Days out near London - Sheffield Park Garden

Tuesday 18th September

As it was another nice day, though somewhat cooler, we set off for another National Trust property, Sheffield Park Gardens.

Sheffield Park Garden is a landscape garden five miles east of Haywards Heath. It has a great deal of history associated with it, being first mentioned in the Domesday Book. In August 1538, Henry VIII was entertained here. By 1700, there was a Deer Park, avenues of trees and established lawns. In the late 1700s, the house was remodelled in the fashionable Gothic style and Capability Brown was commissioned to landscape the garden. Humphrey Repton followed Brown in 1789–1790. By 1885, an arboretum was being established, consisting of both exotic and native trees; some of the original trees are still there.

During World War II the house and garden became the headquarters for a Canadian armoured division, and there were Nissan huts in the garden and woods. Like many estates (including the one where I now live) it had to be sold after the war. The National Trust was able to buy some of the estate in 1954, and there have been some subsequent additions, so it is now 265 acres.

The original four lakes form the centrepiece of the garden, so these pictures will be rather watery. There are also waterfalls, some of which are not always turned on because there has been drought in the area for several years. This is a little bridge over one of the waterfalls between two of the lakes.

The lakes are large, so it takes a while to walk round them. This is view of the same bridge from the other side of the lake. It also gives some impression of the variety of the trees, a few of which are just starting their autumn colours. As it was a still day, the tree shapes are refected beautifully in the water.

The lake in the picture below has fewer reflections because of all the water lilies. That strange looking thing in the middle at the back is a huge fountain; we had both forgotten our cameras, so were relying on phone cameras, which have no zoom, and the only view of the fountain is from across the lake, so it is rather small in my photo I'm afraid.

The fountain was only running from 12pm until 1pm on the day we were there, and this photo was taken about 12.59 - it's a very big place and we had to trot quite a distance to get there in time to see it at all.

After we had eaten our sandwiches, the sun came out. Below is a photo of another of the lakes, looking even more beautiful in the sunshine. You can see that more of the trees here are starting their autumn colours. There is such a variety of shape and colour around the lakes you can see it has all been designed by a master.

Many of the trees in the park are clearly very old and are absolutely huge. I made Paul stand beside the one below for a size comparison - it is one of the larger ones. The redwoods and wellingtonias are much taller of course, but I can't think of a way of photographing those, they are so tall.

At the far side of the park, through a gate you get access  to a historic cricket pitch. I understand this is the one first laid out in 1876 by the third Earl of Sheffield. It was used on 12 May 1884 for the first ever cricket match between England and Australia. (The Australian team won).

When we felt we had walked enough, we enquired the way to the Bluebell Railway, which is reasonably nearby, and drove there.

The Bluebell Railway is a heritage steam train which runs from Sheffield Park station to the outskirts of East Grinstead, taking about half an hour. The three stations it uses were all built in 1882 and are apparently frequently seen on films and TV. Sheffield Park station has been restored to the Victorian period, when it was originally built.

The other two stations have been restored to a later date - Horsted Keynes to the 1920s and Kingscote to the 1950s. 

We didn't manage a trip on the train, or there might have been more photographs. But we missed the last train, unfortunately, as it had left at 3pm. However, we were not too late to see a steam train, so there is one photograph. 

We do intend to take a trip on it, it's all just a matter of arranging it. On the way home, we visited some friends who live not far away, and we thought we might plan a dinner trip with them, or possibly even a Sunday lunch - the railway does these at the weekend. So that's something to look forward to - though, if we have a dinner trip in the next few months, it will be too dark for many photographs!

More Days out near London - Emmetts Garden

Saturday 15th September

I'm afraid I'm resorting to just picking out a few days here and there. Some of my days are far too boring to write about.

When the weather is sunny and warm, it seems a shame to stay indoors. And there can't be too many warm days of summer left - there haven't been many hot days this summer anyway, there's been so much rain. So as Saturday was a nice day we decided to take a look at Emmetts Garden, which is reasonably close to Oxted. 

