Today we visited Melford Hall and then Nethergate Brewery.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Friday July 10th to my shame, I have never visited Melford Hall in Long Melford. It is a National Trust property so you will need membership or pay admission £14. I am going to be there at 11am ish Starting with coffee, we can tour the house and the gardens and I suspect it will take us til 2pm ish. I am then going to move onto Melford Country Park CO10 9HH for 2.30pm. The parking is free; there are toilets and a café called The Bug Stop here if you need. I am going to take a 5 - 5.5-mile circular stroll from here to Sudbury and back again using the meadows, railway line and some town roads. There will be a short stop at Waitrose, Sudbury for toilets as we pass. I am then going to the Nethergate Brewery (Rodbridge Corner, Long Melford, CO10 9HJ) which is walking distance from the Country Park for a drink and probably some Mac n Cheese from the food truck. If you fancy joining us for the social then I guess we will be at Nethergate approx. 5pm. Nethergate opens at 12pm-8pm. Phew a very sociable day."
We joined Joyce and Julie at Melford Hall and then later at the brewery. Here are a few of my photos.
The gatehouse.
We started by doing a walk of the parkland first as it was forecast to get hotter later.
The sheep had the right idea about how to avoid the heat.
This avenue of trees leads to the highest point in the park.
We were surprised to find some of the sheep has some quite young lambs.
They view looking down at the hall...
...and Long Melford Church.
Before touring the house we had an interesting talk about the history of the place from Gaynor. You can rad about the history
here.
Inside we met the current Lady Hyde-Parker. Joyce's mother-in-law worked at the hall for many years and Lady Hyde-Parker had many fond memories of her and shared a couple of anecdotes.
The antlers here feature on the uniform of the local primary school.
We continued to tour the house.
These pillars are not really made of marble, but scagliola - just like the columns we saw in Ickworth House (see
here).
The door we came through into the library is invisible when closed.
Queen Elizabeth stayed here and there is a window to celebrate the visit.
There is plenty of Beatrix Potter memorabilia here. She was a regular visitor and stayed weeks at a time with her cousin.
Outside we could see people playing croquet on the lawn.
He had our packed lunches in the garden in the shade close to the pond.
We walked the borders before we left.
While Joyce headed on to the picnic site to meet Miranda and do the planned walk, Dawn and I went straight to the brewery.
After a single (non-alcoholic) beer she went home leaving me with my crosswords of the day to solve.
A little later I was joined by Miranda's husband Guy and when Miranda and Joyce came we moved out into the beer garden. Here we were joined by Sue and Kieron and, on her return, Dawn.
The mac and cheese was good, but the beer was better. An excellent day out. Thank-you Joyce for organising. You can see more of my photos
here on Flickr.
Other related posts on my blog include
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