Woburn Abbey Visit

We're just getting over our trip to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne over the weekend. I have to say, in normal circumstances we would never have driven so far in so few days. We would have no doubt had a holiday after our work shifting Daniel's belongings from flat-to-flat, much as we did when we went down to Devon for Chloe and Steve's wedding two years ago (incidentally, exactly two years to the day.) so that we had around a week between the journey there and back. We've had a couple of days just resting up. So we decided to have a trip out, even though it wasn't going to be far, to Woburn Abbey, no more than a fifteen-minute car ride away down the A5. We haven't been to the Abbey for quite a while, three or four years at the least, although we do occasionally drive through the park to see the deer.

 Statue of horse "Mrs Moss"

 Fallow deer in the park

 Carol in the Hornbeam Maze

Cockerel which followed us around the gardens

Having parked the car we went into the gardens, through the gift shop (how is it that so many stately homes and in particular those run and operated by the National Trust and English Heritage, always insist on you having to go through their gift shops or at least having to make a detour which has you ending up in the shop? Very crafty ploy to get you to spend your hard-earned money.) We spent around an hour and a half wandering around the magnificent gardens and saw some enormous fish in the fish-pond. Presumably carp. It was difficult to get any really decent photographs due to the reflection of the water. There seem to be quite a few alterations since we last visited, particularly several Chinese-style follies which I'm sure we haven't seen before and a new garden section. We heard a cockerel crowing and then saw it and then it came to find us and insisted on following us across the lawns towards a caged area which contained some extremely colourful birds which I presume are pheasants of some sort. Then the cockerel wandered away, fortunately, as it was beginning to get quite aggressive and who knows what a cockerel is going to get up to. No doubt it was after food.

The place was virtually deserted, no doubt because it was mid-week, but there were quite a few cars in the carpark.

Then we went to the restaurant and had coffee and cake, although to be honest it was somewhat over-priced for what it was and the coffee wasn't very warm. We did look at the sandwiches but they were really over-priced at nearly £4 which seems somewhat excessive. Not impressed, I'm afraid, considering how many visitors they are likely to get and the fact that Woburn Abbey is supposed to be perhaps the leading visitor attraction in Britain, or would be on a tourist's list of places to visit when in Britain. No doubt many American tourists would visit the place when in Britain amongst others. Then into the gift shop on our way out and, frankly, that wasn't exactly brilliant as it hasn't got a very exciting range of products when I compare it with other places we've visited recently, particularly National Trust properties such as Waddesdon Manor, Basildon Park and Packwood House which we've been to in the past few months or even Whipsnade Zoo which has a smart new shop and visitor centre. It seems that Woburn haven't made a lot of effort. The toilet block you come to from the carpark doesn't look very inviting either although the toilet I used within the grounds, I think it was intended for disabled visitors (although, in all honesty, how anyone in a wheelchair would manage, particularly one of those electric self-drive wheelchairs, how would they manage the narrow doorway, I have no idea.

One area we discovered which we were not aware of when we last visited was the Hornbeam Maze. Though, to be honest, it may have been restored and had perhaps been left to get somewhat over-grown. 

The visit overall was pleasant as the place is very quiet and relaxing and no doubt we'll be visiting again soon. We came last time when they had a sculpture exhibition in the garden but this time this wasn't on. As it's so close to home it is certainly a pleasant place to visit but next time we'll forgo visiting the restaurant and take our own picnic and eat it in the car in the carpark or perhaps sitting at one of the many picnic tables dotted around the grounds.

Watching "Downton Abbey"

We are currently watching "Downton Abbey." We are watching the 'box set' of this highly popular and successful I.T.V. series through Sky +. We had watched an early episode when it was first broadcast but gave up because it had so many commericials in it. I realise that I.T.V. is funded by the sale of advertising, but they really have too many breaks within an hour's programme. It actually runs for around 45 minutes so there's a least 15 minutes-worth of commercials. You can record programmes and then fast-forward through the commercials, but there are so many adverts for sofas and car insurance you can take, believe me.

It's an enjoyable show, if a little slow. Nothing much really happens. It is actually little more than a soap. The sinking of the Titanic as well as the First World War comes into the story, along with some other historical points in early Twentieth-Century history, along with such things as the Spanish Flu epidemic which kills off some of the central characters along the way. The 'downstairs' characters are far more interesting than the 'upstairs' characters. They seem to have far more interesting storylines. The Hugh Bonneville character, the Earl of Grantham, is somewhat one-dimensional. He is rather passive and as such a bit boring. He never seems to have much to do. He's dominated by the women around him. He has all daughters (hence the longwinded storyline regarding the succession to the title.) His mother-in-law, his wife as well as his mother, as well as his daughters, all know exactly how to wrap him around their little fingers in order to get what they want. He doesn't seem to have a great deal of control of his family, his household or the estate. He can't be much good at financial matters, hence the storyline about how his investments have gone pear-shaped and the threat to the future of Downton Abbey. How on earth would anyone be advised to invest all their fortune in just one company, and an American one at that? Just doesn't ring true somehow. And a member of the aristocracy? Please. I know it's only fiction, but it's a bit far-fetched. Also, why is it none of his household staff are unable to iron his nightshirts? Whenever we see him in bed, or preparing to go to bed, and he's dressed in a nightshirt, it looks so creased and obviously un-ironed, or even poorly ironed. I realise that in the early 20th Century there weren't the kitchen gadgets we take for granted today in our homes, for example, electric steam irons. But are we to honestly believe that the male head of the household will put up with so poorly ironed clothing? How many staff are there in the kitchen? Why is it that the Head Butler, Carson, makes such a fuss of the slightest thing, even insisting that His Lordship's newspapers are ironed, but not his nightshirt? This is a real slip-up. Having worked as a supporting artiste on various television shows over the years I know that the wardrobe department is generally very particular about the standard of their costume-care, so to have the central character's nightshirt looking so shabby is really poor. Also, the storyline concerning the mis-laying of His Lordship's shirts. Not realistic in the slightest.

