Cheshire walks: Tatton Park

Fancy a walk? Okay, get your boots on and rug up warm. It's only 2 degrees Celsius outside so you'll need a couple of jumpers and a cosy jacket, a warm woolly scarf and hat, and don't forget your gloves. Ready? Then, let's go ...

We're going for a stroll through Tatton Park, on the edge of the charming little town of Knutsford. There are 1000 acres of parkland for Joe public to enjoy so we won't see everything but I can promise you lots of beautiful old trees, some large expanses of water, rolling farmland and almost certainly a variety of wildlife.

You can see we've had a heavy frost overnight – I reckon we hit minus 2. No snow yet, but Jack Frost still paints a pretty picture. I particularly like the grasses when they're coated in ice like this.

It's crunchy underfoot but that just makes it easier to walk over the muddiness caused by all that rain last week. Watch you don't slide on the icy patches though. And if you're still a kid at heart like me, no doubt you'll want to crack some of the sheets of ice on the puddles.

You can see we're not the only ones out enjoying the bracing air and clear, crisp morning. With Tatton Park being so close to the town centre, it's a popular place for the more serious power walkers and joggers, as well as those just wanting a gentle stroll or taking their dogs for a walk.

You can see how cold it must have been in the wee hours – one end of Tatton Mere has iced over. It would be amazing to see the whole lake frozen over and to have people skating on it, though I’m not sure that ever happens  -- it’s such a big expanse of water – and it wouldn’t be so good for the birds that live on it. Whenever I’ve visited, there have always been lots of ducks and coots about.

Even Joe Crow has been doing a spot of fishing in the lake today and either he caught himself a juicy fish or, more likely, he pinched it from someone else.

Oh look, deer! Tatton Park has been a deer park since 1290 and large herds of red and fallow deer roam the wide open spaces with us walkers. You can usually get quite close to them, though there are certain times of year when it’s best to stay well away – when the stags are roaring and when the fawns are very young. These are red deer and I’m sure we’ll see some fallow deer as we stroll on.

Yes, there are the fallow deer. You can see their spots quite easily and they look a little smaller than the red deer though I’m certainly no expert.

Don't you just love to see the resident swans gliding so elegantly on the mere. There were cygnets here in the summer too – I’m not sure if they’re still about. And aren’t the reeds looking lovely? They’re such a rich amber brown at this time of year.

If you look over the fields to your left, you can see the magnificent mansion. We won’t visit today but if you remember, I visited the house when I was here in the summer. It’s simply splendid inside so you really should go for a wander around.

Now, there's some birdlife I'm not familiar with. They're the size of geese but those markings are certainly unusual. Do you know them?

[When I got home I looked them up. These are Egyptian Geese, an introduced wildfowl species that escaped its domesticity and is now breeding successfully in the wild. I'm not sure if these are resident at Tatton Park or are just visiting for the winter.]

There are some more deer on the hilltop. You can see how close walkers can get to them.

And look over there at the huge swan on the bank of the mere. You don't realise what big birds they are until they're out of the water like that.

Well, it's beginning to cloud up and I've worked up an appetite from all this walking. Let's head back to Knutsford and have some lunch in one of the good range of cafes and restaurants they have in town. I hope you've enjoyed your stroll. I know I have! And thanks for your company. We must do this again soon.

Happy National Gutters Day!

Today is National Gutters Day here in the United Kingdom. Fascinating, right? Right?

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I frequently develop ‘fascinations’ about things – see, for example, my recent blogs on Weathervanes, wind vanes and weathercocks and Turret toppings, amongst others.

Exeter Cathedral

Well, during my holiday here in the UK last summer, my insatiable curiosity led me to photograph the many and various designs of guttering, downpipes and hopper heads (those funnel- or box-shaped receptacles at the top of the downpipes) I noticed on the numerous historic buildings I visited. Now I’ve discovered this annual celebration of gutters so what better day to regale you with the engrossing details of these incredibly necessary objects and to share the photos I’ve gathered.

One of the lovely buildings at Port Sunlight

Left: Lyme Park; centre: John Rylands Library, Manchester; right: Chirk Castle

Guttering is, of course, a very practical invention – buildings do not survive long without the means to rapidly and effectively jettison rainwater – and it was the Romans who first brought the notion of good water management to Britain. They even had a goddess of the sewers, Cloacina (who, not surprisingly I suppose, also protected sexual intercourse in marriage!).

Following their successful invasion of England in 1066, the Normans instigated the construction of huge numbers of castles, manor houses, churches and more, throughout the land, and these buildings, with their stone roofs, towers and turrets, required gutters and gargoyles to throw the water clear of their walls. Though unverified, it is thought that the first downpipe was erected in Britain in 1240, to protect the newly whitewashed walls of the Tower of London.

Left: Tower of London,; centre: Dunham Massey; right: Westminster Abbey

The destruction of church buildings that began in 1536 after Henry VIII’s decree for the Dissolution of the Monasteries was, amazingly, a good thing for gutters because large quantities of lead became available. This lead was repurposed and reshaped into hopper heads for use on England’s many great houses, and the hopper heads were decorated with designs and dates, a fashion that continued when the use of cast iron replaced lead in the late 1700s.