The land where the garden is situated used, in the Middle Ages, to be part of the manor and parish of Brasted (pronounced Bray-sted). Brasted is about 6 miles from us, along the A25. Emmetts Farm is first mentioned on maps in the mid 1700s; other documents since then show it changed hands a number of times. The present house (not open to the public) was built around 1860 on the site of an earlier farmstead, and this date also seems to mark the beginnings of the early Victorian garden. 

Fredrick Lubbock bought the property in 1890 and transformed and expanded the garden. During this time, many exotic species were planted in the garden, especially many from China. When Frederick Lubbock died in 1927, the estate was bought by a wealthy American, Charles Boise, who maintained and enhanced the garden and bequeathed it to the National Trust in 1964.

This is the Rose Garden, which is quite close to the house.

Of course, you don't expect much of a rose garden in September! The Rose Garden was originally created in 1910, and has wonderful views across the valley and the Weald of Kent; somehow, I have managed not to take any pictures of this view!

Near the Rose Garden is the Rock Garden, which is next to it and was laid out around the same time.

Apparently the big rocks, which are Westmoreland Limestone, were installed much later, in the late 1930s.

For some mysterious reason, neither of us took any pictures showing any of the huge South Garden, or any of the exotic species for which the garden is famous. We rambled through the woods along the hillside for quite a distance, entirely forgetting we both had cameras. However, I did remember to photograph this wonderful view across the Weald down to Bough Beeches Reservoir.

Then we descended the hillside into the valley, through the woods. It is possible to walk from the garden down one of several public footpaths, but it was a very hot day and quite airless in the woods. Anyway, by the time we had climbed the hill again from the bottom of the valley it seemed to be closing time. We drove off, and took a short drive around the area where we found the charming little village of Ide Hill. This is the church of St Mary's Ide Hill, built in 1865, the highest church in Kent.

After that, hot and tired, we drove home.

End of the Paralympics

Sunday 9th and Monday 10th September

As Sunday was the last day of the Paralympics, my sister and I went up to London to watch the Marathon. It was a very hot day, and we didn't manage to find such a good spot as we had for the Olympics Marathon. For some reason, Canon Street Station wasn't open this time so we couldn't easily get to the nice shady spot we had found last time. We started near St. Paul's, and ended up trying three different spots, one for each time the athletes came past us. 

The first time we had a shady spot on the railings, but the road curved the wrong way, so we had no view of the approach; suddenly, the wheelchairs were upon us and were going so fast there was no hope of recognising even the country, let alone the competitor. For the second pass, we moved to a better place, but it was in the full sun, so, though we now had a view of who was coming, we nearly fried.

It was a case of third time lucky; by wandering around a bit, we found a shady spot right on the railings where we had a good view of the approach.

This time, I managed something more than just a photograph of a back wheel. These are the leaders, with David Weir in third place.

They are all travelling so fast, I consider it a miracle I managed to get anybody at all in my picture. You can probably see the wheels are a bit out of focus - these guys really move!

We waited until everybody had been past, and the wonderful BBC Web Site let us know before we left that David Weir had won the Gold Medal.

Before leaving the area, we couldn't resist making a quick visit to the roof of the nearby shopping centre for this wonderful view of the top of St Paul's Cathedral.

It's just a pity there's so much shopping centre roof in the way!

It was well into the afternoon by then, and we set off to find some lunch. This was harder than you might think. We had intended to cross to the South Bank by the Millennium Bridge, but it was closed because there were too many people on it. We walked along the north bank of the Thames, intending to have something to eat at Somerset House, but found that there were so many anti-pedestrian railings we ended up almost at Embankment Station before we could cross the road. By the time we had walked back along to Somerset House, our feet were about to drop off and we were very glad to sit down. 

