Tapp's Travels

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The pitch we had been allocated at Sycamore Farm, Nether Alderley was “pretty damp” and not a little muddy – so we parked on the “carpark” area.  As one does!

It transpires that we parked almost exactly here last time we visited this site (in 2014) – with a view of the sheep in the adjacent field.  The sheep are still there – or, at least, their descendants are!

This area is home to more Bentley, Rolls Royce and Lamborghini SUVs than you can shake a stick at.  I went to check out the Aston Martin garage in Wilmslow to see what they had to offer.  There were only eight new models in the showroom (plus a number of “pre-loved” Astons outside, most of which were less than a year old!)

These three examples alone came to a total of nearly a million pounds.

But having checked them out carefully,  they all proved unsuitable.  No heads-up display!  In fact, this feature is totally unavailable on any Aston.  I’m just going to have to look elsewhere.  So, where exactly is the Bentley garage…?

This part of the trip has a distinctly Cervid aspect.  While walking in Tatton Park next to Knutsford, I found these magnificent creatures.

Hard to get close up photos with a phone camera.  The rule is always stay behind other photographers with their 500mm lens cameras and tripods.  I reckon that while I couldn’t outrun the stag, I could keep ahead of the others with all their gear!  Apparently, a couple of Chinese tourists had been seen that morning, trying to get a photo of themselves touching the antlers of a resting stag.  They are probably still in hospital!

At Dunham Massey (National Trust) …

… we traded red deer for fallow deer.

We even tracked down two of the estate’s four white stags in the far corner of the park.

Another day, another NT property.  This time Quarry Bank at Styal, just north of Wilmslow.

Built at the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1784, Quarry Bank grew to become one of the largest cotton manufacturing businesses in the world. It was home to the mill-owning Greg family, as well as hundreds of mill workers and child apprentices. The story of Quarry Bank is that of an entire industrial community – and that of the revolution that shaped their lives.

The mill still has working, weaving looms which were originally powered by a massive water wheel and later (possibly, more reliably) by a steam engine.

Now, I suspect, the looms are powered by electricity.  But they are still remarkably noisy. With just one weaving machine running it was bordering on painful.  With 20 running, the din would have been awful.  There must have been a lot of deaf weavers about!

Yet another day, yet another NT property!  This time it was Lyme Park.  Home of the Legh family.

The Leghs of Lyme were a gentry family seated at Lyme Park in Cheshire, England, from 1398.  The estate was granted to Piers Legh as a reward for his wife’s grandfather recovering the Black Prince’s standard at the Battle of Crécy.  It didn’t do Piers much good though, as he was beheaded in 1399.  Leghs and their descendants had been in residence until 1946, when the stately home and its surrounding parkland were donated by the 3rd Lord Newton to The National Trust. 

The estate is well known as the location of the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice.  Indeed there were a number of young ladies of the London branch of the Jane Austen Book Club dreaming of Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) climbing out of the lake with an early version of the wet T shirt look!  They were all in period costume – but no Darcy!  Dripping wet or otherwise!

The group was planning to watch the film that evening.  I was able to tell them to look closely at Darcy’s boots.  They are dry even though his shirt is dripping wet.  Colin never actually dived in the Lake.  His stunt double did that bit.  The star just had s couple of buckets of (warm???) water chucked at him for the wet-shirt look.  These eleven fans had no idea about that!  Don’t you just love it when you can spoil someone’s illusions?!!

OK, so there IS a herd of deer on the property, but they stayed out of sight in the far corners of the park.

Back at base we met a couple of musician campers.  Shiun and Shaun.

Amazingly, we might have seen them before without realising it.  They have had a contract to work on the Pont Aven this year.  That’s the ferry we took both to Spain and back from France earlier in the year.  A bit of a coincidence!  They are now trying to break into the UK festival scene – and if they do that, we are unlikely to see them again!  I can’t see us hitting Glastonbury any time soon – even if Madonna gets the Legends spot.  In fact, especially if Madonna is head-lining!  Of course, Shian and Shaun may have to work their way up the ladder on the way to the Eavis’s place!

Anyway, it’s now time to move on!  Shakespeare country here we come!