by Craig Pfister in 2018 has ever been put on public display.
Last week I paid a visit to Wollaton Hall and Deer Park which I haven’t been to since the pandemic started since it takes me two short bus journeys to get there. I’ve mainly been walking around my local area during all the lockdowns which can get a bit boring so it was nice to have a bit of a change of scene now that I’m fully vaccinated but still taking sensible precautions. I didn’t manage to see any deer on this trip which is unusual but plenty of swans and their cygnets on the lake and I paid a visit to the gardens and saw some sculptures that I’d not seen before around the grounds. [There’s a special exhibition on inside the hall of a T.Rex skeleton for which I have tickets but not till next month so expect a post about that in the future].
The Nottingham Industrial Museum is based in part of the 17th century stable block at Wollaton Hall and as it’s only open on weekends and Bank Holidays it took quite a while before I got around to visiting. It focuses on a wide range of Nottingham industries including lace, bicycles and mining.
St Leonard’s Church in Wollaton, Nottingham, has been around since the 1200s and it would have fallen under the care of the Mortein and then the Willoughby families, owners of the nearby Wollaton Hall.
My plan for Saturday was to head to Wollaton Hall to take photos of the deer in the snow, something I’ve not managed to do before. We had some snow overnight but the roads were clear so we headed out in the search of deer. At first we didn’t think we were going to see any but the grounds looked beautiful in the snow and there were lots of people, adults and children, enjoying a bit of sledging. Then, just as we had decided to head back home we came across this lovely herd.
On Monday we went to visit the Dinosaurs of China Exhibition at Wollaton Hall which I’ve been very excited to see since it was first announced. Running until the end of October it is a display of dinosaur fossils and skeletons that have never been shown outside of Asia before, and includes the tallest dinosaur skeleton ever displayed in the UK, the magnificent Mamenchisaurus which you can see below.
The deer at Wollaton Hall are currently rutting so I thought that would be a good opportunity to take some photographs (being mindful not to get too close, of course!) Below are some of the photos I captured of the stags, plus geese and swans around the lake.
Wollaton Hall is a gorgeous Elizabethan mansion set in extensive grounds. In fact I was struck anew on my latest visit by just how lovely a building it is.
After my trip to Martin’s Pond Nature Reserve, I had a look back through my photos and realised that it had been at least 5 years since I’d last visited the nearby Wollaton Hall. I decided therefore to make a day of it, exploring both the grounds and the Hall itself.
On a cloudy day in September I decided to explore one of Nottingham’s hidden areas, Martin’s Pond. I only became aware of its existence recently, even though it is very close to Wollaton Hall, as it is tucked away in a residential area. What I discovered on my wanderings though, was that Martin’s Pond is linked by a trail with Harrison’s Plantation, which in turn leads on to Raleigh Pond, hence putting them together in one post.
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