Sheffield Walks: Graves Park

Good Friday this year was a bright and sunny day although with the northerly winds and 13 degrees temperature it was not exactly a day for flip-flops. But this is Britain and any excuse to be out under the sun is good enough. 

Our destination was Graves Park, Sheffield's largest public park located 3 miles south of the city centre. Despite having lived in the city for 4 years this was the first time I've been here. Living in Hillsborough meant we have our own green lump of communal field at the bottom of our road and the Peak District National Park is just a few minutes drive away so we are spoilt for choice. But with a very excitable little one, we were after a free day out to see  the farm animals of which Graves Park boasts of. 

We drove through the city centre towards Ecclessall Woods carrying on to Meadowhead and found a parking space at Charles Ashmore Road where the park outdoor sports facilities including a bowling green are located. From the gate there are three different paths that converges under the rows of trees, we took the middle one which led us to the large meadows where the flocks of sheep and highland cattle graze. 



The views of Sheffield from the park are spectacular, on a nice day, you can see the city's landmarks. 



We said hello to some very friendly lambs who gladly munched some of the grass we offered them. Isaac was definitely having a fascinating time!



Across the grazing area we can see the cafe and the children's playground just opposite the lake. Further on our path is the Norton Hall, an English country house recently converted into high-end apartment units. 



We also said our hello to the highland cattle, their long horns did not even slightly scare the child in our pushchair. 



At the end of the path  before reaching Norton Hall, we turned left towards the boating lake and then walked the path to the cafe. 



Finding the cafe packed and the benches around the play area occupied, we decided to have our picnic looking at the lake. 



After a good walk and with full tummies, we headed back to the car passing through the outdoor sports facilities area and finally driving back to the city. On our next visit, we'll have to make some time to visit the farmland where most of the other animals are. 

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Day Out at Warwick Castle

February in Britain is a bleak time of the year when trees are bare of leaves and the sun barely comes out. This year was particularly bad, declared the wettest winter on record for England and Wales in almost 250 years, with villages in the South turned into islands secluded from the towns and cities sometimes accessible only by motorboats. But this time of the year could also be an ideal time to visit top attractions that are normally flooded with visitors in the summer and during Bank holidays. 

So early one February morning, when the sun was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds, we hit the motorway and headed to Warwick Castle, one of Britain's most visited sites. The journey took nearly two hours because of delays caused by roadworks but we got there just before one o'clock when the first drizzles of rain shower began to fall.

It was a very quiet day with no queues at the ticket office. A group of school children were on a school trip and a bus full of Chinese tourists were roaming the grounds. Inside the castle confines, there were only a handful of visitors that at times we found ourselves alone in the staterooms, an experience we certainly would not have during the high season. The pram was not allowed in so we had to carry our six-month-old around but this was not a problem. 

The medieval castle, founded in 1068 by William The Conqueror, has most of its magnificent towers and ramparts stunningly preserved. The Great Hall and the State Rooms would not win my vote for grandiosity if you compare it to other stately homes in the Peak District but they are well-maintained and interesting. The giant fireplace in the centre of the hall, supposed to keep the whole house warm, definitely got our attention. 

A fascinating part of the tour was 'Secrets and Scandals' (formerly The Royal Weekend) Exhibition, a delightful display of stately rooms which uses waxworks to make you feel you are a guest at the Earl of Warwick's home. The rooms, littered with many plates of afternoon tea lying around (not edible), are not roped off and we were free to look and walk around and be part of the party. The lifestyle of the upper classes was showcased with a hint of typical British sarcasm which I was afraid could have been lost in translation amongst some visitors. 

Afternoon tea: light meal eaten between 4pm and 6pm, a custom originated amongst the wealthy classes in England.

When we went out, the sun has already come out, and we decided to explore the grounds which was smaller than the map makes it out. We were not able to cross the bridge because the river was dangerously raging downstream with levels reaching almost as high as the water weir. We didn't also have the chance to see the towers and the dungeons. But we had a very enjoyable day and we will surely be back when Isaac can run around. 

P.S. The day trip can be quite expensive so we bought a packed lunch and ate it at the car park. Parking near the entrance is charged for the whole day which was rather costly. 

Summer Walk in Chatsworth

I'm embarrassed to admit, as much a seasoned traveller I now consider myself, I still take a guilty pleasure in visiting places I have seen in films or television dramas. 

One July midmorning, I imagined myself as Lizzie Bennet (the heavily pregnant version at least) taking a walk on the grounds of Pemberley in my long bright red frock and sandals with soles so thin it felt like I was walking barefoot. 

It was a clear day, still and golden, with blackberries ripe and luscious in the bramble bushes. The air is touched with a lazy fragrance of the hidden flowers underneath the tunnel of green, with trees that spread their forked boughs like a stag's antler above us. Further ahead, the intense blue of the noonday sky burst like jewel in the sun. 

Pemberley (of films and TV dramas) of course is Chatsworth House, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, set in the heart of the Peak District. Thirty minutes in the car from Sheffield, we didn't have to travel far when we woke up that morning to a sky that cried for a walk in the countryside. 

One of Britain's most visited historic properties, Chatsworth House stands magnificently in the east bank of the Derwent River with a backdrop of wooded, rocky hills rising to heather moorland. It's one of those places whose landscape transforms with the changing of the seasons and every single visit offers a pleasant surprise. 

This particular summer visit was exclusively for the five mile walk around the garden, up the 300 year old Cascade, finding the centre of the maze and strolling around the Emperor Lake with the enormous gravity-fed fountain where the best picture view of the house can be taken. And yes, there were plenty of photos indeed!