Nancy had been to Sizergh Castle before but, for some reason, in all the time we lived in Lancashire, I had never been there. We rectified that during our recent trip to the Lake District. When it comes to places like this, we are not terribly interested in the interior of the buildings. The exterior and the grounds are usually what we want to explore. Sizergh was a nice enough looking building, but the gardens were excellent.
A Cedar of Lebanon tree is always going to get my attention because I love the layered effect of the branches. They have one very close to the main building. A walk through the wood brought us to a Japanese garden which was very attractively laid out and only open to walk through on certain days. This meant thee weren’t people getting in the way of photos too often!!
Back near the house was a more structured garden. This included a lot of acers, and, at this time of year, they had turned a delightful colour. One of the staff at the entrance had said they shouldn’t be missed and he wasn’t wrong. I was glad I had brought along my polariser. I have no idea why I hadn’t made the effort to visit previously but that omission is now rectified.
Our visit to the Brooklands Museum meant were were at the home of the Vickers VC-10. The museum has a complete example along with another fuselage and some test items related to the development of the aircraft that was undertaken here. The complete airframe belonged to the Sultan of Oman and it was flown into Weybridge in the late 80s before the runway was rendered unavailable. It was quite a luxurious configuration in its day but does have a rather basic look compared to what might be available today.
