Thursday 26th June, 2014 still at Great Haywood.
For once, we are going to spend a day being posh, instead of scruffy narrowboaters! Nearby Shugborough Hall came highly recommended, both by the canal guide books and by our narrowboating friends. We have passed it several times but never visited, either due to weather (rain!) or time constraints. However, today we have all day to enjoy it at our leisure.
We set off on foot down the towpath, pausing at the finger post at Haywood Junction. "Which way shall we go tomorrow?" thought R. We love canal junctions as they can take one anywhere (well, almost!).
A brief detour was required into the village itself to find a Post Office. It seemed fitting for two Hobbits to make a little pilgrimage to Great Haywood as it was here that J.R.R. Tolkien convalesced after catching trench fever during the Battle of the Somme.
We had the most marvellous day at Shugborough. The estate is huge and includes a "model" farm as well as a habitat for many endangered species such as otters and lapwings.
A guided tour of the main house was just starting and we quickly tagged on. M was convinced that our guide was really Lord Lichfield reincarnated - but he was certainly enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. We learned that the central part of the house had been built by the Anson family in 1693 in quite a modest style.
Then Admiral Anson, in 1740, set out with eight ships and 1,800 men to attack the Spanish bullion ships in the Pacific. Storms round Cape Horn decimated his ships and scurvy decimated the crews, so much so that by the time they were in the Pacific only three ships and 335 men remained. Despite this, he managed to re-fit his ships and capture a series of prizes including the Spanish merchantship "Acapulco" carrying 1,313,843 pieces of eight and 35,682 ounces of silver. No small hoard!
He returned to England in 1744, having circulated the globe, a very rich man and extensively extended the house in a very elaborate style.
He was later Lord of the Admiralty and was largely responsible for turning the Admiralty from a rather ineffective mens' club into a very much more efficient body. As such he became one of the founding fathers of the Royal Navy.
The Anson family were later raised to the peerage as the Earls Lichfield.
Our real interest, however, lay elsewhere in the Servants' Quarters, the coachhouse, the kitchens, the farm, the working watermill and the walled garden (including a very happy looking sow).
Several of these were occupied by costumed staff doing their actual jobs.
We had a pancake made on the coal fired stove from buttermilk - delicious!
Not sure that M fancied doing the ironing with their elaborate iron-heating stove.
Finally, just before the tearoom closed, we sat down to tea and cakes.
M was curious about what job R might have liked to do, had he been in the Hall's employ in the heyday of the house. As M half expected, he said that he would like to have been a coachman - after all, they were among the few servants who got to travel outside the estate. R also guessed correctly that M would have liked to work in the large walled garden. Certainly not as one of the housemaids - they were forbidden to speak while on duty!
Today: Stayed moored up - just 2.4 hours to recharge the batteries.
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