A visit to Audley End garden
Susan and Geoffrey were both feeling poorly today so we took the dogs for their morning walk, almost as far as the next village of Little Chesterford. John was a bit surprised when Barb was greeted by a lady with a black Labrador in a familiar manner, not realising they'd met before when Susan and Barb walked the dogs on our first day here. She's beginning to feel like a local now.
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| John, dogs, field of rape |
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| It's fairly flat hereabouts |
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| Main gate to Audley End |
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| Audley End - the grounds are BIG |
We were delighted to find that our new English Heritage passes entitled us to free entry. Winning already! We had visited this lovely house last time we were in the UK three years ago and this time we wanted to explore the extensive gardens more fully as it was much better weather than last time. It was really delightful! Stunning even. We strolled around and had morning tea in the tearooms at the house.
Some children were there with their teachers and they were all (including the teachers!) dressed in period costume. They looked very cute picnicking on the grass.
Audley End is a very big estate. There are follies, bridges, waterfalls, lakes and organic kitchen gardens as well as more formal parterre gardens. You could easily spend a whole day here.
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| John outside the orangery |
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| Just inside the orangery |
It was a long hot walk back to Saffron Walden. No need for coats today .... hats and sunscreen more like it.
We found our way through town back to a coffee shop we'd been to before some years ago. The same people were still running it and the food was just as good as we'd remembered. It was good to be sitting down in the shade.
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| Looking down High Street Saffron Walden |
Afterwards, we wandered round the shops and purchased an updated book of maps of Great Britain in preparation for our trip to the coast tomorrow.
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| The district council offices, formerly a hospital |
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