Treasures of Britain; Duncombe Park, Yorkshire

Duncombe Park is one of Yorkshire’s foremost historic houses and estates, and home to the Duncombe family. The house is closed to the public, but the spectacular landscape garden, the International Centre for Birds of Prey, and the surrounding parkland are open to visitors.
The site was a film location for Parade's End.

Duncombe Park in Helmsley, North Yorkshire was transformed into Groby Hall, the country residence of the Tietjens family, for new BBC drama Parade's End. 

 Benedict Cumberbatch as Christopher Tietjens

Only open for weddings

drawing room

© KH

Treasures of Britain; Groombridge Place and Gardens

Surrounded by 164 acres of breathtaking parkland, this mystical site has an intriguing history stretching back to medieval times. The gardens, laid out in the 17th century by Philip Packer, a friend of Sir Christopher Wren and the famous diarist and horticulturist John Evelyn, have been described as a most remarkable and a very special survival.

- The stunning period setting for Peter Greenaway's acclaimed film 'The Draughtman's Contract'
- Film location for "Pride and Prejudice" 
- Medieval moat and stunning 17th century walled gardens.
- 17th century formal gardens with ancient topiary and fountain displays.
- The Enchanted Forest and designer water gardens.
- Canal boat rides.
- One of England's largest Bird of Prey Sanctuaries.

Pride and Prejudice was filmed here as well

 Enchanted Forest

© KH

Treasures of Britain; Conwy Suspension Bridge

Conwy Suspension Bridge, was one of the first road suspension bridges in the world. Located in the medieval town of Conwy in Conwy county borough, North Wales, it is now only passable on foot. The bridge is now in the care of the National Trust. It originally carried the A55 road from Chester to Bangor.
Built by Thomas Telford, the bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the River Conwy next to Conwy Castle, a World Heritage Site.

 The bridge was completed in 1826 and replaced the ferry at the same point. Telford matched the bridge's supporting towers with the castle's turrets. It is in the same style as one of Telford's other bridges, the Menai Suspension Bridge crossing the Menai Strait. The Conwy bridge runs alongside the wrought iron tubular railway bridge built by Robert Stephenson. Until Stephenson's bridge was built, Telford's bridge was the only crossing of the river, and therefore the only way to get to the ferry that leaves for Ireland.
Built into the rock on which Conwy Castle stands, it is very close to the castle, and narrow at only 2½ metres across. Part of the castle had to be demolished during construction in order for the suspension cables to be anchored into the rock.
The bridge was superseded by a new road bridge built alongside in 1958. As of 1991 the A55 road goes through the Conwy Tunnel instead, bypassing the town entirely. The 1958 bridge remains in use by local traffic.

© KH

Treasures of Britain, Castle Howard

This palace is best known as the shooting location of the classic British TV series Brideshead Revisited as well as the recent film adaptation.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, 15 miles (24 km) north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is not a true castle: The word is often used for English country houses constructed after the castle-building era (c.1500) and not intended for a military function.
Castle Howard has been the home of part of the Howard family for more than 300 years. It is familiar to television and movie audiences as the fictional Brideshead, both in Granada Television’s 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and a two-hour 2008 remake for theatres. Today, it is part of the Treasure Houses of England heritage group.

 The original series

Matthew Goode, who played Charles Ryder in the remake of Brideshead Revisited

 one of the many English novels I read in high school

and which I own now myself

Treasures of Britain; Peak District

There are so many things still to see on my UK bucket list, that I really don't know where to start. The Peak District is one of them;

The Peak District was the first national park to be established in Great Britain. As late as the early 20th century most British countryside lay in the hands of wealthy landowners who restricted or banned public access. But the 1932 Kinder Mass Trespass, held in what is now the park, was a milestone event in the campaign that led to increased public land access and the eventual establishment of national parks.
The park's size is 555 square miles (1,438 square kilometers).
Over 90% is privately owned land the National Trust owns 12%, and three water companies own another 11 percent. The Peak District National Park Authority owns only 5 percent. About 86% of the total is farmland, which is used mostly for grazing sheep or cattle.

