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!