We love the Dame Maggie Smith character, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. She seems to get all the best lines. She manages to out-act virtually everyone else on-screen when she has a scene, along with up-staging everyone. A sheer joy. Love her to bits. I remember seeing her on stage with her late husband, Robert Stevens, when they were acting together on stage in Noel Coward's delightful play "Private Lives." It must have been in the 1970's. She was also in the film version of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." Also, another film I enjoyed called "Hot Millions" with another favourite actor of mine, Peter Ustinov.

What also makes watching "Downton Abbey" so enjoyable is the fact that we know so many of the locations they used to film it. Some scenes were shot at places we've been as members of the National Trust, such as Waddesdon Manor, West Wycombe Park and Basildon Park, which we visited only a a couple of months ago

Visit To Basildon Park

Easter Monday. A day out is in order. The weather is fine and sunny. New car in good order. Full tank of petrol. National Trust membership up-to-date. We decide from considering the options to go to Basildon Park for a visit. Having viewed several maps on-line, one being Google Maps, we decide it's not much more than 60 miles so we leave at around 9.15. It's no point getting there too early as it's not all open until 11.00. We drive towards Buckingham and then on towards the A34, a route we know well as we drive south regularly to visit the in-laws who live in Bournemouth. On Saturday we had hoped to drive up the M1 and visit a National Property, Caulke Abbey or another the other side of Derby, but when we get onto the Motorway we soon discovered a high volume of traffic and on actually getting on to the carriageway that there are roadworks all the way north past Newport Pagnall services and that you can't drive more than 50 miles per hour (or aren't supposed to.) It takes us around and hour and a half to get as far as the turning off for Weedon and Leamington Spa so we decide that we're not going to get much further and won't get to our destination this side of midday so we come off the Motorway near Coventry and come back across country and back through Buckingham where we drop in to the newly opened Aldi branch and do a shop for the evening's meal and then return to Milton Keynes and home.

Yesterday's trip was considerably better, but we were supposed to get on the M40 and then onto the A34, but due to roadworks we couldn't get onto the Motorway and instead had to make a diversion towards Oxford and find the A34. It seems that the road network is currently plagued by a good deal of roadworks at the moment. I think if we had been altered earlier it might have saved us a good deal of time and effort and not a fair amount of frustration. Unfortunately you don't learn these sort of deal until after the event.

Yet another great mass of roadwork activity on a vast roundabout when we come off the A34 towards Reading, which means we have to circle the confounded roundabout again so that we are facing in the right direction for Basildon Park, but as a result it is a worthwhile journey as the scenery is very pleasant. We eventually arrive at our destination to find that the sunshine has brought out a large crowd of visitors. I think this may be due in large part to the fact that Basildon Park is one of the locations for filming of the I.T.V. drama series Downton Abbey. I have to admit to having only watched one episode and then I wasn't immediately drawn to watching further episodes as it's not really the sort of programme I enjoy.  Probably actually better to watch via catch-up as there are adverts around every 20 minutes or so and who wants to sit through endless ads for sofas, double-glazing and shampoo? The fact that it's so full of advertising is enough to put any one off watching. The acting is very wooden and the storylines are cliched and full of anachronisms. It is a pleasant place to wander around and take in the scenery. On arrival we make for the cafeteria but then discover an extremely long queue of similarly hungry and by now quite frustrated visitors. It takes us a good 20 minutes to reach the counter, make our selection of sandwiches and lattes and pay and then find a vacant table to sit and eat. We wander into the garden to find a lot of families enjoying the sunshine and the views across the valley from the garden a truly spectacular and you can clearly see why someone would choose to build a property in such a location. We then enter the house and wander around the various rooms and in particular those which are used as interiors for not only Downton Abbey but the recent film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice as well as several other film such as The Duchess. The National Trust staff in each room are extremely knowledgeable and it's interesting to hear from them about the history of the house and the families who used to live in the house. Having finished our tour of the house we leave and go back to the stable block near the carpark which is where we came in and find the shop to buy the handbook about the house as well a to buy ice creams which we take to eat sitting at some picnic tables conveniently placed near the carpark. We get back to the car and drive home which seems to take less time than the journey out.