Post by joe on May 17, 2010 22:48:58 GMT
Calke Abbey
Ticknall, Derby, Derbyshire DE73 7LE
Telephone: 01332 863822
A walk around the lakes, deer enclosure and reservoir, returning either via the church or across the fields through the cattle grazing pastures.
Calke abbey is an impressive country house and estate preserved in 20th-century decline. A place poised somewhere between gentle neglect and downright dereliction, telling the tale of an eccentric family who amassed a huge collection of hidden treasures. The house has been little restored, portraying a period when great country houses struggled to survive. In the walled gardens explore the orangery, the flower and kitchen gardens or walk around the fragile habitats of Calke Park National Nature Reserve
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets) House and garden: adult £8.40 (£7.63), child £4.30 (£3.90), family £21.10 (£19.18). Garden only: adult £4.60 (£4.18), child £2.50 (£2.27), family £11.70 (£10.63). Park and stables (Standard Admission): adult £1.60, child 50p, family £4.20
Park up in the main car park. There are toilets available towards the stable block.
return to the car park from the stables area and on entering head straight accross to the over flow car park. To the far right is the deer hide.
maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108808843371699541752.00048647142a1dddaca17&t=h&z=14
To far left corner of the grass overflow car park where you'll find a gate. Go trough the gate and follow the path.
Where the path drops down to lake follow it. Follow the path with the lake on your left, past the weir/waterfall, noting the information board.
The deer park is to your right above you, you may glimpse some deer as you walk.
Also to your right there are fallen trees with fungi growing in them.
Cross the bridge to your left and follow the main path up through the woods with the deer enclosure on your right.
At the top the path will split and the main path will turn sharp right to follow the deer enclosure.
Follow the deer enclosure fence on your right.
The path will turn sharp right again.Follow it keeping the deer enclosure on your right.
The deer enclosure ends when you cross a track.
follow the path across the track and round to the footbridge.
Cross the foot bridge and follow the edge of Staunton Harold Reservoir.
The path will turn into a board walk and cut over the edge of the reservoir for a while which is quite nice.
The path will eventually turn right and you'll come to the Reservoir Car Park. There's not a lot to see apart from views of the reservoir.
You could park up here and start the walk instead of at the house.
Follow the road down until it curves to the left past the thatched cottage. Carry on past the cottage or alternatively the drive to the right here leads back to Calke abbey passing by the church.
Carry straight on until you get to the T junction. This is a public through road now so take care and watch out for traffic. Its not particularly busy but it does have a flow of traffic.
carry on down the hill There's another drive back to calke on your right should you wish to take it.
As you turn the bend to the right there's a footpath that takes you parallel to the main road a few metres in through the trees. Follow the path until you see a public footpath sign and stile on your right.
cross the stile and field beyond keeping the hedge on your right.
cross the next stile and follow the 2nd field with the hedge to the right.
The next field may have cattle in but cross the stile and again keep the hedge to your right, the stile is in the right hand corner as before. (If you can't get to the stile head to the metal 5 bar gate on the right hand side of the field and climb that turning right and following the main road until you pick up the footpath again on the second bend.)
Cross the stile and follow the hedge across the 4th field.
cross the stile at the end onto the road and look to your right where you will see another footpath/drive.
Go through the gate and follow the drive. If there are cattle here do not walk fast if calves are near the fence, if cattle think you're a threat to their young they'll chase you ! Walk slow keep calm and they'll be nice. They may even let you fuss them.
Follow the path and it eventually comes to the main Calke Abbey drive just on the bend before the house.
Follow the drive down to the stables and turn left back to the car park.
The stables area houses a restaurant, plant area, gift shop and toilets. The stables are inclusive with the park entry fee and house a few rooms of curios including a fire station with fire engine, workers mess room with kettles still on stoves that have long been extinguished, carts, traps, and a weird spooky room with animal cages and a mounted animal head stripped to the skull.
Everything is as if time just stopped. Everyone left part way through a work day and never return, a true Mary Celeste.
I assume because of staffing reductions after the first world war smaller kitchens and mess rooms were found or perhaps different departments shared facilities.
The house kitchens are much the same...
"In its heyday, 27 staff would have worked at Calke. After the First World War and the dramatic reduction in country house staff, there was a total of six. For this reason the House's Kitchen gradually fell out of use, in favour of a smaller and more conveniently located site, and was totally abandoned in 1928.
Although there is a sense of abundance elsewhere in the House, the Kitchen was obviously run on more frugal lines. The old adage ‘Waste Not Want Not’ is painted on the keystone of the huge fireplace, where once meat was cooked on spits and racks before the cast iron oven was fitted in the 1840s."
...
