When we first joined the National Trust I spent ages going through all the local events and marking them in my diary. This weekend I had ‘tunnels at Petworth’ written down. We’ve been to Petworth once already and it was a good day out – interesting house with lovely gardens. This weekend they opened up the underground tunnels linking the house with the servants quarters and kitchens. I’d spoken to my parents in the week about plans for the weekend and they’d asked to come along with us so we coordinated picnic packing and then rang them as we left our house so they could leap in their car and be ready to pull out of their road behind us as we drove past.
There was a road closure (due to accident :() on the way which increased our journey but we arrived, checked the times for the tunnels to be open and then walked to the lake and had our picnic. There were loads of ducks and geese including some goslings (awww, cute!) at the lake. The weather was overcast but warm (T shirt warm). We finished up lunch and walked back to the house. The children decided to follow the NT trail round the house so had clipboard and trailsheet each – Ady helped Tarly with hers and I helped Davies; Mum and Dad flitted between us. The sheets were good with a great mix of information and bits of trivia, quizzes and things to do and spot etc. Davies did some good writing and spelling out, sensible thinking through of things (questions like ‘why were lamps and candles put infront of mirrors?’) and enjoyed spotting things and chatting to the volunteers about the artwork. I’m always so proud of him on days like today when he has a passion for learning, wants to talk to people and find out more and has a go at things and clearly gets so much from doing so :). Scarlett’s attention waned slightly earlier but Davies finished the whole trail and loved the challenges of designing a mural to paint on a wall and doing a self portrait.
Then it was tunnel time. Ady and I both confessed later that we were slighty disappointed with it and had expected something more somehow. They had opened a portion of the tunnels between the two houses. The children were excited by them though – all very Kirrin Cottage to Kirrin Farmhouse for them :). I think a trip back to Corfe is in order sometime this summer. We went and had coffee and hot chocolate in the cafe next and Davies and Scarlett got to try ginger beer as it was a posh NT restuarant that didn’t have things like coke on the menu :). Neither of them liked it! 😆
We had a quick wander round Petworth including the church there and then back into the house again for a second walk through the tunnel and ice creams. We had a leisurely walk back through the gardens to the car and then back to my parents for coffee before heading for home. It was a lovely day with my parents who were on good form and everyone got on well with no tensions.
I have pictures but flickr uploader is playing up so I’ll edit them into the post a bit later.