Wednesday 7 May 2014

Cannon Hall

On Sunday, Mick and I left Eleanor at home revising and went off to walk Archie at Cannon Hall near Barnsley. It's somewhere we've never been before.


It was originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, but is now a country house museum. We didn't go in to the museum as we had Archie with us.

We'd really gone to have a look around the walled garden, which you can read about in my Garden Visiting In May - Part One post over on my The Good Life blog, but we made the most of the fine day and had a wander around the beautiful grounds too. The parkland was landscaped in the 18th century by Richard Woods of Chertsey.

As we walked up to the hall from the car park, we came across this beautiful deer shelter which was built in the early to mid nineteenth century.


It has a stone slate roof which is supported on four yew trunks.


We had a wander around the gardens to the front of the hall. They're presently laid out with bedding and spring bulbs.


The rhododendrons just seem to be getting going. I bet they're beautiful once they're in full bloom, another couple of weeks I reckon.



We headed down to the lake. Archie had to be put back on his lead at this point, he loves water so much that I don't trust him anywhere near it, he'd be in there. The lake has a range of water birds including geese, coots, ducks and swans.


There's a number of waterfalls along the stream which leads in to the lake.




This waterfall has a stone bridge in front of it. The gushing noise of the water was quite loud.


Archie didn't mind the noise, he just wanted to get closer to the water.


Looking back towards the hall, you can see how extensive the grounds are.


We had a lovely day and I can thoroughly recommend Cannon Hall if you're in the area. I'd like to return to have a look round the museum, and there were other parts of the grounds which we didn't get to explore on Sunday so we must visit again. The museum, grounds and gardens have free admission, but there's a nominal £3 charge for parking. There's also a farm which looks like a lovely place to take children. Across the road from the car park is a garden centre, it's quite big, and the prices here were on par with other garden centres. Of course, we had to go and have a look round, but I didn't buy anything. Maybe next time.

24 comments:

  1. Looks like a nice place, Farly and Maisie would have to have their lead on too, the water would definitely call!

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    1. It's a really lovely place, so much to see and some lovely walks. It's somewhere we'll definitely return.

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  2. Such a beautiful place! The waterfalls are stunning aren't they, and how interesting that they are all different from each other in their design. Looks as though Archie was very happy on his walk. You have some great places to visit near you, all we seem to have here is roads and towns so I love seeing where you go to! xx

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    1. I was really impressed with Cannon Hall, there's so much to see and plenty to keep you interested, and some lovely walks too. We're really lucky that we have such wonderful places nearby, I was only saying to Mick on the way home that I could never move away from Yorkshire, it really is beautiful and has everything you could ever want.

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  3. What a lovely place, the waterfalls are so pretty, can see why Archie would be tempted by all that running water xx

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    1. There's lots of places to eat a picnic by the side of the waterfalls, I bet it's enjoyed by many in the summer months. Archie's always tempted by water, I'm sure it's the noise that attracts him, he always likes to run through rock pools.

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  4. What a lovely day out, you keep reminding me of all the lovely places we should be visiting in our area, this ones not too far away from me in Doncaster. We have just got our new NT cards ready for the caravanning season, they will be put to good use quite soon. I love looking round the gardens of stately homes, we usually come home with a plant or two :-)

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    1. There's so many lovely places to visit in Britain, we're very lucky. We've got some great places either on our doorstep or not too far away. We don't visit many National Trust properties now as many of them don't allow dogs in, but I agree, there's some wonderful gardens.

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  5. what a beautiful place...the gardens look lovely.

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    1. It's a gem. I wish we'd been here before now but we'll definitely go back now that we've found it.

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  6. It looks an interesting place to visit, Jo. I had to laugh that you had to put Archie on the lead to stop him from going for a swim! :oD

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    1. I'd like to go back without Archie sometime so that I can have a look around the museum, I bet that's really interesting. Archie loves any water, including muddy puddles, you should see the state he comes home from walks in if I don't catch him in time.

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  7. What a beautiful place, Jo. Those rhododendrons are so huge and lush and the waterfall is stunning. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. The rhododendrons are beautiful, they'll look stunning once they're fully in bloom. I love waterfalls, they're so pretty.

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  8. Such a beautiful place, and it looks as though you had it all to yourselves :0)
    I love the water features.
    x

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    1. There were quite a few other people there, but it wasn't too crowded, which was nice. I think water always gives a calming effect, especially when you can hear the trickle of a waterfall.

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  9. A most enjoyable post, and terrific photos, about a place that's obviously well worth visiting.

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    1. It's definitely worth visiting, I'm just sorry that we didn't find this place soon, we'll definitely be back.

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  10. what a gorgeous place love the waterfall

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    1. It's a lovely place. There's so much to see, we'll definitely make a return trip.

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  11. It seems amazing that you have so many beautiful places to visit which are only a stones throw from where you live. We have to travel many hours to see anything different and tend to walk in the same old places all the time. Loved the pics and it must be looking so colourful over there at the moment. Take care.

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    1. We do have so many lovely places near where we live, we're very lucky. I think we tend to take it for granted sometimes so it's nice to get out and see some places that we haven't visited before.

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  12. Cannon Hall looks really interesting - I particularly like the yew-tree posts (and the rhododendrons!)! As there were virtually no places like this of interest in Cambridgeshire, I am looking forward to re-visiting all of the interesting places and NT properties in Northumberland now that we have moved back.

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    1. I loved those yew posts holding up the roof. Such a wonderful example of a deer shelter. We're very lucky here, we've got so many wonderful properties, like this one, in our area to visit. We're spoilt for choice.

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