Trentham Gardens

 Thursday 17^th May

Today we are off to Trentham Gardens which is part of the Trentham Estate.  There is also a shopping village and a Garden Centre and Monkey World.

Lovely Lakeside View

Remains of Trentham House

We walked up to the main road and got the bus.  After about 15 minutes we were there.  We walked down to the main entrance and walked through the shops which are in log cabins and to the entrance of the gardens and in we went.

Amazing View of Trentham Gardens

The gardens are magnificent and really big and there is a huge lake which was designed by Capability Brown.  There is a walk all around the lake and it is about 2 miles.

Lovely View From Here

The remains of the house are in the grounds so we walked up to see them and then followed the path along one side of the lake.  When we got to the bottom of the lake, we stopped off at the coffee shop and sat by the lake.

Steep Path up to Monument

There is a monument up on a hill so we decided to walk up to it.  You actually go out of the grounds to walk to it so off we went.  

George Granville

The walk was flat first then we had to go uphill and it was very steep but we made it and it was well worth the climb as the views at the top were magnificant.  The monument was someone called George Granville, Duke of Sutherland and Marquess of Stafford in 1803.

Fairy at Trentham

We had brought a picnic with us so we sat by the monument looking down at Trentham gardens and ate our lunch.  We then headed back down the hill and back into the gardens and walked around the other side of the lake.

Another Fairy

The Hares are big here!

There is a children's play area and a maze this side of the lake.  We went into the talk and speak maze and managed to get to the centre, around the maze they have special pipes that you can shout into to find your way.  It was good fun.

Italian Gardens

They say that there are Fairies at Trentham Gardens and they were right as we saw quite a few!

Lovely Gardens

Nice Spring Border

Sculptures in Gardens

We then had a walk around the Italian Gardens which are spectacular and are at one end of the lake nearest the ruins of the house. We then made our way to the exit and then had a wander around the shops.  There is a deli/farm shop called Brown and Green, its a lovely shop and they have a great drink selection including many Gins.  The other day in the Star pub I tried Whitney Neill Quince gin and they were selling it here so needless to say I had to buy a bottle, also they had Peaky Blinders Rum which we tasted at Wolverhampton Christmas market and it was really nice so we bought a bottle of that as well together with some nice cheeses from their extensive cheese counter.

Speaking pipe in maze

The Maze

We had a wander around all the other shops and then got the bus back to Stone and walked back to the boat.  We walked over six miles today and so I shall be resting in my chair this evening, but we had such a lovely day at Trentham Gardens.  It is a really lovely place to visit and we shall definitely go there again when we are next in this area, it is well worth a visit and you can easily spend a day there, 

The Lake

Shopping Village