That Grand Old Duke of York...

Clifford's Tower build by William the Conquerer in 1069.  It is a Motte and Bailey style castle.

It's a long way up and down.

....he had ten thousand men!  He marched them up to the top of the hill, then he marched them down again.  Now that you have that little ditty stuck in your mind.....  York is a fun place, even though we didn't run into the Duke!

Stairs to the tower.

View from the top.  There used to be a roof, but it was accidentally burned while firing a cannon in a ceremonial salute.  Bet that soldier didn't get a promotion.

This fort was also used as a prison for a while.

York has been at the center of history since before there was an England.  The Romans came to rule the locals, then the Vikings, and finally the French who then turned into English.  Whenever Scotland caused a ruckus, York seemed to be in the middle of it all!  Which means, there is a lot to look at in this town.

Looking from the tower across to York Minster.

One of the original gates into the city. 

A Roman column found while excavating around the Minster.

We parked the car and walked in what turned out to be the right direction.  Bill wanted to find the old city walls and the Castle Museum; we found them  both!  The walls are two miles around.  One can walk most of the way on top of them.  We did about a half mile, on walls that had been rebuilt in the 1800's.

It was warm in the sun, so we bought an ice cream from a 1948 van.  Bill's flavour was Hokey Pokey.  I had chocolate.

In the museum, there was a pharmacist telling how he increased his business.  Most of the drugs in the 1800's had opium in them.

A horse drawn hearse.

The Castle Museum was full of displays related to York, of course.  One section was store fronts with cobble streets, washing hanging out, horses pulling carriages in the middle of the street .  Another had rooms furnished according to the time periods,  from early 1600's on.

St Michael le Belfrey, across the street from the Minster.  This is where Guy Fawkes was baptised in 1570.  He later went on to attempt to blow up Parliament.

Walking around York was interesting.  The main downtown area is all pedestrian traffic only.  There was a huge amount of people, both tourist and locals, out shopping.  We had planned to see the Minster, the Gothic cathedral, but there was a 10 pound per person fee, so we declined.  If we had been staying overnight, we would have gone to their Evensong service, with no admission fee.  Looking around the outside, we decided it was very similar to the cathedral in Strasbourg.

Bill having fun as a highwayman.

It was very hard running away from a highwayman; my wig kept tilting in the breeze!

Little Moreton Hall

Little Moreton Hall

From "Your little pocket guide to Little Moreton Hall", courtesy of the National Trust:
"The year is 1599, the 41st year of her gracious majesty Queen Elizabeth I's reign and if you had been alive at that time you would probably be relived to have survived the recent outbreak of the Black Death!

The courtyard where you can view all the ornate wood and carvings that make the house special.

This style of house has carvings on all the posts.

Richarde Dale was the name of both the father and son carpenters who built the house for the Moreton's.

Recent harvests had been poor, leading to starvation and disease, but William Moreton's estate was growing-the hiring fairs at Little Moreton Hall would be busy as more and more poor people sought work.

While an electrician was working on the walls, he uncovered this painting, which was in style from 1575 to 1600.  The Trust preserved it for us to see.

When this went out of style, the entire wall was covered with oak panelling.

England, however, was enjoying a time of peace and greater prosperity as trade grew, and in far off London people were enjoying the delights of the newly opened Globe Theatre, where William Shakespeare was showing his new work, Hamlet."

Upstairs, a platform bed was built into an alcove.

The family believed in education.  Too bad they didn't believe in engineering.

Little Moreton Hall was originally two stories, but as the family prospered, they wished to show off their wealth by adding another story, the long hall.  This space had glass on all sides, another sign of wealth.  Unfortunately, they didn't use their money to consult a good engineer.  This addition was only supported by the ceilings of the floors below instead of the walls.  So, the entire building leans as the lower walls are pushed out.



The docent in the long gallery, which is the name of the addition, put a small level on the fireplace.  The fireplace is level, the walls are not!

They added metal rods to pull to walls together.  Notice the beautiful designs on the ceiling.

In the 1700's, the owners added bars to pull the walls together.  Then after the National Trust took ownership, an additions 3/4 of a million pounds were spent to add steel beams to keep the building from collapsing!

The side of the house showing the intricate brickwork on the chimneys.

The gardens with small boxwood hedges.

One of the inhabitants of the moat.

A Day Out in Sheffield

The City Hall of Sheffield

Some days we just want to get out, whether or not the weather is cooperating.  In the rain we drove to Sheffield.  But, when we arrived, the rain stopped!  Maybe it does have something to do with being close to Manchester, which we have been told repeatedly is the rainiest place in England!

This building looked like origami.

Since it is summer vacation, there was a fun fair set up in the city center park.

Standing guard over the city.

We came to see the cathedral, but is was under construction/renovation.  Looking at it we decided that even if it wasn't covered over, it would not be a very nice looking building.  We went inside, and even that wasn't very pleasing to the eye.  So, we went out onto the streets to see what we could find.

The park was surrounded by water features.

Water cascading down.

