Chatsworth -- Home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire

We visited Chatsworth, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. There were so many gorgeous rooms and we'll bore you to tears with all our pictures when we get home. I thought the girls would like to see party of the fancy shoes and dress display -- Pride and Prejudice was filmed here as was the Duchess.


One of many beautiful rooms.

So, the Duke met us at the window -- funny enough he wears Dockers just like Richard.....

The animals.... at Rosemere

The Buckley's home is called Rosemere. They have about 3 acres with lots of things to keep them busy -- including Tom the turkey.


And Holly -- one of three horses (Brig and Fudge being the other two). This is Elaine's grand-daughter Hannah with her horse.

And goosey goosey gander - where does she wander....

and about 20 chickens, some lay blue colored eggs.

The Buckleys of Buxton

Above is a picture of Elaine and Keith Buckley's home where we stayed for 3 days while they toured us around the country side. The left hand side was the original house and the right hand side the original barn. It's close to 200 years old.

They have, among other things like horses and chickens and ducks, -- a cattery where they board cats in posh enviorns -- even Cate's Harry would feel like a King.

The back yard view of the property.

Back of the house with a lovely conservatory.

Blackpool Post #2

And since we had one tram that was a boat, we must also have a train!

The entire boardwalk is lined with these marquees depicting everything from Alice in Wonderland to Noddy.

This is an alien space craft display..... there are different heads revolving in the top of each one.

Ah, buses!!

Blackpool

We finished up wandering around Derbyshire and then headed for Blackpool on the West coast. We arrived in time to see the "illuminations" as they call them. This was a Friday and so there were fireworks as well.
Blackpool has a Tower that they erected to have as an observation outlook.

Here's a tram car dressed up as a boat. It's hard to describe the bazaar scene of Blackpool, it's game arcades, cotton candy places, T-shirt and whatnot shops -- the sights and sounds of one big carnival and gloriously tacky. The street runs at least 3 miles long and all lit up.

Heeeeer's Mooky - Britian's favourite clown!

Hopewell Derbyshire

After our day in Gorton, it was time to meet up with my genealogy pen-pal Elaine and her husband Keith. They picked us up at our hotel in Manchester and we immediately took off touring the countryside. Our first stop was Hopewell and the Blue John stone quarry. The abandon castle is atop the town -- as you can see, very Norman in appearance.

Typical old English town -- lovely stone buildings all around.



Elaine and Richard walking up the street in Hopewell.

Everything is hundreds of years old -- this church dates back to the early 1500's. You can see that the pews had doors on them (no escapees!)

Gorton Manchester

Day two in Manchester takes us on a bus out to Gorton, the suburb of Manchester where Robert Tomkinson and Alice Coleshill lived and were married in 1909 at St. Phillip's church.

Altar of St. Phillip's Church of England, Gorton

The marriage of Robert & Alice is just the 5th entry in the church record book. The building was complete in 1909 and Alice and Robert were married in September 1909 and left for Canada the next day.

The organ at St. Phillip's church, Gorton

Side chapel at St. Phillip's church, Gorton.

The warden happened to be there when we were scouting about and invited us in and not only gave us a tour but dug out the first parish record book so that I could photo the marriage entry. The church is celebrating it's 100th year anniversary this year and they are trying to repair dry rot and generally improve the appearance of the church. They have a minister only every 4th Sunday. The congregation is about 80 when all are present but averages about 20 each Sunday. I would say it is in a general state of decline inside but their are many willing hands trying to restore it. The warden herself was interesting -- tank top on with tattoos up both and around her neck. Hmmmmm....

Day 5 London to Manchester

After the terrific theatre performance of Wicked, we made our way back to our hotel and a good night's rest. In the morning, we re-packed for our flight to Manchester, took a final stroll down Regent Street - caught a cab to Paddington Station and then out to the airport on the Heathrow Express.

We arrived in Manchester later than expected (about 6PM) after a delay on the runway in London. Finally got to our hotel and had dinner and an early night.

Next day, we were up bright and early to go to the Manchester Library to look up the parish records for the Tomkinson births and marriages.

David, Richard's great grandfather's birth 1853 -- son of David and Ann Tomkinson


Richard's g-g-grandfather's marriage 1810 David Tomkinson to Sarah Fletcher.

And here is the Altar at the Manchester Cathedral where all Tomkinson's were married and christened up until 1875 since the Cathedral Church was the only placed 'licensed' to perform marriages in the Diocese all the surrounding communities had to have their ceremonies at the Cathedral and not their local parish churches.

Richard at the front door of the Cathedral.

We met Ali Cochran for a great pub lunch and enjoyed getting caught up with all her news. This is her last year at the University of Manchester and she certainly has enjoyed it. She's taken advantage of being close to Europe and regailed us with her back-pack trips trekking over Europe.

We left Ali to return to her studies and walked around Manchester down-town for a bit -- Richard to the Art Gallery and me to the Archives. Back to the hotel and an early night. My feet our killing me! I don't think I've walked so much every day in years. The cobblestones are the trickiest -- but my legs are getting tougher!

London Day 4 Kensington Palace

Here I am outside the guards gate at Kensington Palace.

And again, in front of the main gates to the palace.

One can lie about on these chairs (for 50p for 2 hours) in front of the Serpintine Lake that goes through Kensington Park.

No pictures of our stroll through Hyde park as we were using the video camera. We saw Princess Diana's Memorial fountain, strolled through the park and took the tube back to our hotel in Oxford Circus.

In the evening we had a quick dinner and took the tube to Victoria station and the Apollo Theatre to see the live performance of "Wicked". It was terrific.

London Day 4 Keningston and Hyde parks

We walked from the V&A to Kensington park to eat our bag lunch on a park bench. We decided that we'd like Albert for company while we ate so he sat above us in all his glory. Victoria certainly spared no expense for this monument to her Prince Consort.


Albert's memorial statue faces -- what else -- Albert Hall.

Our eating perch in Kensington park, right by Albert.

After lunch we took a walk to the end of Kensington to have a view of the Palace. Couldn't see William or Harry, nor Charles & Camila -- but there were lots of tourists!

London - Day 4 The V&A

This is the Morris room cafe at the V&A -- very typical of the interior stylings of homes in early New Westminster.

Cate and Buffy would have loved the textiles room. Here Richard shows two panels from a row of cabinets of various textiles. There were about 50 of these cabinets all down the room. Every textile pattern imaginable.

Of course, I had to capture Punch & Judy from the Theatre & Performing Arts exhibit.

Here's Richard showing us the devastation caused by the bombs in WW2. The entire wall of the museum is pock-marked with the bomb scars. This inscription tells us that they were left unrestored on purpose in remembrance.