The house and Gardens are extra. The house is full of collections artwork, antiquities and curios. Hunting trophies, fossils, toys, ornaments, paintings.
There's a servants tunnel that runs from the house to the courtyard.
The Gardens contain flower gardens, kitchen Gardens, ice house, peach house, Orangery and Gardeners bothy.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-self-suffcient-estate-final.pdf
Quotes from national trust site www.nationaltrust.org
Ticknall, Derby, Derbyshire DE73 7LE
Telephone: 01332 863822
A walk around the lakes, deer enclosure and reservoir, returning either via the church or across the fields through the cattle grazing pastures.
Calke abbey is an impressive country house and estate preserved in 20th-century decline. A place poised somewhere between gentle neglect and downright dereliction, telling the tale of an eccentric family who amassed a huge collection of hidden treasures. The house has been little restored, portraying a period when great country houses struggled to survive. In the walled gardens explore the orangery, the flower and kitchen gardens or walk around the fragile habitats of Calke Park National Nature Reserve
Set on the site of an Augustinian priory, Calke Abbey was never actually an Abbey. The name was given to the house in 1808 - nearly 300 years after it stopped being used for religious purposes!
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets) House and garden: adult £8.40 (£7.63), child £4.30 (£3.90), family £21.10 (£19.18). Garden only: adult £4.60 (£4.18), child £2.50 (£2.27), family £11.70 (£10.63). Park and stables (Standard Admission): adult £1.60, child 50p, family £4.20
Calke Park began its life as a ‘Park’ in the 17th century at a time when huge areas of common land were being enclosed and woodlands felled. During the 18th century, the Park was enlarged and re-modelled in an informal manner and a deer shelter was built. A flock of rare Portland sheep was also introduced - and can still be seen today.
Park up in the main car park. There are toilets available towards the stable block.
return to the car park from the stables area and on entering head straight accross to the over flow car park. To the far right is the deer hide.
Calke is home to a herd of red and fallow deer. A deer shelter was built in the park in 1773 amid old ridge and furrow land. Much of the 19th-century perimeter wall of the site, which has lean-to open sheds, has been lost. In 1973 and 1974 the deer were brought back as an enclosed herd and visitors can now walk round most of the perimeter.
Besides being interesting to watch, the deer also provide a source of venison which is used seasonally in the restaurant at Calke.
maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108808843371699541752.00048647142a1dddaca17&t=h&z=14
To far left corner of the grass overflow car park where you'll find a gate. Go trough the gate and follow the path.
Where the path drops down to lake follow it. Follow the path with the lake on your left, past the weir/waterfall, noting the information board.
There are four ponds separated by two culverts and a weir, which were built by the Harpur Crewe family in the 18th century and used for fishing and recreation by the family. The weirs and ponds provide a habitat for the native white-clawed crayfish which is a protected species, frogs, toads and other wetland wildlife such as dragonflies and damselflies.
Marginal plants provide a rich source of nectar for insects which is especially important for many of those that are also associated with the deadwood and ancient trees.
The deer park is to your right above you, you may glimpse some deer as you walk.
Also to your right there are fallen trees with fungi growing in them.
Many types of fungi are associated with ancient trees too such as Chicken-of-the-Woods and very rare ones like the oak polypore only found on oaks of more than 400 years old. Calke also has a large bat population including the uncommon serotine bat, sometimes known as the ‘posh’ bat as it tends to be found around stately homes.
Cross the bridge to your left and follow the main path up through the woods with the deer enclosure on your right.
In 2004 Calke Park was designated as a National Nature Reserve because of the quality of its wood pasture, one of the rarest habitats in Europe. Some of the trees at Calke are amongst the oldest in Europe - two of the oaks are over 1,000 years old!
These trees pre-date the Park and original House, having once been part of the ancient wildwood of the area. Many rare insects live on these ancient trees including over 350 types of beetle. Woodland birds such as great spotted and green woodpeckers, nuthatch, tree creeper, tawny owl, little owl and tits also nest in the trees.
At the top the path will split and the main path will turn sharp right to follow the deer enclosure.
Follow the deer enclosure fence on your right.
The path will turn sharp right again.Follow it keeping the deer enclosure on your right.
The deer enclosure ends when you cross a track.
follow the path across the track and round to the footbridge.
Cross the foot bridge and follow the edge of Staunton Harold Reservoir.
The path will turn into a board walk and cut over the edge of the reservoir for a while which is quite nice.
The path will eventually turn right and you'll come to the Reservoir Car Park. There's not a lot to see apart from views of the reservoir.
You could park up here and start the walk instead of at the house.
Follow the road down until it curves to the left past the thatched cottage. Carry on past the cottage or alternatively the drive to the right here leads back to Calke abbey passing by the church.
