23rd September - Day out at Speke Hall

       Please click on photos to see a larger one

We got away a little later than planned but managed to avoid traffic by ignoring the satnav and going down the M58

We arrived at the Hall just after it had opened for the day.  We were offered tickets for the Victorian Tour which we accepted.

We checked where the start of the tour was then we had time for a walk before the tour was due to start and we chose the Hall Gardens walk

Suzie loves Monkey Puzzle trees.  The Hydrangeas were nice but a stone in Suzie's shoe causes a dance - point 4

The sunny side of the Hall - point 5

point 6
The end of the walk finishing conveniently at the tour starting point 7

The ticket holders starting to roll up and a group of school children getting in first.

Wow, a real Victorian!  She's aged well!  Sheila our guide for the tour.

The Hall is well appointed inside although not everything belongs there.

Sheila was very good and clearly enjoyed her role sometimes lording it over the other servants.

After the tour we rushed across to the restaurant for our lunch.  Actually it resembled a posh canteen.  The food was good.  Suzie had scouse and I had pan haggerty.

We decided we'd go on the Tudor Tour and provisionally picked the 3:00pm one.

We set off on the coast walk.  Looking at the map now I can see we didn't do the full walk, we misread the instructions and walked all the way round the sailing club, points 5 & 6, and back the way we had come.

The walk starts near the end of the Liverpool Airport main runway, in fact it starts along the escape route.  The were planes of all sizes taking off.  The second and third photos are montages of the same planes.

The tide was out and unfortunately the edges/banks were too high to enable us to see much.

The walk goes round the perimeter of Liverpool Sailing Club and we spotted this boat, Penny, which originally was a Glasson boat.

We arrived back at the start, well point 3 on the map, and Suzie was too tired to walk any further but she said it was OK for me to walk on the longer walk round the grounds of the Hall.  

The walk climbed up onto the cliff from where I took these all the following photos.  Is that an abandoned Leyland National airport bus?  Did Ray used to work at this chemical plant?

This is a Ryanair jet taking off.  I've got a similar sequence for an Easy Jet take off.  I was now in a better position to take the photographs.

The river and sailing club from higher up

I've turned inland now these are coming up to point 5

Just a bit further on

At point 5 I turned right, I was tired now so I turned right and came upon this view of the Hall - green bit on map

I walked over to the restaurant looking for Suzie then the shop but I couldn't find her anywhere.  I noticed the 3:00pm start of the Tudor Walk had been scrubbed out?

I wandered back to the front of the Hall and lo and behold

I spotted Suzie and the 400 year old Jeremy.  She had joined the 2:30 tour so I tagged along behind.

Afterwards we went to the restaurant and had a Lancashire Cream Tea with Cornish clotted cream!

We had a look round the shop and then made our way home.  A good day out.