I also got my first view of The National Forest in the making - a concept to create woodland covering 200 square miles across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire linking Charnwood Forest in the East with Needwood Forest in the West. To date 7.8 million trees have been planted increasing woodland cover from 6 to 18%.
We had a look round the Ferrers Arts and Craft Centre first. I was particularly taken with one shop selling a variety of carvings of the Green Man. Unfortunately, there were well outside my budget!
These stone owls were cute too
After lunch of brocolli and stilton soup we walked to the parkland
Serpentine Lake
Church Pool
Staunton Harold Hall - home to the Shirley Family for over 500 years but the estate (and hall) was sold in 1954
The Chapel of the Holy Trinity (National Trust) was luckily open.
It was founded in 1653 by Sir Robert Shirley, the 4th baronet who was a royalist and determined to build a church in the old tradition.
The epitaph above the West Door which reads
"In the year 1653
when all thinges Sacred were throughout ye nation
Either demolisht or profaned
Sir Robert Shirley Barronet,
Founded this church;
Whose singular praise it is,
to have done the best things in ye worst times,
and
hoped them in the most callamitous,
The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."
Oliver Cromwell was not impressed and said that if Robert Shirley could afford to build such a church he could afford to build and equip a naval ship. When Shirley refused he was imprisoned in the Tower of London where he died aged 27.
I couldn't take many pictures inside the church as flash photography was not allowed and my camera is not good in poor light.
But here is a very poor picture (taken at 1/2.5 second!!!) of the very impressive ceiling representing the biblical story of creation from chaos.
And a few stained glass window pictures
A lovely day out in great company.
4 comments:
love the soup :D
not been to SH in years! the church is nice cheers for the memories
Soup was delicious - cakes looked delish but resisted temptation (have awful sore throat so its hard to swallow!!!)
Only realised today that SH church was in the Jenkins Book. Shame about lack of flash photography but its a lovely estate and church.
Sounds an excellent day with a good choice of soup. Love those wooden carvings and the stone owls.....
You did well with the church pictures considering your stated camera limitations... I'm still trying to master the art of stain glassed windows!!
Thanks Tricia - the soup was lovely. I am going to try and find a recipe so I can make something similar here.
Still working mysef on the stained glass windows - results vary and I am not sure why! Perhaps it depends on how much light is coming through. Since I discovered I could up the ISO it has helped a lot :D. Still nowhere near Pete's standard!
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