Monday 25 June 2018

Haughley Open Gardens

Son and DIL moved to this village in February and it's a village I know well having spent many evenings here either at youth club or hanging around in the bus shelter - as you do - aged 14!

I drove over so we could walk around the Open Gardens, many tucked away behind houses and not often seen.There were 14 gardens open and Willow slept her way around 9 so after 10 we went home for her feed.

Just a few photos. Colourful corner
Garden behind one of the Big Houses of the village
Lovely little pond in another garden


Son asked about this porch on the front of a house, (sorry I had sunglasses on so didn't realise I'd caught the sun in the photo)
it has very old carvings and the owner said the story is that it came to this house in the 18th century when a manor house in nearby village of Westhorpe  was destroyed. Looking online for more details of the history of Westhorpe Hall I found the following.

Westhorpe Hall was a manor house in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England.
Westhorpe Hall was the residence of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and of Princess Mary Tudor (daughter of King Henry VII and sister of King Henry VIII), a love match and second marriage for Mary and third marriage for Charles. He was previously married to the wealthy widow Margaret Neville, and then Anne Browne, mother to Charles's two eldest daughters, Anne Brandon and Mary Brandon. There, they raised their children, Frances (mother of Lady Jane Grey), Eleanor, and Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln. Princess Mary Tudor died at Westhorpe Hall where her body was embalmed and held in state for three weeks.[1]
When the house was being demolished in the late 1760s, the site was visited by the antiquarian Thomas Martin of Palgrave:
"I went to see the dismal ruins of Westhorpe Hall, formerly the seat of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. The workmen are now pulling it down as fast as may be, in a very careless and injudicious manner. The coping bricks, battlements and many other ornamental pieces, are made of earth, and burnt hard, as fresh as when first built. They might, with care, have been taken down whole, but all the fine chimnies, and ornaments were pulled down with ropes, and crushed to pieces in a most shameful manner. There was a monstrous figure of Hercules sitting cross legged with his club, and a lion beside him, but all shattered in pieces. The painted glass is likely to share the same fate. The timber is fresh and sound, and the building, which was very lofty, stood as when it was first built. It is a pity that care is not taken to preserve some few of our ancient fabrics."[2]

So maybe this little bit was rescued and brought the 5 miles to Haughley to add to the front of this ordinary house in the street and who knows how many Lord, Ladies or Queens have walked through it!

On our way round we managed to call in at the village hall where the WI were serving tea and huge slices of chocolate cake or scones and jam, and very nice it was too.

I forgot to take a photo of sleeping Willow on Saturday but  managed to snap Florence with her Daddy when the family called in for a quick visit. She just Loves books, preferably 2 or 3 at a time, she likes  turning the pages and looking for dogs, cats, ducks or babies. Always plenty to look at in these lovely Shirley Hughes books which her Mummy liked too all those years ago.


This post was going to finish here, but then I got sidetracked into googling Shirley Hughes, she's still alive - aged 90! She has written and illustrated more than 50 books which have  sold 11.5 million copies - Amazing. As well as that she has also illustrated many books by other authors.


 I can't think  how it happened (!) but I seem to have pre-ordered a new book coming out in October,





Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS
Thank you to everyone for all the interesting and lovely comments on Saturday's post, apologies for not replying to them all. Also Many Many Thanks to everyone who clicked the follower button and made the numbers go up and up. Big welcome to you all. Margaret asked why be a follower and what being a follower means and why is it important? And I have to say  it isn't important at all and I have no idea what it means apart from it showing up when someone goes into a profile.
But I get childishly excited by seeing the numbers creep up.......

26 comments:

  1. You've got me now Sue. Lily and I love Shirley Hughes books and the new one looks lovely. X

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  2. Your grandchildrens names are so pretty - but then I am biased as my daughter is a Florence named after her great, great gran.
    Open Garden visiting is my favourite hobby - I love the fact that most of them are quite secret and you never know what you will find behind someone's house, and the teas in the village hall afterwards are excellent.
    I shall cetainly be getting the Shirley Hughes book on the pretence it is for my granddaughter!

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  3. Beautiful gardens and lovely to spend the day with some of your family. I may just have pre ordered that book as well and it’s just for me! Very warm here so better get the clean bedding out on the line.

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  4. please you had a good day. I went with my daughter and great daughter to the gardens we saw had lots of farm baby animals and saw some lama.

    Hazel c uk

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  5. Delightful gardens, thank you for sharing. I also love Shirley Hughes. I've read plenty to the children in my class over the years and now with my grandchildren. I shall look up that book.

