Tour of the Hall - Part 2

For nearly a year work has been ongoing to convert Castle Bromwich Hall (built at the end of the sixteenth century in a late Elizabethan style) into a boutique Hotel.

Although refurbishment of the Hall doesn't appear to be quite complete, the Hotel opened to the public at the beginning of October. I was really pleased to hear last week that, with the kind permission of the owner (the House and main gardens are under separate ownership), Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens were organising tours of the Hotel on Saturday, 29th October. I couldn't wait to take a peek at how the Hall had changed since tours were held last December before the renovations commenced.

Here's a view of the side of the Hall/hotel as we approached from the Gardens.



Notice that some of the "windows" look rather fake - windows were kept to a minimum at a time when there was a window tax and false windows were added to maintain the symmetrical design.





Front Entrance



This impressive front porch with the statues of Peace and Plenty at first floor level was built around 1660.



A "peephole" was built into the House Keeper's Room in the south east wing at the side of the porch and was formerly used to see who was approaching the house. The peephole is I believe now blocked and the House Keeper's Room now appears to form part of the new Restaurant



Apologies in advance for some of the blurred photos taken inside the house. I took the photos without flash (I wasn't sure if flash photography was allowed) and, even though I bumped the ISO up to 800, I was still taking hand-held shots at about 1/8th of a second!

A couple of photos of the new Restaurant





Window view looking towards the Gardens




Oak Staircase - the first photo is a shot taken before renovations commenced

Before




and After

The paintings are reproductions of portraits of the Bridgeman family, past owners of the Hall




There are several beautifully moulded plaster ceilings throughout the Hall with wreaths of fruit and shells and coats of arms.









Dining Room







I understand the National Trust have overseen the various renovations and the Hotel owners appear to have managed to retain original features of the Hall whilst adding luxury and modern day comforts throughout.




Although not yet finished (notice the unmade bed and "Henry"!), this State Bedroom occupied over the years by various members of the royal family including Queen Mary, wife of George V, who visited in 1927, looks as though it will be a beautiful bedroom.





The new owners have started to replace tapestries that were originally hung in the room that was the upstairs dining room in the seventeenth century but became a Drawing Room at the turn of the eighteenth century.



"Mirror Mirror on the wall.....!" - There were several of these massive mirrors scattered around - I'm not sure where their final destination will be but they reminded me of something out of a Harry Potter film.



The beautiful Long Gallery, possibly Elizabethan, will be used for wedding ceremonies.

Before the renovation



And after



View from the Front Porch





Following the tour of new Hotel we walked back to the visitor centre via the North Garden (you can only visit here as part of a guided tour of the Gardens so I rarely get chance to visit this part).

Photo of the parterres with the North Gate and Yew walk in the distance leading to the church








It was a lovely opportunity to see the new Hotel and renovations to the Hall and I really do hope the hotel is successful.

To see my blog posting "Tour of the Hall" from last December with more photos of inside the Hall before the renovations began - please go to archived postings from December 2010 (link on the right hand side of blog)

New Year Tick for the Garden

I was thrilled to see a female blackcap in the garden this morning - the first time I have seen the species in the garden this year.

She spent several minutes foraging around the pyracantha so perhaps there are a few berries left after all.

Garden Bird Species 2011 - 27 (excluding flyovers)

North Wales - Day 5 Friday, 21st October - Barmouth and Another Mine

Cold and cloudy with drizzly rain most of the day.

We had to vacate the property by 10.00 a.m. and we popped into Barmouth to have another look round.

The photos below were taken on a brief visit to the town earlier in the week.






This sculpture by a local sculptor is called the Last Haul and shows 3 fishermen hauling in a net. Its made from a block of marble recovered in the 1980's from an eighteenth century shipwreck lying on the sea bed a few miles away from Barmouth. The ship is believed to have been a galleon from Genoa, Italy, which hit a storm off the Welsh coast.



On the way home we stopped off at King Arthur's Labyrinth where Brian and David went on an underground boat trip and more walks through underground caverns with lots of story telling about King Arthur. To be honest I'd ahve enough of being underground the day before so Emily and I had a look round the Corris Craft Centre which was excellent. Lots of shops and workshops selling candles, jewellery, pottery, glass, carved wooden items, etc., where you could see craftsmen at work making the items they were selling.

I thought these dragons were rather cute and now rather wish I'd bought one!





We finally reached home about 6.00. Lovely relaxing holiday in a beautiful cottage with stunning scenery. I would have liked to have done more birdwatching if the weather had been drier and more suitable for walking but highlights of the trip were Portimeirion, Harlech Castle and Beddgelert (especially the icecreams!!)

Not a lot of Moths!

I do believe this is about to be my shortest post ever!

Set the moth trap last night and when I checked it this morning there was absolutely no sign of any life forms whatsoever!

The temperature ranged from 10.5 degrees centigrade at 6.00 p.m. down to 2.7 degrees centigrade so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that there were absolutely no moths to be seen.

Edit - oops max and min temps should read 9.6 and 5.2 - I managed to copy down wrong week's temps

I'll try again next week then may put the trap "to bed" until spring depending on weather conditions.

