Erdigg, Beeston Castle & Ice Cream Farm

After breakfast we went to Erddig Hall, a National Trust property on the outskirts of Wrexham, Wales. Located 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wrexham town centre, it was built in 1684–1687 for Josiah Edisbury, the High Sheriff of Denbighshire; it was designed in 1683 by Thomas Webb (d. 1699), a master mason of Middlewich, Cheshire.

The building was sold to the master of the Chancery, John Meller in 1714. John Meller refurbished and enlarged the house (including adding two wings in the 1720s), and, on his death in 1733 unmarried and childless, passed it to his nephew, Simon Yorke (d. 1767) (first

cousin of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke). The house was passed down through the Yorke family until March 1973, when the last squire Philip Scott Yorke gave it to the National Trust. This followed the collapse several years earlier of a shaft from the nearby coal mine (Bersham colliery) under the house, causing subsidence of 5 feet (1.5 m), which seriously affected the structural security of the house to the extent that, without suitable underpinning, it would have become a ruin. It was strengthened using the compensation of £120,000 the National Trust was able to extract from the National Coal Board. 63 acres (250,000 m²) of Erddig Park (out of view of the house) was subsequently sold for £995,000 and this paid for the restoration work on the house. The restoration was completed on 27 June 1977 when Charles, Prince of Wales officially opened Erddig to the public, joking that it was the first time in his, albeit short, life that he had opened something that was already 300 years old.

Then we moved on to Beeston Castle, a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England (grid reference SJ537593), perched on a rocky sandstone crag 350 feet (107 m) above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, (1170–1232), on his return from the Crusades. In 1237, Henry III took over the ownership of

Beeston, and it was kept in good repair until the 16th century, when it was considered to be of no further military use, although it was pressed into service again in 1643, during the English Civil War. The castle was slighted (partly demolished) in 1646, in accordance with Cromwell's destruction order, to prevent its further use as a stronghold.

The castle is now in ruins. The walls of the outer bailey, along with the walls and gatehouse of the inner bailey, are separately recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade I listed buildings. The castle is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument, owned by English Heritage. It is rumoured that treasure belonging to Richard II lies undiscovered in the castle grounds, but the many searches that have been carried out have failed to find any trace of it. During the 18th century the site was used as a quarry.

On the way back we called in at the Ice Cream Farm, a great place if you have children with indoor and outdoor activities but also over 40 flavours of ice cream. Then off to the caravan for a relaxing evening.

Golborne Bridge Farm nr Chester

We set off from Mirey Lees about 13:50 bound for Chester. We arrived around 16:00 and was set up and had the kettle on by 16:45.

We popped to Sainsbury to stock up and then had a nice meal in the Brewers Fayre next door. before heading back to the caravan for a chill and bed.

Riverside Caravan Park nr Stratford Upon Avon

Sunday morning was quite a quite nice sunny one. We took down the awning, but it being wet we just put it in the back of the car to be dried out at home.

This was the last day of the season for Riverside Caravan Park and all caravans needed to be off site by 3pm.

We left about Midday and arrived home around 01:30pm. Possibly our last trip this year

Stratford Upon Avon

After an overcast start to the day the sun came out and it turned out to be a lovely day.

We parked in the Marina again and spent the day doing some Christmas shopping in Stratford.

Before heading back to the caravan for the evening we had a lovely afternoon tea in Hathaways Tea Rooms.

We did a little more shopping before making our way back to the caravan for a nice relaxing evening.

Shakespears Birthplace, Harvard House and Hall's Croft

It rained pretty much all night but by the time we had breakfast it had stopped and was starting to brighten up.

We drove into Stratford and parked at the Marina. We walked from there to Shakespeare’s birthplace on Henley Street. The visitor centre pokes into every corner of Shakespeare’s life and times, making the most of what little hard evidence there is. His will is interesting in so far as he passed all sorts of goodies to his daughters and chums, but precious little to his wife.

