{castle life} Old Hardwick Hall

Part two of our English Heritage Double Feature Sunday was Hardwick Old Hall. This is after going to lunch in Bolsover and splashing tomato sauce on my white sweater (my fault) and chocolate on my favorite pants (waiter’s fault).. at least the pants were cheap (gotta love Forever 21).

Well, hello there, Nigel (the Dragon)…

Funny thing about Hardwick Hall.. there are actually two sites located on the grounds. The Old Hardwick Hall, which is part of English Heritage, and so we get free entry.. and the new Hardwick Hall and Gardens, which was only built three years later than the old hall, but is maintained by the National Trust.. and cost £10 each to get in (that’s with our English Heritage discount… we passed on this one).

 

Funny story about the Old vs New Hall … Both were built/comissioned by Elizabeth Talbot, better known as Bess of Hardwick. Typical of rich people (yesterday, today, and tomorrow), she had the “old” hall built in all it’s extravagant glory, with it’s decorative plaster-work over the fireplaces, and as soon as it was done, she was tired of it and wanted something better. So she built the new hall right next door.. she didn’t even venture across her property so that there would be some distance between the two. As a result, the old hall fell into disrepair, while the new hall was maintained and still resembles what it would have been like back in her time (which also means that it’s not as cool). We also noticed that it’s smaller.. I guess Bess was not a believer of the phrase “bigger is better”.

 

Side note.. Elizabeth Talbot is the mother of Sir Charles Cavendish, and grandmother of William Cavendish, whom we met earlier over at Bolsover Castle (part one of the English Heritage double feature Sunday).

{castle life} Bolsover Castle

Part one of our English Heritage Double Feature Sunday is Bolsover Castle. Quick History: Bolsover Castle was built by the Peveril family (that name sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), but became property of “the crown” when William Peveril the Younger died in 1155. Some people owned it for a while.. and then Sir George Talbot (husband of Bess of Hardwick) bought it in 1553. Her son, Sir Charles Cavendish, purchased in in 1608 and proceeded to build what is now known as the Little Castle. This was completed by his son, William Cavendish, in 1621.

William Cavendish was known for his love of horses, and his contribution to dressage. He published books on the matter back in his day, which is much of where the standard for modern-day dressage comes from. We got to see a short demonstration, but weren’t allowed to take any pictures.. They said it would disturb the horses, but I just think the want to keep their secrets… (pictures of and inside the old stables.. but no horses)

 

The main hall (where all the parties took place) was more or less in ruin.. not much of a roof left, but the walls were still up, and you could imagine traipsing through the hall in all your finest garb. There was also a great view of the countryside from the back (which is actually the main entrance to the castle and grounds).

 
The Little Castle was fairly well kept. There was artwork on the walls of unnamed people, but the rooms (in all their original painted glory) were beautiful. And I loved the painted motifs on the walls of the rooms.. each having there own theme. For instance, one room had paintings representing the five senses. Another had paintings of different saints. The two closets in the main bedroom were painted in opposite, one with picture of heaven (with the cherubs and everything) and the other showing a more pagan lifestyle (with the Roman gods enjoying their trademark activities). (sorry for the blurry pictures.. it’s a combination of the camera battery dying and my lack of photography skills)

 

Here some more shots of the oustide that didn’t make sense with the other sets. Also.. proof that Nigel the Dragon made it to Bolsover Castle.

David Mellor Cutlery Factory

You would not typically think that a cutlery factory would be that interesting, but this was a nice roadside stop for us to drop into. We just saw the sign on the side of the road as we were driving up to Peveril Castle, so on our way home later, we decided to drop by.

You can read all about David Mellor and see his entire collection of cutlery and knives online. A little pricey for us right now, but a really really nice set. Kinda wish we had registered for a set of fine china and silverwear.. oh wells. The really cool things about David Mellor was that he designed the traffic signals and pedestrian signs and road barriers that are used all around England. Pretty cool!

We came in time to get a tour of the factory, where ALL the David Mellor cutlery is made.. from blanks to finished product. It’s a small operation, but makes really high quality products. From start to finish, a piece of cutlery can take around 12 hours to make.. that’s just one piece! No wonder this stuff is expensive..

{castle life} Peveril Castle

Since we are now members of English Heritage, Minh and I want to take advantage of it as much as possible… which means a lot of day trips to local(ish) castles and halls and what not. We’re mostly going to try to visit the places that cost money… because really.. that’s what makes the membership worth it, right? Since we were having such great weather, we headed into the Peak District to check out Peveril Castle.

I have to say that having Kenilworth Castle being the first English Heritage site we visited, Peveril Castle did not really live up to it… maybe because it’s smaller and has less still standing. Don’t get me wrong, it was still really cool.. but not as big and no audio tour. Plus, we had to take this goat-hill walk up to it from the town below (Castleton).

Something really cool were the paragliders in the distance… I totally want to try that some day.

We walked around town a little bit after coming down from the castle, but not really too much to see unless you want to pay to go into the caverns or do some hiking (which we weren’t prepared for). We did get some icecream though…

On the way home, we stopped by Thorpe Dairy Farm, home of Hope Valley Ice Cream. We walked around a little bit to check out the farm, but ended up just turning around for some more icecream.

{museum life} Warhammer World

Before I get into our adventure into the world of ultimate nerdiness, let me tell you what we did earlier that day..

