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Cheshire Gardens in September: Abbeywood and Cholmondeley

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In Brief. By September, the vibrancy of summer has passed for many gardens, and autumn leaves are still pending. So, this trip during a sunny day in mid-September was to experience two gardens that are quite near to each other to see if an early autumn visit is worthwhile. The two gardens, at Abbeywood Estate and Cholmondeley Castle , were both deserving of a visit, and turned out to have completely different styles; Abbeywood is compact, intimate and lushly planted, whereas Cholmondeley has wide open spaces, mature trees and impressive vistas. An imposing Oak and Cholmondeley Castle. What's Here? Abbeywood garden is entered through the cafe, which overlooks the tropical garden, and provides a civilised way to take on some unnecessary calories. When eventually entered, the topical garden has narrow paths that open into the peaceful Pool garden with its many carp. There is then a pergola and some herbaceous borders that open into the distinctive prairie garden that features a varie
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The Dorothy Clive Garden

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In Brief. Named after the person it was initially produced for, the Dorothy Clive Garden was originally developed in the 1940s, and is now a garden of two halves. The original garden is a wooded area built into an old quarry, which will be most colourful in the spring, and the more recent area includes a collection of themed spaces including grand herbaceous borders and a distinctive edible woodland.  In my visit in September there was still a lot of colour in the more recent garden, and the cafe provides a pleasant area to pass the time when the sun shines. The Waterfall in the Quarry Garden What's Here? The Dorothy Clive Garden occupies a hillside near Stoke-on-Trent, and, other than the sound of cars heading along the adjacent A51, this is a peaceful and relaxing garden.  After a pleasant tea and lemon drizzle cake the outdoor space of the cafe, I headed for the Quarry Garden. This provides meandering paths around and into a largely wooded area that occupies a disused quarry.  I
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Thornbridge: a reinvented country house

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In Brief. The Thornbridge Estate , near Bakewell, hosts a vibrant garden and a distinctive hall that is a historic building, family home and events venue in one. Many will visit for the garden, for which the well established view from the house to the lake boasts a thousand shades of green, and there are several other areas with quite different character. The house can only be visited by tour groups, which is understandable given that it is someone's home (we met one of the owners), and blends period and modern features as a result of extensive renovations. The hall from the Koi Lake What's Here? Thornbridge is a privately owned country house, of recent wider significance as the original site of the Thornbridge Brewery , best known for its Jaipur IPA, which can be sampled at the cafe.  The gardens provide considerable variety, including the trees and bushes that lead from the lake up to the house, lawns with views over rolling hills, a herbaceous border, a scented terrace that
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Birds, Bogs and Bugs at Brockholes

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In Brief. Brockholes is a nature reserve, adjacent to the River Ribble and the M6 motorway near Preston. The reserve occupies a site that has previously been quarried, and that has been developed to provide a variety of habitats including reed beds, lakes, woodland areas and a marsh. The centrepiece is a floating visitor centre that hosts a cafe, a welcome building with some information on wildlife and habitats, and some meeting spaces.  Seemingly you can also get married here!  Visitor Village and Meadow Lake What's Here? Having recently visited more than one inland Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve (the one at Leighton Moss features in a blog ), some features are beginning to recur that are shared with Brockholes.  These include calm areas of water, paths that navigate trough a variety of habitats, views over the waterways, and hides that the very patient can use to get closer to the local wildlife (not being so patient, I moved on from one promptly, leavi
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Yorkshire Wildlife Park

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In Brief. The Yorkshire Wildlife Park is essentially a Zoo in a rural setting. Thus the site is particularly green, like an area of countryside, that happens to contain a variety of fenced-off enclosures. These house a wide range of animals from throughout the world, as diverse as Polar Bears and Tigers. The enclosures are typically substantial, often with different types of terrain, and there is a large wetland area for local wildlife. Lunchtime for the giraffes. What's Here? The Yorkshire Wildlife Park was established in 2009, and thus is a modern take on the traditional zoo.  This translates into enclosures that include fields and/or wooded areas, with little use of concrete and absolutely nothing resembling a cage.  The park is entered through a new area known as The Hive, which includes a modern shopping centre and a hotel. This includes the expected Safari Store with cuddly wildlife and animal themed merchandise, but there are also a variety of clothes, craft and household s
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Art and Arcades in Leeds City Centre

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In Brief. An earlier blog visited the extensively renovated Leeds Waterfront , anchored by the Royal Armouries Museum ,  whereas this reports on a visit to the City Centre, for which the Leeds Art Gallery and Leeds City Museum were the target destinations. I walked up from the waterfront, and overall Leeds City Centre gives a good impression; it is much larger than I had expected, and includes an interesting blend of historic buildings and modern shops, offices and flats. The museum and art gallery provide pleasant modern exhibition spaces, though they aren't huge, and there are many retail opportunities, especially in some grand historic arcades. The Victoria Quarter What's Here? The rather austere frontage of the Leeds City Museum opens into spaces that sympathetically combine the existing historic building with modern galleries and a light, spacious coffee shop. The museum is not on the same scale as, say the World Museum in Liverpool, but contains an interesting history
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Bridgemere Show Gardens in Cheshire

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 In Brief. The Bridgemere Show Gardens  bring together a collection of gardens that have been developed for, and that have often won prizes at, garden shows, such as the Chelsea Flower Show . In total there are 15 diverse and compact gardens located around several lawns.  The gardens are designed to be at their best at different times of year, so not all of them will be in top form at a single visit, but in June many were colourful, and the variety is refreshing. This is all attached to the largest garden centre I have ever seen, so if you have a garden project in mind, there are plenty opportunities to go home with more than you brought. The cottage garden. What's Here? My first surprise on arriving was the scale of the carpark; think theme park more than country house or garden. It quickly became clear that most people do not visit for the Show Gardens, and that the intimidatingly large garden centre (or perhaps the other shops, the cafe or the restaurant) is the main draw.  Ever
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