After we had eaten, my sister, who was very hot and tired, wanted to go home to rest so she would have some energy to attend the closing ceremony. I walked (or rather, hobbled) with her to Charing Cross for her train home, then I crawled over the Hungerford Bridge to the South Bank where there was a lot more free entertainment. To my dismay, the crowds were so great that it was almost impossible to get through, let alone see anything. The crowds were even 10 deep round the Morris Dancers! 

There was no hope of seeing any of the acrobatic shows outside the National Theatre, I couldn't even get close enought to see over the tops of heads. So I hobbled back to the Tube and made my way back to Victoria Station to catch the train home. Unlike my sister, I had no ticket for the closing ceremony, so watched it from the comfort of my own sofa. I rather enjoyed it, especially the amazing huge machines at the start.

I had agreed to meet my sister again the next day near St Paul's for the Athletes' Parade, and, although the crowds were huge, I did manage to find a place about 3 people back from the railings. It didn't matter that I wasn't that close to the railings, as the athletes were all on open-topped buses, so you could see everybody.

It was all quite exciting. Because it was lunch time, lots of Londoners turned out to see the parade. I was very envious of those in offices which looked directly onto the route - you can see the people at every window. If you look carefully at the picture below, you can see that some people in the building on the right-hand corner of the street opposite have made a streamer of Union flags and hung them out of the window. They are blowing upwards in the wind.

There were some motor cycles first, then a big float and a marching band. Mo Farah was on the first bus.

Jessica Ennis was on the next one

I didn't, in fact, take a picture of every single bus, though I do seem to have an awful lot of photographs of the backs of people's heads, or their raised arms. You can see, in the one below, a woman in front of me is pointing right at Victoria Pendleton.

It was over in under half an hour, and everybody quickly made their way back to work. I went back to Victoria and caught the train home, feeling sadly flat now all the excitement was over.

Days out near London - Wakehurst Place

Saturday 8th September

This was another hot day, so we had another day out, this time to Wakehurst Place, Kew's country estate, but also belonging to the National Trust. This time, I started off with the postcode so there was no danger of getting lost down any more farm tracks.

Once we were in and through the Visitors' Reception building, we were welcomed by this beautiful display of cyclamen. My photograph, like so many of those I take, does not really do justice to the sea of purple, pink and white spread out in the shade of the huge trees.

We hadn't visited the mansion the last time we came, so that was our first port of call. There are written records of a tenant of the estate stretching back to 1205, and archeological evidence dating much further back, right back to evidence of pre-Roman occupation. The current house dates to 1590, and is associated with the Culpepper family, distant relatives of Nicholas Culpepper the Herbalist.

Inside there are 5 unfurnished rooms you can visit, some of them panelled. The plaster Jacobean ceiling in the main hall is the most decorative I think I have ever seen. This is a wonderful Jacobean fireplace in one of the rooms.

The garden covers some 2 square kilometres (500 acres) and includes walled and water gardens, woodland and wetland conservation areas. It was largely created by Gerald Loder (later Lord Wakehurst) who purchased the estate in 1903 and spent 33 years developing the gardens. 

As the gardens are so extensive, you can wander for hours. A good deal of it is woodland, but there are more than 50 acres of formal gardens, and several lakes. This is one of them. It was a lovely sunny clear day, and there was little wind, so you can see the reflections in the water. It will probably even more beautiful in a few weeks, with the autumn colours reflected in the water.

We descended into the valley, following a stream which has been used to form a number of different gardens, including another water body and waterfall surrounded by Japanese irises, maples and rhododendrons. 

Below this there is an Iris Dell and a collection of beds known as the Water Garden. Here, small streams and narrow wood-chip paths meander among the plants, and we wandered for a long time. From the Water Garden the stream continues on into Westwood Valley. There is a lake on the valley floor, but it is under renovation at present.

We returned by a slightly different route, admiring the many huge trees, but I was rather too tired by then to want to wander in the Himalayan Glade. This area represents the mountain flora of the Himalayas and China. The guidebook says 'the valley sides are defined with blocks of Ardingly sandstone' and you can see one of the blocks in my photo, set amongst the trees.