North Wales - Day 4 Thursday, 20th October - Mountains and Mines

The weather was warmer today and thank goodness the wind had dropped - it was mainly cloudy with a few sunny intervals.

We were late going out as Brian and David walked down The Hundred Steps into Barmouth to get some essential food supplies whilst I spent the time watching birds visiting the garden. Over the course of the holiday we saw the usual garden bird species - blue and great tits, wren, blackbirds chaffinch, robin, magpies, wood pigeons, sparrowhawk and daily visits from a pair of jays burying acorns found on the surrounding hillside. The one species visiting which we never get at home was a pheasant. Highlight of the trip was a red kite seen on the journey. I had hoped to go a walk along the Mawddach estuary and add some year ticks but in the end we never really had time and being a family holiday you have to try and find things to do that will please everyone!

David and Emily were keen to catch the mountain railway which goes to the top of Snowdon. We stopped off at Glaslyn Ices again in Beddgelert - Turkish Delight this time (just as delicious as the chocolate and ginger).

Driving over mountain passes and witnessing stunning scenery we eventually arrived at Llanberis early afternoon only to discover that all the trains running to the top of Snowdon had been fully booked several hours ago!! So if you are thinking of this train journey its worth pre-booking or getting there early!

Not so many photos today or tomorrow as there weren't many opportunities to take pictures and when I did get chance the light was poor or I was trying to take into the sun!! I really will have to start being more selective concerning photos as I noticed today that I have already used up 74% of my photographic capacity. Eek!!










Snowdon is the mountain on the left with the peak covered in cloud



We stopped off at the Sygun Copper Mines, not far from Beddgelert, and decided to go on the self-guided audio visual tour of the mine. The mines were abandoned in 1903 and remained dormant until 1983 when the deep adit was was unblocked and drained and, following renovation, the mine re-opened to the public in 1986.








Entrance to the mine



The tour reveals how ore was extracted and processed in the nineteenth century and we saw copper ore veins containing traces of gold and silver. The rock of the mine is Ordovician and dates back 500 million years.

There were several chambers and caverns containing ferrous oxide stalactites and stalagmites and ochre beds.





The visitor centre also contained a very interesting Museum of Antiquities

The surrounding mountain side was turned into a Chinese village in 1958 for the filming of "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness".



In the evening we went for a meal at a great country pub called The Half Way House located mid-way between Barmouth and Dolgellau. Great food at good prices - I am still drooling over the meringue stack dessert!

November or Autumnal Moth?

A short interlude from the holiday in Wales and back to Moths.

I ran the trap last Saturday night, 22nd October.

There were only four moths to be found on Sunday morning (minimum overnight temperature was 8.8 degrees centigrade).

One moth was a Blair's Shoulder Knot and the other 3 were all very similar - I really must improve my potting technique as two of the three managed to escape before I could pot them leaving just the moth in the photo below which was fairly worn with a wingspan of about 20 mm.




I think it is a November or Autumnal moth although according to the excellent Hants - Flying Tonight website there are four species of Epirrita in the UK and its difficult to tell them apart. As its so worn its difficult to see if the central spot is within or separate from the outer central cross band (or it is for me!). It would appear that genitalia dissection is the best way to separate the species. So I think it may well remain unidentified!

I'll be running the moth trap for a few more weeks just until the Garden Moth Scheme ends and then I will probably put it away for the winter unless we have a really mild spell.

North Wales - Day 3 19th October - Portmeirion Part 2

After a picnic lunch we went back into the Village.

Just past the gatehouse there is a little round observation tower to the left of the path which gives lovely views of the estuary.




Then along a wooden path and down some steps onto the sea wall



which leads to the Hotel (used as the Old People's Home in The Prisoner)






Looking back towards The Village






Snowdonia from The Stone Boat





White Horses - once a fisherman's cottage. Patrick McGoohan stayed in this cottage during the filming of The Prisoner in 1966 and 1967





The Observatory Tower which contains a Camera Obscura



Nelson



If you walk further alongside the estuary you come to a pretty little folly lighthouse marking Portmeirion's most southerly point but as it was looking like rain we retraced our steps and entered the woodland

Views of the Estuary from the edge of the woodland











The woods are beautiful and there are many footpaths through them - you can find all sorts of quirky features such as a Chinese Bridge, a Classical Temple, Pools, a Dog Cemetery, a gazebo etc. Its worth going there just to try out the best swing ever. I didn't take too many pictures today as the light within the woods was really poor but here are a few record shots.







Rainbow over the estuary





We eventually came back to the Village - it was after 5.00 p.m. now and the light was going as will be evident in some of the photos below!

Triumphal Arch







Salutation (used as the cafe in The Prisoner)





















Several of the cottages are available on a self catering basis or as suites/rooms of the Hotel. I must admit I would love to stay here - one day perhaps..........

The skies were clear tonight and with little light pollution we looked at the stars and planets. The telescope revealed 3 of Jupiter's moons and you could see the Milky Way with the naked eye - it always makes me feel exceedingly insignificant!