About 38,000 people live inside the national park—an area about the size of Greater London. Some 16 million more people live within an hour’s drive of its boundaries. Peak District lies between Sheffield and Manchester, surrounded by industrial cities in the geographic heart of England.

 Resevoir Valley

Derwent resevoir

Abadoned Millstones

Peak District cave-the Devil's arse

Thor's cave

© KH

Treasures of Britain; Tewkesbury, Cotswolds

There are a lot of UK sites on my long list of things to see and visit and the Cotswolds are part of it. The houses in Tudor style or the lovely hills I want to see it all. For now I just pick one small town; Tewkesbury.

Tewkesbury is an ancient settlement at the meeting of the rivers Severn and Avon. The surrounding rivers and flood plain have prevented the old town from expanding so that its long thin profile has hardly altered since the middle ages. Tewkesbury presents one of the best medieval townscapes in England with its fine half-timbered Tudor buildings, overhanging upperstoreys and ornately carved doorways.

Tewkesbury is renowned as having one of the best medieval black and white townscapes in the country and has much to delight the visitor. Discover the hidden charms along narrow alleyways where the eaves of crooked timber buildings nearly touch or take a leisurely cruise along the river.  

Tewkesbury is dominated by the 12th-century Abbey. Known to some as the ‘Westminster Abbey’ of the feudal barony, this beautiful building has the highest Norman tower in England as well as rich architecture and artistic heritage. Also here are the fascinating John Moore Countryside Museum, the Town Museum and the Old Baptist Chapel.

© KH

Treasures of Britain; St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

                   

When the Great Fire of 1666 swept the City of London, it was the fourth time a church on this site-which had once contained a Roman temple to Diana- had been destroyed. A wooden strucuture, dedicated to St Paul in 604 by St Ethelbert, King of Kent, burned down 70 years later. A second cathedral,built in stone in 675-85, was laid waste by the Vickings in 961. A third burned down in 1087 and the Norman cathedral-larger than the present one-was begun straight away. Stone was brought by sea from the quarries of Caen,and the spire(to be struck by lightning in 1447 and destroyed by fire in 1561)was the tallest yet built. After the Fire, Sir Christopher Wren was commisssioned to rebuild not only St Paul's but another 51 churches throughout the City as well. His design, with a traditional cruciform gothic groundplan and a tall steeple, was finally accepted in 1675 and building began immediately. But the Cathedral that was officially declared finished-after many rows and delays-in 1711 did not bear very much resemblance to those original plans. Gone was the steeple reaching the sky; instead there was the great classical dome, ingeniously constructed so that the imposing outer roof is 60 feet (20 m) taller than the inner ceiling. The lantern tower that crowns the dome is-together with the two fantastic western towers designed as late as 1707-distinctly baroque.

James Thornhill painted the frescoes of the life of St Paul wich adorn the inner dome. These are the best seen from the Whispering Gallery, 100 feet (30 m) high and famed for its acoustics. The Golden Gallery at the top of the dome offers spectacular views but entails a climb of 530 steps. Among the great craftsmen employed by Wren was the master-ironworker Jean Tijou, who made the gates to the north and south chancel aisles plus the balustrade to the elegant geometrical staircase by master-mason William Kempster. Grinling Gibbons, at his most inspired, carved the choir-stalls, bishop's throne and organ case. (the organ istself was played by both Handel and Mendelssohn)

Wren died in 1723 aged 91 and appropriately was one of the first to be buried in the whitewashed crypt. An inscription in Latin above his modest marble slab, composed by his son, reads; 'Reader, if you seek his memorioal, look about you.' Positioned immmediately beneath the dome is Nelsons's impressive black sarcophagus. Wellington's sarcophagus is towards the east of the crypt, while his massive memorial almost fills the north aisle above.

Because I love art and these painters so much I payed more attention to their graves down in the crypt; a lot of them from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 

© KH