Woolly says – Christmas day had been wonderful with one of the best presents I’ve ever received, nooooo it wasn’t my super yacht or Ferrari but a wonderful mammoth Christmas decoration which warmed my heart as it joined the other baubles on the tree that celebrate our families’ lives. Daughter Zoe had joined us for the festivities and in the interests of walking of some of the excesses we headed out on our Boxing Day walk.
Up and down the windy Welsh roads we went keeping an eye out for loose sheep, squirrels and pheasants that seem to spend there days playing chicken with the drivers. Turning into the driveway Alfie the Dog started up his bark of ‘walk time, walk time’ deafening both myself and Jo, by the time we pulled up he had also added bouncing on the back seat in excitement to his repertoire.
Gregynog is a large country mansion in the village of Tregynon, 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Newtown in the old county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys in mid Wales. There has been a settlement on the site since the twelfth century with the original mansion being rebuilt in the 1840s by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley. Its concrete cladding, designed to replicate the black-and-white timber-framed architecture of Montgomeryshire farmhouses, is among the earliest examples of concrete use in building in the modern era. At its largest, the Gregynog estate was over 18,000 acres (73 km2) in extent, but the estate was broken up in 1913, leaving the mansion with 750 acres (3.0 km2) of farms, woodlands and formal gardens. In 1920 the property was brough by the Davies sisters with the intention of establishing a centre of excellence for the arts, crafts and music which would enrich the lives of the people of Wales in the aftermath of the World War One, the Gregynog Music Festival, Wales’s oldest surviving classical music festival, was established in 1933 by them.
It also provided respite for Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin from the pressures of office in August 1936 who had enjoyed the quiet walks around the estate. Today the car park was busy as we headed past the house and towards the lake, well according to the older human.
The path led us downwards passing a super-sized hand that just begged to be photographed.
As we got closer to the hall it looked incredible with its black and white finery.
The once formal gardens were now grassed over with some curious hedge shaping and a few garden ornaments still about none of which gave an idea of how wonderful it might once have looked.
Following a track to the right we headed into the woodland navigating our way over puddles and swampy areas before reaching a very sharp incline which would strain Barking boys’ legs to climb up, we retraced our steps and followed the path taking us under what looked like a small railway bridge.
We walked along the rear of the hall which looked far more modern in contrast to the front elevation.
We seemed to be heading down which suited the panting pooch as did the number of other dogs being walked, who provided some lovely social interaction in the bottom sniffing department for the boy.
An abandoned house and wood storage area peeked out of the trees with a rather strange looking piece of machinery on display at the front, I peered at it but for the life of me couldn’t work out what it was for.
With a couple of miles under our feet and paws we headed into the hall’s courtyard and its onsite café for hot drinks and snacks to keep my energy levels going. The café was filled with dogs and their owners all enjoying the festive treats, we sat enjoying the company of Zoe before she headed off to her own home, it would however only be a few days before she joined us once more.
Having spent a couple of days consuming everything possible from the fridge and still having enough mince pies left over to feed Santa for the next decade I was looking forward to a rain free walk and meeting up with the relatives. Over the border we headed without a sign of the wet stuff in the sky and having followed the sat nav’s directions that led us to a caravan site which required Jo to do a nine hundred point turn we eventually arrived at Comer Woods.
Based on the Dudmaston Estate, Comer Woods stretches across 3,000 acres of ancient woodland and park, Dudmaston is a working estate and sadly for us being National Trust it was closed for the winter. We however had other plans in the woods and having found the family minus Zoe who would join us later for lunch we headed into the woodlands on the search of Christmas trees.
The tree trail was a community project for local groups and schools to decorate their chosen tree with handmade baubles that are ecofriendly. The first two trees were quite small but as we wandered along the path, we found more and more some which were bigger than a house and some that would fit into anyone’s’ living room.
All manner of items had been used in the construction of the decorations from paper straws, twigs and wool to old material and baked fruits. We were delighted to arrive back at the car park dry just as the heavens opened and yet another deluge came down.
A short drive to the town of Bridgnorth to park up, meet Zoe and head into the Old Castle Pub for what turned out to be the best meal of Christmas…shhh don’t tell Jo she might not be happy…leaving us full to overflowing again with some excellent company to boot.