This is Dunham Massey Park, in Cheshire, England.
It’s about a month since I was there, with only a mobile phone camera – just snapping to be honest, as I continued my way around in conversation.
The park at Dunham Massey probably dates back to 1362 or even earlier. It has an interesting history. I wouldn’t want to go into many details here, but would suggest that those who might be interested could look up the following links:
A brief History of Dunham Massey
Dunham Massey, East India trading and Africa
There were two stories that grabbed my attention:
One family member, Harry Grey (1812 – 90) who had been packed off to South Africa (then Cape Colony) because of his drinking and gambling, and who became a farm labourer, unexpectedly inherited Dunham Massey and with it the Stamford Peerage. He did not return to England himself, and when he died his son John Grey, of mixed race came to England to claim his inheritance. His mother was the black daughter of a freed slave. Unfortunately, racism appears to have raised it’s ugly head and another cousin, William Grey, appeared from Canada and took the inheritance instead, becoming the 9th Earl of Stamford. In fairness to William, it is said that he kept in touch with and supported Harry’s children.
The other story is about the visit of the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, to Dunham Massey. He was exiled in England 1936-41 after expressing his concerns about the threat of fascism and because of the conflict between Mussolini’s Italy and Ethiopia. Roger Grey, now the 10th Earl of Stamford, who was sympathetic to the cause of Ethiopia invited Haile Selassie to Dunham Massey in 1938, where he stayed for four days. They became life-long friends, and Roger flew the Ethiopian flag on the rooftop of the house on Haile’s birthday each year until his death by assassination in 1975.
Roger never married and he left Dunham Massey to the National Trust in 1976.
If I may slightly digress, I am reminded (via the Mussolini connection) of the story of Violet Gibson, an Anglo-Irish woman, who shot Mussolini, but only managed to graze his nose. She was considered mentally ill and locked up in a mental institution for the rest of her days. In her last years, it was said that the staff did not know about the reason for her incarceration and thought her claims to have shot Mussolini were just evidence of her psychosis.
As with all these large estates, there is a massive stately home.
–
The park has large numbers of old trees and tree management is an important part of the park maintenance.
This old tree trunk is at least 300 years old, but some sources say 500 years.
There are also beautiful gardens, of course.
–
–
–
–
Very tall loosestrife – much taller than the variety growing here.
–
This was a beautiful canopy – or pergola should I call it? I think it was entirely made of wood – most likely willow.
–
–
–
–
This is the old flour mill which has been fully restored in recent times.
–
We went through the park and walked down a road at the other end. You can see a doe and her fawn in the photo above.
The Bridgewater Canal.
–
A road passes under the canal. I was amused to see the face worked into the cement on the bridge.
The Bollin River.
Hmmm – would be a bit nervous about living that close to a river!!
There were some lovely old English houses along this road.
–
–
Here we are at the end of this walk – The Swan with Two Nicks, a lovely pub for a bit of refreshment. I downed a lovely pint of draft dry cider. I’m a Guinness person in the evening, but it’s hard to beat a draft dry cider on a summer’s afternoon, and it’s not easy to find this at home in rural Kerry in Ireland.
So then it was time to retrace our steps and return to the car.
I hope you have enjoyed this little walk, thanks so much for coming along. Have a great week!
helenebrennan 
