Ride to Calke Abbey

A small (but select) group of Derby Rangers met at Swarkestone Lock this morning for the ride to Calke Abbey. Here we are, the both of us.

We rode from Swarkestone, via Ingelby, and Ticknall.

A kind offer by the National Trust to allow free entry today, and as you would expect a vast crowd arrived.  But as you would also expect, we were on the front row, and in fact first to enter the building for a special event, that being to see how the volunteers look after the gigantic hoard of artifacts throughout the closed winter period, and this included a short demonstration of dusting, which we found most enlightening, not being experts in this household discipline.

It is quite staggering to see how much stuff the Harpur-Crewe family accumulated over several lifetimes, and of course, they never threw anything away, having an unbelievable number of spare rooms in which to stash it all away. If you think you have too much junk at home, you should see this lot! The difference is, your junk is probably worth next to nothing, and their junk would be worth a fortune at auction.

For many years a sole member of the family lived in this vast pile on his own without electricity and when he passed on, the death duties were unaffordable. Eventually ownership went to the National Trust.  They must have been flabbergasted to see what an unimaginable hoard they were to take over.

After lunch in the rather nice cafe, Ian and I then went on the proper tour of the house to see hundreds of paintings books, stuffed animals, stags antlers,  furniture and thousands of objects of all kinds,.
Our return journey was via Melbourne, and back onto NCN Route 6 at King;s Newton.