Friday 7 August 2009

Second annual visit to Oxburgh Hall

We went up onto the roof and I took this photo of the parterre through an arrow slit in one of the towers. The little tower/folly you can see in the photo is in the garden - one of the owners in years gone by put up a folly when each of his children was born; there are five around the perimeter wall.
Oxburgh Hall in some of its glory - it does look more magnificent when the sun is shining on the red bricks, but it was still a lovely afternoon.
This view (above) is the picture of the hall as you come from the chapel - one of my favourites.


This is the first view of the hall as you arrive - you walk through the orchard and come to another little archway in a redbrick wall and then, wow - there it is in front of you, looking very serene and peaceful with the lovely gardens and the swans on the moat.

The girls and I just had an afternoon out there today - it is a very relaxing place to go and wander. Even though we had seen it before, it was very restorative to go and walk around again. The house is still being lived in by the original family which had it built in the 1400s, although they have signed it over to the National Trust and just live in one corner tower now. It is amazing to be able to see the tapestries which Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick worked on, although they are heavily protected and very dimly lit. We enjoyed the trip and there will no doubt be a return visit - it is only an hour away and a pleasant drive there and back. And there was no actual spend at the Hall as we are NT members, although the motorhome did demand another little top up of fuel (£20) and the girls spent some of their pocket money in the shop.

1 comment:

Greentwinsmummy said...

Gosh it must be thrilling to see those tapestrys!how wonderful for them to have survived all these hundreds of years. I love going to stately homes,I love the atmosphere,so thick with the past you can slurp it up like rich syrup
GTM x x x