AVONCROFT MUSEUM OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS, NEAR BROMSGROVE

 I first came across the Avoncroft Museum from the many bricks photographed at the museum which are posted on David Sallery's Penmorfa brick site. So after checking the web for opening times & what else there was to see at the museum, a visit was planed to see their collection of locally made bricks & the many restored buildings.

The museum near Bromsgrove is a mini village containing buildings which have been rescued & faithfully rebuilt in a setting to match their original location. Most of the buildings contain items & tools for which they were originally used for, like the blacksmith's shop & chain shop. All of these buildings were either rescued from the bulldozer or ones which had fell into neglect. 

This is the Counting House which came from Bromsgrove Cattle Market. The Market was opened in 1853 & farmers would come to this building to settle their bills for the purchase or sale of the livestock. The last market took place in 1972.

Threshing Barn from Cholstrey near Leominster. This is where wheat, oats & barley was beaten with a flail to separate the grain from the stalk. The doors were then opened to let the wind blow away the chaff, leaving the grain to be collected off the floor. The straw would be then collected up & stored.

The Museum contains the National collection of public phone boxes, of which there must be at least twenty different kinds. Most of which are working & are connected, so you can call someone in one of the other phone boxes.

No Dr Who in this one !

The children were having a great time running from one box to another to see which were ringing.

Windmill

Toll House

Medieval Town House

After an enjoyable walk around most of the site, seeing most of the buildings, a visit to the tea rooms in the Shrewsbury Co-op was my next port of call. There I enjoyed a nice cup of refreshing tea & a cake before my two hour steady trip back home.

For more information about the Museum, please click on the link.  http://www.avoncroft.org.uk

To see the bricks I photographed at the museum, please click on the link below.
http://uknamedbricks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/avoncroft-museum-near-bromsgrove.html

LYME PARK, CHESHIRE

The day had been cloudy for most of the day resulting in me at first not getting very good pictures of Lyme Park, but after I had been round the well kept gardens & house, the sun started to appear, requiring me to have to race around the grounds to get these decent photos of the house before closing time at 5 o'clock.

I spoke to the young gardener tending the lawns & borders near the orangery, if he was fined for leaving any weeds in the borders, which he replied "no, you will always find some weeds." He then realised I was joking with him & I commended him on doing such a great job in tending the beds & for his perfectly striped lawns. As a keen garden myself you appreciate how much time & effort has been put in to keep these gardens looking as good as they do. They were a pleasure to see & photograph.

Lyme Park was used for the setting of Pemberley in the 1995 television series of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth.

If it was not for one of the kind garden attendants I would have not got this great shot of the house from the Italian Gardens. The bell had been rung to exit the gardens at 5 o'clock & everyone including myself proceeded towards the exit. It was at this point with me seeing people coming up from the Italian Gardens, that I had not been down there. So I asked the attendant, which he granted, if there was time for me to nip down to these gardens, resulting in me getting this great shot of the house, with the light just spot on.

If you do go to Lyme Park make sure you allow it to be an all day visit as there is plenty to see. Not like me, I only managed to have three hours there & that was not long enough to get my money's worth, as it wasn't cheap to go in & there was no reduction for seniors. You also have to pay £7 car parking on top, which I though was the National Trust going too far. So I expect I have learnt from this day not to pull in too many places in the same day or you pay the price !

All in all it was grand day out, Anson Engine Museum in the morning & a historical house & gardens in the afternoon, not forgetting that nice cake at lunch time.