A sense of past times

This is the 14th century Banqueting Hall at Haddon Hall. This room, together with the kitchens, the parlour and Solar Chamber (above) was the principal living area. Called the Great Hall it would have been set in an open quadrangle to minimize the risk of fire spreading.

Do you think it looks like a film set? It has been on many occasions, but neither is Haddon a museum. The present Duke of Rutland, Edward Manners, and his wife live there and welcome visitors who can appreciate a house and estate with a history that stretches back to medieval times.

Haddon Hall has been the location for many films and television dramas, including Pride and Prejudice, The Princess Bride, and both Zeffirelli's and Fukunaga's film versions of Jane Eyre.

At the moment there is an exhibition of some of the costumes of Jane Eyre (the films and BBC mini-series) in the Long Gallery.

You can see down the length of the Elizabethan Long Gallery. It was one of the last rooms that I went into in the late afternoon. For a while I was the only visitor there except for one of the helpful guides sitting quietly by the door ready to answer questions. In the silence of that room there was quite an atmosphere of past times.  It was rather strange passing the static models dressed in

beautiful costumes.  In addition, the Bronte novel is a favourite of mine. The length and width of the gallery and the huge windows would normally give a sense of light and space for indoor walking

and sitting. The windows overlook the beautiful terraced gardens.

New enterprises in old buildings

In an old yard in the South Yorkshire village of Wentworth Woodhouses are a number of small retail outlets selling items for the home and garden. There's a toy and children's clothes boutique, several workshops making hand made oak furniture and a working forge.

The blacksmith designs and makes beautiful wrought iron objects which can be bought at the time of visiting or can be specially commissioned such as gates, fences, weather vanes and accessories for anyone who has an open fireplace. It's a corner of the village I've been visiting often  to browse around as it's a good place to buy gifts.

                                                                                    

 'Old Building Yard' was once the kennels and building yard for Wentworth Woodhouse House and Estate, the huge mansion and vast acres of land that covered most of South Yorkshire that belonged to the Wentworth-Fitzwilliams.

The village and all the surrounding old buildings also belonged to the Estate.  The later Wentworth-

Fitzwilliams had diverse industrial interests in mining, iron foundries, and potteries and their

workforce from the village and others in the area were provided with cheap, decent housing, fuel,

school and medical facilities and were well thought of by their employees in these industries and in the house, gardens and estate. As a model village it's still very well preserved.