July 29, Shrewsbury

 What a day!  My plan was to visit Attingham Park and Mansion, 4 1/2 or 5 miles (depending on Goggle's mood) distant.  The straight forward route was on an A road and a B road, although the B road was B ++, meaning that it was like an A road.   What this means in practical terms is busy highway-like roads, lots of noise, traffic and roundabouts. There was supposedly a cycle route a mile and a half longer, but after spending about an hour trying to follow the cycle route, I gave up because it kept disappearing from the map.  So I headed off along the highway hoping there would be sidewalks all the way, and there were! So we cannot compare this walk to expedition to the British Ironworks Centre where it was shoulder almost all the way. But it was a miserable walk since it rained and then it rained hard and then it stopped raining and then it rained again.  Honestly, though, I think the noise of the traffic is the most unpleasant aspect of this kind of walk.  But I got there.

Attingham Park is 4000 acres of a place, so you see there is lots of room to roam around. (I don't think all 4000 are open to the public.)  It is so big, though, that nothing happens for the first mile after you pass through the gates!  They put up these globe like things that look like balloons so you can find the parking lot, since one would wonder, even though there is only one road to the lot, am I in the right place?  Their purpose seems to say, "Yoo-hoo!  Here I am! Here is where you buy your ticket!"

There are designated walks such as the Woodland Walk and the Deer Park Walk; these are not especially interesting.  People pay £11 ($15.00) just to walk on the paths, (wide tracks, really) though.....most with their dogs.  It is another £7 to visit the mansion.  

I was quite surprised, astonished, actually, that at this dirty water pond :

that there was no sign alerting one to the danger of deep water and falling in and uneven ground and so on.  Maybe they are low on funds.

Most interesting was an exhibit called Pete's Postcards.  Pete is Pete Burford, a macro photographer.  Do go here to see a knock out display of his work.  (My pictures don't begin to do the shots justice.)

What made the exhibit extra special was his telling something about each shot.

After roaming and viewing, it was time to visit the mansion.  

Let's start downstairs.  Cook has just made some biscuits and offered the visitors samples:

According to her—and I bet she knows—there were several kitchens where different tasks were performed.  For example:  a kitchen for the preparation of game—just think if all the stuff that has to be done to a bird to make it edible—another for the preparation of vegetables and so on.  (But when there are TV shows about Upstairs and Downstairs, everything seems to be going on in one big kitchen, which I guess they have to do for production purposes, or else not all kitchens were run the same way.)

The servants' table was set with each plate listing the tasks a servant was to do, who did it, and their salary:

Housemaid had to be at the bottom of the desirability list: 

Here are some factoids:

Pepper was mixed with floor sweepings?????

Maybe someone would like to convert the BPS to USD so we could get a sense of the wages.  I am too lazy.

N.B.  Click on photos to enlarge.

Now we turn our attention upstairs.  And what a grand staircase this is:  

Reflected in the mirror at the top of the stairs is the wall paper (or silk cloth) pattern of the opposite wall.

A table supported by truly ugly some thing or others:

But they are gold!

There was quite a bit of gold used in various ways. 

Decorating furniture:

    

(The fabrics were exquisite.)

Creating delicate designs on the walls:

Picture frames, musical instruments, just about anything that would take it.  Yet for the most part, the look was not heavy:

The rug in the room (above) looked like wall-to-wall, and it was, but it was made and installed in strips.

As you can see, this rug got a lot of wear:

But it was exquisite, anyway.

Naughty!

An eight-sided tea pot: 

No idea what the significance eight sides has.

The dining room was lit to recreate what the lighting was like back in the day.  

I will tell you:  it was dark.

Maybe to appeal to children, there was some really hokey stuff around:

The blurb reads:  Blimey, chaps!  You've spotted my old suitcase.  This will be the perfect thing to pack my bits and pieces in.  (OY!)

This was/is an eight day clock.  It was only 2 minutes off:

After touring the mansion, I moseyed on over to the bus stop even though the bus was not due for almost an hour.  When I got there, a woman with horrible teeth was waiting, so I asked her if she was waiting for the 2:17 to Shrewsbury. She was.  However, she was concerned that there was an issue with the bus for some reasons I could not understand, but the reason I could understand was that the the bus had not passed in the other direction and she had been waiting already some time.  Hmm, what to do?  Wait 45 minutes for a bus that might not come or grit my teeth and walk back...a shorter distance than the out bound because the bus stop is a mile from where it's at (see above0.  I opted to walk.  It rained and it stopped and it rained and so on.  I got back 25 minutes later than if the bus had been on time....whether it was or not, I will never know!  A lot of walking today on hard surfaces and in not great weather, and maybe worst of all, next to all that zooming, roaring traffic, so I was quite done in when I got to the hotel, a very nice hotel, by the way.  Some food, a sit-down, and then a shower do wonders to revive a flagging body.