Day Trips from Manchester

In Brief. Bradford Museums and Galleries have a range of venues, including the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and the Bolling Hall Museum and Library .  The former is an imposing Baroque building from the turn of the 20th Century, located in the rolling Lister Park, with several themed spaces including a David Hockney Gallery.  Bolling Hall seems much more like a country house, if we ignore the fact that it is no longer in the countryside, with a variety of interiors from different periods. Cartwright Hall and Mughal Gardens What's Here? The Cartwright Hall Art Gallery seems much smaller inside than outside, but perhaps that is just as well given the scale of the building. I was interested to see the David Hockney Exhibition, which is compact, but in being arranged chronologically provides an interesting review of the artist's evolving techniques and subjects. I particularly liked a video that captures the process of creating some of his iPad paintings. This complements the Dav...

In Brief. Little Moreton Hall is a now somewhat wonky timber framed manor house dating from the 16th century, located just south of Congleton in Cheshire.  The name is (Little Moreton) Hall - the hall in Little Moreton, and not Little (Moreton Hall), the hall that is smaller than some other hall in Moreton.  Indeed, although the grounds are quite compact, mostly being inside a moat round the property, the house is quite substantial, featuring a striking courtyard and a decorated long gallery at the top of the building.  The Hall and the Moat. What's Here? Little Moreton Hall, despite its seemingly humble name, is distinguished by two vanity projects. The hall is surrounded by a moat, which is felt to have been built as a status symbol, and which encompasses the compact formal gardens and a lawn.  Furthermore, the top floor is dominated by a long gallery that spans from one end of the hall to another, the weight of which may have contributed to the irregular walls an...