Just the beginning - a lot more words and photos to come!
Walking together in Cuerden Valley Park Suzie and Carmel decided it would be good to have a day out. After talking to me we set the day as Wednesday 27th May.
We decided we would have a walk before lunch, then lunch and leaving the afternoon to chance.
Where to go/do was left to me to produce suggestions. For days I agonized where. Sizergh Castle, Leighton Moss, Leighton Hall, Holker Hall, Levens Hall, Speke Hall etc. I ruled out Speke Hall because the journey was not aesthetically good. As the day approached it was becoming clear that it was going to be wet. The rain would be moving down frmo the north so all of my preferred destinations were unattractive. Formy Point looked reasonable. We coiuld have our walk and then lunch in Southport and there would be things to do if it rained.
I woke up on Wednesday and thought why not Tatton Park, I looked on the internet and it could be ideal. Suzie agred and Carmel hadn't been there before.
Off we set with the satnav working, it had taken us ages to get the right destination in! Could we trust it? We were told to leave the motorway but the sign for Tatton Park, which we all knew existed, didn't come up so we presed on and after a few reversals arrived at 11:40 in sunshine.
Horror of horrors there was a fairground in the car park and lots of people around. We got to the central area and there was another roundabout - old hobby horse ride. It was just like Blackpool but then it was half term.
We got a recommended walk from one of the shops and set off following the instructions.
As we left the memorial we couldn't find the footpath, as you can see the grass was all beatifully mown but the sheep and deer. We went wrong and ended up with a shorter walk but no one was bothered.
The new World War One memorial,
unveiled by the Chancellor last year, outside the front of the Mansion, which we didn't have time to go round. On to lunch in the Stables Restauraunt - more like a canteen but thefood was good.
We entered the garden
We were close to Manchester Airport and the planes were taking off every two minutes, this was a surprise to us
- it would have been a greater surprise and annoyance to the Egertons, the original owners of the park.
We were lucky, the rhododendrons and azaleas were in full bloom - all the wonderful colour!
The end of a really good day