Next door, the half-timbered birthplace dwelling is actually two buildings knocked into one. The northern, much smaller and later part was the house of Joan, Shakespeare’s sister, and it adjoins the main family home, bought by John Shakespeare in 1556 and now returned to something like its original appearance. It includes a glover’s workshop, where Shakespeare’s father beavered away, though some argue that he was a wool merchant or a butcher. Neither is it certain that Shakespeare was born in this building nor that he was born on April 23, 1564 – it’s just known that he was baptized on April 26, and it’s an irresistible temptation to place the birth of the national poet three days earlier, on St George’s Day. Despite these uncertainties, the house has been attracting visitors for centuries and upstairs one of the old mullioned windows, now displayed in a glass cabinet, bears the scratch-mark signatures of some of them, including those of Thomas Carlyle and Walter Scott.

We then walked about half a mile up Birmingham Road for a buffet lunch at Pizza Hut.

After lunch we walked back to Harvard House. Once known as the Ancient House, It was built in 1596 by Thomas Rogers, grandfather of the benefactor of Harvard University, John Harvard. The House has been cared for by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, on behalf of Harvard University, since 1990.

A little further down the road is Nash’s House and New Place. Once the property of Thomas Nash, first husband of Shakespeare’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. The adjacent gardens contain the foundations of New Place, Shakespeare’s last residence, which was demolished by the Reverend Gastrell, who was in bitter dispute with the town council over taxation. The foundations have prompted all sorts of speculation, queries and questions that may be resolved by the archaeological dig that is currently burrowing into the site, and why the house is currently closed.

Just around the corner was Hall’s Croft, Stratford’s most impressive medieval house, Hall’s Croft. The former home of Shakespeare’s elder daughter, Susanna, and her doctor husband John Hall, the immaculately maintained Croft, with its beamed ceilings and rickety rooms, holds a good-looking medley of period furniture. Hall established something of a reputation for his medical know-how and after his death some of his case notes were published in a volume entitled Select Observations on English Bodies. The best view of the building itself is at the back, in the neat walled garden.

We then Headed back to the caravan for a couple of hours chill, before heading down to the Riverside Complex for the excellent  fireworks display accompanied by a couple of pints of cider.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Mary Arden's Farm and Charlecote Park

It was a little overcast this morning and the forecast was for rain. After our usual cooked breakfast we set off for Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. Located just over a mile west of the centre in the suburb of Shottery.

The cottage is an immaculately maintained, half-timbered affair with a thatched roof. This was the home of Anne Hathaway before she married Shakespeare in 1582, and the interior holds a comely combination of period furniture, including a superb, finely carved four-poster bed.

The garden is splendid too, crowded with bursting blooms in the summertime. The adjacent orchard and Shakespeare Tree Garden features a scattering of modern sculptures and over forty types of tree, shrub and rose mentioned in the plays, with each bearing the appropriate quotation inscribed on a plaque.

By the time we left Anne Hathaway’s Cottage it had started raining, and it set in pretty much on and off the rest of the afternoon.

We set off for Mary Arden’s House, another of the Shakespeare properties, three miles northwest of the town centre in the village of Wilmcote.

Mary was Shakespeare’s mother and the only unmarried daughter of her father, Robert, at the time of his death in 1556. Unusually for the period, Mary inherited the house and land, thus becoming one of the neighbourhood’s most eligible women – John Shakespeare, eager for self-improvement, married her within a year. The house is a well-furnished example of an Elizabethan farmhouse.

We then moved on to Charlecote Park, a grand 16th century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon Wellesbourne, about 4 miles east of Stratford and 5 miles south of Warwick.

A Grade I listed building, it has been administered by the National Trust since 1946. Built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian.

We then headed back foe a relaxing evening in the Van.

Riverside Caravan Park nr Stratford upon Avon

It was my birthday today, so after opening cards and presents, we loaded up the car and took a detour to the Toby carvery at Wollaton for birthday breakfast.

We eventually got on the road in the pouring rain, but by the time we arrived at Riverside Caravan Park at around 1:30 pm.  The sun was out, and it turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon.

The park is set in the heart of the lovely Warwickshire countryside on the banks  of the River Avon about a mile from the centre of Stratford. 

After setting up the caravan and awning, we had a stroll down to the recently opened Riverside Bar and Restaurant complex which stands impressively on stilts beside the River, for a nice pint of Stowford Press in the Sunshine.

By the time we had finished it was starting to get a little chilly as it was starting to get  a little dark.

In the evening, Maddy took me out to the Old Tramway Pub for birthday dinner which was very nice.

We went back to the van for the evening.