The cascades are in memory of a man who died 160 years before they were built.  He was obviously a special man.

Sheffield is famous as the place where steel was made.  A manufacturing kind of town, which has seen better days.  Don't let first impressions fool you!  This place is hopping!  The old parts have been integrated with new, amazing architecture.  Such a pleasant surprise.

Water, water every where.

The winter gardens, to bring a bit of summer to a place where winter is very long and dark.

 

We have one of these yuccas growing in our backyard in Tucson.
 

We enjoyed our short visit to Sheffield.  One the drive home, it started to rain and continued through the night.  Yep, Manchester is the rainiest place in England!

Driving Across the Moors

Heather blooming on the moor.  Wind chargers on the horizon.

There are times we grow weary of driving the most direct route to a place.  Cities are one roundabout after another, followed by crowded roads, congested with traffic.  So, we program Bib to take us another way, preferably without as many towns.

One thing about England, it's really green.

No barbed wire fencing needed, they have rocks for building.

View across the pastures to the moor.

Miles and miles of miles and miles.

We do occasionally see one of the locals.

Deer Hunting in Lyme Park

Lyme Park as seen from the Fallow Deer Park.  The funny statue in the pond is supposed to be Mr Darcy in honor of the 200th anniversary of the publication of "Pride and Prejudice".  We thought it was a bit odd.

Lyme Park has two herds of deer, Fallow Deer and Red Deer. On our first visit to see the house and gardens, we spotted the Fallow Deer from the back of the garden.  There wasn't enough time to go out looking for them that day, so we returned a week later.  The weather was good, no rain and not too hot.  We asked at the information booth where to hike to see deer and the lovely woman gave us a map and some deer hunting tips.  She also said there were 1359 acres in the Deer park, so if we didn't see any, not to feel too badly.

Fallow deer taking a rest.

Line eating.

Watching us watching him.

We walked out of the car park, around the back of the house and down Lime Avenue, which runs through the Fallow Deer Park.  These guys were not hard to find.  They were either laying down sleeping or standing up eating.  We counted about 25 of them, though the grass was rather high, so more may have been down which we couldn't see.

The gate in the rock wall going out from the Fallow Deer Park.

Walking the road on the outside of the wall.  It's a bit steeper than it looks.

Continuing on outside the fence we came to a cross over, well more of a ladder really, to get back inside the fence.  The warning on the gate said to watch for cattle.  As soon as we were over, there they were.  Scottish Highland cows, one red and the other three, black.  They were not interested in us at all.

Bill crossing over the on the ladder.  The gate to the side was locked to prevent the cows from getting out, but it did have a large opening so dogs could come in without climbing the ladder.

Love the long bangs!  These were youngsters, the adults get really long hair and long horns.

Walking farther, we had to cross over another fence.  Step up on a board, over the fence, step on a board on other side.  There are no warnings of be careful, or watch your step or any such nonsense.  Up the steep hill was The Lantern, built by the owners as a follie, a place to have a drink or a bite to eat, rest and relax.  It was probably easier to get to riding a horse than walking up the hill.

Step up and over and down.

The Lantern, a follie, built as a fun place. The couple on the steps were having lunch,  we had a snack of cookies and water while enjoying the views.  The hill is very steep!
 

Enough resting, on with the hunt!  We walked out of Lantern Wood, crossed over another rock wall and entered the Red Deer Sanctuary.  We walked down a hill in rather tall grass, looking onto Crow Wood behind another rock wall.
 

There was something not quite right about the grass near the fence.  You can make the picture bigger by clicking.

That's not broken branches; those are antlers!

Something wasn't quite right about the grass near the wall.  I asked Bill what time it was, 1:30.  Then I looked through the binoculars to verify what I thought was there.  RED DEER!  Two stags, both with big antlers were lying down in the grass for a midday snooze.  All that was showing were the tops of their antlers, which looked a bit like broken tree branches

He stood up to check us out, but was very unconcerned.

Looking back after turning the corner.

Bill set up his tripod, while I walked on down the hill, running parallel with the deer, to see if they would get up.  The biggest one did.  He wasn't threatened, just curious.  He walked along the rock fence to where it turned the corner.  A wire fence continues the same direction, so he very lazily jumped over it, to continue walking down the rock fence.  Beautiful.

Follow the paths to The Cage.  It is visible from most areas of the estate, so is a good landmark.

The Cage was originally a hunting lodge..  It's a big building, so there must have been a lot of hunters.

Bill took several pictures of him, then he was joined by the other stag, who, I guess, realized he had been left.  Bill switched to video, so we don't have pictures of the second guy.  We watched the two of them for several minutes.  We decided to walk up to The Cage, while continuing to look for the herd.

The Red Deer does and fawns grazing in the far corner of the sanctuary.

 

Knowing the Red Deer herd to be about 400, they had to be somewhere close by.  Finally, off in the distance, we saw them.  They were down near the reservoir grazing, about 100 does and fawns, no stags.  Our deer hunt was a success!

Walking back to the front of Lyme Park.  What a deer hunt!