More Tudor Times

After our visit to Little Moreton Hall on Saturday we were swept back in time again on Sunday.  This time at my very favourite of all the Derbyshire stately homes - Haddon Hall. 

 It was an interpretation of Tudor Life weekend given by the Tudor Group.  We'd been in May to see their 'Life above Stairs' event and last weekend it was their 'Life Below Stairs' event.  In May it had been a damp and murky day with frequent outbursts of heavy rain.  On Sunday it was even hotter then the day before at Little Moreton.

The  women were doing the laundry, washing the clothes in the river, beating them on the stones or with wooden paddles, ringing out the garments and fabrics and laying them on the grass and in the hedges to dry.

 It was hot work under the noon day sun so those lovely straw hats were needed.

 Laundering the linen was a full days task but made nicer by the warm weather and camaraderie.

 Meanwhile close by the blacksmiths forge was in action and a young apprentice was learning the trade.

In the hall the servants were hard at work tailoring and mending clothing. polishing the silver and using the time the family of the house were away to preserve food and prepare medicinal herbs and ointments.

The tailors were at work in the main hall

The kitchen servants were busy preparing food

Above polishing the silver and below collecting herbs

 The gardens at Haddon were looking spectacular. 

 As usual I took far too many photos!

 I didn't notice until I looked at this photo that there is a striped snail on the poppy

 Across the river at the bottom of the garden is the narrow bridge known as Dorothy's bridge.

 Legend has it that in 1563 Dorothy Vernon, youngest daughter and co-heiress of George Vernon the owner of Haddon Hall, eloped by escaping across the bridge to meet her intended John Manners. The Hall is still owned by the Manners family.

 I loved this view from an open window in the long gallery.

Another view of the Hall from down in the terraced gardens

 It was so very hot outside

I hope you've enjoyed my little snapshot of Tudor life at Haddon.
I'm going to take a break from blogging for just a little while.
I'll see you all soon.

A Few Festive Scenes from Haddon

On Saturday we met up with friends from Nottingham at Haddon Hall.  Lunch was booked for noon and very tasty it was too, turkey and an assortment of seasonal vegetables for our friends and Derbyshire Homity pie with the same vegetables for us veggies.  The plate came piled high!  It's a good job we didn't have a starter and there was no room left for a pudding.  After lunch we had a wander around the Hall to look at the decorations.  The Great Hall was heaving with people watching the Tudor Group show how Christmas would have been celebrated in Tudor times. 

I took quite a lot of photos so I've just selected a few for you to see how wonderfully festive it was.  It was hard to take any long shots as there were so many people so I took mainly close ups of some of the decorations and displays.

Above and below in the chapel

 The next three were taken in some of the smaller rooms

Below are  photos taken in the Long Gallery in which  a winter wonderland had been created with just twigs and hanging baubles with wicker work reindeer sculptures in the windows.

Last but not least, because we probably spent the most time in here, the kitchens

Someone pointed out that in Tudor times the carrots would have probably been purple not orange!  

After we'd spent time in the kitchens we went back through the hall and long gallery to experience it all again. We then  made our to Caudwell's Mill at Rowsley for a cup of tea before heading off home under the darkening skies of a winter's evening and the added pleasure of seeing the festive lights as we passed through Matlock and Ashbourne.

You may remember that last year we visited Haddon Hall on a Tudor Group weekend and met up with some fellow bloggers Diane from Heart Shaped and Rowan from Circle of the Year.

Here is a - link - to my posts from then.