Day 8 Audley End, Saffron Walden

Audley End, Saffron Walden

It's Monday 11th April

We visited Audley End in Saffron Walden this morning. It's one of the sites in our English Heritage book and therefore free for us to visit at any time. We've been here on previous visits to the UK because it's so close to where Susan lives, and it's always lovely to see.

The side view of the house

The house and gardens are massive and the original property had acres and acres of surrounding farmland as well. It would be a remarkably costly property to maintain, so no wonder it was given over to English Heritage.

This is the back view of the house, overlooking the French Parterre garden

John looking over the Parterre garden, which is not yet fully in bloom
(Duh.  Being overlooked by - I've got my back to it!)

Audley End often has people dressed up in period costume during the school holdiays, showing people how the servants used to cook and clean as well as how the nursery operated. There are costumes for the kids to dress up in. Barb was very sad the photography inside the house was forbidden this time, as in previous years she was able to take photos at will. It was even encouraged!

The laundry is in a separate out-building and is a big operation.

Lots of bed linen hug up to dry

It's thirsty work (being a tourist, that is) .... and even though we've just been wandering around looking at things, we are drawn into the on-site cafe which we remembered served very decent food. It still does! We shared a cornish pasty and a piece of Victoria sponge cake between us. Barb declared that the English Victoria sponge done well is far superior to some of the continental cakes such as the Viennese sachertorte which was a bit dry for our liking - or for most people, as our Danube guide three years ago warned us. Real loyalty!

The hedges are quite spectacular

The gardens are in bloom

John on one of several bridges across the stream

Love these beautiful trees just coming into leaf

A lovely corner of the walled garden

Don't think there's room for a folly at our plac ...

A babbling brook and small waterfall ..... of course! Who doesn't have one?

Swans on the lake are de rigeur .... yep that's the house all the way down that lawn

After our outing to Audley End, we returned in time for Barb to go with Susan to her regular weekly Mahjong group which is held in the local church. There were enough players and mahjong sets for four tables, and although Barb didn't have her book with her, she's played enough to know several different hand by heart. The ladies here score each hand (something Barb never does) and Barb ended up winning by quite a lot of points. She says it was luck!

The ladies intent on their mahjong game

Inside the Great Chesterford church