Second week in Yorkshire

The first full week in Yorkshire ended with a weekend of social activities and outings.
Continuing that most civilized of British traditions, I had afternoon tea with Anne in Wentworth - our favourite local village. Tea is served in a small “summer house” hidden away in Wentworth Garden Centre, which itself occupies just part of the grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse. The first evidence of a garden here comes from a 16th Century painting of Thomas Wentworth. This area, which was the kitchen garden, was built in the 18th century by The Fitzwilliam family. By 1850 there were 36 gardeners (with ages ranging from 16-69) working under head gardener Joseph Henderson. Unfortunately after the 2nd World War it fell into disrepair until the creation of the garden centre in 1976 when restoration began to return it to its former glory.
A large part of the weekend was spent in the company of a charming young woman, Amy, from Beijing. Marjie spent 18 months teaching at the university of Beijing in 2003-2005 and is obviously remembered very fondly by her former students there - Amy being one of them. Aged 19 at the time, Amy is now married with two young sons and while on business in Europe, decided to include a side-trip to see London and then travel north to Yorkshire to pay a visit and spend some time with her former professor.
Marjie decided that an afternoon’s visit to Nostell Priory might be of interest to her visitor.....so off we went to this Palladian-styled house, set in 300 acres of parkland. Originally founded in the early 12th century, it was abandoned for over 100 years after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, by Henry VIII in 1540. Purchased by the Wynn family, the rebuilding started in 1736, with the decoration of the interior beginning in 1747.
A large part of the house was decorated by Thomas Chippendale - one of the most famous and influential designers in English history. Often named “the Shakespeare of furniture,” he died in relative obscurity and little is known of how he looked....but now, 300 years after his birth, his design items command enormous amounts of money at sales and auctions. Although by trade, Chippendale was a cabinet maker, he introduced the modern concept of an interior decorator - someone who could supply everything needed to furnish a house, thus giving his clients a complete service.
Throughout Nostell Priory we saw magnificent examples of his furniture - there’s even a “play-area” to allow visitors to reconstruct different styles of Chippendale chairs with tiny plastic pieces! The house itself has lovely rooms to explore, with helpful and knowledgeable volunteers in each room to supply additional information.....but we have Dr. Bloy who gives us any and all of the historical facts that we could possible need or want....thanks Marjie!
A few highlights:-
The music room, which houses a lovely harpsichord, was originally intended to be used for large social gatherings, but due to the room having many large doors, it proved to be impractical, in the English climate, for that purpose!
The Tapestry Room (the name speaks for itself) was completed in 1820 - of the 4 largest, 3 are Brussels tapestries purchased after the chaos of the French Revolution.......the room was only used for very special occasions.
Nostell Priory also has sumptuous bedrooms, luxurious bathrooms, a State Dining room and a huge library that houses a billiard table with its original 200 year old baize.
After the house, we strolled part of the huge parkland before heading to the gardens located behind the former stables. These gardens flow seamlessly from the more formal, to an area of large vegetable boxes + a centre section containing an orchard meadow with a range of seasonal flowers. The walls of the garden are covered with a profusion of roses and fronted with flower beds full of a variety of plants & blooms.
Needless to say, Amy enjoyed her visit to Nostell Priory - especially the land and the gardens - she really loved seeing the cows that wandered around this vast estate...........but I believe that the time she spent with her favourite “prof” was the most specially time of all!
I ended my weekend with what has become an annual and a very special tradition - a get together with friends from my brief “working-life” in England. The four of us met for lunch in a restaurant that was flooded with light and - on this day - sunshine......for almost five hours we talked - catching up with each others lives and reminiscing about “old times.” Over 50 years ago we shared a large office, laughed a lot and discussed music, dancing, boyfriends, husbands, clothes + everything else that was of interest to girls in their late teens and early twenties. Now we find that although some of the topics of conversation may be different - we still laugh a lot and our strong friendship remains .....so nothing much has really changed.....and...
I am already looking forward to next year’s reunion!