Carry straight on until you get to the T junction. This is a public through road now so take care and watch out for traffic. Its not particularly busy but it does have a flow of traffic.
carry on down the hill There's another drive back to calke on your right should you wish to take it.
As you turn the bend to the right there's a footpath that takes you parallel to the main road a few metres in through the trees. Follow the path until you see a public footpath sign and stile on your right.
cross the stile and field beyond keeping the hedge on your right.
cross the next stile and follow the 2nd field with the hedge to the right.
The next field may have cattle in but cross the stile and again keep the hedge to your right, the stile is in the right hand corner as before. (If you can't get to the stile head to the metal 5 bar gate on the right hand side of the field and climb that turning right and following the main road until you pick up the footpath again on the second bend.)
The majority of the pasture at Calke is ‘unimproved’ and over the years the vegetation has only been managed with livestock grazing. This has created a diverse grassland structure with high quality soil that benefits plants, invertebrates and small mammals. Controlling the level of grazing also means that the trees aren’t damaged by livestock through compaction and erosion.
Cross the stile and follow the hedge across the 4th field.
cross the stile at the end onto the road and look to your right where you will see another footpath/drive.
Go through the gate and follow the drive. If there are cattle here do not walk fast if calves are near the fence, if cattle think you're a threat to their young they'll chase you ! Walk slow keep calm and they'll be nice. They may even let you fuss them.
Follow the path and it eventually comes to the main Calke Abbey drive just on the bend before the house.
The Calke Estate remains typical of a working country estate. The relative lack of intervention over the years has meant that the Estate is a good example of a pre-World War II, pastoral English lowland farmed landscape.
240 hectares are managed in hand by the National Trust’s Warden’s Team, working from Home Farm. They maintain the diverse and significant wildlife habitats and look after 300 ewe in hand sheep flock, including 50 rare breed Portland ewes and a Deer herd.
The Calke Estate also includes:
* Six farm tenants
* Two commercial dairy farms
* Two part time holdings farming with extensive agri-environment schemes
o One primarily diversified equestrian livery business
o One commercial organically farmed arable, beef, sheep and pig farm
Follow the drive down to the stables and turn left back to the car park.
Set in a hollow, and in a secluded position, Calke Abbey is a fascinating mixture of architectural styles. Nothing exists now of the original building, with the earliest masonry dating back to the Elizabethan age. Between 1701-1704, the house underwent a huge rebuilding project, resulting with the house being entirely remodelled.
The stables area houses a restaurant, plant area, gift shop and toilets. The stables are inclusive with the park entry fee and house a few rooms of curios including a fire station with fire engine, workers mess room with kettles still on stoves that have long been extinguished, carts, traps, and a weird spooky room with animal cages and a mounted animal head stripped to the skull.
Everything is as if time just stopped. Everyone left part way through a work day and never return, a true Mary Celeste.
I assume because of staffing reductions after the first world war smaller kitchens and mess rooms were found or perhaps different departments shared facilities.
The house kitchens are much the same...
"In its heyday, 27 staff would have worked at Calke. After the First World War and the dramatic reduction in country house staff, there was a total of six. For this reason the House's Kitchen gradually fell out of use, in favour of a smaller and more conveniently located site, and was totally abandoned in 1928.
Although there is a sense of abundance elsewhere in the House, the Kitchen was obviously run on more frugal lines. The old adage ‘Waste Not Want Not’ is painted on the keystone of the huge fireplace, where once meat was cooked on spits and racks before the cast iron oven was fitted in the 1840s."
...
The house and Gardens are extra. The house is full of collections artwork, antiquities and curios. Hunting trophies, fossils, toys, ornaments, paintings.
There's a servants tunnel that runs from the house to the courtyard.
The Gardens contain flower gardens, kitchen Gardens, ice house, peach house, Orangery and Gardeners bothy.
Just beyond the green door by the Peach House one stumbles across the backsheds and gardener’s yard. This row of north facing buildings was the domain of the gardeners, never visited by the family or their guests.
The ground floor of the largest building was divided into the mess room and Head Gardeners office. It was from here that all plans were hatched and records kept. Until the late 1930’s the gardens team of a dozen worked on Saturday mornings, their shift being over when each one in turn was called into the office to collect their weekly wages of between 14/- and 18/-, which had been brought from the estate office in a leather satchel.
It has been speculated that the first floor could have one time been the bothy, where single gardeners lived in
By the 1980s, Calke Abbey had fallen into a state of disrepair. The Harpur family had found it difficult to maintain the house, and the soaring debts that the house generated meant that the only solution was to donate the house to the National Trust.A huge campaign followed to save Calke, the outcome was successful, and the rest, is history...
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-self-suffcient-estate-final.pdf
Quotes from national trust site www.nationaltrust.org