Oakwell Hall

We've been suffering some horrible, damp, gloomy days since Christmas. I'm trying not to let the weather get me down or prevent me doing things. In that spirit, I and a couple of friends arranged to go for a walk. It was so dull and wet, however, that our planned route through woodland was inadvisable, so instead we visited Oakwell Hall Country Park, south of Bradford.

The Hall itself is a lovely Elizabethan manor house, built in the late 1500s. It was known to the novelist Charlotte Brontë and is the model for 'Fieldhead' in her novel "Shirley". During its history, it has been a home and a boarding school, and is now owned by Kirklees Council, furnished inside much as it would have been in the late 17th century. It is open as a museum, and is used for weddings and as a film location. The TV series 'Gunpowder' (which I saw being filmed on the Bolton Abbey estate, HERE) also used Oakwell Hall as a location.

We had a short walk around the grounds, where there are nature trails, ponds and woods, but it was all extremely muddy - and the dull roar of traffic from the nearby motorway was a bit intrusive. Perhaps I'll go back later in the year and take some photos when it's a bit brighter.