By the time we had returned to the Visitor Reception area, it was closing time again. Fortunately, it is not a terribly long drive home, and the countryside is very attractive so the drive is interesting if you can avoid the main roads.

Days out near London - Standen

Friday 7th September

The weather was wonderful, but Paul wanted to have nothing to do with the Olympics so we had a couple of days out instead.

We decided to visit Standen, an Arts and Crafts family home built in 1892 for a wealthy London solicitor called James Beale. It was designed by the architect Phillip Webb and decorated with William Morris wallpapers, carpets and fabrics and William de Morgan ceramics. We used the map reference supplied by the link from the National Trust site to Google maps, but to our dismay, found ourselves driving down smaller and smaller roads until finally it was only a farm track! 

We did eventually end up in a farmyard, so we hastily backtracked and this time I supplied Google maps with the postcode, and we found we were not far away, but at the opposite side of a hill.

With the correct reference, we were soon able to make our way there. We had been before some 9 or 10 years ago, but Paul had totally forgotten it, so it was all new to him. The house is on a steep hillside, and partly connected to an old farmhouse which belonged to one of the three farms bought to form the estate. It is quite hard to photograph, the hillside being steep and the house large. It is hard to get far enough away to photograph it until you are quite far down the hill. This is the best I could do, and shows part of the back of the house, taken from the garden.

Like all of these places, it is also difficult to take photographs inside; no flash is allowed, and the best pieces are protected by having the curtains closed, so a lot of the pictures I took were sadly blurred. This is one of the wonderful plain fireplaces, which also has some nice ceramics on the mantelpiece. 

I liked this bedroom, with its William Morris paper, nice antique chest of drawers and its very early built-in wardrobe.

Anyone who has read previous entries in this blog will recall my interest in the bathing facilities of all the houses I visit; this is one adjacent to one of the bedrooms.

Of course, the other facility I can never resist is the loo. This is quite a modern looking one, I think. I can certainly recall using some very similar ones as a child in Kenya in the 1940s and 1950s.

Another place I can never resist is the kitchen, which in this case is not particularly large. It has quite a modern-looking range along one wall - you may be able to see in at the back of my picture, though it has come out a little dark.

Afterwards, we went for a walk in the gardens, which are quite extensive. This was something we failed to do on our last visit, as it was raining at the time! Paul did a good deal more running about than I did; as it was a very hot day, I soon found a cool summer house to relax in and just look out over the lower garden.

We always seem to end up staying at these places until closing time, and this was no exception. Closing time in this case came before I had fully made up my mind to buy a cushion in a William Morris pattern that matches my bedroom curtains. Paul doesn't approve of such purchases, so he was delighted!

London and Paralympics

Sunday 2nd - Wednesday 5th September

There continued to be plenty of things to see in London. Even the British Museum had displays related to the Olympics

Once the Paralympics started, there was more daily entertainment on the South Bank. This time, I managed to get a seat on one of the very few deckchairs to watch these acrobats from France who perform acrobatics on what look like two giant bicycle wheels about 15 feet high, which are fixed together about 5 feet apart.

You can probably see from my photograph what a small space they have for their performance, surrounded by hundreds of people. They were able to control the huge wheels just with their weight alone, and rolled them around gently while they balanced and did handstands and stood on one another's shoulders. It was a short performance, but very popular, as you can see.

When it was over, I left the deckchair for another tired person and went back to the Royal Festival Hall, where the Lego world map had been replaced by a giant inflatable man.

He wasn't fully inflated when I took this picture, but I didn't have time to wait if I wanted to catch my train home. There are only 3 trains an hour back to Oxted, 2 from Victoria and 1 from London Bridge, so you have to be careful not to miss the one you are intending to catch; it's either 30 or 60 minutes until the next one, depending on which London station you have chosen.

The next day, I had tickets for Brands Hatch to watch the cycling Time Trials. It was a hot sunny day, so hats and sun cream were necessary. We drove there, as otherwise we would have needed to catch a train to London Bridge, another to Sevenoaks and then a bus.