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  6. Sounds like you all had a lovely day Sue.
    I love Shirley Hughes! I have all her books from when my children were young, and I still buy them for myself now. I didn't know about 'Snow in the Garden' but I am now going to order one each for my two newborn Granddaughters and one for me!
    I hope you have a good Monday.

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  7. I love that little pond. Will become a " follower" , though I am never sure what it means exactly either!! Don't get too excited will you? x

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  8. Shirley Hughes books are lovely, really beautiful. They were a favourite at school.

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  9. Ooh, Shirley Hughes - I remember her illustrations for 'My Naughty Little Sister', a favourite when I was growing up. I know a young person who loves books, I think I may have found their Christmas present!

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  10. I remember the My Naughty Little Sister stories and I loved them. As I am going to be a grandmother later in the year may be I should look at starting a collection of these for them. I still have my children's books boxed up but don't think there were any of these among them. I'm like you Sue I get very excited when I see I have a new follower and when someone new starts to leave comments. It's the little things as they say.

    Mitzi

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    1. I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes new followers!

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  11. Thank you for the Shirley Hughes suggestion. Discovered my (US) library has 30+ of her books on loan. Will look for some when I take my grandson there on Thursday. Also, thanks for the photos of the English gardens. I have driven through Haughley (my son lived in Wyverstone for a number of years) but, as you say, the gardens aren't always visible from the road.

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    1. I spent a lot of time in Wyverstone between 1971 and 1978 as that's where my ex-husband grew up and I spent most weekends at his house with his parents.

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  12. I discovered Shirley Hughes MANY years ago when my boys were little, and have been a fan ever since....will have to pre order the new one..for me! Her illustrations alone are the best!

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  13. I love Open Gardens days, and it's a brilliant way to get to know new neighbours when you've only recently moved to a new village.

    Shirley Hughes was one of my favourite authors to read aloud to my sons when they were small, unfortunately they soon got fed up of what they called the 'girly' pictures and moved on to Thomas the Tank Engine. They both really enjoyed 'Alfie Gets Locked In' over and over though. I kept Shirley's books for a longtime though for my own pleasure ... the illustrations are lovely.

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  14. Thank you, Sue, for explaining about 'followers'. I don't have that icon on my blog, so I've no idea if people would like to follow or not. But I could imagine how it boosts your morale when you see the numbers rising; it means that people read you regularly and enjoy what you write.
    Lovely gardens, but I admit that I never hung around a bus shelter when I was 14. My parents would've had 40 fits, as we used to say, if I had! Perhaps they were more strict in my day (I was 14 in 1958 - I'll let you do the maths!)
    Margaret P

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    1. Bus shelters were perfect meeting places,and for sitting watching people go by. They put gates on it later and started to lock it up every night because some idiots kept vandalising it. We wouldn't even have thought about damaging it in later 1960's - as you say how things have changed.

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  15. I love the illustration on your new Shirley Hughes book.

    Florence is so sweet. I envy her curly hair.

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  16. It is nice of people to open their gardens for others to enjoy. Thanks for the history of that carving. Sad to read about the manor doing destroyed so recklessly.

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  17. I remember the Shirley Hughes, My Naughty Little Sister Stories. There was a radio story slot in the afternoons. I think it was called Listen with Mother. I’m showing my age here, it must have been in the 1960’s. My favourite one I always read to my infant class was Alfie’s Feet. He gets his wellies on the wrong way round. Her stories are timeless. I missed our local open gardens this weekend. I’m quite disappointed because I love a good nosey around. So much inspiration and ideas on offer.

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  18. I went and missed our local open gardens at the weekend...just totally forgot it was on despite riding by the signs almost daily for weeks. I should have written it on the calendar.

    Must have a look for some of the Shirley Hughes books. The Christmas one looks lovely.
    Hugs-x-

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  19. Thank you for sharing your photos I love to see what people grow in their own gardens always inspires ideas, more doable than the experts on TV .lovely ☺

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  20. I watched the program a few years back about the people who wish to be considered for the open gardens. It was a real eye opener. Love nosing around gardens.

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  21. I love Shirley Hughes! I kept "Moving Molly" - my daughter, now 33, didn't want it.
    Recently I got nostalgic and ordered "Lucy and Tom's Christmas" from Amazon - just for me! I just love her artwork.

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  22. Ohhh, what lovely hidden gardens!! Nice that they open for all to see.

    God bless.

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