Cast iron was cheaper and more plentiful than lead so gutters, downpipes and hopper heads became commonplace on smaller houses and the fact that the iron was cast meant it could also be patterned. During the Victorian period, hopper heads became rather ornate, their designs more detailed, and downpipes might have embossed motifs or barley-twist patterns. 

Battle Abbey

All Hallows by the Tower Church, London

Sadly, this fashion died out in the mid 20th century when cheap plastic guttering began to replace cast iron, and guttering is now mostly plain and angular, with no ornamentation. Fortunately, there are still some craftsmen manufacturing replica guttering for the refurbishment and restoration of historic buildings, and they maintain the old tradition of adding ornamentation and dates to their work, as can be seen from the more recent dates in some of my photos.

National Gutters Day does, of course, have a more practical purpose than simply celebrating the gutters of the past. The day came into being in 2002 and was the brainchild of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). It is the finale of National Maintenance Week, ‘an awareness campaign designed to encourage everyone who owns or looks after a building to take a few simple steps at the beginning of winter to ensure that their property is ready for anything that the season can throw at them, especially in these increasingly wet, windy and unpredictable days’.

Left: Hailsham Parish Church; centre: Church of St Peter and St Paul, Hellingly; right: Sidmouth Parish Church

All Hallows by the Tower Church, London

It’s an eminently sensible cause. For me, though, today is about paying tribute to the craftsmen who created all the wonderful designs to be found on the hopper heads of Britain’s glorious old buildings and celebrating the ornate guttering of centuries past. Happy National Gutters Day!

St Mary and All Saints Church, Great Budworth

St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, London

Cheshire treats: The benches at Tatton Park

What finer pleasure can there be than sitting on a bench in a garden! 

The beautiful gardens at Tatton Park have some of the most charming benches I’ve ever seen in a garden. The diversity of their designs is exquisite and they have been perfectly situated. I guess that’s one of the benefits of a garden with over 200 years’ history. 

These are just some of the reasons I can think of to sit on a charming bench in a delightful garden: to admire the view; to rest your weary feet; to listen to the warbling of birds; to soak up the history and the atmosphere; to smell the flowers and the evocative scent of pine trees and flowering limes; to dream; to marvel at the various bench designs; to chat to friends; to imagine; to share gardening tips and advice; to appreciate the design and structure of the gardens; to lose yourself for a time; to glory in the sunshine; to escape from the outside world; to laugh at the antics of squirrels; to people watch; to smile at the fluttering of butterflies and the buzzing of bees; to feel refreshed by the delicate pitter patter of rain; to hear the rustling of the leaves in the wind; to read a book or write a poem; to take off your shoes and feel the soft grass beneath your feet tickling your toes… The people whose quotes I’ve featured below are rather more profound than me.

"Sitting in your garden is a feat to be worked at with unflagging determination and single-mindedness - for what gardener worth his salt sits down. I am deeply committed to sitting in the garden." Mirabel Osler

"Teach us to care and not to care. Teach us to sit still." T.S. Eliot

“I was just sittin’ here enjoyin’ the company. Plants got a lot to say, if you take the time to listen.” Eeyore

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment." Jane Austen

“Sitting in a garden and doing nothing is high art everywhere.” Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions

“I don't generally like running. I believe in training by rising gently up and down from the bench.” Satchel Paige

“She was sitting in a garden more beautiful than even her rampaging imagination could ever have conjured up, and she was being serenaded by trees.” Lynn Kurland, Spellweaver

“Truly, the bench is a boon to idlers. Whoever first came up with the idea is a genius: free public resting places where you can take time out from the bustle and brouhaha of the city, and simply sit and watch and reflect.” Tom Hodgkinson

“A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.” Napoleon Bonaparte

“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spates of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of treetops.” Maya Angelou

Read more about the gardens at Tatton Park on their website, then plan a visit. Whatever the season there is somewhere stunning to see and you can check out all these beautiful benches. And do let me know if you find some I've missed!

Cheshire treats: Great Budworth

The little village of Great Budworth must be one of the most picturesque settlements I’ve ever seen.

I first visited when I was here in Cheshire in the summer of 2014. We walked down the street admiring and photographing the old houses, each one resembling a scene from a chocolate box, with an exuberance of colourful flowers creating gorgeous displays in hanging baskets and window boxes.

I often feel people neglect the impression a nice entranceway can make on visitors and passers-by. Not the folks of Great Budworth – they’ve nailed it. Their obvious pride in their village and their own homes is a pleasure to see and, even now, in mid-November, when the shorter days and cooler autumnal weather mean the summer flowers have gone, the doorways of Great Budworth are a visual delight.

Whether it's the intricate designs of the door hinges, a nice knocker, the warm red of the old bricks or the cute little outside lamps, there's something about each of these doorways that really appeals to me.

I took these photographs during an outing last weekend when, after mooching around the village for perhaps an hour, I walked the public footpaths that criss-cross farmers’ fields and circle Pickmere Lake back to Wincham. But that, as they say, is another story …

So, congratulations to the people of Great Budworth. I hope my readers also enjoy these doors and that they might inspire you to spruce up your own entranceway.