Botanic Gardens Cambridge

Cambridge’s botanic gardens were created in 1831 by Professor John Stevens, who was Charles Darwin’s mentor. The gardens cover 40 aces and are home to over 8000 plant species. The botanic gardens were opened to the public in 1846.

Anglesey Abbey

Anglesey Abbey is a National Trust property in the village of Lode, near Cambridge. The site includes a country house built on the remains of an Augustinian Priory, 114 acres of gardens and a working mill. The Priory was closed in 1536, and a Jacobean-style house was built about 60 years later. The house and grounds were left to the National Trust in 1966 and are now open to the public. 

After leaving the car park, the first part of the grounds we looked round was a long stretch of trees with several statues along the way.

Lode Mill is an 18th-century watermill that has been restored and is still in use today – a fact that I didn’t know until we were inside the mill and things started moving.

The dahlia garden was first created in 1952 and features over 70 different coloured varieties of dahlias. There was a lovely part of the garden that we stumbled upon when we were leaving that had a little hideaway where you could go and see the birds and squirrels.

Climbing Penshaw Monument

Penshaw Monument is a half-scale replica of the Greek Temple of Hephaestus standing on Penshaw Hill. I’ve written a post about visiting Penshaw before, which you can find here, where I said you can go up to the top of the monument via a staircase in one of the pillars. When we visited this time, I had no intention of climbing to the top but eventually decided I would, even though I’m not good with heights. The above picture is available to buy as a greetings card in my Etsy shop.

The climb to the top is free for National Trust members, otherwise it’s £5 each. We were given a torch each to wear on our heads because inside the pillar is too dark to see where you’re going. The spiral staircase goes up 446ft, and I’m sure it got narrower near the top – though this might just have been me being scared. 

Once you’ve reached the top, the views are worth the climb, you can see for miles around, and you can see the Stadium of Light in the distance.

Seaham Beach

I’ve posted photos from Seaham before, but when I walked along the beach the other day, there were pools that were bright red, so I thought I’d share these photos too.

It was such a hot day when we visited, although the beach was fairly empty. A quick Google showed that the stretch of coastline was once used as a dumping ground for four nearby mines. The mines closed in the 1980s, but the coal pollution from back then caused the bright red water. During the past decade, though, the beach has undergone a huge clean-up operation, and it's much better than it once was.

The beach isn’t very far from Penshaw, where we stopped off on our way home.

Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire

Arriving at Sudbury, the rain showed no signs of easing off, so we had a look around inside the house first. The long gallery (pictured below), which is 51m long, features stunning plasterwork and was one of my favourite rooms in the hall. Sudbury Hall is a grade I listed building in Sudbury, Derbyshire. It was built between 1660 and 1680. The National Museum of Childhood is housed in the 19th-century servants’ wing.

Finally, the rain stopped and we could wander round the grounds, which include a 17th-century fountain.