Day Trips from Manchester

In Brief. Levens Hall is a largely Elizabethan Manor House with varied gardens, including the oldest and most extensive topiary garden in the world. The gardens are a particular highlight, but the interior of the house is also in excellent condition, with panelled walls and furniture from different periods.  Nearby is the village of Cartmel, with its winding streets hosting a variety of houses, shops and eateries adjacent to its long established  Priory .  Levens Hall from the Topiary Garden What's Here? The garden at Levens hall is set out in a grid pattern, with different elements of the garden often separated by hedges, including a substantial beech hedge that was a feature of the original garden design from the 1690s. This means that the different areas feel quite separate, with their own characters. The most prominent feature is the Topiary Garden, which is next to the house, featuring not only diverse geometric patterns but also colourful flower beds, where there ar...

In Brief. Wentworth Woodhouse is an imposing 18th century country pile near Rotherham, that can boast the longest facade of any country house in England. Though the interior contains little of the original furniture, which was sold off to pay death duties, there are nonetheless striking and varied spaces that benefit from being brought to life in a tour. The property also features an extensive and well maintained garden, with meandering paths, and views of the West Front and surrounding countryside. The impressive East Front. What's Here? Curiously, the property features two houses back-to-back, both built in the early 18th Century, with the slightly earlier Baroque property being considered to give an unsuitable architectural fashion statement in contrast with its Palladian successor.  Both the East Front and the West Front are pictured. The West Front is almost as grand as the East Front. Several themed tours are available; I took the Wentworth Tour, with an enthusiastic and wel...

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 ...

In Brief. Harewood is an imposing country house in West Yorkshire, designed, furnished and landscaped by the best 18th century architects, furniture makers and garden designers that money could buy. The result is impressive, with the carefully balanced house overlooking restrained formal gardens and rolling parkland. Inside, the interiors are grand without becoming too showy, and include sensitively displayed artworks, old and new. All this good taste was funded off the back of sugar plantations in the West Indies, as is reflected on explicitly inside the house and in some artworks. Harewood House from the Terrace. What's Here? Harewood house is surrounded by a variety of landscaped gardens.  Immediately to the rear of the property is the terrace (pictured), which is fine in itself, but perhaps most noteworthy for its wider views over rolling countryside. The terrace cafe provides a civilised location for taking it all in. However, there are also a variety of walks to other parts ...

In Brief. Conwy is a castle with a walled costal town attached. The castle and walled town were built in a 4 year period the 13th Century (how long is it taking to build a railway from London to Birmingham in the 21st century?), and both are impressive and substantially intact. Nearby, the Bondant Garden is an impressive National Trust garden with a surprisingly vibrant winter garden with flowering snowdrops, daffodils and rhododendron, to name but a few, on my visit on 15th January. Conwy Castle What's Here? Conwy is classed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, and it's not hard to see why, with its grand castle and the nearly complete town walls. Both were built at the same time, as part of a network of English castles that were designed to keep the Welsh in check. The castle has a series of towers, most of which can be climbed, offering good views over the River Conwy, just before it enters the Irish Sea. The castle is now popular with pigeons and tourists alike. Conwy harb...

 In Brief. Nostell Priory is a National Trust country house in rolling parkland near Wakefield. The house itself is substantial, occupying a raised position, though to my eyes the neo-classical exterior is ponderous from all angles. For Christmas, the interior is extensively decorated with trees and lights, and outside the parkland provides walks that are undiminished by the season.  Approaching the house from the carpark. What's Here? For the avoidance of doubt, Nostell Priory is not a priory! It is an 18th century country house on the site of a medieval priory. The house occupies an elevated position, overlooking rolling parkland to the front and an artificial lake to the rear.  There are few formal gardens (I wasn't tempted to visit the Rose Garden in December), and the Pleasure Grounds is a rather nondescript wooded area. However, the parkland is pleasant, particularly popular with dogs and their walkers, and the Obelisk Lodge is silly enough to provide a worthy dest...

In Brief.  Chatsworth is the grande dame of northern country houses, having been the home of the Duke of Devonshire and ancestors in the Cavendish family for over 400 years. Located in the picturesque Derwent Valley, the exterior of the property is vast but elegant, in contrast with with the rather showy interior. The gardens are extensive, varied and well maintained, and are likely to be the high point of most visits.   Chatsworth from the Salisbury Lawns What's Here? Chatsworth is what a country house can be made to look like with access to an almost unlimited budget over a prolonged period. The result is undeniably a notch more grand than other stately homes in the area, and interestingly visitors on a weekday in summer include many more overseas tourists than can be seen at a typical property run by the National Trust (such as Lyme Park ) or English Heritage (such as Brodsworth Hall ).  The interior has clearly been designed to impress, but can give the impress...

