Monday

 On Monday we visited Ilam (pronounced eye-lamb) Park, in the Staffordshire Village of Ilam.  It is a 158 acre site which sits on either side of the River Manifold. It's managed by the National Trust.

  It seems ages since we last walked there.  I'd have to search back through my photos to see when it was.  I searched on here and came up with a post of November 2021, so possibly that was the last time.   

Ilam Hall, which was re-built and re-designed in the 1820s by the Watts-Russell family, was donated to the National Trust in 1934.  The main hall is leased to The Youth Hostel Association.

How the hall used to look before part of it was demolished in the 1930s.

Above The Church of the Holy Cross. 

The remains of a Saxon Cross on Paradise Walk. It was found in the foundations of a cottage in the village of Ilam in the 1840s.

Morning Coffee at the tea rooms and a visit to the bookshop before a quick photograph of another wallaby.

This one is Walla-B Fierce painted and illustrated by Ella Kasperowicz in collaboration with Pride in the Moorlands.

It was a lovely morning for a walk, dry and not too warm. There were lots of families enjoying themselves on the Mole Trail.

It was time to move on to our next destination for lunch and another wallaby.  I'll save that for a later post.

A Walk in the Rain and the first Wallaby

 Yesterday we walked in soft and gentle rain at Biddulph Grange Country Park.  The country park is next door to the National Trust's Biddulph Grange Gardens and was originally part of the same estate.

It is 35 hectares of landscaped views and natural features designed by Victorian industrialists James Bateman and Robert Heath. 

There are both original and newly laid out paths through both meadow and woodland leading to the lake and it's boathouse built in 1903.

A Hydro-electric scheme begun in 1904 was reinstated in 2000 and provides sustainable power for local use.

We walked as far as the lake, you can see the boathouse in the distance and the rain on the lake.

Back at the visitor centre we spotted the Wallaby.  There are ten in all and they are part of the Where's Wallaby trail around the towns and beauty spots of the Staffordshire Moorlands.  Why wallabies? There is a story to tell.  

At the time of the second world war five Bennett's wallabies escaped into the wild from a zoo at Roaches Hall run by a man called Henry Courtney Brocklehurst.  Sadly he lost his life in Burma during the war.  The wallabies bred and at one time as many as fifty were counted on and around the Roaches.

There are now wallabies at the Peak Wildlife Park who are celebrating their 10th Anniversary this year.  Hence ten wallabies.  They have joined with Outside, Wild in Art and the Staffordshire Moorlands Council to commission ten artists to work with ten community groups to create the wallabies.

The Wallaby above is called Berry B painted by Clare Ash and the Biddulph Youth and Community Zone.

Above a Wallaby and Joey taken at Peak Wildlife Park in February this year.

The exhibition runs from 18th July to 5th September so we have plenty of time to seek out the other nine over the summer.

Ragged Victorians

 Today the Ragged Victorians were in town so we walked down the hill to find them. 

 They were at the Gladstone Pottery Museum where a Victorian Day was being held.

We could hear the music from the barrel organ as we entered the museum.  

The Ragged Victorians are a living history group re-enacting the lower classes of England in 1851 and very good they are too.  So many different characters.  The sober shepherd, the rat catcher, the fish wife, the policeman, the wounded soldier and many more.

I took loads of photos so I'll share a few now and perhaps do something later with more of them.  I might try to sepia tone some of them or perhaps monochrome.

The Fisherman's wife making nets.

Lavender seller

The Rat Catcher

In the Doctor's waiting room

A friendly hug

The sober shepherd seeking work

Policeman.  

The costumes were wonderful, suitably grubby and well worn, roughly mended shoes clattered on the cobbles.

All for now.

Sheepish

There is a colourful display of Shaun the Sheep sculptures at Trentham Gardens ready for the Easter holiday, it's called Find the Flock. Shaun the Sheep is a popular spin off character from the Wallace and Gromit film A Close Shave by Aardman Animations.  The sculptures made in collaboration with Aardman and Wild in Art are 160cm or 5ft 3ins tall. On their plinths they seem taller.  

Each of the flock have a theme and some of the detail on the art work is lovely.  Above are Beauty and The Beasties, Counting Sheep, Sakura, Shaun the Sheep, Baaaart Deco and Shoal the Sheep.

The six more above are A-Green-Culture, The Beekeeper, Trail Grazer, Hitsuji, Can't See the Wool for the Trees and Panda-monium.

Above are closer details of some of the sculptures most of which had a wildlife theme.

Shaun the Sheep stands in front of the tents where over the next few weeks lambing will happen for the flock of rare breed sheep.

All for now.  Have a happy and peaceful weekend.

Into April

We've been busy pottering both in and out of the garden.  We went to the local garden centre yesterday to buy potting compost, grit and bird food.  This was after going into the town centre to Boots to pop empty blister packs from medications into the recycling bin.  I was glad to find out about the recycling project there as I was loath to put the empty packs into the ordinary waste.

On Wednesday we visited Biddulph Grange Gardens for a walk around.  There was lots of work being done to resurface the entrance way and also the cleaning of stone edging in the Dahlia Walk.  

The Woodland Walk is now called the Wellbeing Walk and many grassy areas had been roped off to allow for re-growth and re-seeding.

The Chinese Garden was looking wonderful in the sunshine.

The Stumpery has recently been made larger with funding from the Blue Diamond Garden Centres Group.  

It is supposed to be the oldest Stumpery in the UK and it is now as large as the original one created by James Bateman in the early 1800s.

At home in the garden the Tulips are flowering.  

Well one pot is the other has been foraged by badgers, our fault as we took the protective sticks away too early.

What a mess.  One or two have been saved and I hope they will flower.

The Spirea Bridal Wreath is in flower as is the Amelanchier

In the wilder area at the top of the garden both Wood Anemone and Wild Garlic are doing well.

Right, time to think about lunch.  All for now.