Its a little guide to historic properties
Britain is packed with beautiful historic properties just waiting to be explored.From traditional castles, manor houses, abbeys, roman forts and even deer houses. To quirky follies, observation towers, windmills and lighthouses.
There's historic properties to be found in even the smallest villages and towns. Take a proper look at the place where you live and I'm sure you'll see streets of houses that are over a hundred years old, chapels & churches and ornate Victorian buildings that you pass by every day without realising their historical importance. I live in a small rural village in the County Durham area and even in our small village we have no less than 2 old Halls of significant note and a listed water fountain. In fact I live in a 104 year old house that was built for workers at the long-gone coal mine of the village. Its a fact that the fate of our historic properties lies in our children's future. Meaning that its vital to encourage our children and young people to enjoy historic properties and learn about the important roles they played in history. We need to preserve these buildings & follies for future generations to enjoy and not let them be neglected and fall into disrepair or worse still demolished to make way for a McDonalds drive through. A day visiting a historic property is a day well spent! All the family can enjoy themselves and maybe learn a thing or two about a snapshot of a time gone by. I recommend membership of The National trust & English Heritage. I would suggest you visit one of their properties before hand, you can join at the property during your visit and they'll refund your entrance fee, and make sure you'd use your years membership to its full potential. The National Trust properties tend to be intact, with rooms furnished with antiques and well maintained gardens where English Heritage properties tend to be ruins, castles, abbeys & forts ect, and mainly outdoor sites. I find that the younger Kids especially enjoy running around, exploring & adventuring in the English Heritage properties, having said that The National Trust do some brilliant Kids Trails where they complete a quiz or treasure hunt and collect a small prize. Membership isn't as expensive as you think, come on, I'm a member of both so really it's not! And there's often special offers off the first year price to encourage new members. Of course not all historic properties are owned by the trust and many more are privately owned but one thing is for certain all the properties have their own character & unique charm. |
The best way to enjoy your visit to any historic property is to take your time and look at things properly. If you're visiting an intact property chances are there will be room stewards in each room, don't be shy ask them questions, after all that's what they're there for! Room stewards will tell you some homely facts about the property you're visiting and maybe even spin you a ghost story! If you're visiting a ruin take time to read the information boards, maybe even take the audio tour (they're usually free) go into all the nooks & crannies. Involve the kids, point things out to them & get them to count gargoyles or something! Don't just go rush round thinking its all a load of small walls, nobody would enjoy that! Most importantly, have fun, take a picnic, take a fishing net, take time to enjoy being with the family in one of Britain's beautiful historic properties. I've been to so many different places it would take an age to blog them all so I'll start with my favourites and add to it as I can.... I hope you'll be inspired to visit & help keep history alive. |
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