Walk in the garden was treat of nature
TO avoid confusion, and indeed a big fine, I resorted to taking advice about how far one could legitimately travel for outdoor exercise during the latest lockdown.
Therefore, before any curtains are twitched and the local Force alerted to my recent peregrinations, here is the Official Advice: exercise should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel to do so if necessary.
This means if you need to travel to access an open space, you can do so, within reason.
During the last lockdown, people were warned against – and even fined for – travelling to wellknown beauty spots for exercise, but there is no law against doing so during this lockdown: outdoor spaces where you are allowed to exercise include neighbourhood streets, parks, beaches and the countryside, public gardens and grounds (whether or not you pay to enter them), allotments and outdoor playgrounds.
The latter, as far as I can gather, includes ‘nearby’ National Trust properties and Quarry Bank Mill, at exactly 21 miles door to door, was a much safer bet than Barnard Castle.
Booking is done online to avoid crowds and most visitor attractions are closed.
This visit was of particular interest to me as, although late to the party, I had just binge-watched the television series The Mill, which was based around life, and indeed death, at Quarry Bank during the 18th century.
If you are a member of the NT, most visits are free and what a treat it turned out to be.
As we arrived, rather like the great American Naturalist and Illustrator, John James Audubon, who visited in 1826, Joanie, myself and the three girls ’Turned down a declivity to
Quarry Bank, a most enchanting spot...the grounds were truly picturesque and cultivated to the greatest extent.’
Come, on admit it, you did not know what a ‘declivity’ was did you?
It is a gentle slope and, of course, I knew. Honest. Audubon was a great painter of birds and he would not have been disappointed in this part of Cheshire and although his subject matter was often the grandest of birds, like toucans and birds of Paradise, the robins, pheasants, long-tailed tits and blackbirds of our trip would have delighted him.
On cue, I saw a solitary egret down in the river valley, a bird which he had painted.
Like me Audubon was enchanted by the Quarry Bank’s gardens which were created for the mill owning Greg family to enjoy and reflected the family’s growing wealth and status, whilst the kitchen gardens provided food for their table.
The formal gardens take advantage of the naturally dramatic setting and are significant for the way they relate to the surrounding landscape, both natural and manmade.
This is an example of the ‘industrial picturesque,’ a new movement at the time Quarry Bank was first constructed.
Today these landscapes are rare.
In the early nineteenth, century once the mill was established, Samuel and Hannah Greg moved their family from Manchester to the newly-built Quarry Bank House.
After their arrival, the Gregs soon began to develop the challenging terrain around the house into beautiful and productive garden.
The centrepiece of the walled garden was a magnificent curvilinear glasshouse with a cast-iron frame, which was built sometime in the early 1820s.
Its innovative design and use of modern technology, expensive materials and a huge amount of glass sent a clear message to the Gregs’ guests about their financial success and position in society.
There is now a smaller greenhouse but the black and white house is still there, and the ground is ready to burst into colour within the next few weeks.