Belated out and about post
I have been very bad about posting to LJ lately, so I am going to run some things together in an attempt to get caught up. The first of these is going to cover a couple of days out - one dating back to March!
I had a week off in March, and Mum came to stay. Mostly the idea was the beer festival, and doing things around the house, but we had a day out too, and we went down to Shibden Hall, in Halifax. Shibden is a gorgeous house, 600-odd years old, proper half-timber, and a tower with a library (what I would give to be let loose up there!)
I didn't get any decent pictures of either the outside or the inside, as I only had my phone with me. I loved the inside of the hall, and there were some fascinating vehicles in the outbuildings - I liked the goat-cart in particular (although training goats to pull it doesn't strike me as an overly easy thing to do. Definitely a place to go back to - I would like to see some of the gardens when the flowers are out.
Speaking of going back to places, we then went on to the Bankfield Museum, which I first went to a few years ago, when i I was unsuccessful in seeing the costume collection. Nothing changes. Despite it not being mentioned on the website at all, the costume collection is closed, while they prepare for, and host, a major WWI exhibition. So I still haven't seen it. I really wish they had mentioned it, as then we could have planned on doing something else.
More recently I went to Kent for altairastar's birthday, which was tremendous fun. The weather was very obliging, and the planned garden party went ahead, filled with lovely people. In fact, it was so sunny I got sunburnt (that's what happens when you let Northerner's loose in the South, we do lobster impressions). As the party was on a Sunday, I booked the Monday off work, and took the opportunity to get in a quick visit to the V&A on my way back home. There was an exhibition on William Kent that I wanted to see. The exhibition was small, but very interesting, and I now have another list of places I want to go and see, because of course most of his extant work is buildings, and you can't quite shoehorn those into the V&A! There were models, furniture, and drawings and letters though, and they were fascinating. I resisted the urge to take a selfie next to the information panel that said he was from Bridlington. I was very disappointed in the souvenir selection though, there wasn't even a postcard I could send back to my Mum in Bridlington, and most of the things, like candles and earrings were very generic-Georgian. Sadly £45 for the book of the exhibition wasn't in my budget. (I did get some nice general-V&A things in the main gift shop though)
When I got back I did some googling, and I couldn't find out if he had a blue plaque in Bridlington, he doesn't. But he does have a black one put up by the Lord Feoffees, which I saw when I was home over Easter - unsurprisingly it's on High Street in Old Town.
That's all there is though, no statue or anything - and I hadn't even heard of him until recently (to be fair, my local history knowledge is shockingly bad, as I spent so long hating the place - and I am only just getting into Georgian history too)
I had a week off in March, and Mum came to stay. Mostly the idea was the beer festival, and doing things around the house, but we had a day out too, and we went down to Shibden Hall, in Halifax. Shibden is a gorgeous house, 600-odd years old, proper half-timber, and a tower with a library (what I would give to be let loose up there!)
I didn't get any decent pictures of either the outside or the inside, as I only had my phone with me. I loved the inside of the hall, and there were some fascinating vehicles in the outbuildings - I liked the goat-cart in particular (although training goats to pull it doesn't strike me as an overly easy thing to do. Definitely a place to go back to - I would like to see some of the gardens when the flowers are out.
Speaking of going back to places, we then went on to the Bankfield Museum, which I first went to a few years ago, when i I was unsuccessful in seeing the costume collection. Nothing changes. Despite it not being mentioned on the website at all, the costume collection is closed, while they prepare for, and host, a major WWI exhibition. So I still haven't seen it. I really wish they had mentioned it, as then we could have planned on doing something else.
More recently I went to Kent for altairastar's birthday, which was tremendous fun. The weather was very obliging, and the planned garden party went ahead, filled with lovely people. In fact, it was so sunny I got sunburnt (that's what happens when you let Northerner's loose in the South, we do lobster impressions). As the party was on a Sunday, I booked the Monday off work, and took the opportunity to get in a quick visit to the V&A on my way back home. There was an exhibition on William Kent that I wanted to see. The exhibition was small, but very interesting, and I now have another list of places I want to go and see, because of course most of his extant work is buildings, and you can't quite shoehorn those into the V&A! There were models, furniture, and drawings and letters though, and they were fascinating. I resisted the urge to take a selfie next to the information panel that said he was from Bridlington. I was very disappointed in the souvenir selection though, there wasn't even a postcard I could send back to my Mum in Bridlington, and most of the things, like candles and earrings were very generic-Georgian. Sadly £45 for the book of the exhibition wasn't in my budget. (I did get some nice general-V&A things in the main gift shop though)
When I got back I did some googling, and I couldn't find out if he had a blue plaque in Bridlington, he doesn't. But he does have a black one put up by the Lord Feoffees, which I saw when I was home over Easter - unsurprisingly it's on High Street in Old Town.
That's all there is though, no statue or anything - and I hadn't even heard of him until recently (to be fair, my local history knowledge is shockingly bad, as I spent so long hating the place - and I am only just getting into Georgian history too)