International Women's Day - explore a few in our Peak District area

International Women's Day - explore a few in our Peak District area:-

1) Chatsworth House & gardens

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - she started the development of the commercial side of Chatsworth and raising money for the estate - as well as starting the Children's Farm and Farm Shop "to explain to children that food is produced by farmers who also look after the land and the the two functions are inextricably mixed" - there is a more obiturary in the Daily Telegraph which highlights some of the more interesting parts of her life there are also a number of books she has written.  Chatsworth opens again from 24 March 2018

2)  Haddon Hall - Jane Eyre
Haddon Hall with its house and grounds has played host to no less than 3 versions of 'Jane Eyre'! Screen credits also include "Elizabeth", "Pride & Prejudice", The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Princess Bride".  This medieval hall is a great place to visit.
Haddon Hall is probably the finest example of a fortified medieval manor house in existence.
Avoiding fire; warfare; family misfortune and changing fashions, little has changed over recent centuries and Haddon provides a unique view of early English life and history
Opens again for 2018 on the 24th March



3) Emma Bridgewater Pottery

Emma Bridgewater Pottery is now world famous - this British ceramics was founded in 1985, owned and run by Emma Rice née Bridgewater and Matthew Rice. Noted for their polka dot design among others, Emma Bridgewater specialises in pottery with motifs drawing on techniques stretching back over 200 years. The company is one of the largest pottery manufacturers based entirely in nearby Stoke on Trent (heart of the ceramics industry) in the UK.

In 2016, Emma Bridgewater was made President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. She is also a Patron of the Heritage Crafts Association

Emma Bridewater factory shop in Stoke on Trent is less than 30 minutes drive away - where you can purchase seconds and great bargains, as well as enjoy their cafe and factory tour to see the pottery actually being made, and it is also a great place for painting your own piece of pottery and is also well set up for children painting pottery too.

4) National Memorial Arboretum - with it's Women’s Land Army and Women’s Timber Corps memorial

We are very proud that the National Memorial Arboretum is in Staffordshire - During the war years, over 240,000 young women joined the Women’s Land Army (WLA) and Women’s Timber Corps (WTC).  Many of these young girls were only 17 years of age and it often meant living in the countryside for the first time. They were trained in farming and forestry skills and through their combined efforts, Britain’s crucial food and timber supplies were met.

The Staffordshire Women’s Food and Farming Union has campaigned and raised funds to provide a fitting tribute to honour and commemorate the women’s wartime work. Many of the donations have come from the Land Girls and Lumber Jills themselves, such is their feeling of pride in the new memorial.

The WLA Tribute is a bronze sculpture created by Staffordshire sculptor Denise Dutton and is based on a WWII WLA recruitment poster.  Its figures are set upon a sandstone plinth.


6)  Nicholson Museum & Art Gallery Leek - The Bayeaux Tapestry - Elizabeth Wardle


It was the idea of Elizabeth Wardle to make the replica Bayeux Tapestry, now on display in Reading Museum. She was a skilled embroiderer and a member of the Leek Embroidery Society in Staffordshire. Her husband, Thomas Wardle was a leading silk industrialist. Elizabeth Wardle researched the Bayeux Tapestry by visiting Bayeux in 1885. The Society also based the replica on hand-coloured photographs of the tapestry held by the South Kensington Museum, now called the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The aim of the project was to make a full-sized and accurate replica of the Bayeux Tapestry "so that England should have a copy of its own".
The replica Bayeux Tapestry was first exhibited in the Nicholson Institute in Leek in 1886. Over the next ten years the tapestry was put on display in towns and cities across Britain and it even travelled to Germany and America.

Today the Nicholson Museum & Art Gallery dominates the skyline of Leek's historic Peak District market town and today is home to a collection of impressive oil paintings, ceramics, local history and a fine selection of the famous Leek Embroideries.

Come and stay with us at Troutsdale Farm Holiday Cottages in the glorious south west Peak District area .... and discover our rich and varied landscape with so much history