Just Another Home

One of big perks of being in England is there's a lot to see, and it's a relatively small country.  Just England (not including Wales and Scotland) is actually smaller than the state of Georgia (about 130,000 sq. km compared to 153,000 sq. km).  This means for us there's plenty of places for great day trips within an hour or so from us, which is especially good when you have three children under the age of seven.

Without it really being a goal, we've slowly made seeing "stately homes" one of the things we've enjoyed doing on weekends or holidays.  They're impressive, there are a lot of them, and you can see them fairly cheaply.  Many are under the care of the English Heritage society, which we have joined as annual members so we can get free/discounted prices.  And as a family that enjoys movies, an added bonus is that many of them have been used in some of our favorite films.

When I discovered that ALL of the houses used as exterior shots for Wayne Manor in the Batman movies were within a 1.5 radius from us, that necessitated a trip with a couple of the Club guys on a "Wayne Manor tour" back in January.   They loved it, to say the least.  We couldn't get to the one used in the Tim Burton movie since it didn't open for the public until the Spring, but we did get to a Les Miserables house instead.  The first Wayne Manor we got to (seen below) is actually private property on a country club golf course.  Which is a fun story for another day.

So enjoy a picture from each of the stately homes we've visited so far. 

Mentmore Towers in Mentmore, Buckinghamshire.  Private residence, so couldn't go in this one.
Was Wayne Manor in Batman Begins.

Boughton House in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Was Marius' family estate at the end of Les Miserables.  Didn't get a chance to go inside this one: it was still closed when we stopped by.

Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.  Was Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight Rises.

Wrest Park in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.  One of the closest estates to us, and one we've gone twice to so far.

The Hatfield House in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.  Has been used in a lot of movies, including Tomb Raider, Sherlock Holmes, Batman, The King's Speech, and Shakespeare in Love.  It's still the residential home of the
Marquess and Marchioness of Salisbury.

Audley End in Saffron Walden, Essex.  The amazing thing about this one is that the house is a third of its original size.  The family got in debt with the king, and ended up demolishing a large portion in the 1700's due to cost of upkeep.  (Here we're with our friends the Wallers, who live in London.)

The Chatsworth House in the Peak District.  Easily the largest and most spectacular of the houses we've seen.  It's still the home of Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and has been passed down through 16 generations.  Was "Mr. Darcy's estate" in the Kiera Knightly Pride & Prejudice movie.

Lyme Park in Disley in the Peak District.  Was used as Mr. Darcy's estate in the BBC Colin Firth
miniseries version of Pride & Prejudice.