In Brief. Tatton Park is a substantial estate that was owned for over 400 years by members of the Egerton family. The current neo-classical mansion was built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and many of the fixtures and fittings date from that period. However, the outdoor spaces are probably more visited than the mansion, and there are extensive and varied gardens, including a Japanese Garden and an arboretum. For younger visitors, there is also the farm, which includes both historic buildings like the mill and a collection of farm animals from rare breeds. The mansion from the gardens. What's Here? Tatton is an impressive estate, and everything comes on a grand scale. I started with a walk round the gardens, where there are airy lawns, many impressive trees inside and outside the arboretum, ornate topiary, a variety of ponds and an extensive Japanese garden.  There is even a compact formal Italian Garden, but the scale of the rest of the garden rather leaves it as a foo...

In Brief. Dunham Massey is a perennially popular National Trust property, with an 18th Century mansion adjacent to pleasant (not too) formal gardens and a substantial deer park. Much of the interior of the hall dates from the early 20th century, so most visitors come from the grounds, which include good spaces for picnics as well as longer walks. The mansion from the gardens. What's Here? Dunham Massey offers three distinct environments: a house with exhibitions and a few grand spaces, a relaxing formal garden for perusing or picnicking in, and a deer park for longer leisurely walks.  The original hall dates from the 17th Century, though with significant subsequent remodelling, and much of the interior dates form the early 20th Century.  Thus the fabric of the house doesn't capture the history of its occupants in the same way as, for example  Lyme does, but there is a grand main hall, an ornate state bedroom, and an interesting exhibition on the building's role as a mil...

In Brief. Speke Hall is a grand Tudor house managed by the National Trust, surrounded by lawns, low-key formal gardens and woodland. The interior of the hall lacks the scale of some country houses, such as Lyme , but includes ornate wooden panelling and furniture, and light partly comes from a striking interior courtyard.  The gardens provide varied views of the hall, and woodland walks help to justify a visit to the restaurant for a scone. Speke Hall from the South Lawn What's Here? Speke is a substantial Tudor country house, which was developed under two families from the 16th to the 19th Century.  The hall has lawns on three sides, providing diverse views of the striking exterior. The interior features a substantial collection of ornate 19th century oak furniture that may seem rather ornate and gloomy to modern eyes, but certainly is not typical of country house furniture. There are also exhibitions on the persecution facing Catholic families, such as the owners of Speke, ...

In Brief. Brodsworth Hall is a Victorian country house surrounded by gardens that were designed to impress, and do. The house was built in the 1860s, and much of the interior dates from the time of its construction, when money was plentiful. However, the gardens are the star turn, maintained to a very high standard, and providing variety around every turn. The immaculate formal gardens were quite a spectacle during my August visit. The formal fountain garden. What's here? Brodsworth Hall was built to replace an existing residence on the site in the 1860s, at the same time as the gardens were laid out. The hall itself, though substantial, has a somewhat understated exterior, approached by a sweeping drive and surrounded by lawns. The interior is more lavish, with grand spaces for entertaining, which can be contrasted with the more down-to-earth facilities of the servant's wing. The friendly guides were keen to share stories and history. View from the summer house. The gardens, ...

  In Brief. Trentham  is a leisure and shopping destination in the grounds of a now defunct stately home. The gardens and associated lake provide a variety of formal or not-so-formal wandering opportunities, and the adjacent shopping village provides many small shops, both independent and from chains. It is entirely possible to have a civilised and varied day out here, though the case for visiting will be stronger for locals than for those with further to travel. The lake and some local wildlife. What's Here? Little remains of the once grand Trentham Hall, which was largely demolished in the early 20th century, the site having been blighted by pollution in the nearby River Trent. However, a substantial renovation project in the early 21st century has restored the gardens and associated lake. The result is a large, formal Italian garden and assorted adjacent spaces, including a "floral labyrinth".  These are quite pleasant, but for me are not more interesting than some oth...

In Brief. Lyme is a country house in extensive grounds, operated by the National Trust. The house has a long history, evolving through 600 years (!) of ownership by the same family; as a result the interior reflects different periods and contains a rich collection of historical artefacts and curiosities. The house backs onto manicured gardens that include a lake and an orangery, and is surrounded by much less tamed parkland for more energetic walks. Lyme obtained national visibility in the '90s as Pemberley in a widely watched BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice . The Georgian rear of the house from the garden. What's Here? Lyme is large and diverse enough to accommodate a variety of different visits. Families can head from the carpark to the adventure playground, explore the adjacent woodland or make dens, and round off the visit with a sandwich or ice cream from the Timber Yard, all without going anywhere near the house or gardens. Up a hill from the carpark, the gardens a...