Harewood House

We had a lovely day on Friday. We'd seen that there was to be an artisan fair held at Harewood House in Leeds over four days, the Thursday to Sunday, with reduced admission to the estate. It's somewhere I have a vague recollection of visiting as a child but I've never been since. Admission is usually £18 but the reduced price for this event was just £5 so we decided to take advantage of that and so Mick took Friday off work.

Harewood House is the family seat of the Lascelles family and home of David Lascelles, the eight Earl of Harewood. The landscape was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. Emmerdale is now filmed on a purpose made set on the estate and the house has been used in various TV and film productions including the Downton Abbey movie and Victoria. We weren't able to go inside the house as it's currently closed as the Christmas exhibition is being installed. Friday was the day that winter arrived here, a mist hung in the air all day and it was much colder than it's been all season, but that didn't stop us enjoying the day.

There were over 130 different stalls at the artisan market. It was very well organised with the stalls creating a walkway by the side of the woods.

There were a good selection of stalls, lots of food and drink stalls. but so many others too: candles, wooden toys, ceramics, jewellery, textiles, glassware, wood crafts, rustic garden art, hand painted glass, hand made soaps, and so much more. We made a few purchases.

There was also a small seating area where you could purchase hot food to eat right away. A duo was providing musical entertainment. We spent quite some time looking round the many stalls, there really was something for everyone.

Afterwards we decided to have a walk around the grounds. Here you can see the front of the house getting decked out ready for the Christmas festivities. Numbers were being placed in each of the windows to make the house look like an advent calendar.

We went round to the back of the house to see the terrace and Parterre. Such fantastic planting here which I think will look even more stunning in summer when the flower borders are in full bloom.

The fountain.

From the terrace you look out over beautiful countryside. I'm sure it looks even more stunning when the mist lifts and it's bathed in a sunny glow.

Before we left we visited the Christmas shop. It's located in the Old Kitchen, Below Stairs. There were lots of goodies to browse, but I was just as interested in all the copper pans and cooking paraphernalia displayed on the shelves around the room.

And what about this magnificent range. The kitchen was restored in 1996 and I enjoyed looking around here just as much, if not more, than I enjoyed looking at all the Christmas merchandise on sale.

We went out for a meal on Friday night to round off a very enjoyable day. We didn't see all that Harewood House had to offer but we were impressed with what we did see and it's on the list to return there to explore more at some point in the future.