I've never been there before, so I found that interesting. There was airport style security to go through before we got in. This is a good overview of parts of the track. At the top of the hill were a group of wicker figures on bicycles. The sun was so bright I couldn't see what I was taking, so this is about the best of the pictures.

I need a camera with a viewfinder - that big screen you have on modern cameras is no good in bright sunlight.

I found the event quite exciting, as there was a very good commentary and I had a good spot on the railings about 150 metres from the finish. This is a photo of Nathan Smith of New Zealand, who, as you can see, only has one leg.

It was quite a humbling experience to see how many of the athletes were missing limbs or other severe disabilities but could still compete at this level. What courage and determination they have. It is a great lesson to the rest of us to stop grumbling about our minor problems and make serious attempts to get on with life, as these people have done. I don't have many good pictures, as the cyclists move so fast - I have quite a few pictures of back wheels, as my shutter is rather slow, as are my reflexes! Also, the athletes are followed round by cars and motorbikes as you can see in the photo, so the track is quite crowded at times.

Paul was seriously bored by the whole thing, I am sorry to say, and soon wanted to go home. He was hot and uncomfortable, and couldn't make any sense of the commentary so had no idea what was happening. I was able to persuade him to stay long enough to see Sarah Storey win the Gold Medal for GB in her class, then I agreed to go home too. He was willing to drive home himself and drive back for me later, but it had been quite a long drive, so I thought it would be better if we both went. I guess it was a poor idea to get him to come, he wasn't interested in any of the Olympics or Paralympics or any of the associated events in London, so I suppose I should never have suggested he come with me. He's only interested in golf, the prospect of which bores me to tears within a very few minutes. I don't think I'll try to persuade him to Rio in 2016!

End of the Bank Holiday

Monday 27th August

We had to catch a plane home, so it was a short day, not to mention its also being a very wet one. But we found time to make a quick visit to Patterson's Spade Mill, which wasn't far from where our friends live.

I had never even heard of a spade mill before visiting Northern Ireland, and I suppose I never gave much thought to how spades were made before mechanisation. Well, they were made by hand, being beaten out by a blacksmith into a spade shape from a rough rectangle of iron called a billet. I also had no idea whatever how many different spade shapes there were.

These are only a few examples; you would be surprised by the number of different types of spades there are. It would appear nearly every region in Ireland had their own type of spade, depending on the terrain. There are different shaped spades for stony ground, spades for clay, spades for digging turf and even in this category there are different types - there are turf spades for digging the turf out vertically and others for digging it out horizontally.

After the tour we asked how much one of their hand made spades would cost if we wanted one, and learned that the price is £80.00. Although this might sound expensive, the staff at the Mill actually worked out that the real cost of making one was £200. This takes into account the price of the materials and the man hours. Obviously they realised no one would pay this, so they are sold for £80.

Making the spade is very labour intensive. This is the chunk of metal that the blacksmith starts with. It will be beaten first on the anvil.

It has to be doubled over, so there are two layers. The layers are kept apart in the middle, at the top, by inserting a few cinders there; this is to form a channel that the handle can be fitted into.

Later, when the lump of iron has been beaten a bit on the anvil and is a bit flatter, it is beaten into a spade shape by the water-powered hammer. I did take some pictures of this process, but unfortunately they were too dark to see anything. It is a long and laborious process, and the big water-driven hammer is held in check, when not beating, by a huge chunk of wood. The chunk of wood is knocked out when the hammer is to be used, and jammed back in again to stop the hammer pounding.

The spade handle is made from a pole, which is sharpened rather like a pencil on the machine below so that it will fit into a channel in the spade; then it is riveted into position.

After we had seen everything and asked numerous questions, we were taken outside to look at the mill race.

This originally used to drive a waterwheel, but this was changed to a very early turbine, which has been refurbished and is still in use.

Once we had seen everything, it was time to go back and get ready to catch our plane back home.