It was a boba kind of day…

We walked to the University of Nottingham to check out the Wheee! Festival. We didn’t take part in any of the festivities (Luminarium), but we did walk around and checked out a puppet exhibit inside the Lakeside Art Center (A Right Load of Old Stuff and Nonsense). We also went to the Archeology Museum (but didn’t take any pictures) and the Djanogly Gallery (which had a really cool exhibit on paper art, but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures). We also got cornered by an old (80s maybe?) professor who thought we were Chinese students and wanted to share stories and pictures from his former Chinese students (random).

After we left the University of Nottingham, we took a walk “down the street” (like a few miles) to the Games Workshop headquarters.. home of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer World. I don’t really “get” these sorts of games, but it was still quite fascinating to see all the little figures that were painted by the workers of the Citadel.. or something like that. Minh and I dropped by to see what it was all about.. much of the time there was spent trying to (sort of) figure out what the game was all about and how to get into it, if we were so inclined. I asked Minh if he wanted to pick up a hobby, since he has some time, but he declined this one.

It was really cool to see all the little Lord of the Rings and Hobbit figures. I guess back in the 1980s, the Citadel had the licensing rights to make miniatures related to the Lord of the Rings. Some of these were on display at Warhammer World. The other LOTR related figurines and miniatures were developed later on, as the movies came around.

One of the funniest things Minh and I saw while we were there (and apologies in advance if this offends anyone) were the comments that were posted at the entrance from the people who had come to visit the museum. The best one was probably from a “mum” who said: “Now I finally get it.” HAHA!

{museum life} World Museum – Liverpool

The very last museum we visited in Liverpool was the World Museum. We were almost not going to visit it, but one of the docents at the Walker Art Museum had recommended it if we had time. I was really glad that we decided to make time for it because we learned all sorts of interesting things.

For instance… did you know that back in the Victorian age, and well into the 20th century, the used to have public mummy un-wrapping events? This was before they could use x-ray and other technologies to see if the mummies were buried with any treasures or valuables that could be put on display at the museum. In the past, each person who attended the event would come away with a swatch of the mummy wrappings.. WEIRD and COOL! Wish I could have lived in that time period!

We also got to see live bugs!! I’m usually very afraid of bugs in the wild (or in the house.. or just anywhere near me).. but when they’re behind glass, it’s totally fascinating. We didn’t get very clear pictures because it was pretty dark in the bug exhibition, but you can still see what’s behind the glass.

{museum life} Walker Art Museum – Liverpool

The Walker Art Gallery was recommended to us by our waitress at dinner our first night. She said that it was one of her favorite places in the city. We had time on our last day there, so we went to check it out.

What I really liked about it was the way it was laid out (although we didn’t follow the map correctly). It’s laid out so that you go through the art exhibits chronologically (except for the special exhibit). So you can see how art and style has changed through time.

St. George’s Hall and St. John’s Garden – Liverpool

St. George’s Hall is in the heart of Liverpool. We didn’t really know what it was until we walked into it.. all we knew was that it was a recommended place to visit from TripAdvisor. I think what we figured out was that it’s essentially a courthouse and municipal building. Not sure if they still hold trials here, you come here to get your marriage license and things like that. You can also book the place for events and weddings. The hall itself is rather grand, so it would be quite a wedding reception to have here..

Next to St. George’s Hall is St. John’s Gardens. Nothing too spectacular here, but there were some nice sculptures.

Liverpool Cathedral and St. James’ Cemetery

The Liverpool Cathedral is the largest Anglican cathedral in the UK, and the fifth largest in the world. Building started in 1909, but the cathedral wasn’t complete until 1978, which is probably why it’s not damaged from WWII. It was absolutely beautiful inside, and quite majestic. The 16th Earl of Derbyshire is entombed here. The only odd thing about it was the neon sign in the back..

Next to the cathedral is St. James’ Cemetery. The site was originally a stone quarry, that was then repurposed as a cemetery. It was used a cemetery from 1826 to 1936, and had a over 57,000 burials here. It was converted to a park in 1927, and many of the gravestones were cleared. As you can see in the pictures below, it looks like some of the gravestones were used to support the landscaping features like the slopes and ramps.

{museum life} Merseyside Maritime Museum and International Slavery Museum – Liverpool

This is just a quick post on the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum. We didn’t take that many pictures inside.. and it was fairly crowded because of the Battle of the Atlantic reenactment that they were doing that day.

We always learn something when we walk into a museum.. like how the White Star Line (think Titanic) was based on Liverpool.. who knew? And to think we weren’t even going to go to the Maritime Museum…

There was also an exhibition on smuggling through the port. It was incredibly interesting (and innovative if you think of all the different ways people try to smuggle things into the country).. but also very dark.. so we didn’t take any pictures. It’s amazing to think how the smuggling and counterfeit industry has been around forever (pretty much since people stopped making their own things and started buying goods) and how clever people are about smuggling things in and out of the country.. especially booze, tobacco, and weapons.

The International Slavery Museum was also very dark.. so we only took a couple pictures. It was also VERY HOT up there.. so we didn’t stay for very long. Probably whizzed buy it the quickest of all the museums that weekend.

We also stopped by the Piermasters House. It was just a mock-up of what a piermaster’s house would have been like during WWII. Since there wasn’t TV or internet to get your news and entertainment from.. people gathered in the family room round the radio and read newspapers. It kinda did feel like we stepped back into the 1940s.