We had a small holiday this week. We went to Stafford, Telford and Stoke on Trent. I took some pictures on the motorway, but I put just one on the blog. We were on the 2nd lane (of 5) on M6, to Stafford.
Our holiday started with a visit of Ancient High House. The lovely Tudor building from the center of Stafford, the largest remaining timber framed town house in England, is a free museum. The house was build in 1595.
St Chad’s Church, viewed from the Ancient High House.
Henry VIII and his 6 wives.
The attic hosts Staffordshire Yeomanry Regiment Museum.
As you can see from the pictures, the city center is very beautiful.
Near the Ancient High House we saw St. Chad’s church. Unfortunately it was closed, so we weren’t able to visit it.
Stafford Castle. On this location we took Festus with us.
The Castle was build in 1100 by Robert de Toeni, later known as Robert of Stafford. In the 14th century Ralph became the 1st Earl of Stafford. He ordered the building of a stone keep and was granted a license to crenelate and so constructed the battlements.
By the early 17th century the condition of the castle had deteriorated. During the English Civil War the Parliamentary Committee in Stafford ordered it to be demolished.
It was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival Style, but the castle fell into ruin through this century. Rebuilt by the Jerningham family in the early 19th Century using the same foundations the keep was again a magnificent four stores structure. However, given over to caretakers and then abandoned again in the 1950s it became derelict once more.
Maybe it’s a pigeon nest. We saw a few near the castle.
I loved the internal walls.
David Austin’s Roses. A lovely rose farm. It wasn’t on our list to see, but we pass by it, so we stopped to see the farm. It was very big and impressive.
The rose gardens. Between the tearoom and the plant centre there are a few themed rose gardens, very beautiful. There are over 700 species of roses there.
The plant centre was huge. Here is only a small part of it.
We went to the camping site, we set up the tent and we went to Telford to see the Ironbridge Gorge. There are many museums to visit in Telford and a few circular walks near the bridge. We didn’t have time to visit them, but there are on our “to visit” list.
In the evening we walked thru Shifnal. I was surprised to see how many restaurants there were in such a small town.
Near the farm we saw a field with poppies. It looked better in the sunny day.
This was the landscape we saw from the tent. It looked better when it was sunny. It rained all night, but the tent was waterproof. We got up very early, so the picture is taken around 6.30. I always get up early when I’m in holiday.
It would have been better with some Wellington boots. It’s funny, last year I thought the rubber boots with nice colors (pink, blue) with a fashionable bow are useless and now I want a pair.
There are many pictures of the last 2 attractions, so I made special posts for them.
