photo from personal archive
Yesterday on a very hot day we went to Chatsworth House Estate, not in the gardens this time as in this photo of an earlier visit, but in the parkland. We had arranged to meet up with some family members who are holidaying in the area to have a socially distanced picnic, bringing our own food and folding chairs.
Visitors have to book on line well beforehand and we met up in the car park by the house and gardens entrance and stable block.
There were people everywhere especially down by the river banks, but the estate is vast so there was no problem about social distancing! Can you see a white speck in the middle of the above photo? It's the famous Emperor Fountain in the grounds that gushes out water and can rise under pressure up to 90 metres and then the water falls into a man-made lake. It can be seen even from a distance.
archived photos from a previous visit
The sheep were also roaming around everywhere so you had to pick your spot carefully if you wanted to put down a rug to sit on the grass. Others had already found that the best place to be was in the shade under the trees. I was disappointed not to see any of the fallow deer herd that also roam around the parkland.
There are some interesting historical buildings dotted around if you decided to have a walk. There's the Hunting Tower and also Queen Mary's Bower said to be used by Mary Queen of Scots as places where she could walk and take exercise during times when she was brought to Chatsworth as Queen Elizabeth I's prisoner.
The Belvedere Tower has an open viewing platform at the top. Guests to Chatworth were able to look over into the formal gardens and the parkland estate from this vantage point. Restoration work has been done in recent years.
We picked our shady picnic spot not far from the main entrance and had a lovely time catching up with family news and meeting new members of our extended family such as a sweet little girl who's the granddaughter of our nephew and niece. Our nephew is the oldest son of Mr P's oldest brother who came to live in England with his wife in the late 1940s. My future brother-in-law and his wife and his young family lived next door to my parents. The children of the family were a little younger than me, but we would play together. My husband also came from Italy to live in England. He would visit his family next door and we met at an Italian family wedding when my parents and I were invited guests.
As always thank you for your visit. Have a good day!
Thanks for sharing. I bet you all enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteAll the best!
Thank you Luisella. We haven't seen our family who live in Berkshire for a long time so it was good they could come
Deleteon a holiday break nearer to where we live. We had a lovely few hours together. All the best to you too.
Beautiful
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteI like to hear little tidbits about how you met and I do love those Towers. It is the perfect place to meet with friends are family and social distance because it's huge and oh so beautiful to look at. So glad you had a day out
ReplyDeleteIt was good to meet up with family in such beautiful surroundings and fun reminiscing about shared experiences back in my home town and when we've been on vacation together in Italy.
DeleteWhat a beautiful place to meet with your family! I've been to Chatsworth twice, twenty years apart and both visits special and memorable with people who I loved. I think that was probably the place where I first fell in love with gardens. Chatsworth, sunshine, picnic and family makes a special day. x
ReplyDeleteHaving been there yourself you'll know what I mean when I say that Chatsworth is special to us too. Every year when we retired and before we came to live in Yorkshire we would pass through Chatsworth parkland on our way to stay with our daughter. We like to recommend the house and gardens to family members who have never been there before. :)
DeleteSuch lovely grounds to meet up at. I remember the farm market somewhere close to Chatsworth and what a wonderful array of goods they had. We walked around that shop enjoying all the food and other items for sale. Glad you could meet up and have a nice picnic visit.
ReplyDeleteYes, the farm shop is close by. We once saw the late Dowager Duchess there. The Devonshire family take a great interest in the running of Chatsworth House and the estate.
DeleteI've only been to Chatsworth once, about 7 years ago now, I loved it, although we had very different weather as it was in March and I remember that there was a thick covering of ice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your photos.
Chatsworth is worth visiting at different times of the year as events are put on and the gardens and grounds are beautiful at any season. All these big houses have taken a knock this year due to the virus. It's good that the parkland was open and booking to park there was available.
DeleteHello Linda, it was lovely reading about your day out. Wonderful for you all to be together in the air in such beautiful surroundings. Thanks so much for sharing xx
ReplyDeleteBeing able to spend time with family members that we haven't seen for a while was special. It was a memorable day.
DeleteWhat a great idea to meet up with your family at Chatsworth in all that beautiful parkland with all the other buildings around. Usually when you visit you just have time to see the main areas so it must have been lovely to go a bit further out.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to go a little further from home now. Meeting family nearer to where they were staying on holiday was a good idea and worked out well.
DeleteHow lovely to meet up with family in such a beautiful place. I'm sure you all had a wonderful time and a good catching up with each other's news. I find Edensor fascinating. We visited with my cousin and his wife a couple of years ago. He is fascinated with Joseph Paxton and wanted to look inside the church and churchyard to find his memorial. Have a good weekend:)
ReplyDeleteIn the end we didn't have as much time looking around the churchyard at Edensor and the unusual architecture of the homes of estate workers which I've read about and wanted to see. I don't even know whether the church was open so only took a few photos. All the more reason to return sometime. Thank you, I hope you both have a lovely weekend too.
DeleteThis is a glorious area to be with your family. Super photos as always :)
ReplyDeleteThe parkland of Chatsworth was a perfect place to meet up. We had a great time talking about shared interests as well as meeting our nephew's granddaughter and great nephew's girlfriend for the first time.
DeleteWhat a lovely place to social distance picnic with family.
ReplyDeleteHello Linda, What a wonderful medley of photos old and new and such a beautiful location. Everything still looks so lush and green even in the middle of summer. You and Mr. P both look wonderful and I have no doubt that it was a true blessing to be able to spend a lovely afternoon with your family.
ReplyDelete