Marble dairy

We got to Manderston House in lovely sunshine with time to park up and have lunch outside in the field allocated as a car park. At first we were the only people there then a man arrived in a taxi, having got a train to Berwick from Twickenham for the day. He is visiting all the stately homes on his historic houses pass. We walked in the formal garden but there was nothing to see so went on to the house for a wander in the gardens on the south side, stopping to admire the daffodils on the north side first. They had lots of robot grass cutters zooming around. Not a lot going on in the gardens. The present Baron doesn’t live here. He trains Michael Owen’s racehorses in Cheshire.

At 1.30 we congregated at the main door with about a dozen others for the tour which was mainly a history of the family with some added information about the rooms and artefacts. No photos allowed. The house had been rebuilt in 1901 when the owner married a very rich woman so money was no object. A lot of the ceiling mouldings were copied from Kettlethorpe, an amazing house in Derbyshire. If you want to have more information about the house, check Google. I’d long wanted to see the silver (plated) staircase but was underwhelmed. However the tour was good and the house interesting. The ballroom with its gold drapes and wallpaper was stunning. However none of the rooms had any chairs we were allowed to sit on and my knee was painful which made it a bit of a trial, standing to listen to the guide for 1.45 hours.

When we got out we went to the vans and had tea/coffee and some cake I’d taken then Katy and I decided to walk to the marble dairy. We’ll never be ant Manderston again so despite the pain we went and it was beautiful. Marble pillars and floors.

We headed off, our friends to a camp site near Jedburgh and us to a dark sky P4N over the border from Newcastleton into Kielder forest. On the way we passed Saughtree near where my Granny’s twin brother was a shepherd. Some of the scenery looked familiar from when I went with her for a holiday aged 4. I had a memorable time as my second cousins were there and they showed me how to make paper boats to sail down the burn. The farm was quite near where the Edinburgh - Carlisle railway went and I remember seeing the sign showing where it crossed the border.

We negotiated single track roads and reached the place Mr C had marked only to find it had 2 large Motorhomes and 2 cars already there. The people had a smoky fire going despite warnings about the hazards during this dry spell. We beat a hasty retreat and found another place but it’s not quite the open view we hoped for. Meanwhile Katy sent pix of a beautiful open view from her pitch towards the hills.

I just heard Chloe and Graham were about to embark on a lovely family holiday in Portugal when Graham was stopped from boarding the flight as though his passport had months to run the issue date was over 10 years. So upsetting for them as it was for his 70th treat. They said they checked and Portugal info said it was ok but I can’t believe they did it when we have read of so
many being turned back for the same reason.

We are going to eat last night’s left overs and get an early night. It’s been a great wee break.